President vs. Poet

The rhetoric of a president and a poet are different. A president, when making a speech, must remember to be politically correct. He has to watch his words and make sure to never end up in a situation where he wished he bit his tongue. Ultimately, the president's speech writers aim to appeal to a wide range of people and to refrain from insulting anyone. A poet, however, has more freedom with their variety of voices. Poetry is a form of creative writing, full of symbols and metaphors. These symbols can be controversial in order to get the reader to analyze and think about the written piece. Furthermore, when a poet like Shakespeare embodies a character, the character may not be liked by every reader because of a flaw, personality trait, or an action gone wrong. A poet doesn't have to appeal to everyone, just the general public. They don't have to worry about offending the reader because the reader knows that the character is just that, a character--a piece of fiction. A poet has the luxury of being able to lie in his many voices for the purpose of entertainment, while a president must always be wary of thin ice everywhere.

Twouble with Twitter

"Who are they talking to?" A little birdie answered, "No one and everyone."

The usual Twitter user tweets to point out something they may think is relevant. Usually, it's something that breaks up their daily routine in some way or another, even if it seems mundane to everyone who may be reading it. When one tweets, they are tweeting for themselves. At the same time, the user hopes that their followers can look at the tweet and go, "Huh. Cool," or maybe even reply to it. Thus, when one tweets, they are subconsciously looking for acknowledgment by their followers.

When I write online, I write rather informally; I'm lazy when it comes to capitalization and writing out whole words (ie: I don't know = iunno). Writing online is usually a more personal experience for me, considering that most writing I do online is in blog form. I blog to help myself, not to appeal to anyone else and, therefore, I do not care for the opinions of others. This differs from when I write something on paper, such as a formal essay or a letter to someone I care deeply about, because I then write to prove a point and search for acceptance. On twitter, I tweet quotes that mean something to me or random tidbits of my every day life. These tidbits, I've come to notice, are often complaints and have been so since I made my account in high school. Whether it's moaning about homework or vaguely hinting towards my disgust in an individual, I use it as a way of releasing pent-up frustration.

I think Twitter, as mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, is an effective form of blogging depending on how it is used. Very powerful things can be said in a few words, such as the cliche "I love you." Sure, lots of useless stuff is also mentioned, but sometimes you can find a real gem in the middle of the grime. Microblogging allows one to experiment in finding the right words to summarize what they want to say in a limited space. The fewer words you use in your argument, the more strength each word carries.

A Dozen by a Dozen

"Flexibility in voice can lead to flexibility in all things because you are not providing a firm answer--what you say (when you are flexible in voice) can be interpreted in any way. The best example of flexibility was in Dr. Lay's 12/5/11 class when she answered "mhmmmmmmmmm" to my two questions. (Q1) Can we draw a picture instead? (Q2) Portrait or landscape?

He drew to what appears to be a classroom or lecture hall. On the left side, standing before a podium and towering above the students, is a teacher. The teacher is portrayed as a man with muscles and short hair, which is important because he is one out of the two figures drawn that have hair. Sitting at desks are four students and, all the way in the back, stands Jay Leno. The talk show host is the other figure with hair and the artist makes him recognizable by exaggerating his prominent chin. It should also be noted that Jay Leno is the only character whose face is drawn from the profile view, instead of the frontal view, and is the only one wearing shoes.

Flexibility of Voice

The writing implement of a crayon did affect the writer. Half-way through his argument, he changed from an orange crayon to a black pen. I believe that he may have felt inhibited intellectually by the crayon. In fact, his over-all argument was rather short. With crayon, he wrote bigger than he did in pen. I'm not talking about the thickness of the lines, which would be expected to be larger in crayon, but the size of each letter. When he switched to pen, not only did his font get smaller, but he also began incorporating script with print writing. When the writer used the crayon, he wrote completely in print.

The writer's creativity was ultimately not stifled, as shown by his picture on the reverse side of his paper (see previous blog post). The argument itself was good, and the writer proved his point and supported it with clear examples.

Advice for those starting out

One can have a superb vocabulary and amazing diction, but without the proper grammar, the writing can be God-awful and a headache to read. Ergo, I plead that one will respect punctuation. Know your commas and your semi-colons. Keep the same voice throughout the piece and don't stray off topic. If you are writing creatively and have an army of original characters, keep them in character. Develop their personalities, their strengths and their weaknesses. If the reader wants to connect to your character, they can't be perfect because, well, no one is perfect. Likewise, the writer must search themselves for their own flaws and work towards ultimate improvement.

Practice won't harm either. How can one improve without practice? "Practice makes perfect," after all. Practice with different styles--experiment. Learn how to manipulate words to adapt to a variety of situations. Don't be afraid to cross taboo boundaries, either. Write a steamy love scene or about a morbid homicide. Go all out. Play with different possibilities.. Most of all, don't be afraid of the reader. You are supposed to manipulate them, not the other way around. Control them, change their state of mind with your words. Laugh and the world laughs with you.

Twitter as a Writing Space

I had a twitter account before we were told to make one for this course. However, I only made one because I lost a bet. I, like many others, thought that twitter was stupid. Why? Because of the limited writing space, of course. But, as I began to tweet, I discovered that the writing limit is what gives twitter its unique charm.

Twitter is made for short snippets of information. Most tweets are silly and irrelevant, announcing what one had for dinner or when one showered that day. There are other times when a tweet holds a lot of emotion.  Tweeting, "I hate you," or "I'm glad I made that call," can have so many different meanings to the reader who doesn't know what the tweets refer to. Tweets can be powerful and meaningful, or virtually useless. It all depends on how the user chooses their words. In a limited writing space, every word counts.

Wearing Text

Clothing:

Often, a person wears text on a shirt to proclaim their interest in a particular fandom. This may be in the form of a band-tee or something else one could buy at their local Hot Topic retailer. Usually, references can be obscure if one doesn't know the inside jokes of said fandom. With sweatshirts, people announce their membership to some kind of community, such as a club or university. We don't see much text on pants unless it deals with showing off a brand name, like Juicy Couture or Victoria Secret's Pink. Text on clothing is something we don't think too hard about. In fact, we usually stay away from text unless the article of clothing was a gift or if we're really into the fandom portrayed. 

Skin:

Skin is a different story. When getting tattooed, one has to keep in mind that theie words can't be shed, unlike a piece of clothing. Therefore, the words usually have a deeper and more symbolic meaning to the wearer. They can't be taken off and shoved into the back of a closet, only to be found twenty years later to sell at a garage sale for more money than its worth because it can labeled as 'vintage'.