Internet writing

Skills: noneConcepts: importance, frequency, quality and types of Internet writing, text as a data type

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Where does this topic fit?

• Internet concepts– Applications– Technology– Implications

• Internet skills– Application development– Content creation (text)– User skills

Internet writing is important

Probably the most important thing and probably one of the surprises is you have to work with people who are good writers.

When hiring, Jason Fried looks for:

•A positive attitude•A well rounded, flexible person•A quick learner•Trustworthiness – an independent

worker•A good writer

Writing (34 sec) All five criteria (2m 42sec)

Writing is important for technical people

Being able to write clearly, to write English clearly is more important to developing useful software I think than almost anything else. Joel Spolsky, 2009.

Listen:

• 83% of parents of teens feel there is a greater need to write well today than there was 20 years ago.

• 94% of black parents say that good writing skills are more important now than in the past, compared with 82% of white parents and 79% of English-speaking Hispanic parents.

• 86% of teens believe good writing is important to success in life.

Pew survey, more information

Parents and teens say writing is important

• I spend 3 1/2 hours a day online.• I will write 42 pages for class this semester ... and over 500 pages of email.• I will read 8 books this year ... 2,300 Web pages and 1,281 FaceBook profiles.• I buy $100 textbooks that I never open.

Students do a lot of Internet reading and writing

Michael Wesch's class survey, more information

Watch the video

US undergraduates are online a lot

How many hours per week do you spend online?

•44.8% post videos on the Web•41.9% post on wikis•37.3% contribute to blogs

Educause study of US undergraduatesMore information

• 75% said they write regularly -- online and off.

• 56% said they had a profile on a social networking site, such as Bebo or Facebook. 24% said that they have their own blog.

• Children who write on a blog were more likely than others to enjoy writing in general and to enjoy writing for family/friends.

• Children with blogs and social network profiles were confident, more likely to believe themselves to be good writers than others.

Children write too

Survey of UK children ages 9-16, more information

•Students are writing more than ever

•Some of their “life writing” is profound

•Their writing is done to achieve some purpose or goal

Undergrads are writing more and better

Stanford five year study on undergraduate writing, more information

Internet writing is easily copied

Internet writing is different

Conversational writing

Writing short documents

Print Internet

Collaborative writing

Conversational writing Writing short documents Collaborative writing

Tips for

We will focus on three types of Internet writing•Writing short documents•Conversational writing•Collaborative writing

Internet writing is•An important skill•Done frequently•High quality•Easily copied

Summary

1. Do you recall the three types of Internet writing we will cover in our class?

2. We saw four characteristics of Internet writing – do you recall them?

3. Do you agree that Internet writing is an important professional skill?

4. What have you written on the Internet today? During the last week?

5. Have you done Internet writing for any of your classes? If so what did you do?

6. What does Jason Fried look for when interviewing prospective employees?

Self-study questions

• Some blog posts on writing for the Internet: http://computerliteracy3.blogspot.com/search/label/writing

• Beloit College mindset list, more information• Joel Spolsky’s talk on software design and development:

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4044.html• Jason Fried’s talk on software design and development:

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail471.html• Pew survey on writing: http://computerliteracy3.blogspot.com/2009/12/findings-

from-pew-survey-on-writing.html• Pew Project on the Internet in American Life: http://www.pewinternet.org/• Michael Wesch’s class survey:

http://cis471.blogspot.com/2008/03/characteristics-of-todays-students.html• Educause study of undergraduates and information technology: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0906/rs/ERS0906w.pdf

• Survey of UK children’s writing: http://computerliteracy3.blogspot.com/2009/12/many-uk-children-write-on-internet-and.html

• Stanford study of undergraduate writing: http://computerliteracy3.blogspot.com/2009/11/research-on-writing-for-internet.html

Resources