RJ10(b): Research Proposal

My formal research question at this point is:

What are the major differences in literacy in the informal and formal settings and:

• why are they separate?
• is one method more effective than the other concerning teaching and learning/developing literacy?
• which form is more prevalent in society concerning impact (not usage)?
• is the informal aspect of literacy acting as an abomination of language and/or destroying the minds of the youth?

I plan to conduct this study in the networking centers of the students, and some faculty, at TAMU-Commerce, strictly, text messages and Facebook.com.  These areas are perfect breeding grounds of informal literacy that can be compared to the classroom works of the subject individuals to gain insight on the effectiveness of the styles comparatively as communication and on the effects usage of either style has on the subjects.  As an avid user of Facebook and the real world “Newspeak” (Orwell, 1984), I am sure that these sites will prove very useful to my research.

I have an account on Facebook and over 200 friends I can access quickly and easily to conduct field research.  I also can record my text messages on my phone (about 30-50 per day), and I have friends on campus with similar resources that would be glad to allow me to study their actions.  I also have an interesting source of unique developments in the informal English developments in the form of a friend that invents and chronically speaks with text message style abbreviations.  Usually he’s just kidding around, but it would still be an interesting thing to look into.

I will conduct my research on Facebook and cell phones by monitoring my friends and myself.  I will take field notes over the conversations that take place in these areas and possibly take an abbreviation count.

As far as permission is concerned, I will be fairly blunt and up-front about it.  I don’t think this will be a problem considering the fact that the majority of my research subjects are my close friends.