Reflection of the Nature of Writing

Through my English class and this blogging experience, I have been presented with several ideas about the nature of writing. Writing, and language as a whole, is one of the most important parts of human society. Without the use of language, both spoken and written, society as we know it would not exist.

But as I talked about in an earlier blog post (see: Language is Changing), language is a complex thing. It is because it is changing, because it is a fluid entity that it is so important in our world.
As our technology advances, so does language. As I talked in the aforementioned blog post, writing adapts to the way we communicate. With texting came a type of shorthand unique to that mode of communication and similarly came "l33t sp34k" (or "elite speak") within online gaming communities.

http://www.clker.com/clipart-smartphone-3.html

The biggest challenge of writing is knowing when and where to use each form of language.
Because who we talk to and the methods we use are expanding through the changing modes of communication, it is becoming harder and harder to figure out which type of language is appropriate to use.


(That is, unless you're one of those elderly folks who're like "technology is evil, Thomas Edison was a witch", in which case you're still probably writing letters on parchment by candle light. In which case, I hope you're enjoying the 1800's!)

http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/writing-journal-6205347

Celebration of Student Writing

I will openly admit I did not attend the Celebration of Student Writing, as I had not been in class for several days and had missed the sign ups for time slots.
Even if I had been in class to sign up, I would not have had anything to present, as I was nowhere near completion with my project.

I am fully willing to own up to my mistake, and will not deny that I was wrong to avoid class the way I did.


As for what I know about the Celebration of Student Writing:
I haven't heard anything about the event from any other students, but I do look forward to reading my classmates' blogs to find out what they thought about it and how their presentations went.

Next year, I will have to go. I can't make up for what I missed out on for not participating as a part of the class this year, but next year I'd like to go and see what it's all about for myself.

Language is Changing

In class the other day, my professor showed us another interesting TED Talk.

In this talk, titled "Txting is killing language. JK!!!", John McWhorter discussing the evolution of the written and spoken language.

Feel free to watch this TED Talk below.

I know there are critics of texting and so called "txt talk", mostly older folks looking down upon teenagers (claiming we're too attached to our precious technology) but the truth is - texting is actually really fantastic!

In the TED Talk linked above, McWhorter says that it's easy for one to speak the way you write, but it wasn't always as easy to write the way we speak.

Speaking is generally faster and loser than written word.

But! With the introduction of texting and instant messaging, it's finally possible to write (or type rather) fast enough for a written conversation to move as quickly and naturally as one occurring verbally.

Now, other than text talk, how else has language evolved?

Well for one, slang and emojis/emoticons are a huge thing. While I usually text in complete sentences (totally lame I know), everything I send is littered with made up words and other slang. 

And after scrolling through my recent text messages to confirm, I saw that 99% of my texts ended with some sort of emoticon. Usually it was some sort of smile such as (: or c: , the occasional stuck out tongue :P , or even more rare an emoji from my emoji keyboard or some other text symbol like an owl ( ()o W o ) ) or a man on his knees in defeat ( OTL ).

Obviously though, the way I write in casual situations, while texting / IMing my friends or family, is drastically different than the way I write for school or for professional documents.

It's really not that hard to think "oh yea, this is a resume lololol better not include all this txt tlk & emoticons :P"

http://cdn.sourcefednews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/texting-class1.jpg

The Problem Today

If you've been reading my past blogs, you would know that I'm highly interested in the challenges of queer youth today. Being one myself, these issues are incredibly important to me.

The problem today is that lgbt people today are still fighting for equality. The things that trouble queer adults, such as: the bans on same sex marriage, the right in some states to fire openly lgbt employees, and the general discrimination will also one day be the problem of the queer youth.

http://kevhorganmedia.com/bullying-survivor-lgbt-community-discusses-story-progressing-public-views/

These kids can't take any more, they're already burdened with so much. We as a country should aim to make life easier for all children. And that does mean all kids, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status because while they young and foolish now, they are the future of our nation.

It's becoming clear that discrimination is a huge issue in the lgbt world. It's not uncommon for teenagers to remain closeted because they fear they bullying and harassment that they would face for being openly queer in school.

http://indykids.org/main/2012/06/what-is-it-like-to-grow-up-lgbt-in-america/

The fear of queer adolescents should not be their problem alone. No child should be afraid of openly being themselves.

It is the responsibility for all adults to make every child feel loved and accepted, to let them know that no matter who they are, they are important and have value.

Source Analysis

One of the articles I chose to use for my research project focuses heavily on the family of lgbt youth and the effect they have on their child.

(The report, written by Cathy Renna of Renna Communications can be accessed here, on FamilyProject.sfsy.edu.)

It seems obvious that a positive family environment would be beneficial for any child, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, but the study shows that it's especially important for queer youth due to their high risk of depression and self destructive tendencies.

The main argument of the article, and the main point in the study, is to analyze how a family's acceptance or lack thereof can help or hurt lgbt adolescents.

The article states:

"Despite all the recent attention to health risks and disparities for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, prior to this study, little was known about how families express acceptance and support for their LGBT children. Moreover, no prior research had examined the relationship between family acceptance of LGBT adolescents and health and mental health concerns in emerging adulthood."

With an idea such as this, there really isn't much room for a counter argument. Whether someone is pro-lgbt or not, it's highly unlikely that someone would come out and say "I hate kids and I want them to suffer" or "I hope their families hate them".

Most, if not all, reasonable and moral people would say that yes, they do want the best for all adolescents, and do hope that families love and support their children.

Google Ngram Viewer

In my English 121 class, we recently watched a TED Talk involving the use of Google Ngrams (titled What we learned from 5 million books). 

The Google Ngram Viewer, is a tool that utilizes Google Books and records the frequency of words or sentences over the course of time. Not only does it document English, but several other languages as well such as: French, German, Spanish, and several others.

Feel free to check it out for yourself at books.google.com/ngrams!

I used this website to get some insight for my own project. I've been researching LGBT issues, especially those relating to the queer youth, Now what Google told me is rather disheartening.

As you can see from this graph, the words "gay" and "trans" (seen in red and orange respectively) have been common since the 1800's, although I highly doubt they held the same meaning then as they do today.

Also note, that the word lesbian (seen in green) did not begin to spike until the 1980's, and LGBT (in blue) has barely gotten off the ground since 2000, while the term genderqueer (in maroon) doesn't appear to rise at all.

So what does this mean?
Well, for starters, it might mean that interest in lgbt issues hasn't been relevant for very long.
That could be due to the fact that for a very long time, homosexuality was seen as a disease, and those afflicted were punished, rather than treated as people.
Even today, it's hard for lgbt people to be treated without discrimination.

I'll really have a tough time finding lgbt friendly sources to use for this project.

Area of Interest: Struggles of LGBT Youth in Public Schools

Imagine waking up knowing there's a long day of endless bullying ahead of you, being mocked by your peers (and/or teachers), living in fear of being physically abused on your way to or from school, or not knowing if you'll be safe from other students when using the bathroom.

Now imagine doing this every day for four years.

These are just a few things that LGBT youth face throughout high school.

The topic of LGBT youth & their educational experience appeals to me for two different reasons:

1. Being queer myself, these problems are personal.
2. I plan to become a high school teacher, and want to support LGBT students in my school.

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As I searched for information relating to this topic, I happened upon a related article titled Creating Safe and Welcoming Schools for LGBT Students: Ethical and Legal Issues.

This article discusses the laws that protect LGBT students and the statistics of bullying, harassment, and other related issues these students face.

The legal information provided in this article has provided me with 1) a sense of relief, that there are people fighting for the rights of lgbt students, 2) the hope that one day schools providing better education regarding sexual orientations & gender identities, and 3) a springboard into new topics and questions I might research.

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I highly encourage anyone, not just those intending to enter the educational field or queer individuals to think about how to improve the lives of queer youth because someday it might be your child facing these problems.