Soren's English Journal

Preliminary paragraph; The limitations of text and the creative outcome

Text is limited compared to spoken language. To elaborate on that statement, spoken language has so many more features that can influence conservation such as body language or the volume of voice.  Text initially was just characters and words however people have creatively developed ways of proposing what would happen if the conversation was  spoken. For example anger can be expressed in words but now is commonly expressed with capitals. “SCREW SCIENCE HOMEWORK” (quote from my facebook thread 🙂 ); this has a mix of aggressive words but the capitalisation of the words make it sound like its been shouted across the page in frustration therefore emphasising anger with just characters.

To test if this theory works;

1. It is going to rain on Sunday.

2. IT IS GOING TO RAIN ON SUNDAY.

These are both the same statements in wording. The imagery of the text itself in statement 1 in comparison to statement 2 has a quite calm, not too bothered sense about it, however statement 2 looks more aggressive and threatening because capitals are not usually used in standard writing. The sense of anger and loudness appears to form around the characters of statement 2 and therefore create a shout. This is a creative solution in text to solve the problem of volume in text.

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One response to “Preliminary paragraph; The limitations of text and the creative outcome”

  1. Christopher Waugh Avatar
    Christopher Waugh

    Thank you for this, Soren.

    I’m going to concentrate on the way you’re expressing yourself. You can take it as given that what you are saying is valid and detailed.

    To explain why ‘the way you write’ is so important, I’d like to say that some of the more sophisticated concepts that you’re being asked to explore in this assessment require a close attention to the subtleties of expression too.

    In this piece you are clear and systematic. These are both helpful in writing, so we don’t want to destroy that if we make changes. Let me look at your opening sentences though:

    Text is limited compared to spoken language. To elaborate on that statement, spoken language has so many more features that can influence conservation such as body language or the volume of voice. Text initially was just characters

    If this opening is a paragraph that is designed to answer the question “Explore the view that texting and/or web-based interactions can be very creative forms of language use.” then it needs to make reference to (or even better, embody) that question and its answer. Therefore it would be better if it read:

    Creativity in text communication arises largely as a result of the challenge of trying to condense the enormous subtlety of spoken communication into a few short characters. The richness of spoken conversation, with its verbal and visual cues, tone, pitch, pace, pause, accent and inflection provides an enormous challenge to the humble 136 characters of an SMS message. It is extraordinary that a form that started as a string of characters has evolved so far as it has under the influence of its big brother, spoken conversation. This paragraph will explore the creative solutions that texters have used in pursuit of this goal…

    Your task now is to look at my sample opening and identify what features it has that yours does not. It communicates the same factual information, but it also does more. What more does it do?

    Let me know if you need any further input on this.

    CW

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React!