In Nicholas Carr’s view; he explains how the internet and the media, has a strong influence in today’s society. Carr argues in his article that, “the more we use the web, the more we have to fight to stay focus in long pieces of writing” (Carr par.5). In other words Carr believes that, people who use the web tend to have more distractions and it is more of a mission to stay focused. While others are doing a research on important material, there are others that wonder off and lose focus of the material they were looking at a minute ago. The essence of Carr’s argument is that we don’t look at the reading material in depth. We look for bold titles, key words, just basically the main obvious information and just stay on the surface of the material, and don’t take the time to read in depth and understand the true meaning and point of the material.
On the other hand, while classmate and Whatcom Community College student Michael Sparkes puts it, “it seems to me that we are trading speed for depth, and risk losing the richness of our most cherished authors” (Sparkes). In other words, Sparkes believes that we are not taking the time to go in depth in the material. We skim right through the material quickly letting all important facts pass us by. As many people use that famous quote “time is money”, it’s really more of an excuse to take a look at things but having no clue of what it is about, skimming right through, but no willing to take the risk to enrich their mind, and gain knowledge.
WELCOME
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversation Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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