I can see Stevenson's point about using smilies as a crutch so that writers don't have to explain themselves correctly, or as he said, because writers are "lazy." But in complete honesty, I've never used a smiley in a professional manner. In fact, aside from an occassional emoticon I send to a close friend online, or a winky face to my girlfriend in a text message, I don't see much of them.
Like in my example above, I never use a smiley except for completely silly purposes, or in some cases, to be cute. If there were a message that I felt was important to the person receiving it I would take my time and explain exactly what I meant, or take the necessary steps to ensure that person's comprehension of what I'm saying. I honestly feel people are taking this smiley thing way to seriously. And as for the smiley going away soon, I really doubt that happening in the near future. The smiley emoticon has stuck and will be around for a good, long, while.
I talk more about the positive aspects of the smiley in my early post located at ;-).
]]>So I guess it's safe to say that the "smiley" icon, or emoticon, has been alive longer than I have. Yes, it is now 25 years old, thanks to Scott Fahlman who invented it at CMU. In his article he raised a few interesting perspectives about the whole idea of the smiley which, in turn, made me take a look at my relationship with it.
In the words of Fahlman, the smiley was invented to ensure that the readers of the message knew that the comment or passage was to be taken lightly, in a joking manner. We've all had these experiences where we come off the wrong way due to the expressionlessness of writing online. So, basically it wasn't invented by some kid messing around. It actually had a purpose. A scientific purpose, if you will.
My relationship with the "smiley" is intimate. At first, I saw it was a crutch, a filler in an e-mail or a text message. However, the more I was exposed to them, the more I felt I could use them for communication. Now, I will find a text message that I send consisting of nothing but a smiley. That's how much I've come to depend on it. Especially in the area of instant messaging (and I know this because I've had many in-depth converstaions on AIM which could have been much easier if I would have made a simple phone call), smiley's are important. Because writing is so impersonal and the listener/reader cannot hear the tone you are saying something with, or the expression on your face, there is therefore no emotion behind a comment. For example;
i've had enough of you
can be taken offensively in a certain context, but if the writer includes a smiley face,
i've had enough of you ;-)
it completely changes the context. Perhaps the person is flirting? In any case, you can see how the addition of an emoticon can change meaning and improve communication.
As for those who say that Shakespeare and Twain didn't need smiley faces to communicate, I feel Fahlman answers those remarks quite sufficiently. And plus, none of us are Shakespeare or Twain... yet anyway.
All in all, I like smilies because they make me happy (or sad depending on the context). They enable us to communicate without using words. Which may or may not be a positive, but I see it as a plus. Personally, my favorite is the winky face ;) because it lets the reader know that you're joking, and not to take anything personally. So I'll end this entry with just that...
]]>Hope these help!
]]>This light, jocuar tone was new for Usenet. In Dr. Jerz's article, "Clueless Usenet Newbie," he uses language and a tone like above. As I look back on my personal introduction to blogging I can see how I took the idea much the same way Dr. Jerz did. I didn't think of blogging to be professional looking and sounding all the time. I looked at it as a chance to goof off a bit, to be myself, maybe crack a few jokes. But, at the same time, I knew the purpose.
As a senior and not blogging for the past 3 years, it's interesting for me to take a glance back at the work I put together on my blog freshmen year. It's interesting to see how my writing has changed, how my voice is distinct to my personality, and how cheezy I sounded. I guess I shared the same experience as Dr. Jerz when I looked back and saw what I wrote. Embarassing? I don't know. But definitely cheezy. Don't believe me, take a look at my blog entry about poetry during freshmen year... (I can't believe I'm doing this.) A Poetic Experience.
I guess the lesson is that technology, writing, and personality are three things that are always changing. We learn to adapt our writing to the atmosphere around us. I feel I am comfortable enough now with the blogging system to use it effectively, write effectively, and in short communicated effectively.
]]>Here's a look at what I've done for this assignment.
]]>So there I was, distraught and frustrated, sitting in front of my computer uttering profanities. I had nowhere left to turn, nothing else to do and then it hit me like a sack of potatoes: Kevin Hinton. I called him and he came to my rescure. He explained to me how he went about completing the tasks in Castro's text and I began gaining confidence in myself and my computer abilities. And after that I even had him clean my room and do the rest of my homework (not really.) Just wanted to give a shout out to Kev!
I'm going to be honest, I have not one ounce of computer knowledge in me so this was a very difficult struggle. I got hung up on multiple parts including how to open and view the web page in the browser, how to change the font, and how to import and download the pictures. But eventually I made it all the way through. And now am surprisingly proud of myself and feeling very confident about my abilities to survive EL 236.
]]>Not sure I understand it all, but I'll keep on truckin!
Check out my uploaded html file...
test.html
- Writing Effective E-mail: Top 10 Tips
This article helped me see aspects of e-mailing that I never realized or thought about before. The most eye-opening for me was the point about writing a creative and informative subject line. Until I read this article, I honestly never found the importance of trying to create an informative subject line and would usually just tack one on at the end saying whatever I though of at the time. However, having a few classes in journalism and newswriting, this article helped me realize that writing a subject line is almost like writing a lead to a story. The point is to "hook" the reader and draw them in to what the rest of the article/e-mail is about. When looking at writing a subject line through the lense of selling your e-mail to the reader, it unconciously makes you put more time and more thought into what that subject line would be. For example, like the article says, if the e-mail is a quick question, why not write it in the subject line? This way you save time and also, your e-mail has less of a chance of getting lost among the spam and thrown away or deleted.
]]>In Tamar Lewin's article Lewin discusses how today's online language is affecting student's schoolwork. I found it interesting that some students, as discussed in the quote above, have caught themselves putting inappropriate punctuation and language in their schoolwork because of their exposure to the more informal writing found in text messaging, instant messaging, etc.
In my experience and understanding with the evolution and history of language, generation by generation there are changes that take place. When looking at the transition from Old English to Middle English to Early Modern English and so on, there are constantly new rules and new jargin that change and evolve the language. This phenomenon that is taking place with new online language is a result of the search for the quickest and most convenient way to communicate to others. From this, the language is once again changing in correspondence with society's changes and therefore many of these new habits and techniques such as emoticons, or "LOL"s may eventually become accepted and thought proper in our professional writing.
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