Changing Lenses-- The Evolution of Discourse

(from Journal #1, by Tiffany Tackett)

            Writing has changed constantly since the moment of its advent.  New forms of writing are invented as they are needed, and because of that, new forms of discourse must also evolve to deal with them.  The internet is a prime example of a recent evolution of writing, and the constantly altered discourse orbiting it.

            There are many different types of writing which can occur on the internet, and each of these have specific formats, terminology, and norms by which those participating are expected to abide by.  The emergence of the blog is a prime example of a new writing environment with all three of these features.  A blog is expected to be in block format, each paragraph an un-indented chunk, often times with subheaders or images breaking up the text.  The terminology can vary blog to blog, but there are some which remain the same throughout, the name “blog” being one of them.  The social situation of a blog also varies, but usually those responding to posts are expected to be respectful of the blogger’s opinion, and the blogger is supposed to be respectful and authoritative, even when criticizing something (or discussing politics).  This is very different from an environment like Facebook.  On Facebook, people are expected to keep their posts short and generally mundane (where a blog can be deep and introspective); this is enforced by the post length limit.  The terminology is different as well, because you can “like” something to show interest in a topic, you can “poke” someone to get their attention, and “share” your photos and the photos with others on your “feed”.  The social situation is a completely different matter. A lot of people take thinly veiled stabs at people in their statuses, and often times those people are on their friends list.  Banter is expected to be friendly and light and casual, but oftentimes people complain or point out flaws, or point out that the person is procrastinating or not doing what they said they are doing.  Each social environment is different, and thus, we should have a different way of looking at each.

            One might not look at a Facebook page with any sort of seriousness, but blogs are now considered a viable source for information in research, as is demonstrated in the fact that MLA and APA have both devised formats for citing work from a blog.  Many professionals use blogs, so now people can read their information for free, online, rather than paying for a scholarly journal subscription.  One also has to be careful, though, because absolutely anyone can post anything online under any alias.  Information is easier than ever to find, but easier than ever to falsify as well.

            In this internet age, the way people write papers is changing as well.  As an English tutor at CNM, I see this every day.  Students who are web savvy often use internet lingo without even realizing it, most of which is (still) deemed inappropriate for the world of academia, so I have to point this terms out and explain how to replace them.  Because of mediums like Facebook, discourse among peers is becoming more and more informal, which is then translating to written work for the academic setting.  It would be one thing to fight against this insurgence of “informal language.”  That is not happening.  More and more often, I see assignment sheets from professors imploring their students to engage the topics using their own language and voice, which often involves the informal language of the internet and common, 21^st Century social interactions.