Collaboration Journal 2 (Elizabeth, John, Kristina, Robert)

Kristina Goodman, John Michel, Elizabeth Siegel, Robert Castle

2.25.15

ENC1145

Collaborative Journal 2

            I think to make this list of what the key concepts of this course are really took the whole group. This is a list that takes some thinking from different minds because it would be hard to think of five different concepts by your-self. This was shown to us by the fact that at first the only one we could come up with, as a group, was that writing is important. After some deliberation we added these concepts to the list: writing is everyday, everyday writing can contain emotion, people have different definitions of everyday writing, and writing gives an understanding of the environment it happens in.

            The first concept, writing is important, was a no-brainer. Writing is imperative to life. It is what we use to record our brief time before we shuffle off our mortal coil. Without writing there would be no learning because there would be no way to convey ideas across time without the possibility of miscommunication that plagues mouth-to-mouth communication. Communication is another reason why writing is important. Writing does not only record ideas, it also allows us to speak to each other. To travel the distance between two people just to say “Hi” would seem an enormous waste of time, but at the same time it is those simple little words and sentences that help to keep a relationship of two people together. Writing also gives us a connection to our past. The writings from the past are a tool that we use to improve the present, mourn things lost, celebrate feats accomplished, and help us remember when our internal memories elude us. We believe that this is the quintessential reason for writing courses, not only this class but all English courses.

            Another concept of this course is that writing is not something that has to happen on a university campus, within government walls, on doctor’s clipboards, lawyer’s case files, or flow from the pen of a well-known author. Writing is something we all can, and do take part of. It is everyday! You may not use a pen and paper every day to write a letter, you may not even add an item to your grocery list that you just noticed you were out of when you looked for it in the pantry. But that’s not what everyday writing is about. Everyday writing is the idea that we all are gears in the machine that is pen and paper. Writing doesn’t have to be either mass produced, or structured. It happens in the home, on a park bench, in restaurants, and between people. It contains vital information such as:

·      milk

·      bread

·      shampoo

·      roach motels

·      eggs

·      toilet paper

Big Mac

           No lettuce

           Lg Fry

           Med Sprite

Sub total:  5.99

Tax:            .42

Total:        6.41

Hey mom, I’m having fun at college, thanks for helping me move in, can’t wait to see you again, love you

Everyday writing is the most human form of writing. It is such a part of the human experience.

            One concept that we all have learned from this course is that everyday writing can contain emotion. The papers that this course is concerned with may not be novels with plot twists and characters that we get attached to. They may not be formal presentations, or chiseled pieces of work that have been formulated by a person with a Phd. They contain normal, boring things. They are about situations that we are all desensitized to because they are such commonplace activities, so they are uninteresting to most of us. Everyday writing is mostly mundane and unexciting. Yet, because of its representation of who a person is when they are behind closed doors, it has emotion sewn in throughout. Peoples writing uses phases like “I miss you” or “I never want to see you again”, “I love you” or “I hate you”, and “thank you”. Even simple lists tell you something about a person. Details like their interests, how they feel about themselves, who are the people they know, where they work, this is all information that one can learn from reading the notepads people have on the counters in their home and at their desks.

            A major concept that has come out in this course is that there are many different definitions of everyday writing. Some think it involves legal documents and essays, others think it is only writing that comes out of the house, and then others think it includes graffiti on a city sidewalk. Even people who have made work out of writing, such as Lillis and Lyons, cannot come to a single solution. But we think that this non-universal and forever changing definition of everyday writing is necessary for this type of writing to remain special. No one can define it, which means no one can confine it. It will forever remain unstructured and free flowing text. You will never be able to pick up a piece of everyday writing and have a predisposition about what it should be. It will always be different and personal. The information may sometimes be similar or close in meaning, but will it be in the same spot on a piece of paper, written in the same pen or same font, or have the same wording? This broad spectrum of the definition is essential to the existence of everyday writing.

            The fifth and final concept is that writing gives an understanding of the environment it is being created in. We can look at words and realize their birthplace. Is it coming from a hospital, a news article, a child’s diary, a letter to a lover, or directions to something. Whatever the words may be, we can put them all together to know what the reason was for the words. This understanding allows us to feel connected to the words. We can place sentiment on the words because we are emotional creatures that want to collect and remember. We may also feel disconnected. We may not understand what we are reading. This may cause us to feel small and become frustrated, but it may also bring about an interest in the subject of the writing. This disconnection may cause us to strive to understand and consequently grow as a person. Whatever the information is that lay on the surface we see it from, we can use it to discover the cause and reason for the text.

5 Concepts Collab Journal

One of the most important concepts for this course is that writing is everywhere, and our everyday life is dependent upon writing. A lot of time it is hard to recognize the importance and significance of writing, unless it is your writing. Generally there is a much deeper meaning to what we write and why we write it, even if we are unaware of that meaning ourselves. Writing can be used as a form of communication, a form of self expression, and also a means of documentation. 

Another concept which is crucial to the class is understanding the meaning of ‘everyday.’ In order to understand this class, we need to define what "everyday" means. When something is said to be "everyday," it becomes normalized, unimportant, and mundane. "Everyday" things are generally not formal and usually deemed as ordinary. A perfect example of a piece of writing which seems mundane but can also be thought of as very important is a simple to-do list. These lists generally comprise of groceries that need to be bought, or chore that need completing. To-do lists do not have as much depth as a novel, but as certainly important to the function of everyday life. If a stranger were to find one of my to-do lists, they would view it as unimportant and most likely throw it away. 

 In order to understand this class, one must have a general knowledge of what 'writing' itself is, and what it entails. As a whole we have seen writing as: social media posts, post cards, scrapbooks, graffiti, letters, and more. Writing is used to convey an idea or express an opinion. Sometimes it can be a private matter, others it can be massed produced and available for thousands of people to see.

Another key concept is the use of inference. When giving something as simple as a one-lined postcard, as a class we have to be able to decipher the deeper meaning behind that line and figure out someone’s true intent for writing that postcard. The meaning behind each piece of writing isn’t always clear, so a lot of the perceived meaning that we come up with comes from careful analysis and putting yourself into the writer’s perspective. There is always a story that can be told about a piece of writing, even when you don’t know where it came from, who wrote it, or why it was written in the first place.

The last key concept crucial to this class is asking the question of “why study everyday writing?” Studying everyday writing allows us to categorize what we consider as everyday vs. what is just writing in general. It helps us label and describe different types of writing and their purposes. It also allows us to understand why we write certain things that we do, and find a deeper meaning to the writings that some consider boring and mundane.

-Jessica Curatolo, 

Caitlin Anderson,

Isabella Gibson,

McKenzie Mizell, and

Erin Talisman 

brighton campbell, laura serano, antonella ferrucho

Everyday writing is used as a means of communication, introspection of oneself through writing, it can be personal or public. Throughout this course, students were asked to analyze, identify, and discuss the various elements that make a written text a part of everyday writing. By dissecting and exploring these numerous texts, we were able to compare the different approaches that writers use to communicate their ideas.

There are many components that we as students must consider before approaching the topic of everyday writing. First, we must be able to fully understand what everyday writing is by learning a myriad of synonyms. By using synonyms we get a wider view of what something means to be an everyday piece of writing. Secondly, this course will give us the ability to identify and interpret an article of everyday writing—to look at a piece, it’s surroundings and find the reason why that piece came into being, as discussed in Edbauer’s paper. The means of communication itself may be communicated interpersonally or via mass production to a mass audience. As Edbauer states, everyday writing is not confined. Everyday writing can be found in unique and various settings. Nevertheless, Edbauer chooses to support his case through the example of graffiti. Graffiti can be found in one location, or all over town- mass produced. But both are considered everyday writing because each piece of  graffiti is unique. However,the graffiti itself may be code, so only a few may truly understand its meaning.  Thus, graffiti is an excellent example of how everyday writing can be public, while also being private.

Thirdly, by being able to look at another person’s artifact of everyday writing, we should be able to create and interpret our own pieces of everyday writing and better understand the reason we, ourselves, are writing. Finally, we should be able to use the readings from class to broaden our idea of what everyday writing could be, with authors like Lillis and Lyons disagreeing over what should be considered everyday writing we form an opinion and solidify our idea of what everyday writing actually is to us personally. By combining the five concepts outlined above, by the end of this course we should be able to draw comparisons to different authors while analyzing a piece of everyday writing to back up our point of view to an artifact, with the help of a reputable author like that of any of the pieces we have read in class. For example, in our first projects, writing could be used as introspection by being a note that was never sent. This case would be like what Katriel and Farrell were on to- everyday writing can be used to organize one’s thoughts and their pasts.

This course and all the subsections listed above of it are useful to us as students because Everyday writing is not a popular topic studied by scholars yet. Gaining the skills needed to analyse a piece of everyday writing gives us insight into the writer’s life, and other contexts surrounding that give us a better understanding of the state of our society as a whole.

Collaboration Journal: Marin, Nick, Hunter, Katie

   Everyday writing is a form of communication that is so obvious and so everyday that it escapes our sight unless we study it in depth and focus upon the minute details it holds. On a very surface level view it could be put into five aspects: Mass-produced versus personal, hand written versus typed, formal versus informal, private versus public, and the last being it has to have an emotional component to it.

            Writing is meant to communicate ideas and thoughts to other people; everyday writing does this on a more personal level. A concept that applies to everyday writing is mass-produced versus personal. A message to a specific audience could be everyday writing but it’s the way that it was communicated is what makes the difference.  A person could have it mass printed causing a disconnect between the reader and the sender, or the writer could have personally written it to the sender. The personal aspect gives a better connection between the two because they can see the hand writing and the writing was meant for them specifically.

            This leads into the next idea of is it hand written versus typed. If a letter is handwritten it has a more personal touch to it as apposed to typed, which feels more business like or impersonal. Handwritten is important to everyday writing because it adds personality to the letter, note, or whatever it is being written.  This is similar to what Katrell and Farrell say when they discuss scrapbooks. Pictures, stickers, and captions all add individuality to a scrapbook, much like handwriting adds personality to a letter.  Handwriting is an expression of the self and is individual as no one else has your own handwriting. This is juxtaposed to a typed letter, it has a square format usually and is very much associated with business and a removed form of communication.

           

            Another aspect would be formal versus informal. These terms seem to be important key concepts in this course because they stir up many opinions and arguments as to what they are. Many people believe that only informal pieces of everyday writing are considered everyday writing because the authors do not put into them real effort and they are not regulated by “society.” For example: letters, postcards, grocery lists, and so on. On the contrary, many people also argue and say that formal writing is not everyday because of the amount of time. Many formal pieces of writing such as documents or other government papers and artifacts are carefully redone and revised, hence why many people do not agree that is it considered a piece of everyday writing.

           

            Second to last is private versus public writing, private writing is more personal and taps into the stream of consciousness. Private writing is intended for a specific audience and contains more personal details then public writing. According to Lillis, private writing includes letters, note writing, and post cards. She says that writing encompasses the emotional and individual aspect of writing, whereas public writing scratches the surface. Public is less personal as it is meant for everyone to see and is open to everyone’s interpretations. Both of these approaches make up everyday writing though.

            To conclude, the final aspect is that it has to be emotional.  Writing is meant to express ones feeling and this is a major part of everyday writing. It encompasses the previous four parts, as it all is emotional.  Someone is meant to give off emotion and someone is meant to receive emotion whether it be mass-produced or personal, handwritten versus typed, formal versus informal, private versus public, and lastly it has to have emotion.

5 Concepts (group 3)

Group #3:

Holly Braxton

Joe Ferrin

Bethanie Isaac

Sarah Scerbo

           

Throughout this course, we as class purpose the question, “What is everyday writing?” Is it public or private, formal or informal, personal, and does it have a purpose to all of it? We have used all types of examples of everyday writing and professional opinions to try to answer this million-dollar question.

            The concept of everyday writing is all judged on who is reading the piece of writing, and whether that piece is public or private is connected to mass production. A novel is considered a public work due to the fact that it is mass-produced, where a note is private because it is intended for a smaller audience. There are counter examples because graffiti is displayed to the public, but has a private meaning to the creator of the graffiti. A postcard is intended to be private, but since the actual writing is not covered by an envelope the writing itself could possibly become public.

            What the general public thinks everyday writing is for example a grocery list this is not necessarily or intended to be a formal document, but there are pieces of everyday writing that are considered formal. According to Lyons, a resume is most definitely intended to be a formal document, yet it is considered everyday writing. This example contradicts what the society believes everyday writing is. A love letter is something that society would believe to think is everyday writing because of its informality.

            Whether the everyday writing is public or private, formal or informal, the author has some personal connection to the writing itself. Lillis fully believes that her article on everyday writing is connected to everyday life, is apart of a routine and has an ordinary and almost invisible characteristic to it. She thinks that everyday writing establishes a piece of insight into someone’s life, but is not necessarily the whole story. The personal connection is what makes the work and without that connection the reader would get bored.

            Like a personal connection, every writer has some type of purpose to what they are writing. A letter to someone you love has a purpose to convey that love to the reader. Even from an outsiders perspective reading a letter like this they can see the underlying message behind the letter. Graffiti for example is meant to make a permanent mark on a wall, and has the purpose to convey a public yet personal message to all who see it. A postcard may seem small and unimportant, but for those who read it might feel connected to it in some type of way.

            Based on these major concepts we can then make assumptions of what the definition of everyday writing truly is. It can be public or private, formal or informal, personal and have a hidden purpose behind it. Everyday writing is not what all you think it is, it is much more than a simple grocery list.