Doug Swieteck is a 14 year old boy with a life that is anything but desirable, he lives in a small town he hates in upstate new york, has an abusive father, a brother who is scarred from the Vietnam war and another brother known for being a criminal. He tries to find happiness in the small things like his mothers smile and joy, drawing birds, his friend lil and his baseball jacket that used to be owned by a baseball legend. Once these things start disappearing his mother stops smiling his fathers job is in danger and his jacket is stolen. He overcomes this and against the odds makes his life better with the help of noble people like the librarian and his teacher. This book is very emotional and one of the most heartbreaking parts is when they…
John Heckewelder’s story tells about the Europeans arriving in a remarkably large ship that the Native Americans had never seen before. The curious ship along with a small canoe came to the shore. The Native Americans watched eagerly at a male person dressed in all red and other human beings with white skin coming on shore. They assumed this man was the Great or Supreme Being named Mannitto. The two parties met aground and exchanged greetings. The Europeans served up alcohol as an offering to the Native Americans. The Natives didn’t know what liquor was, therefore, they just smelled it and decided they would not take a drink. However one brave, great warrior of the Natives thought it would be offensive not to take a drink and finished up the…
Either way, I thought Wayne Coffey did an incredible job writing about the greatest upset in sports history. I really liked how he went through each player and coach and dissected their life and what brought them to that moment they faced against the Soviets. Each player had a different story and they were all so unique and powerful in their own way. I also especially liked how Coffey writes about Herb Brooks. The way that Wayne Coffey talks about how Herb Brooks made himself the “enemy” of this United States hockey team was really interesting. This gives the reader a sense of what it takes to be the best, and Herb knew he had to do something not a lot of people have done. I enjoyed reading about this the most out of the entire book because without Brooks doing this…
The article I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our language, by John Humphrys, addresses text messaging as a threat to people's ability to engage formally in use of the English language; especially in the younger generation. John Humphrys takes a unique perspective when analyzing the practice of text messaging. Humphrys focuses on the present and mainstream uses of text messaging, without analyzing the historical processes and the language values of the so called text speak. This paper will argue against John Humphrys' claim. Text messaging is a valid form of language as it; has been created through historical and social processes; holds a set of unique and evolving characteristics; and therefore in no way harmful to the users' abilities to use the English language.…
In a newspaper article, John Humphrys once argued that texters are “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbors 800 years ago. They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped” (335). Many people agree with this idea, and believe that texting is ruining the English language.…
Texting helps us communicate with family, friends, or co-workers to get an idea through or a time to go to the mall or just saying that you're going to the person's house. On the other hand texting could be bad, in “Text-Speak Is Harming Teens’ Writing Skills”, it says that 13 year olds through 17 year olds sometimes use slang like LOL or UR2K meaning laugh out loud or you are to kind.…
Texting has for a long time been heralded as the demonized friend of the preteen middle schooler, the destroyer of all that is considered holy and well of the English language with its mess of letters, unpunctuated and lacking structure. Fueled on by media and a scholarly few, the idea took root that texting is a show of immaturity and illiteracy. The article “2b or Not 2b?” written by Professor David Crystal goes against this idea and tries its hand at tearing the stereotype apart. He explains that texting has created no new evil to the English language; abbreviated speech is not a stranger to the world in the slightest. Texting has only broadened the opportunities for linguistic creativity and expression.…
Martin is a young boy presenting a grenade to his classmates as part of a show and tell segment of a history lesson. The classes’ reaction to the grenade is one of great excitement. In contrast, the narrator, the classroom history teacher, is disgusted by the weapon and the children’s excited reaction.…
In the article “Texting, the Next Epidemic” by William B. Bradford, he addresses the issue of texting in our society. He states that texting is starting to tear apart the social fabric of our country. In the article, Bradford states that the United States has fallen behind in educational standards due to the lack of reading and writing involved with texting. He portrays to his readers that texting is making our social events not so social. He says that people go to restaurants and parties for social interaction just end up on their phones not talking to each other. Furthermore, he talks about how texting is creating a generation that is socially awkward and cannot read or write important papers or documents. Proving his point on whether the next generation will be able to govern our country without being able to think, speak, or write clearly.…
Over the years I have interviewed a good number of people, but there has never been anyone quite like John McWhorter. Upon reading the article “The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English” as published in the 2009 Fall edition of World Affairs, I found myself delighted by the mellow but powerful tone and the writer who could use it with such ease. Here was a man with brains, consideration, and humor. Lost in my reveries about what McWhorter would be like, I didn’t quite realize that I had somehow dialed his office number until a deep voice filtered through the receiver. “Yes? McWhorter speaking.”…
Text messaging is the central structure of communication for teennagers. While teens may think shortcuts are helpful they may not understand the damage they are doing to their writing. While older generations consider it to be degrading to the English Language, over half of teens have come to the conclusion that texting has made their writing inapplicable. Although to some teens, shortcuts and proper English can still be effective. Researchers show that text messaging has been proven to have a negative effect on society, and to the English Language.…
In John McWhoter’s article, “Is Texting Killing the English Language?” he examines how texting has incorporated into some people’s vocabulary today in America. Texting has affected not only word choice, but as well as how the words are perceived. For example, McWhoter uses the famous texting acronym “LOL”. “He…
Writing in many ways is easier than texting. Texting is mainly for shorter sentences, phrases, or conversation. Written text is all about lengthy paragraphs and correct grammar. According to a blog on Paper Rater, "As a grammar fanatic, it has always bothered me to see sentences and words broken up to save time via email, text messages, and instant messaging software. I understand that the world now relies heavily on these programs for communication, and not everyone feels as strongly as I do about proper grammar. However, it is quite common that students confuse texting and writing to be the same thing. The truth is that they are incredibly different. Syntax (sentence structure) is affected by this new language of instant chatting, and I hope to clear up some of the confusion." Some people, mainly the elderly, see it this way too. These people grew up with completely correct grammar with their letters and newspapers. Before the boom of texting in the 21st century written text was one of the only ways of communicating with friends or family. People still write instead of texting. Books, for example, will never go away because readers love to read about other people's opinion upon subjects other than texting someone about…
The recent phenomenon of ‘texting’ only began in 1992, however children starting texting in the early 2000’s. So why is it thought that children are doing the majority of the texting? The most common assumption is that is that teenagers are filling their text messages with abbreviations and misspelling all of their words, however David Crystal a professor of linguistics has done many different studies which show that 80% of the people who are texting are adults and only 10% of the words are abbreviated, but is this true? Within my essay I am going to explore my own data and their inclusion of brevity and spoken language features. To gain an accurate conclusion I have collected 3 sets of data with various different contexts, my first set of data is between me (A) and a boy/peer who is my age (B). My second data is between me (A) and my mum (C) and my third piece of data is…
Millions of ludicrous emails are surfacing on the web, sent from students and job seekers to professionals, using made-up words like "i" and "come2u." It may not be the fault of schools, friends or even television, but because of the vastly popular communication craze, text messaging. Text messaging, even more so than emails, uses choppy lingo and sloppy spelling to get a quick and short message across. While teachers and professionals are pulling out their hair trying to figure out why text message spelling has become mainstream, not all studies about the phenomena are telling people to worry. People 's abilities to write and speak English properly may still be safe, or even bettered by text messaging, as long they know when to leave it on their cellphones.…