Here is my complete essay, sorry it's so late.

The internet is shaping our lives from all directions. We use it to manage our checkbooks, read about local news, play games, and to socialize with each other. Our lives are beginning to become centered on the web. We go to it for entertainment and work. We rely on it for communication. However, the more we use the internet the more it changes us and our way of thinking. As we use the internet more and more as a way to collect and transfer information, the reading and writing styles of most of us is changing so that the information we collect and share is no longer in depth and only scratches the surface of a topic as seen in the length of the articles we read and write such as blogs and news pieces.
Let’s focus on our reading styles as we surf the web. Who reads more than the first part of an article? Who reads the whole thing? Not to many of us will. The reason is because we can’t stay focused on something for that long. We just want to see the jest of whatever we are reading. We no longer read for entertainment, yet we read so that we can collect as much information as possible. We are literate but illiterate at the same time. We can read the text word for word and gain the literal meaning that it poses on us, however, usually there is a hidden message, whether subliminal or textually, that we cannot comprehend. We cannot comprehend the message not only cause we don’t read the whole article sometimes, but also the fact that we are not capable to do so because we are somewhat illiterate. As Hedge’s article stated, most people read at a fourth grade level. The ability to understand in text meanings really isn’t developed until well into high school. One of the main reasons for our lack of ability to read at a higher level is because of what we do read. Most news articles and pieces in the news papers are written at a fourth grade level. This includes most of anything we read on the internet. Most well known writers writing blogs and articles that are well known will write at this level too. The reason is, and I’m stating this from my opinion and logic, because they are appealing to an everyday audience. They want to be able to appeal to the most people possible, and if they write in a very complex manner, not too many ordinary people will be able to understand it and won’t read it. Writing is a game of appeals. You need to focus on your ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos establish the writer’s credibility, logos the subject’s credibility and your pathos appeal to the audience. The good writers establish pathos by writing at a simpler level. They appeal to their audience because the audience doesn’t have to think as much. The audience doesn’t have to deal with complex thought. Now they probably much rather be watching TV or something than reading. I think we mostly love to read on the internet because we get the choice of what we are going to read. I know that throughout my schooling career so far I have hated to read. I really have. Now I’m not going to say I completely hate reading but I think the biggest thing is when I’m forced to do it. I have read plenty of books throughout my career, most I have not liked. There have been a few that I have enjoyed, but truly these books consisted of simple diction and a great plot line. When I had to read something that was more complex and had a great plot but a lot of the meaning in the plot was hidden, I didn’t like the book. Now most people that do read on the internet obviously choose what they read, however they don’t go and read Charles Dickens or Shakespeare. They got read simple blogs that everyday people have written. They read what their friend went and wrote as their status on face book. They read very simple articles that consist of simple diction choices so that they don’t have to work to read. Our reading habits really haven’t changed that much in my eyes though. Instead of reading the newspaper for enjoyment, most rather sit down in front of their computer and read the paper online. As Americans, we haven’t been known for being the most intelligent people in the world but rather for our ability to do hard work. We work hard. There is no doubt about it, but we do a lot of physical labor and never work our minds to hard. And we don’t like to work our minds because after years of intense schooling being forced to work for what seems like no reward, we will give up on it. This is exactly what we did for reading too. It’s easy to work at a job when every week or two a check shows up in your hands. Our reading habits on the internet emphasize our need as Americans for a reward for the work we do, and our desire to do as little as possible to get this reward. Just like we read simple and minimal articles on the internet so that we can get as much information as possible without doing a lot of work, we write in a similar fashion.
Now me personally, I rather write than read. Now I don’t know if it’s because I like to express my ideas or just that fact I like to argue sometimes. I like controversy and argumentation. When I wrote in High School my teacher always would yell at me because any paper I would write I would turn into a qualifying piece. Now this doesn’t sound like the point I made earlier about doing little work for the most gain. I have to ask this though, what was your favorite subject in school and how well did you do in it? I bet any subject needs work, however when it was a favorite, you didn’t feel like it was a job or was work. It came easier to you. So I wrote everything as a qualifying piece because it was easier to me and I didn’t feel like I was working as hard to complete the piece. Now this essay I’m writing now is very difficult to me, I have worked hard on it but have not put an excellent piece together. Most of the sentences in this piece alone are simple, along with the diction. I write at a very simple level, the same most people would. This is also because my almost hatred for academic reading. My knowledge base hasn’t been developed to the point where I can write a great paper but I can function. I am literate but as stated in the piece “Equity and Literacy in the Next Millennium” building upon a student’s knowledge base facilitates their learning which leads to higher rate of literacy. Basically, the more they know the better they will do. Because I hated reading, my vocabulary never flourished. I know I’m talking about my writing a lot and I’m sorry to do that but the reason I am doing that is because I feel that my writing represents most of America’s. It’s full of very simple wording and sentencing. We as a nation of writers do this all the time. I don’t care who is writing. It could be a great writer or just any old person off the street. The writing is going to be very simple. It’s so that most everybody can understand it. The writing most of the time will also be, as I like to put it, short and to the point. My big philosophy when writing is to say what I need to, back up my opinion, and then end the piece. Writing on the internet is short and to the point because nobody wants to read six pages of repetition and flowery words. We as writers recognize that our audience doesn’t want a novel when they read a piece. As Andrea Lunsford states in Clive Thompson’s piece, we write for our audience. Our writing has adapted to our audience and what they want to read. Our writing style has changed a lot because of our audience is now everyday people on the internet. Even though our reading habits haven’t changed as we surf the World Wide Web, our writing has because of our new audience and our ability to display our work to them.
Most of all, the internet has changed how we write. We can post articles of writing on the internet and allow the world to see them. We write to an audience that doesn’t want to read an exponential amount of material in order to gain a little information. As readers, we have pushed this onto the writers. It’s a cause, effect thing. We have not changed as readers, however as the internet expands and we are able to read more and more pieces, the writers have adjusted their style so that they can reach out to the broadest audience possible. The internet is changing our writing habits to fit the poor reading habits that we all have within us.

This IS my essay so far. It's the first paragraph and part of the second. I know it's short for now but I'm having a hard time writing it. Just let me know what you think of it so far. I will post more when I get more.

The internet is shaping our lives from all directions. We use it to manage our checkbooks, read about local news, play games, and to socialize with each other. Our lives are beginning to become centered on the web. We go to it for entertainment and work. We rely on it for communication. However, the more we use the internet the more it changes us and our way of thinking. As we use the internet more and more as a way to collect and transfer information, the reading and writing styles of most of us is changing so that the information we collect and share is no longer in depth and only scratches the surface of a topic as seen in the length of the articles we read and write such as blogs and news pieces.
Let’s focus on our reading styles as we surf the web. Who reads more than the first part of an article? Who reads the whole thing? Not to many of us will. The reason is because we can’t stay focused on something for that long. We just want to see the jest of whatever we are reading. We no longer read for entertainment, yet we read so that we can collect as much information as possible. We are literate but illiterate at the same time. We can read the text word for word and gain the literal meaning that it poses on us, however, usually there is a hidden message, whether subliminal or textually, that we cannot comprehend. We cannot comprehend the message not only cause we don’t read the whole article sometimes, but also the fact that we are not capable to do so because we are somewhat illiterate.

literacy article

Here is an article on literacy.
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B__TpEuX1DNCY2Q0MmNiMmQtNTA3ZC00YTQ1LThkMTgtYmNiNDZlYmVhNDYy&hl=en

The reason it’s a bad day for news rooms isn’t because of the illiterate America that Hedge so solemnly swore existed. And truthfully I believe there is a big separation in the literacy of Americans as Hedge did describe. The bad news for news rooms is in the fact that people are skimming the surface of knowledge as Carr described in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” People are no longer reading for in depth analysis on recent news topics in order to understand the ways that other nations and cultures think, but rather look at the minimum knowledge of a topic just to see what major occurrences are affecting the world. In relation to Clive Thompson’s article on the new literacy, the new literacy isn’t about reading, rather about writing and who to. The new generation that is being spoiled by social networking and texting is setting up a new time where the main purpose of writing is speaking to an audience. They can develop tone and ethos to appeal to any audience depending on the views of the personnel. Truly I don’t see any relation between the two articles. Carr and Hedge’s articles are more closely related because they talk about reading and writing. Thompson’s article strictly focuses on the writing skills of the new generation and its ability to adapt. This new generation unlike the past generations will continue to write structured paragraphs and sentences in order to communicate with each other. The writings may be simple short hands or be structured like old writings, but they will be there and will be representing the new language that this generation has created and its ingenuity.

Either Hedge is really angry with the American people or he is right. I don’t know if enough people are paying attention to him but we should all read his article “America the Illiterate.” Let’s face it we as a population are just about retarded. There are people out there that can’t do simple math to balance their checkbook, with a calculator I might add. I’ve seen it! There are also people that at a grocery store try to use a coupon on the wrong bottle of detergent. They’re excuse is that it looks like the one in the picture. That may be true but there is always a size or special scent that people can’t see in the picture. I worked as a cashier for a small chain of grocery stores in my home area and I can’t tell you how dumb the average population is. This grocery store that I worked in wasn’t in the best neighborhood, but I’m not saying these people were the scum of the earth either. These people were average middle class Americans. They all probably had a TV in their family room and a car in their garage. As Hedge defined the illiterates, these people probably couldn’t understand a loan contract from their bank but surely enough voted for Obama because they fell for simple mind games in his campaign. These illiterates are the mindless zombies that do the same thing every day following the time constraints put on themselves because they want to watch CSI at 9:00. I’m not the best reader in the world and admit that some things in hedge’s article I didn’t understand. This includes many of the complex words. However, I do have the mental capacity to understand what he was saying by trying to understand the words using in text clues, and thus I was able to read the article and find his message in it. Unlike Carr who thinks we as a people are being made stupid by Google, Hedge turns and says that we are stupid because we are entertained at a middle school level and choose not to challenge our minds so that we think at a higher level. We prefer pictures because it’s easier to understand the picture than read the words under it. Next thing we know we’ll be ordering our food from pop-up menus, far out dude.

Ya'll lazy

“Is Google making us stupid?” NO. Google isn’t making us stupid but is rather rewiring out thinking process. Our brains are no longer absorbing material in a form that contains an in depth knowledge of a particular subject but rather are absorbing only pieces of multiple subjects. As seen by the a study of the internet sites the class visited we skip from site to site in search of little bits of information that is contained on multiple websites. We may search the internet for information pertaining to our homework assignments, our leisure, our social networking, or for news and media. Stupid we is not as a class though. We think different than how people may have thought years ago. Our minds travel from place to place with our browsing and we absorb information. However when it comes time to restate what we have read and learned, we can do it. We have no problem. Our minds do think differently but I don’t think it makes us stupid. Thinking differently isn’t really what we do either. I don’t think we think at all. Our brain wants to be entertained and at the same time expel the least amount of effort to do so. How many people rather watch CSI on Thursday nights than open a book or magazine and read it. As an example of just how lazy we have gotten, turn and look at the T.V. and how we watch it and how we know what’s on it. To see what was on T.V. we used to have to read the TV Guide. Now we have a tivo or DVR that displays what’s on the T.V. on the T.V. Less effort for more knowledge describes our thinking process now. It’s not really a process but is an example of technology making us lazy.

Let’s face it; Harris is describing a completely different form of writing than what Sullivan had described. Harris is talking about rewriting, or other words the act of “striv[ing] to represent the work of another, to translate the language and ideas of a text into words of your own, coming to terms.” Harris is a man writing formal, nonfictional papers focused ideas that have been developed over time. The writing is set out to use the ideas of others in your own paper to strengthen your own ideas without plagiarizing the ideas of others. The biggest thing to do is to read the ideas and works of others and translate them. To understand them. Reading is understanding a text that we need. “Texts don’t simply reveal their meanings to us; we need to make sense of the texts we encounter.” The combination of reading texts and ideas to understand them gives us a greater ability to use them in our own writing. We may just simply be reusing a text in our own writing, but we interpret it differently and thus may present our meaning of the text. Multiple people could see it different ways and thus have different opinions of it. Now, to compare the ideas of writing between Sullivan and Harris, I can’t. Sullivan is an on the spot writer that portrays his immediate ideas onto the paper. He doesn’t need the ideas of others to strengthen his own or to develop any. Harris uses the ideas of others to build his writing into what it is. Without the ideas of others, he has no paper. There is no comparison between the two ideas of writing other than the fact that they put their ideas onto paper. They develop their ideas differently, but do it different ways in order to develop to different types of writings. I don’t find if fair to compare the two author’s ideas of writing because they do describe the writing processes of two different forms of texts.

The internet

Reading the habits of my other classmates as they spend their time on-line, I found that I didn’t put nearly as much effort into what I do on the internet as they did. However, I don’t do nearly as much on the internet. I get on the internet for mainly two things I noticed. E-mail and shopping. I need e-mail for school and am told to check in everyday so that I don’t miss anything. I really don’t like doing that but it’s not that big of a hassle so I don’t care. Now when I say shopping I mean for man stuff. Sorry ladies no clothes. I’ve been looking for motorcycles on line. I’ve been riding my dad’s ancient BMW R90S. It’s a 76’ that’s in really good shape but I’d prefer to have my own so I could ride with him and take it to school. I need a vehicle with good gas mileage to get home on weekends. So I’ve been a smart shopper and have been comparing prices using Kelly blue book and checking insurance rates on progressive cause they are the only people that will give me (18years old) an online quote without talking to someone. Unlike most of my classmates who are on the social networks a lot, I check in and leave the site most the time. It’s not really my thing and never got one until my girlfriend made me get one before I left for college so she could keep in touch. (I’m texting her as I write this.) Granted I wasn’t on the internet to much this weekend cause it was Labor Day and I was hunting, but still. I’m not on too much. I get on pogo.com occasionally for games and check sports on sites but I really am not on the internet unless I need to find out a piece on information. My social networking is through texting and actual interaction. I find out my news via the tube. The internet is awesome, but I don’t depend on it.

Sunday
gwwebic.louiville.edu
Ulink
craigslist.org
Monday
Facebook
Blackboard
Craigs list
Facebook
gwwebic.louisville.edu
Kbb.com
live.xbox.com
louisville.edu
ulink
progressive
xbox.com
youtube.com

“Their lack of finish is what makes them so compelling.” Why does he blog? This is exactly why in my eyes. He loves to write but without the time or the need to read, read, and proofread a piece he has the challenge of putting together a good piece without the crutches. It is a challenge. Just like the dare devil going for the next great stunt or athlete going for a record. He states in his article that the deadlines for his blogs were in the now. This is just another challenge that he has to overcome as he writes his posts. Most everyone faces deadlines as they write a paper or novel but when the topic of what you are writing about is changing as you write, the challenge increases. Andrew Sullivan is an adrenaline junky and just doesn’t put his life on the line. He puts himself out there for the world to see so that the world can see how good of a writer he is. He reaches out to everyone in order to please them as his ultimate editors. When he does reach a conflict with one of his editors per say, it provides another opportunity for him to express himself. Blogs are in real time and show different events in time. One person may dislike his blog but with the living and changing writing that is the blog he has the chance for discussion. Why blog? Blog because it is a challenge everyday for every word over any topic. It expresses ideas and gives every writer new or wise a challenge every time he or she posts.