Yueying Wu (Margaret) 9/12/2013 ENGL 1101-054 Dr.

Rieman When you are reading or writing

WTE-2 Observation

If someone asks me What things do you do when you are reading or writing? My first instinct must be Are you crazy? Of course Im reading or writing when Im reading or writing. However, as I think deeper about this question, it seems to have many perspectives, like What tools do you use when you are reading or writing? Whats your reading or writing postures? or Do you do other things at the same time? These questions really arouse my curiosity so I decide to explore them a little bit. *** To begin with, I followed the requirements to observe peoples reading or writing in public places. Whats different is that I chose such three public places as the first and second floors in Atkins Library and the student union instead of one in order to scatter samples that I learned from the Statistics class. Before the observation, I made a form to record peoples ages(young/middle age/old), genders(male/female), activities(reading/writing), tools(computer/iPad, etc.) and other behaviors. During the observation, I randomly chose samples from people I saw and then filled out the form. After doing all these things I looked into the whole statistic results and came up with the following findings: Firstly, people now read or write mostly on computers or other electronic devices. Except finishing the homework which is required to do on paper, almost everyone I observed reads or writes paperless. Secondly, there are no significant differences in reading or writing habits of people of different genders or ages. In addition, some people also do other things when they are reading or writing. A couple of them listen to music, some others chat or eat. Last but not the least, many people tend to read and write at the same time, like reading textbooks while doing homework, reading while texting. *** Although Ive already got my findings, I still want to confirm them and figure out the reasons. Inspired by Brandts method in tracing sponsors of literacy, I had some brief interviews with people whom I asked about their reading or writing habits. The questions are as follows: 1. Do you prefer reading or writing on computer or on paper? Why? 2. What other things do you do when you are reading or writing? 3. Do you read and write at the same time or separately? The first person I interviewed is a Chinese girl who just came to America as a junior student like me. She prefers reading on paper because it protects her eyesight. However, she likes writing on computers so that she can have more chances to revise her work. When she reads or writes, she always has something to eat and sometimes needs to look up new words in the dictionary. In particular, when she is reading something thats not very important, such as emails or novels, she maybe texts or chats at the same time. What s more, she usually separates reading and writing. The second person I interviewed is my mom, who works in an electronics company in China.

According to her, reading on computer is more convenient and has access to more information needed, and writing on computer allows her to add pictures, change typeface as well as type size. Not to mention that she can easily print or email her writings once she finishes them, which is a necessity in the business world. She sometimes listens to music while she is reading. She likes to finish reading first and then write. The last person I interviewed is an American boy who is a graduate student majoring in engineering. He prefers to read and write on computer because it takes him less time and computer can correct his grammar mistakes automatically during his writing. He doesnt do other things during reading or writing because he wants to finish as soon as possible and doing other things tends to slow down the process. He likes to combine reading with writing also because it is more efficient in finishing the task. After those interviews, I compared the results with the ones I collected during the observation and then came to my final conclusions: 1. Paperless is a trend in contemporary literacy learning. 2. Genders or ages dont affect a lot on ones literacy activities. 3. Multitasking appears in reading or writing process. *** Are these trends good or bad? Will they promote or hinder the improvement of literacy? In my opinion, these trends are all double-edged swords. I wasnt surprised to see most people read or write without paper, for its faster, easier to revise, and prevents us from making silly grammar mistakes. However, its also one of the key reasons for kids poor eyesight as well as terrible spelling. Book lovers are also worried that books may become antiques in the future. To be honest, I really believe there will be some differences between girls and boys, young students and middle aged people in their reading or writing habits. And I was a little bit surprised to find that my mom, who learned to use computer in her 30s and probably by herself, can use it as skillfully as we students who grow up with computer and internet. This definitely shows some improvements in society compared with those days when women were even not allowed to go to school or aged people criticized computers without knowing what that was. But when everyone does the same thing, itll be very difficult to see its own flaws and improve it. Time to talk about multitasking, which is a topic that has been argued about for a long time. I just didnt know that it also applies in literacy. Only when I observed myself have I found out that I never only read or write, even when Im doing my homework. Many people do multitasking because they think it saves some time. I agree to that most of the time. However, as for writing, I think we really need to avoid distraction and concentrate more. *** In conclusion, there are definitely some new phenomena in nowadays literacy. Sometimes they are good but other times they are not. Then what should we do? On the one hand, we need to be clear about this: which way is the best to ourselves; dont just follow the trend to use computer or do multitasking. On the other hand, we also need to figure out some ways to improve our literacy by learning from others; only by doing so can we be better readers and writers. Postscripts:

I chose this topic because I thought this would be the easiest one and I didnt have much time due to two exams this week. However, as Im observing peoples reading or writing process, I got very interested in this topic and ended up spending much more time writing it than I planned.

My observation form

Public places I chose