Chapter 8: Critical Theory in a New Writing Space

Observe: The presentation is done on an all white background. The font is basic and not too risky.  The prezi consists of mostly quotes.  The use of image is minimal, only being one.  It would be nice to have more pictures or video to help prove the point.  There were some grammar mistakes and misspellings.  Also, some of the quotes used were very long and wordy.  The group did a good job of explaining most of the points thoroughly.

Infer:  The chapter looks at writing and how it is authoritative.  Ancient texts were very strong because of their "visual simplicity" and normalcy to them.  Websites introduce a whole new meaning to authority and changeability.  No matter the form of text, the reader decides and deciphers meaning.  No matter the method of writing, reader and writer must meet on common ground.

Question:  Is there a reason you did not use many images or video?
                Does a printed work carry more authority with it then digital text?
                What determines what is authoritative and what isn't?
                Can there be websites that are authoritative?
                Is it necessary for people to read printed work, or does the change to digital writing suit all needs?
                Why is the reader so important?
              

Real Writing

              Looking back on my evolution of writing, it is apparent how much has changed; from storytelling and playful interactions to academic writing and public speaking.  But, there has always been an underlining goal which is to tell how I feel.  Why express something that is fake or not real?  I have learned from my parents that you can never be too outgoing or loud.  Just like the evolution of writing, my telling has changed many forms and personalities.  My audience has also changed and grown with me.  No matter my reason for telling a story or writing a paper, my parents have guided me down my expressive path.  Writing in the dark about the storytelling in my household was much like telling a story; I had to recollect memories in my mind and put them in a fashioned order.  This exercise showed how powerful the recollection of events can be without the lights.  

             My dad  has been the storyteller in my family forever.  I always remember him telling stories around the fire at night after we had dinner.  The story e and my brother always assked him to tell was the one of the babies and the pirates.  This is about babies who give pirates urine when the pirates board their ship and ask for gold.  It would have my brother and I laughing hysterically.  My dad is a very good storyteller because he always gets into it.  Even when we would have big family gatherings with my cousins, uncles and grandparents, he would be the storytelller.
     This story has influenced me positively.  In my family, nothing is ever taken to seriously.  We joke and laugh all the time.  This story turns a scary and intense scene with [pirates and capturing a ship, into a funny and loveable tale.  My dad has always come up with or experienced things that seem crazy.  But, when he tells them, I almost always believe him.  A good storyteller must have a confidence and emotion when telling a story.  This makes for not only a powerful story but also one that is well remembered.  My dad has both of these which makes him a really good orater.

My dad has taught me a lot about communicating verbally and visually.  I have been writing almost my whole life and I think it is finally time to ask, am I a writer?  The word writer carries with it many different meanings.  I write for school, to my friends and on Facebook or other websites.  But, practically everyone then becomes a writer because of the plethora amounts of writing humans do.  I do not think that I am a writer.  To be a writer one must love to write and partake in the activity in their free time.  They must love to create stories, write persuasive essays or free write.  A writer takes a writing assignment much more personally then someone does not consider themselves a writer.  Even though I do not take my writing personally, I do find reason and meaning to write.

I write for many different reasons.  Most of the time, I write because I have to.  Either for school or otherwise, there is constantly something that needs written.  I have trouble getting deeply involved into most of this writing.  But, when something really hits me or generates opinion, then there is a different goal.  My task goes from ‘just getting it done’ to finding a way that truly reads how I feel.  I want to get everything down on the page.  When I strongly feel something, that is when my writing is the most persuasive and its best.  I try to lock onto emotion to whatever I write.  This is not just in writing but in living.  It is easy to find a reason to live if you have strong feeling.  Even if this feeling is anger or sadness, this is enough to get through the day.  Try living a day, month or year without feeling.  There is an emptiness that hits hard.  This is when people give up on living.  When I write without feeling I have the same “give up’ mentality.  I doesn’t matter how I am feeling but I know how to embrace it.  Don’t write anything with fake emotion.  Don’t write anything with no emotion. 

Through the processes of trial and error with my writing, there is a lot that I have learned.  My advice to writers, however, is very simple.  It does not take a lot of effort or long nights.  It does not involve locking yourself in a confined room and trying to write.  My advice is to live.  Go out and experience and see everything you can.  Go to places that seem crazy or wild.  Do things that are embarrassing or stupid.  But not just that, do things like fall in love, or hang out with people you don’t normally hang with.  By living and doing all these things, you have already started writing.  A good writer writes persuasively and with purpose.  They write abstractly and powerfully.  When you begin experiencing life to the fullest, start writing.  By living, you can relate all that you have seen to what you write.  My writing has changed numerously and dramatically overtime, but one factor has always been present and that is to be real.    

The Evolution of Writing

     Over time writing has changed in presentation and word choice.  Original forms of writing consisted on cave walls then slowly evolved to writing on scrolls.  The earliest form of a book, the codex, contained writing on a page left to right with no images.  Images were first seen in writing during medieval times, which has evolved into combining image and text in books, stories and documents.  The materiality of writing has changed numerous times and with it, writing itself.  What was once a stoic and unchanging idea, writing has transformed into something that’s easily accessed and changed.  Writing has not deteriorated or gotten worse over time but instead modified with society and its needs. 

            The way writing has been presented has gone from solely on a page, to images and text viewed simultaneously on a screen.  The layout of writing was basic, simple and easy to understand.  There were words and no images, and the format stayed the same.  This has evolved to images and text working together to form an idea.  Verbal and visual arguments are very different in their presentation, but they work towards the same goal.  These arguments can be seen more or less powerful depending on the objective.  When trying to describe a color, it is best to show the reader that color rather then tell it.  In my “Blue” presentation I was able to create an argument solely of the use of an image.  Just like text, images must be ordered and fixed the right way to produce a quality argument.  Writers have seen through picture books and other medieval writing, that visuals can create an argument.  Nowadays, images are used in almost everything to help describe, decipher and explain topics.  They are being used as more then something to look at but something to help persuade.  Videos are also being shown to help discover a certain point.  People learn in many different ways, some visual, some by reading, some by hearing; these methods are being exploited by writers today.  One can argue that writing has improved because it suits all types of learners.  eBooks and online encyclopedias draw from all sorts of multimedia to explain a topic effectively.  With the internet, these videos, images and texts can be easily and quickly accessed.  Instead of flipping through pages, one can scroll down on a screen and simultaneously glance at images and text.  This gives the reader full control over where he or she wants to go.

            The ancient papyrus roll allowed the reader to follow just one path down the page and end when the writing did not continue.  With the codex and ancient book, and index can be used to pick through where the reader wishes to start and end.  Both of these methods of selective reading are contained within the pages of a book.  What if the reader could control his or her own destiny with infinite possibilities?  These infinite possibilities the reader can access is what Bolter refers to as “hypertext”.  While on the computer, a topic or idea can be clicked by the reader leading them to learn specifically about that thing.  This has allowed writing to no longer be linear; it can go in which ever way it pleases.  The reader now has complete control over where they wish to start and finish when researching a topic.  As Bolter says, “Each topic may participate in several paths, and its significance will depend on which paths the reader has traveled in order to arrive at that topic” (Bolter 35).  At the end of their presentation on Chapter 3, Rita, Jenna and Hannah posed an assignment for the class;  start with the word “cat” on Wikipedia and see how many clicks it takes to end at the word, “machine”.  This project showed how massive and infinite the internet and hypertext can take you.  It also portrayed how close words can be related even though having completely different definitions.  Encyclopedias were originally organized alphabetically in printed text.  With the invention of hypertext and organizing Encyclopedias by topics, readers have much more control over their own destiny.    

            The writing space that a writer has to work with has changed from a single-minded path to a collaborative work.  When reading a book from printed text, the reader has no say or response when finished.  What is written on the page is unchangeable and the reader moves on keeping their opinions to themselves.  This is because writing used to be a special skill that only scholars knew how to do.  Instead of being a shared ability, writing was only for those with high educations and wealth.  This left the room for response very minimal.  Books were also very hard to achieve, because there was no printing machine that produced tons of pages a day, readers were forced to find their own documents.  As a result, fewer products were being read and scrutinized.  Now, the writing space is a mutual territory for both the reader and writer.  With online blogs, bloggers can respond and put out their opinions to the writer.  This allows for writing to be very collaborative.  Since so many more people are able to write and explain their own ideas, feedback is occurring with everything written.  Websites like Facebook or Twitter allow writer and reader to act as one.  Communication has changed tremendously and is something that can occur between two people instantly.  Writing, in effect, has become much more global and worldwide.  People all over the world are voicing their opinions and views with writing.  Facebook, Twitter and blogs also allow users to communicate with images and videos.  Since these are as popular as text to argue a point, websites are making it easy for people to converse in any way possible.  Bolter argues that, “With any technique of writing- on stone or clay, on papyrus or paper, and on the computer screen- the writer may come to regard the mind itself as a writing space” (Bolter 13).  Bolter explains how the presentation is irrelevant for a writer.  How the real writing space is the mind of the reader. 

            With the accessibility of writing increasing, the informality of writing has also grown.  Since websites allow users to communicate back and forth quickly, colloquial writing has formed.  When writing was just known by those with education and stature, formal writing and grammar was the only form.  With more people being in access to these inscriptions, different opinions and words have been created.  The turn and trend to write more colloquially is not a bad thing but a natural change.  With the fast-paced society that surrounds the 21^st century, quick text is necessary.  With schools discouraging informal writing, blogs and websites, like Facebook, encourage it.  It has become essential to understand both forms of the language because of the guidelines set forth by society that encompasses these varieties. 

            With readers controlling their own paths in which they understand information, what is being read has changed tremendously.  When books and scripts were not as accessible, the reader had little choice in what they were going to read.  Now that people can go in any direction on the internet, scholarly subjects are being less noticed.  Bolter describes in Writing Space, “In this century American encyclopedias have cut out scholarly subjects in favor of articles of popular interest in order to maintain the largest possible readership” (Bolter 90).  Since readers are deciding what they view, writers must do the same in what they write.  Before, writers had the choice to write about whatever they wanted because it was the only material printed.  Now, writers must adapt and follow society’s wants and needs.  The relationship between writer and reader has changed so that the reader controls the writer and what he or she produces.  Although the popular sources may be highlighted, the World Wide Web is so vast and widespread that even less noticed scholarly subjects are available.  Encyclopedias now shine light on subjects that are of most interest.  While original Encyclopedias focused on subjects and ideas that were known by writers, not by interest of readers. 

It is apparent that original forms of writing differed greatly from how words are written today.  Papyrus scrolls and codex have turned into blog posts and online encyclopedias.  The presentation of this writing originated with words only, the use of image or video was not accessed.  Since the middle ages, images have been used alongside text to help prove a point.  Sometimes a visual argument is more powerful and persuasive then a verbal one.  Images and videos have also become methods of learning.  Online encyclopedias, books and documents offer different ways to view the material presented.  Hypertext has allowed the viewer to control his or her own path and jump from idea to idea without being confined within a page.  Blogs, and other online websites designed for communication, allow the reader to voice his or her opinions, which 100 years ago was not possible.  Although, with these websites informal writing has become more natural and more used.  With society in full control over what is being written, a textual world consists of reader and writer collaborating together to create full thoughts, and as these ideas have changed before, they will continue to do so

The Electronic Book

     My group focused on Chapter 5 and the electronic book.  We learned about text and how its view has changed overtime.  We decided to begin the prezi with the title of the chapter in large, bold letters.  This was to implant in the viewer's mind our main point of the presentation.  We organized our points in order they were written.  The title of each section was displayed before we moved onto our next point.  By doing this, the points do not seem random and jumping from topic to topic.  Our group combined direct quotes from Bolter and our own ideas.  We wanted the presentation to be original and not all Bolter's points.  The combination of image, video and text served effective for driving our point home.  Image and video enforced the points we made by text very well.
     It was important to begin our presentation by explaining the history of text.  We explained the codex and how it has evolved.  Giving the viewer a background on text is crucial because jumping right into electronic books would leave the viewers confused.  The Middle Ages served as the first time text and image were put together to convey a message.  This evolved into books today that use image and text as well.  Electronic books have taken image and text and added hypertext.  After giving a brief history of encyclopedias, our group explained how electronic encyclopedias use hypertext to organize a vast number of topics effectively.  These encyclopedias can be organized in as many ways as the reader can imagine.
     Electronic books have reinforced what digital text is communicating.  That people can organize their ideas in any which way they please.  With hypertext, one can travel through a sea of information with just a few clicks.  This makes writing and reading easier and faster.  Electronic books have adapted with society, as did printed books when they were first used.  Our group did a good job explaining the use of electronic books; there was not much I would have done differently in our presentation.  By using image, text and video, Alex, Luke and I were able to draw from many different sources to convey how hypertext and the electronic book have evolved with society.

Chapter 6: Refashioned Dialogues

Observe:  This group explained the order of text and how it is important.  They used youtube videos very early in the presentation.  I enjoyed the videos and visuals early because it kept me involved and interested in the prezi.  The videos and images were relevant and put a different spin to the text that normally would not have been read.  Storytelling and how it involves and audience was also evaluated.  The group also discussed graphic design and how communication occurs on the Web.  The groups final points resolved around Plato and Socrates and their discussion that dialogue is better then writing because it is more real and argumentative.

Infer:  Conversation and making sense to an audience is a very important factor in producing text or dialogue.  Text does not have to be linear but can also be scattered.  Printed text, digital text and dialogue all share similar traits; the main being communicating an idea to the reader or viewer.  Expressing an idea is very different written down then if someone were to tell it.  Students are benefiting from the new digital age, as there are many interactions and methods for them to be taught.

Questions:  Do you think it is more or less effective to have text in a linear order?
                  Why did you choose the two pictures of the road and its different directions?
                  Do you believe dialogue is stronger then text?
                  Is the strong use of digital learning methods in schools good or bad for students?
                  Can arguments be as persuasive textually as they are verbally?
                  Are images stronger then they used to be?

Chapter 3: Hypertext and the Remediation of Print

Observe:  This group followed their chapter chronologically and would constantly refer back to the title of the chapter.  This was an effective way to remind the viewer what the main idea is.  The main objective and use of hypertext was constantly enforced.  For the most part this group did a good job of explaining the quotes.  But, some were left without being backed up which left it difficult to understand.  This group did not use pictures or video which was an interesting choice.  But, since Hypertext was the main focus, the absence of image was not hindering.

Infer:  Hypertext is slowly becoming more popular then standard print.  It is quicker and more productive.  Ideas are organized and sorted effectively.  Also, the reader does not have to search for a topic but instead find a link that organizes this content.  In a fast-paced society, this hypertext is becoming more attractive then standard print.

Question:  Does hypertext take away from the "more official" print?
                Do you think hypertext is dangerous? Or does it provide an effective way to find information?
                Do you believe there will be another remediation of print?
                Why did your group decide to not use images or video?
                Why are people complaining about the overuse of hypertext?
                Do you think less prestigious and known documents will be produced because of the diminishing use of standard print?

Chapter 5: The Electronic Book

http://prezi.com/bwypiqgvxdos/the-electronic-book/