Unit 1 Portfolio

Source 1: From Pencils to Pixels by Dennis Barron
In this piece, the author talks about the evolution of writing over time, from the first genesis of the idea to the modern form of the writing at the time the article was written in the 1990s. The article goes through how changing technology impacts writing and despite the article being written 25 years ago, there are still plenty of things that ring true today. There is one line in particular when Baron says "I could no longer draft anything coherently directly onto a piece of paper. It wasn't so much that I couldn't think of the words, but the physical effort... in short, the writing practices I had been engaged in regularly since the age of four, now seemed to overwhelm and constrict me, and I longed for the flexibility of digitized text" (Barron 1). This is still very relevant today, as I much prefer writing online than on a sheet of paper. This is written as an essay, and I think it is the best way to do something like this. It felt like a script to a documentary you'd see on the Discovery Channel, and I think that is the best way to convey the information, even if it isn't the most engaging material in the world. It fits perfectly into the genre of essays, with a clear thesis, multiple subheadings to back it up, and it is clearly well researched. I think the project very much succeeded, as I now know more about the evolution of writing than I ever though I would. There are a lot of very interesting tidbits I'm sure I never would have learned otherwise, like the origin of the pencils with Henry David Thoreau. One thing that stood out to me was the line "The pencil may seem a simple device in contrast to the computer, but although it has fewer parts, it too is an advanced technology." (Barron 2). It put a lot of things in perspective in terms of technology, since it is typically thought of as cell phones and computers today, but the pencil was once a breakthrough. It makes me think about how computers will be viewed 100 years from now or further, and if they will fall the way of the pencil, just a trivial tool that we take for granted. However, I think something that was very poignant was how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Barron points out that "Only when Macintosh and Windows operating systems allowed users to create on-screen documents that looked and felt like the old, familiar documents they were used to creating on electronic typewriters did word-processing really become popular." (Barron 11). Even though computers were new and revolutionary, they had to adapt to the old way. Apple created a super computer that you can put in your pocket, and yet people felt most comfortable using it as a normal phone. Even if you're absolutely brilliant and you reinvent the entire internet, if you can't explain how it works to people, it will never get off the ground. I think this is something that we must keep in mind as we become increasingly digital, being careful not to change things too much as we continue to delve into a digital world.

Source 2: Interview: How do we read literature in the digital age?
This interview is between Gaudenz Metzger, a professor at the University of Basel, and Phillip Schweighauser, a literary scholar and fellow professor at the university. I enjoyed this genre since we get to empathize with the interviewee, as we consider out answers alongside him. I also thought the professor gave some very interesting answers in how digitalizing literature has changed it. He is mainly focused on reading, and we are in a writing class, but it is very important to remember that when we write, there is someone reading it as well, so that perspective must also be considered. Reading online has its merits: it can be done more conveniently, with more books, and there is greater access to information that can be beneficial in understand the work. I prefer to read a physical book still, as I often get distracted reading on a screen by one of the countless distractions that inevitably pops up. I think this source really gives a modern scholarly take on digital literature, while still feeling casual and keeping it easy to understand. He also talks about writing and communication, and how emojis fit into that, and I found his thoughts particularly interesting. He says "The rise to prominence of machine have certainly introduced further radical changes, among them the virtual disappearance of letter writing, the blurring of the boundaries between speech and writing, and the emergence of new forms of writing such as texting and twitter" (Schweighauser). I never really thought about tweeting as it's own unique form of writing, but given the character restrictions and the content on the site, it really is it's own unique form of writing, just as texting is, where you speak in abbreviations, use emojis, and send multiple messages back to back to convey a point. I think that his thoughts on how the digital age has impacted everything was really interesting and it made me reconsider a lot of things.

Source 3: TED Talk by Cecilia Knapp, Why You Should Write
Cecilia Knapp is an author and poet who gave a TED Talk on her perspective on writing. She really uses the genre to her advantage, giving two full speeches, the first being a poem she wrote, and the second being from a play she wrote. Seeing as it is written by her, and she is able to perform it, it creates a greater impact. We get to hear her speak her own words, instead of having them interpreted on a page by whoever is reading them. In her TED Talk, she discusses why she turned to writing and how she thinks it can aid others. I think she did an excellent job in her talk, and she did a very good job not only saying why she enjoys writing, but why it can be helpful for others. She talked about how she writes in order to express her thoughts and feelings to help her better understand herself. Knapp turned to writing after her brother committed suicide, and how it helped her grieve. My externalizing her feelings, she was able to have an easier time. She mentioned the benefits of writing in mental health, and she experienced that first hand while coping, which made her point even more powerful since she had first hand experience and not just some scientific studies. However, the point I most latched on to was her talking about writing as an outlet for creativity. The writing I enjoy most is non-fiction, and what appeals to me about that genre the most is I can choose things I am interested in that really happened. However, when I do read fiction, I enjoy projects that are deeply creative, and my all-time favorite series is the Percy Jackson series, although I am also partial to Harry Potter. What they both combine is a fantastical world that it seems like only Rick Riordan or JK Rowling could have created. They are very creative, with Riordan turning the Greek gods into modern day characters, and Rowling creating a world of wizards so realistic that you were immediately transported to Hogwarts with Harry. This creativity makes it enjoyable, and when I'm writing, that's what makes it so enjoyable. In the digital world, we now have an incredible outlet for all of our creativity. You can create a blog just like this one, and write about whatever it is you are passionate about. You can create something in five minutes and express yourself more than ever before, and I think that is a great thing.

Source 4: How Technology Has Changed the Way Authors Write by Matthew Kirschenbaum of NewRepublic
This article is about how evolving technology has changed writing on the whole. With the way we write having evolved so much from the days on typewriters and that has obviously had an effect on how we write as a people now. With grammar checkers being automatic on computers now, revisions have almost become obsolete as misspelled words are instantly corrected, and even when they are necessary, they go by much quicker as it is possibly to just scroll quickly through instead of painstaking reading through page after page. Kirschenbaum looks back to Fredrich Nietzsche's thoughts on how we compose our thoughts and the affect that had on our end product. "Our writing instruments, he suggested, are not just conveniences or contrivances for expression of ideas; they actively shape the limits and expanse of what we have to say. Not only do we write differently with a fountain pen than a crayon because they each feel different in our hands, we write (and think) different kind of things" (Kirschenbaum). While there isn't any evidence that computers have literary style, there is no doubt they have had a profound impact. The author points to composition theorist Christina Haas for the biggest change new technologies have had on prose, in what she calls "sense of the text". Kirschenbaum says "Word processing, as the testimony of countless writers suggests, profoundly altered their sense of the text, both in terms of how they approached their writing and what they thought possible." An analysis of countless writers works, including the legendary Isaac Asimov, show that a change occurred after they switched writing platforms. It makes a lot of sense that as the technology changes, so does how we write on it. I doubt I would be able to do all of this work on a typewriter, especially at the last minute, or that it would sound the same, and I don't know if it would be better or worse, it would just be different, which I think is very interesting.