The Textuality of My Writing

“Text” is an interesting lens to look at writing through. There are literally brand-new spaces for writing being created by new technology and innovations still to be made in existing spaces.

For this reason, I chose to look at my writing through the lens of text. Specifically, I will note what text-space, sometimes referred to simply as space, the writing was completed on or in. Text-space is used in this paper to refer to where the writing was done, whether it be an email program, a forum application, or on a piece of paper. Also I will be looking at the writing as text. In this paper the term refers to the writing as an object, the physical appearance. If the writing is typed, the text will appear considerably different if hand-written, for example. Text is linked to the text-space in many instances, but these distinctions served me well in the assessment of my writings.

Taking a look at the first writing, chronologically; February 3rd, 6:18pm, I wrote an introduction email to a classmate in my American Literature course who had agreed to be my study partner. I wanted to establish the connection between myself and my email presence as well as ensure that he had my email address. The email appears here:

The significance of this email’s typical appearance could be overlooked, so let me take a look at the above writing from a specific perspective. When considering the relation between the act of writing and text-space there is both the mandate, in this paper refers to the limits which the text-space has inherent in it, of the space and the offering, refers to what can be done in a text-space, specifically any possibilities which are more singular to that text-space, of the space. While all writing completed in a space will f...

... middle of paper ...

...if the writing is to be read by others I tend to shape the text more deliberately, in standardized ways. Despite text-space and text being secondary in these ways, I have also seen that they do have a notable impact on my writing, which brings up the second pattern of shaping text by the text-space, in terms of mandates and offerings. This is a reality which plays into choosing a text-space. In looking at the pieces of writing here, I have shown that I am aware of the mandates of text-spaces, and I effectively choose text-spaces which will not stifle my writing. When regarding the offerings of text-spaces, it obvious to me, there is potential for improvement. Despite being aware of the offerings, I found that I did not take advantage of them effectively, sometimes as a result of over-use and sometimes a result of not utilizing them, specifically in electronic spaces.