NEW LITERACY

Clive Thompson and his article "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy" presents the idea that technology,  instead of impairing the young generations writing skills, actually gives them (us) an upper-hand position in the writing community. He argues that with all of the writing we do, from texting to tweeting to Facebook status' and Tumbler blog posts, we actually have learned how to write for an audience. In my personal experience, I have noticed exactly that. Last semester I was assigned a final for my GHIST class in which I was to write a response to a given prompt. When I have big assignments, I usually get my parents to read it first to make sure what I am turning in isn't a complete jumbled mess (sometimes it most definitely is). Especially with this paper, they were pleasantly surprised at the overall tone and feel of my essay saying how it took them into their mid to late 20's to get to the point where I already was. Talking to peers, friends, teachers, and family members at almost all second of the day in some form of print has certainly given myself as well as other adults the variety of perspectives needed to address a number of audiences allowing for literacy to go into a bold new direction, not backwards.

JUST DO IT

JUST DO IT


We are all familiar with Nike, right? They advertise mostly with commercials showing people working out or being athletic in their perfectly perfect Nikes basically giving every viewer the false hope that if we wear Nikes we will all the sudden be athletic and in shape and immediately have swag. While I do love my Nikes, wearing them does not at all make me athletic.. I just look athletic.. and if people have no swag to being with, its hopeless. Since picture ads only ever get glanced at for a second if even that, the advertisement department apparently decided to get creative with this ad in hopes of at least a pause for the reader to think, "Is that a kid peeing..? Why is he being encouraged to 'Just do it'..? OH, Nike". Instead of advertising the statistics about the product or company, the viewers emotions are touched on, specifically their sense of humor. This strategy is called pathos, or the capacity of a text to invoke emotions, and is the only rhetorical strategy used in the ad above. Since humor > statistics any day, the ad even probably attracts an even bigger audience than it would have if it had been full of ethos or logos (I'm just going to assume people know what those are). The purpose of the ad is obviously to attract people, generally people who already are Nike fans since technically all it has is a check mark and a child peeing, back to Nike for even more purchases. Worked on me. I went online shopping after seeing it/ writing this and am now $50 less rich than I was. Stupid pathos. 

SHITTY FIRST DRAFTS

Anne Lamott and her article “Shitty First Drafts” presents an interesting, and in her case effective, writing process in which to produce a good piece of work, a “shitty” one is necessary first. In my experience, her theory actually has something to it. When I have a writing assignment, my thought process starts similarly with the first paragraph being a jumbled mess of an attempt at collecting my thoughts. I write and tweak and write and tweak until I am left with an overall idea that I am enthusiastic about which then sparks interest for the rest of the piece allowing me to complete the assignment easily. After the hard part is over, the rest comes naturally. In most cases this process is done in one sitting with some exception for the lengthy of particularly challenging tasks. When I have put a lot of time and effort into a piece, editing and revising is too hard to do in the same sitting because I will have been too close to the project for too long. Even though the rest of the paper comes pretty naturally, I tend to write maybe a paragraph at a time, and then reread the paper. Unfortunately for myself, this is a long, dreary process but a process in which I have instilled my faith, similarly to the way Anne Lamott instilled hers into her shitty first draft.