Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Online Language

I love the topic of this week's chapter--online language! As someone who studies language, I wonder about the impressions other people have. For example, a colleague of mine recently posted to Facebook that after posting his syllabus, he discovered a usage mistake--using the wrong verb tense. I responded with the question, What is it about our profession that we feel we can't make mistakes? Everyone makes mistakes in his/her language use. It's human nature. I added in my response that surely students would understand if there was one mistake. But do they? Do students think less of a professor if there is a mistake in any of the instructor's written materials? I believe that people make mistakes not because they are stupid or uninformed, but because they are tired of their own writing. This is why we have editors. It is very difficult to proof your own work because you are too used to the text you're writing that when you read it, you see it as you meant for it to be written (although there are different tricks I've learned to help the proofing process). Something like syllabus materials, assignments, and any ancillary instructional documents always involve multiple drafts and readings. Mistakes can happen. I am an editor and I can tell you that whether one is a long-time scholar or a newbie, everyone makes mistakes.

I'm also curious about other forms of online communication and mistakes. I text a lot with friends and family. Recently, a friend said that she reads her texts over before sending them because I am an English teacher. I've told her that I don't pay attention to mistakes especially in texting and that I've made plenty of my own. Using the contextual cues perspective that Jones and Hafner discuss in this week's chapter, I'm curious as to why an informal medium like texting would encourage a response that is more formal. It is just texting. Who cares if there is a mistake? I text with people who use shorthand language ("u" for you, for example), people who write out every part of a sentence including using correct punctuation, and people who use a mixture. Mistakes in texting are really innocuous yet some people will send a second text correcting their mistakes. In fact, I find myself doing it even though I know the other person knows what I meant. Is there a transaction cost even in texting?

What about our blogs? When I see mistakes in our blog postings for this class, I feel compelled to say something because I am the teacher, but on the other hand, I want the blog posts to resemble verbal discussion as much as possible. If we were talking face-to-face, I probably wouldn't correct someone. For one thing, to correct someone disrupts the flow of conversation especially in the classroom. But it does depend on the context. But these blogs are also a little more formal than if you just kept a blog for your personal use because they are connected to your performance in this class. How do I judge that? The transaction costs would be high in that case. How about in a formal paper for class? Of course, it is nice to see a well-written, well-edited paper, but how important is it if there is 1 or 2 mistakes? I had a professor in graduate school who counted off points on a paper if there were 2 or more mistakes per page. Granted if someone is making 2-3 mistakes per page, then he/she is not spending much time proofreading. I think that 2-3 mistakes per page is too much and would likely count down as well because submitting a paper for a grade involves more than writing; it also involves good, clear writing.

In my profession, accuracy is a strong component of technical communication. Mistakes are costly and could get someone killed. Imagine someone trying to dismantle a bomb. Would we really want that person faced with mistakes? In terms of costly, I once worked for a technical college as a public relations specialist. I create a viewbook (what now would be a website) about the college and discovered that on one of the pages, the toll free number was incorrect. We had printed 40,000 of those books and had to have them reprinted. Mistakes like that could get one fired especially if there's a costly mistake in everything you write. Where (or should we) draw a line with mistakes? (I read over my post and found at least 5 mistakes. I corrected them of course, but what would you all have thought if I hadn't?)

1 comment:

  1. I think all academics, and especially those who work in literature, are going to pay more attention to textual mistakes in their products, the same way an architect cares about building flaws or a surgeon values precision. I think the issue is really relative importance—I'm more concerned with a surgeon making a mistake than with an English professor, even though both have consequences for the people making them. If an English professor gives out a syllabus with 2-3 mistakes on each page, students may lose respect for and not listen to that professor when it comes to editing. I think the severity of the mistake is also important, like you said. If the mistake is an extra word (like two "the"s), the meaning of the document would still be apparent and the reader would probably just gloss over it; if the mistake was bigger and put the writer's authority in question, it may be harder for the reader to forgive.

    I think this brings up an interesting point about editing between mediums, though. For example, it seems basically unanimous in writing communities that editing on paper is more effective than editing on a computer—mistakes are easier to see, and the change from computer screen to paper alters the perspective which allows different thought processes to take over. Personally I make much more mistakes when typing than when writing by hand, and I usually find more errors on a printed document than in a word processor. So why is that? Well, I think it has a lot to do with the physical processes that are taking place. The article below mentions some of those differences, like how handwriting involves a unique movement for each letter, where typing utilizes the same motion for all letters. Typing basically makes writing more automatic, which I think increases the probability of making errors, because we are less focused on spelling and more guided by the typing process. Spellcheckers and other software have probably also had an effect here.

    http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/16/cognitive-benefits-handwriting-decline-typing

    ReplyDelete