We're Entering a New Era of Literacy

As days go by we are heading into the future. As we do so, technology is improving dramatically. In the digital age, ever since the send button was produced, digital technology is the blame of ruining the quality of writing. It is being said that the more we write online, the worse writer’s we become. The main idea of this article is that the modern students are getting sloppier and are losing the clarity within their writing.

After reading this article, I do agree with the main concept that is being said. The internet is blurring how students do their work. The clocks ticking and our writing styles are loosing its clarity. When I look at the modern students these days I can relate them to the issue which is being focused on. In English class, when I need to edit many written work, I can say that I do find many careless and flawless mistakes. Such as U-you, Aight-alright, Rite-right, etc. almost 3/4 of the school spends about 5 hours online. During so they loose their writing conventions. Although they don’t mean to make the mistakes, they tend to do because they are so used to writing on MSN for 5 hours straight using short forms.

At the same time, after reading this article I don't agree. They state that the more we write online the worse writers we become. This statement really stood out to me as I thought about it. Our school and online life’s are completely different. When at school we tend to write properly and remember all our writing conventions. At home, we don’t forget but rather write in short form since it’s faster to get a message across. By talking in short form, I do believe that it can get carried away onto our written school work, but this does not change the fact that we become worse writers. All going back to the fact that Prof. Lunsford said "our research now show’s that writers always make mistakes of some kind". Going back to my point of how, school work and online chatting are different but the effects of online chatting may get dragged into the school work accidentally. Reminding that we make mistakes and aren’t forgetting our writing conventions.

Our writing styles I believe are actually getting better. We may have trouble with the writing conventions but our spelling and grammar itself is improving. I can say this because when I was in civics and had to do our Toskan portfolio, many groups received a 4 to a 4+ on their spelling and grammar category. In the article it did mention that spelling now accounts for only 6 percent of errors. After reading this I was quite shocked, but really impressed.

Therefore in conclusion I believe that as we head into the future into our destiny, writers who spend more time online will not become worse writers. A fact that will always remain true is that humans make mistakes. Ever since I was a child growing up I was taught that we learn best by our mistakes.

This is a Photograph of Me

This is a Photograph of Me holds a deep meaning towards it. In this article it talk's about an image that was taken ago. In this image lays a tree, a small frame house, low hills, and a lake. That is what most people see when looking at the image, but if you look long enough you will eventually be able to see a person who drowned in the center of the lake. The message behind this photograph is that you have to look closely and focus on the image to be able to see what it holds. While reading this poem over and over again, to be able to understand it, I realized that it wasn't an unnecessary and useless poem that took up my time but it actually hit me that it was a true fact.

I believe that this image emphasizes that anyone can judge a book by it's cover but the one's who take time to read the novel will truly understand the meaning and story it is willing to share. This issue talks about a photograph that needs to be looked at long enough to understand what’s there. Not relating to a photograph, but this has occurred to me person to person. I assumed that this girl was a nice person due to how she talked, dressed, and basically how she looked. I was wrong. I didn't look long enough to be able to see the real her. What was running through her mind, who she really was, and basically what her story in life was. In my opinion everyone has a story, whether good or bad, but it just takes time to be able to see it. Personally, most of the times I look at only the things that at are right in front of my very own eyes but never take to time to realize what is in the deeper picture.

In the poem “This is a photograph of me”, Margaret Atwood emphasizes that in order to find someone’s true identity one must look deeper into the picture. The poem represents how the image seen by others of a person is often a distorted reflection of their true personality. The image formed in one’s mind about a person is an assumption that is not necessarily true, such as in the poem. Furthermore, the poem explains that when an individual looks past the barriers of image, one can truly find a person’s true identification. This is seen in the line, “I am in the lake, in the center of the picture, just under the surface.” This quote describes how an individual is in the inner surface of themselves. The word “just under the surface,” signifies that beneath the outer image of a person is ones real self. In this case the speaker is under the surface of the water and wants to be found. If an individual looks close enough they will find the true meaning of a person’s personality and who they really are. Atwood illustrates how an image of one is a distorted reflection of a person’s true identity. The speaker discusses how ones personality is easily misunderstood or not learned of to a certain depth which affects the person’s true identity and “photograph.”

After reading this article, I can truly say that this has to the one issue which took me time to figure out the message it holds.Also the one that got me thinking about how I view the real world; the same as the people who are viewing the photograph, only focusing on what is shown and not to the certain depth of the image.