My Writing Artifacts

Throughout this past week, I have been gathering whatever I have written. My writings could be handwritten, electronic, formal, or informal. The goal of this activity was to see what kind of writer I am during different situations in my life. It shows what kind of writer I am as a friend, student, and brother/son.

For the most part, the only time I use a formal style of writing is when I am in school turning in a paper, for a scholarship nomination, or something along those lines. When I do this, I sit and think out what I am going to write most of the time. On the other hand, especially now in college, I use a lot of informal writing when I take notes in classes. I am always rushed in classes trying to write down what they are saying in their lectures, so I have abbreviate words a lot of the time to where I can still go back and understand what I wrote. The most common abbreviations I use are "w/" for "with" and "b/c" for "because." I also leave out unnecessary words such as "the" or "a."

As a friend, I am very relaxed, and do not worry so much about how I write. Most of my writing is done electroniclly through text messaging, e-mails, or instant messaging. In order to save time, I use a lot of text abbreviations or symbols. It is a type of slang. For instance, I use the number 2 for the word "to," or in a word like 2day for "today." The only time I can think of when I write something handwritten to a friend is on birthday cards. Technology has really changed and simplified how I communicate with my friends.

However, when I write to my parents or brothers/sister, it is informal with more handwritten notes. I often leave notes on our counter reminding my mom or dad to get something when they go to the grocery store, or something like that. Text messaging is also a way I write to my parent. But when I write this way, I still have to use complete words for the most part because they are not up to speed with the slang terms yet. My dad usually uses the picture messaging. Even when I work for my dad during the summers, it is very informal. I just have to keep inventory and write down dates when shipments were received. My brothers & sister and I communicate through text messaging or e-mail. It is very informal, and we use a lot of the slang terms, as I do with my friends.

As you can tell most of my writing is informal. To me it is much easier, and as long as I know what I wrote down and the other person I am satisfied.