I am a fan of Stephen King.
When I was younger I read a few of his Dark Tower series, but my favorite of his works is On Writing - common among English teachers.
In the past week I've received three emails having to do with Stephen King: an interview with the Atlantic - which a good friend sent my way, followed by another article that references the first as well as excerpts from On Writing (sent to me from my principal), and lastly an email from the Portland, Maine Books A Million advertising that King will be in the area in November to sign a recent publication.
The two articles were especially interesting because of the attention paid to King's "pet peeves" or "do not dos" in writing. What I noticed is that some of the phrases he mentions seem to stem from the world of digital writing. Maybe I'm wrong when I think that abbreviations usually found in text messages qualify as digital writing, but it is in a digital setting isn't it?
As much as we encourage digital writing, expression, and communication, we also deal with words and phrases that have become meaningless. King is spot on when he says these phrases should be excised.
Your thoughts? What phrases should be excised in your classroom? How do we keep digital writing (and yes, I am thinking about publication options as well) classy? Why is something in print seemingly more valued that something on the computer screen?
I have so much more to say, but am curious what the rest of you think - share!
I, too, am a King fan. When I do story writing with my creative writing class, I use sections of On Writing to give them technical advice, and I use snippets from his other works as examples. I think that one of the elements that he tries to eliminate is the use of adverbs, saying that the rest of the text should be written in a way to make the adverbs implied--kind of a variation of "show don't tell." I still struggle with that one because I like adverbs, but I do understand his point.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea that paper copies have more value than e-copies stems from the fact that paper is something you can hold in your hand, while e-text seems ephemeral--like the wind. Also, digital text is still associated with informal uses such as texting, and many people still don't consider an e-mail to be a proper form of communication--even though billions of dollars worth of business are currently being managed electronically. It is a mindset that has to change. I think, as teachers, we need to help change the perception that e-mail and digital text is less formal and valuable than text that appears on paper.
Yes! The mindset dose have to change! I specifically looked at the article where King "disses" the use of "text language" with my students. They agreed that the language is informal but easier to read and use in communication, however, they also agreed that it should never be used in publications, yet our society is getting closer to embracing it...
DeleteJust wondering -- don't you think that students value digital text more than paper text? As Karla pointed out in her last blog entry, we are living in a digital world and our students are natives. I think that digital text is on its way up, up, up!
ReplyDeleteDebbie, I agree with you that digital text is on its way up for sure! I'm still wrestling and learning to understand what my students value. Some still prefer print (strangely, more of my writers and creative kids), while others read digital print. Last week I had a conversation with my classes about the amount of information that is available online - would they be proud of everything they've ever "published" or "posted" online? What if their Facebook and Twitter posts were truly published. Many were horrified at the thought, which interested me in wondering how much do they value of what they put out? If they treated their material with the value they deserved perhaps they would embrace their Facebook and Twitters? I still haven't figured out where they (or I) stand.
Delete