Text Messaging: Take Note

I am a text messenger and most of my friends are too. I feel that text messages are great. Before my parents adapted the texting plan, I would realize something. There are so many times when you just want to something short and funny to a few friends. Calling them to just say one thing seems too awkward so it falls through. But with text messages, its easy and convenient. There are other times where without texting, it would be just darn impossible to get a message to someone. For example, parties where it is too loud or speeches where silence is required. I think it will slowly change the way we write but only in the slightest. Many times when I am typing a paper, I notice myself typing: lower case i's, urs instead of yours, etc. But we always fix these silly mistakes and academic establishments usually have strict academic expectations for writing. 

When I send my texts, I usually don't go back to edit. E-mail has not changed the way I write much at all, instant messaging has.

Blog

I spend the majority of my time on the computer. I'm always chatting with my friends either on MSN or voice communication chat rooms while I do other things online. I also spend a considerable amount of time playing various online games with my close friends and strangers elsewhere in the world. In doing so, I see tons and TONS of Internet lingo. A lot of things are abbreviated online and I find some of them to be pretty unique. IMO (in my opinion) is one I use around my friends occasionally. TBH (to be honest) is another one. From my experiences playing with people in other countries, AFK (away from keyboard) is a more universal way of saying BRB. I find these acronyms(?) to be very useful as it takes up less typing time and fun to interpret. I think most of these acronyms are already establish and will remain for a very long time.

Virtual Community Real?

List of groups: Water Polo, Swimming, Vietnamese Student Association, Health Science Scholars Program, Clan for online gaming, Orgo 2 study group, many other online groups

All of these groups have helped me build myself as a person. I have many life friends from the sport teams I've participated in. Most of the online groups that I'm enlisted in are with my very good friends from back home and we hang out that way as well. VSA and HSSP are rather new groups to me this year and I foresee them doing the same thing. They will teach me a lot about myself while making great new relationships along the way. The length of the list is decent and it doesn't surprise me much. I feel like I am a joiner as I usually seek groups like those above to make new friends.

The maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts

Real early in high school or even middle school, when teachers asked me to revise my writing I thought I only needed to check spelling. But it grew from there. I then learned that grammar was also important to check into. Then came word choice, logic order , and then figuring out if the paper even had a purpose or not. One of the earliest memories I had while revising was just burying my nose in a dictionary because I was one of the worst spellers in class. It never felt good to revise papers. Even now I feel incompetent with the revision paper. I usually am not confident with my own writing so when I am asked to help revise others, I'm at a nervous state of mind. 

Shitty First Drafts

My writing of my first drafts are pretty rough. They usually contain a bunch of mistakes; grammar, run-on's, and confusing are common. The first draft of a paper is always the toughest part in my opinion. When writing my first drafts, I usually just write down whats on my mind and work on it from there. Because it's the toughest part of the paper, I feel really relieved after it's done. It is very unpleasant for me to start papers. The revision process, often lengthy, does not bother me as much as getting the outline for the paper. 

Simplicity

I believe that thinking can be conveyed through writing. When I'm writing, I typically just type what I am thinking on whatever topic is at hand. I also believe that you cannot have one and not the other. It would be impossible to think if there were no words to describe your thoughts. To write things that actually have meaning requires some thought to sentence structure as well as word choice etc. 

I am a person who does like to see ideas on paper. Its good to have a physical copy of something to refer back to instead of recalling a vague memory. I also like to have a brainstorm or outline of what I'm going to write about before diving into a paper. 

How They Chose These Words

The situation that sticks out the most in my mind about this topic is an argument with my parents.  It was about me dating people; my mom would not have it. On the surface, it seemed that they did not approve of my girlfriend. I had many verbal discussion with them to see what the reasons were as well as convey my opinion upon them. I prefer to speak rather than write. I find it difficult to convey the right mood and tone in writing. Sometimes its rather hard to pick out if they are mad or sarcastic. The only time I find myself writing a letter to someone is through email, which is for convenience reasons.

Does a Finger Fing?

Growing up, I would have to rely on students from school to pick up on paterns in English. My family at home spoke Vietnamese. I did eventually learn about the i before e rule but I have never heard that last part as stated in the article; "Or when sounded like ay".  This rule doesn't trigger any memories of other rules for me. I may have never learned them so recalling them its a bit difficult. The only tip I recieved was to "sound things out". These moments in language for me determined the person I am today; a spell check addict.