User:BradS

=Analytical Writing=

Statement of Intent


Overview
This essay will explore how media have affected society. I will examine how new methods of mass communication may have influenced society by broadening peoples' worldviews.

This may include how sharing information through newspapers gave more power to the masses. It will examine how other media may have improved (and/or worsened) society.

Update: I have decided to write this essay about the impact the Internet has on the English language.

Rationale
By examining historical events and how breakthroughs in communication have challenged the way people related to one another, I hope to determine how society may change in future generations.

With the invention of newspapers, the masses became empowered with information. Did radio, television, or the Internet have similar impacts on society? With new generations of people growing up not knowing a world without modern media, what will their worldviews be like?

This essay might not be so much an anthropological study of the language of youth, but an exploration of my own disappointment regarding chat-speak and quick text messages. I want this to be a piece of personal expression, as I have become fatigued with school reports needing research.

Proper English has always been something I love. As a grammarian, I have often looked at Internet chat rooms and forums in disdain. Lack of proofreading and general knowledge of writing conventions from typical social-network users has always irritated me. People have butchered English to the point where I'd rather not engage in any social networking sites.

For this essay, perhaps I will discover specifically why poor grammar drives me mad. Perhaps I will learn to ease up my disdain and focus on things people say, not on how people say things.

Publication


Schedule



 * 1) week 2: Research. Read how traditional printed media started.
 * 2) week 3: Research. Read about other events which occurred at the time, to get a better idea of how people lived and what, if anything, did differently.
 * 3) week 4: Collect my thoughts, and write what I believe my findings meant.
 * 4) week 5: Repeat week 2, but with electronic and digital media.
 * 5) week 6: Repeat week 3, but with electronic and digital media.
 * 6) week 7: Repeat week 4, but about weeks 5 and 6.
 * 7) week 8: Look at the gestalt of all findings, and search for any recurring themes.
 * 8) week 9: Compare and contrast all my previous findings and determine how society may be in the future.
 * 9) week 10: Open
 * 10) week 11: Open

Realistically speaking, I may work on this essay whenever I see fit. I realize that was a vague statement, but I have come to notice my best writing happens when I do not restrict myself to fixed schedules. I may find myself writing for hours at a time each day so long as I feel a strong interest in my topic.

Anticipated Problems
Conflicts in schedules with other classes are undoubted. I may spend time during weekends to work in the school's computer labs, to use more than one computer should I need another to render another class's assignments, all the while using that time to work on this essay.

Week 6 Project Review


Before Or During Week 6

 * Internet and political discourse
 * Net neutrality--ramifications for equal access. Electronic Frontier Foundation
 * Free speech for members of the military--blogging in general.
 * The fall of the newspaper, the rise of the blog


 * Internet's effects on English
 * Apostrophe.
 * Auto-complete.
 * Abbreviation.
 * New slang.
 * Judgmental attitudes toward these changes. The red line.
 * Pros and cons.

Project
