Writing and the Internet

[raven_estrella]

I'm still in my linguistics class, and last week we talked about language on the computer.  My textbook said that writing on the Internet is somewhere between speech and more "traditional" writing. It also said that on the Internet, grammar and spelling mistakes tend to be ignored. People just do things however the heck they want. Obviously, that's

Comments

[pink_siamese]

I don't rely on the internet to define my personal writing standards, but I love the freedom of it. While publishing standards are both excellent and necessary, there are situations where "content" is corrupted into "standards."

[raven_estrella]

Hmm, I like what you said about content being corrupted into standards. Can you give me an example?

And I just realized that I've forgotten to read your story until now!!! I'm really sorry; it got buried in my inbox. You were so prompt about getting back to me about my story! : ( I apologize. I will read it before the end of the week. I'll be getting out of school then and will have more time.

[pink_siamese]

That's okay; school kills time.

When "content" and "standards" get swapped it usually has to do with something being deemed unpublishable because its content, rather than its quality. It's a kissing cousin to the idea that marketability determines merit.

[raven_estrella]

I hate how some people have the power to decide what gets published and what doesn't. That's why the Internet is such a great thing. So I'm starting to rethink everything I said earlier.

[music_lover3]

There's a certain enjoyable freedom in it. :)

Plus, I can get feedback on snippets of my WIP's that I otherwise wouldn't be able to in the 'real world'.

[raven_estrella]

Exactly. The Internet is a good thing because it enables us to do things that we wouldn't otherwise. I think people, including me, are just a little afraid of change.

How is school going? Are you out for winter break?

[music_lover3]

I'm afraid of change, too, sometimes.

School's going pretty well. So far, I have all A's and one B+, so I'm pretty proud of myself. Yup, school's out until the end of January.

How's school going for you? Are you on break yet?

[raven_estrella]

Good job!! That's great for your first semester in college.

Yep, I'm on break now. I just got out of class yesterday. School went pretty well for me last semester. I took a lot of creative classes, like fiction writing and drawing. I had fun.

My break lasts until the end of January, too. I think I might get bored!

[anonymous]

[raven_estrella]

This "character"? : ) Well, I think my views come from working in the Writing Center and seeing that many people have trouble writing papers in the required Standard English. It's an issue of literacy; people need to be able to communicate in the language of business and academia. They can communicate in other forms too--they just need to know how to switch. We have to teach children SOME form of grammar. I don't buy the argument that teaching grammar is too "prescriptive."

[ravelda]

I meant "this quarter," obviously. And "Standard English" doesn't really exist, as you will see if you do more research. I agree that some teaching of grammar is beneficial, but I think most people have the ability to styleshift between different linguistic codes well enough without someone learning over their shoulder and going, "This is incorrect."

Anyway. I agree that spelling and grammar shouldn't go out the window, but I don't agree that there's always a "correct" way to write. Who's deciding what's "correct"? Grammarians? The standards of business and academic language tend to hegemonically constructed, as well, which is bad for linguistic diversity.

[ravelda]

Also, as evidenced by my "this character" typo, people tend not to be as careful when they're clearly not writing for business or academia. Is this a bad thing? I think people should be allowed to do "whatever the heck they want" sometimes. Experimenting with grammar and syntax is okay, in my book. It's how things evolve.

Bloopers like my typo reflect how the medium of blogging, like instant messaging and chatting, has been influenced by spoken discourse. It's constructed in a more moment-by-moment fashion, and people tend not to go back and edit. Instead, they repair their speech and the speech of others at a later point in time, as they would have done had they been speaking. It's quite interesting to analyze, really.

[madhowan]

I love the internet! I like proper grammar, and I get annoyed if I spot really obvious mistakes, but I do enjoy "macro" speak, if it's not being used seriously. I make jokes in LOLcat speak, but I don't like to talk like that normally. (I don't write "2" and "u" and "r" in normal text messages, unless I'm being silly.)

And my blog, I suppose, at least lets me practice writing--not necessarily always short stories--which can't hurt in terms of wanting to be a writer.

[raven_estrella]

Exactly! The more writing, the better--and if blogging helps people write more, that's great. That's why in my final assessment, I'm inclined to embrace writing on the Internet. I do sometimes abbreviate in text messages. My phone stinks for text messaging, and typing it out would take forever. One guy in my class did his final project on text messaging.

I love LOLcat speak. : ) My sister uses it, and then I try to copy her. Recently, she said "deets" for "details." It cracked me up.

For my linguistics class, did my final paper on the way people talk in TV commercials. It was really interesting. Sometimes the announcers seem to fake accents. For what purpose, I'm not really sure.

[madhowan]

I wrote a blog for an assignment that was all about how blogs were ace. But someone else wrote theirs, essentially saying that blogs were crap (I believe their words were "the lowest form of scum"), and people who wrote them had nothing better to do. I was incredibly insulted. But mollified when their links to examples of these weren't actually blogs, but news articles from trashy tabloid websites.

My dad tries to talk in "gangsta" speak, which is highly amusing. I had to explain to him about "po-pos" being the police, and now he uses it a bit. I love all stuff like that, though--like "what's the haps?", etc.

We have ads like that, too. There's one terrible one where they're trying for an E! news type thing, but their fake accents are so atrocious that it's just so off-putting. I think we get a lot of American ads, too, because they change the voiceovers so that they're Australian voices, but it's so obviously done.

[raven_estrella]

That's hilarious that they try and change the voiceovers to sound Australian. I bet it seems so dumb. It's kind of like the way they switched narrators on the American version of BBC's Planet Earth. The British version has David Attenborough, and everybody likes him better. We're just fine with that original British version, dang it! Do you think you would mind if they kept those ads with the original American voices?

That's also funny how your dad tries to incorporate slang into his speech. My friend and I try to talk "gangsta" sometimes, and whenever we do, it just ends up sounding ridiculous!

I also had a friend tell me that blogs are a total waste of time, that they're not worth anything, and that they're pointless. Well, thanks for your humble opinion, but I think I'll keep blogging. My philosophy is that it lets me talk with people who I wouldn't get to talk with otherwise--so why not?