In life, it is hard to find a balance. Balancing work and play is hard enough, now we throw the Internet into the mix! The Internet is a priceless tool, and if it crashed for an extended period of time, people would riot. Not only supporters and constant users of the Internet, but those who did not support it would as well. All in all, finding a balance in writing includes having equal amounts of content and grammar. This specific kind of balance is not typically common in primary education systems due to the intensive amounts of grammar that students must learn. We need to move away from the grammar intensive writing education and move towards learning how to include the appropriate amount of content. Content can be taught in a variety of ways: by writing specifically to the author’s audience, making sure that your content can be cited back to the original source, having an emphasis on the plot and by having an understanding of both informal and formal writing.
This piece of writing goes out to all of the so-called Internet ‘haters.’ After googling, “is the Internet detrimental to writing” I found Rick Moody. Rick Moody is, well, as his name says. Moody. He stated that “old fashioned paper books and the Internet ‘seem inimical [not favorable] to one another.”[1] First of all, lets compare Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the Internet. They have practically nothing in common. Second of all, Mr. Moody also states that a lot of writing in blogs isn’t revised. Also it has “a sense of carelessness about it.” In my own personal opinion, a blog is a little like a personal diary. They are not necessarily intended for a scholarly audience. Therefore, there is little to no need to proofread the crap out of it. Third, bloggers are not careless about their posts. Yeah, they can be informal, but they offer a genuine opinion on something. If bloggers were careless, they would not take the time out of their lives to create a post that would generate some kind of reaction from their readers. Which is, I might add, the major goal of all writers.
Teachers are getting better about it, but this is only because they have realized their mistake. Super structuring an essay is a rather important aspect when learning how to write at a basic, elementary level. Teachers keep on instructing their students to write in that manner, even though that style of essay is dying. The more advanced style of writing includes transitions to benefit the overall flow of the essay with a small reliance on structure. Moving away from the standard 5-paragraph essay to a free form, flowing essay can be one of the hardest things that a young writer has to do. But when that is accomplished, the writer’s skill will expand at an almost exponential rate. And that, as teachers is what you want your students to experience.
The Internet also brings countless amounts of information to our fingertips. Literally. Let’s say you need to research some Shakespeare, but you are having a hard time comprehending his plays’ content. Within a few seconds (depending on your Wi-Fi connection and bandwidth), you can find an actual modern-day English version of Hamlet, instead of the Olden English. With all of the information available to us, those students who use statistics in their writing should be encouraged to cite their sources. Take Chris Hedges’ “America the Illiterate” as and example. When including statistics on the negative effects of the Internet, the author always should to cite his sources. After a bit of research on his given information, I found that they weren’t necessarily accurate. Hedges’ claims, “42 million American adults…” are illiterate, or they cannot read [2]. According to other sites the number of illiterate Americans is close to 37 million [3]. But, according to cia.gov, 99% of all American’s can read and write simple things [4]. The obvious answer is that the definition of literacy can be different based upon what information was represented. If Hedges cited his sources, his audience could have looked up which definition of literacy he meant. From there, his audience would have a better understanding of his piece.
The specific types of writers are changing from the classic styles of literature, to an epic style of adventure book. It is more one more common to see books like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Harry Potter, and even Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol are great examples of how popular books have changed from having a deeper meaning to a creative storyline filled with plot twists and action. Chris Hedges’ also argues about this in his piece. He argues that America as an audience has become stupider based upon the past political campaigns, which I might add again, is not cited. He argues that Abraham Lincoln and past presidents have had a higher academic verbatim than more recent presidents. Yes, this is a good argument, however, the verbatim is not nearly as important as the content in the debates. This can be related to the entertainment industry. Older, more famous works of literature have fancy words that the content is hidden behind. For example, an excerpt from Hamlet is rather tough to read initially, but when you read it a few times, it begins to make sense. On the contrary, the more recent works of literature have been more revolved around the content of the plot and sub-plots, while being easier to understand. It is because of this exact reason that the modern novels are popular. People can understand them with relative ease.
Understanding when to use informal tone and when to use a formal tone could be the deciding factor in whether or not the author receives an ‘A’ or a ‘B’. It all comes back to knowing your audience and determining what reaction you want them to have. For example, if the audience is a panel of English teachers and your prompt is to “write a well-developed essay in which blah blah blah…” then you might need to turn up the formal aspects of your writing. On the other side of the spectrum, an informal piece of writing is often the case in blogs. Blogs are the best way to learn how to embed informality into a good piece of writing. Not only does it give you practice on informal writing; other readers can comment on your posts. Your audience can provide feedback, which is the greatest tool that they can provide.
Finding a balance between the aforementioned is no easy task. Having the perfect diction and verbatim playing off of the plot line is hard enough. Having enough formal information while still maintaining your audience’s attention with the amount of informality provides for a fun read. Moving away from the old type of teaching with the grammar intensive, formal style, to the more balanced, fun to read essay will prove to be beneficial to not only your student’s grade. It will also benefit their writing career.
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