A collegiate's paper

The introductory essay that I just read was excellent. The writer was successfully able to pose questions and comments that I had while I was reading. The overall structure was different but compelling too.

An Ant Sometimes Makes Us Feel Just Right

A sentence starts out like an ant lost in a large grass field,
where his family cannot find her.
Looking around, all she sees is green strands,
all different sizes, and occasionally another bug or two.
The ant must dig her way around,
make the best of what she has
and work hard so that she may finally get to her family.

We, the readers, are her family,
and the ant is looking for us.
But once she finds us,
the struggle is not over.
She must bring us food,
even if it is only piece by piece,
until finally we are full.

Sometimes the ant takes a while
to feed us properly.
She often brings us the wrong food
veering off track from her goal.
Eventually, if the ant is effective,
she will be able to feed us well,
leaving us not too bloated,
not too hungry, but just right,
just like the first sentence can be.

Is Time or Technology the problem?

If walls could talk they would explain the troubles that college students go through; walls recognize that we do not have enough time in the day to complete everything that we need to. In Wesch's video students showed how they needed about two and a half more hours a day to complete everything that they are asked to complete. However, computers are distracting students from completing what we need to because we are going on Facebook and sending hundreds of emails instead of doing our work. In addition, Wesch argues that we often do not pay attention to the professor during class.

What is the solution? Wesch says that we have not created many problems, but we still need to deal with the issues. We should be trying to eliminate or deal with problems like poverty, stress, and political issues. However, are we adding to our own problem?

If walls could talk, they would say that computers are distracting us from coping with our problems. "You are spending too much time on Facebook or video chatting," our walls would most likely say. The walls are able to see what we often have difficulty realizing. Would we have more time to solve problems like world hunger and economic issues if we were less distracted by technology?

Babies Like To Be Interactive

The video has a caption that says "A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work". This metaphor compares a magazine with an iPad by showing a baby unable to do anything with a magazine but the girl gets excited (which is clear by her voice) when she touches an iPad.

I find this clip very interesting and it relates to our class because we are talking about the remediation of text. For this baby, printed text (magazine) means barely anything to her, but an iPad (electronic text) is more engaging and makes her excited. The baby does not understand what the magazine is and why it is static. On the other hand, she can see movement on the iPad which causes her to laugh possibly since the iPad is more like reality. Until the baby understands that not everything is interactive, she will not realize that printed text will not change.

Is Writing a Wrestle For You?

My relationship with my reader is mostly a wrestle for my reader to grasp what I am trying to say. Eventually neither the reader nor I pin each other down. I feel like I freeze once I am in the ring, and although I know I need to bring my reader close to me to pin him to the mat, I have trouble figuring out the best way to do that: 

Last weekend I was in an intense wrestling match. I froze up and before I knew it, the match was over, the day was over, and I had not won anything. In fact, I spent all of my time trying to win the battle but I just did not know how to win. Once again, another match lost. 

I am always asking myself what I can do to win the match, but it always appears that just when I think I know how to pin him down, he wiggles away and I need to try again. I have never had such a hard wrestling match with anyone other than my reader. Why won't he just let me defeat him?

 

The Foundation of Writing: Printed Texts

Transparent mediums and hypermediacy are different methods of viewing text that our generation and future generations are and will be interacting with. While transparent media is like a book, the pages disappear as we continue to read, hypermediacy is an interactive writing space where we can see pictures, videos, and visit other web-sites or view information. Since almost everyone that I know has some type of computer, I sometimes wonder whether transparent media will eventually become obsolete--replaced by technological advancements. However, the two different medias have their own advantages and disadvantages.

In transparent media, we can turn easily revisit a page that has "disappeared"--since we just turned the page in the book and hence literally still have the text in our hands. Although, turning to previous pages becomes frustrating and time consuming because we must tediously sift through hundreds of words to find the sentence or words that we wanted to reread. Nonetheless, with hypermediacy, like computers, all of the information is right in front of us (we can now search a page to find a word, phrase, or sentence), but reading a screen all day often strains our eyes. In addition, it is often difficult to find text we have read, or videos, if we forgot where they were located; to access information, we must know where to look (online, our desktop, or in a document on our computer) and the file name of what we want. Obviously both mediums have their pros and cons, yet we still feel obligated to chose one media over another.  

Are writers having a competition to see whose writing can be read easier? I do not think so. Is the question really about whether transparent media will exist in twenty years? Again, I do not think this is the question to ponder, but this inquiry may be compelling. Albeit, if we continue to think about advancements in writing, I believe that many scholars will ask: are these new technologies, and future innovations, going to completely outdate older writing methods?

I would like to know if transparent media and hypermediacy can coexist. The readers who prefer printed text and the readers who want technology to be incorporated into their learning experience should both be able to coincide. But if we ever eliminate printed texts, which I hope would only be from an extremely more effective and advantageous advancement than a computer, we must always remember where these texts have led us to today.

The Armory is....is not...might be...cool?

The Armory in New York City is like a breezy day,
not too cool or too warm
but just the right temperature.
You do not need a sweatshirt
but you may wear one if you would like to.

The Armory lets me be free.
I do not feel constrained by anyone other than myself
only my mind and body hold me back,
so I run like the wind
and eventually I feel a puff of air.

The Armory is an indoor track,
not an uncontrollably, windy soccer field.
The Armory is a individual battle,
not a team game.
It's like a breezy day--everything feels pleasing to me
and it is not like a bothersome, long car ride
where my friend is taking up my space.

The Armory is not like a car ride
where my friend is taking up my space,
nor is the Armory like a trampoline without springs,
or with prickly pine leaves making it uncomfortable to jump.
And the Armory is definitely not like opening an empty refrigerator,
when I desperately need something to drink.

The Armory might be like a vacation to Aruba,
or like one of your favorite spots.
It might be like going into the ocean on a warm day,
or taking a shower after you I have been full of sand.
The Armory might be the best place I have ever been to,
and the armory might be the worst place you have ever gone to,
however, the armory might just be the coolest experience you will ever have.

Home is like...home

Home is like home. How do I describe the warmest place I know? Home is like good cooking, clean clothes, a comfortable bed and so much more. I have my dog, my couches, my pool table, and I can even play ping pong there. I am going to mention that I have amazing food at home too and awesome, loving parents as well.

Inkshedding

We are all guilty of distracting audiences from our main focus: Have you ever tried to make a picture look nicer than it was by adding a decorative frame to your artwork?

Elaborate media, such as a frame that "effectively adds meaning to a work of art," can be called hypermediacy (Sample J). In contrast, transparent presentations (of artwork or writing) are more ambiguous because the medium that are used can vanish. Hence, we may believe that transparent media is more realistic and comparable to our everyday speech; since both our speech and transparent media can become lost, these communications are "left for the audience to interpret" (Sample J).

Artists often prefer that their viewers can see their medium (hypermediacy), but sometimes artists are abstract--creating an image that can disappear. For example, cubism is an art movement where the frame does not disappear, however, sometimes the artwork appears to be unclear, ambivalent, and/or equivocal. While audiences may all obtain different interpretations of artwork, cubism allows the reader occasionally to clearly see his or her image (hypermediacy), but there are instances where cubistic artwork can disappear (transparent mediacy).

Artists include hypermediacy, transparent media, and both hypermediacy and transparent media.    

Is Hypertext a More Natural Way to Write?

Prezi by: Andrew Marks, Kyle Beam, Tyler Krastans, and Amanda Love

Prezi: An argument about how hypertext makes reading more natural

The group believes that hypertext allows us to navigate and deviate from the normal, flat book. Electronic writing is not linear--it does not end. Furthermore, hypertext allows us to write associatively, linking ideas together, similar to the way that we think.  

Would I Write Anything?

Have you ever been afraid to write before? I know I certainly have. There are those who do not mind critiquing and offending others with their writing; however, in some countries vulgar writing can even be sentenced to jail. Should there be limits, and do you think there are limits, on the extent that one can go to when writing?

In contrast, Jacques Derrida has a different view on writing. He was not scared of writing against authority or expressing his ideas. Since he was not afraid of writing, did this make him a stronger writer? Was Derrida able to portray his ideas easier than most writers can because he wrote what he wanted to?      

Which do you prefer, live or textual presentations?

After viewing both a live performance and spoken textual representation of Taylor's Mali poem, I have realized the catastrophic differences that these two renditions have. When the author of a piece recites his poem on stage, the effect that it has is shown to a greater extent. There is still emphasis on Taylor's meaning when we hearing his poem, while watching the words create a unique structure in our minds, but I felt less engaged in his work. In his video, facial expressions, hand gestures, and emotions can all be interpreted; however, the textual writing takes away from these additions to the main argument. Written text does allow for the reader to visually and audibly grasp the main idea though.

Seeing the possibly dorky man speak about his issue of "sounding cool," adds to the humor of the poem. "You know what I'm sayin"? Both texts are able to successfully convey his message that, "We are the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since you know a long time ago". The orally and visual productions continue to say, "It is not enough to simply question authority you have to speak with it too." However, the live performance enhanced my understanding more than the oral depiction conveyed the message to me because it was more lively, realistic, and imaginable.