Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

 1) Martin, Adam. “Pursued at the Speed of Passion.” Unpublished essay, 2009.

This essay is a reflection on my personal literacy history. It reflects the sponsors that influenced the reader and writer that I am today and offers insight into the way my mind works in the world of literacy. This work includes a bit of my educational background and history, and also provides insight from a few outside sources. This item serves as the first major milestone in my entire research project. Also, it provides some testimony in the language development portion of my discussion.

2) Martin, Adam. “Choose Your Words Carefully…” Unpublished essay, 2009.

This piece is an essay concerning the notion of images as a form of literacy. It incorporates visual images with text in an effort to better validate its arguments. This essay was my first step in the direction of “informal literacy” discussion. It also provides statistical information that will prove useful in a few of my arguments.

3) Martin, Adam. “Formal Proposal.” Unpublished essay, 2009.

This is my formal research proposal. It includes my pointed research question and how I plan to go about answering it. It mentions my study sites and how I plan to obtain and convey information that will support my final project. This gives the reader a good outline for my project. Also, it provides insight into how the process of researching the material played out from my point of view.

4) Martin, Adam. “Is Writing Casual?” Unpublished essay, 2009.

This is an essay focused around an interview with a college student about his usage of “informal literacy.” It analyzes the patterns of usage (or lack thereof) in his life and investigates why these patterns occur. This essay marks a major analysis of a unique interview. It also happens to be a parallel milestone to my first interview in this project.

 5) Plyler, Eric. Personal interview. Oct. 7, 2009.

This is an interview with a college student concerning “informal literacy” in his life. It is unique due to the nature of this specific student’s history and schooling. It provides testimony from the strange case of a student that chats with friends on the internet, but doesn’t use “informal literacy” very often. It is the first interview involved in this project.

6) Kolvanov, Dimitri. Personal interview. Dec. 2, 2009.

 This is a psuedonamed interview with a college student that is very involved in “informal literacy” practices. This person is in the chat-room style environment often, and tends to invent new abbreviations to be included in “txt tlk.” It goes into situations where this person tends to act a bit differently than the average person concerning whether or not to use an informal style. This interview provides a very informed perspective on the issue of discussion. Also, it is a testimony from the unique side of one who uses the informal so often, but shows a very evident respect for the formal.

7) Martin, Adam. Observational notes. Oct. 18, 2009.

This is set of fieldnotes taken while observing the nature of the networking site, Facebook. They cover the topics of Facebook’s apparent goals and the ideology of communication evident in the features of the site. This set of notes provides an insight into why Facebook and informal literacy go hand in hand. Strangely enough, it also shows patterns of why the two could be more of a correlation of circumstance.

8) Martin, Adam. Observational notes. Oct. 30, 2009.

These notes were taken while observing the language used in status updates on Facebook. Many different styles are used, usually staying relatively similar within a specific user. Sometimes however, I noticed formality fluctuation for various reasons. This provides a somewhat statistical analysis of the status update section of Facebook concerning formality. Also, it shows some of the reasons why people will choose whether or not to speak informally.

9) Martin, Adam. Observational notes. Nov. 10, 2009.

These notes were recorded while chatting with three friends. I conducted a miniature analysis of their respective speech patterns as sort of a blind survey. The chat window proved to be much more informal than status updates. This entry analyzes another portion of the Facebook networking site. It also provides a rough spectrum of what to expect in the informal conversation environment.

10) Martin, Adam. Observational notes. Nov. 23, 2009.

These notes were taken while observing various games offered on Facebook. It ponders the ideology and nature of Facebook while gathering information on specific features offered by the site. At times, I focused my attention on the conversational features of these games. These fieldnotes give yet another perspective on the informal usage involved with Facebook. They also offer a view of the occupied chatter and his specific usage of language.

11) Martin, Adam. Observational notes. Nov. 30, 2009.

These notes were taken to compare the usage of informal literacy in the various areas of Facebook. They cover the specific language used by various users in various areas of the site. In my reflection on the notes, I began to analyze and compare the different areas. These notes provide information on the changing word choice throughout movement about the various features offered by Facebook.

12) Martin, Adam. Observational notes. Dec. 2, 2009.

I took these fieldnotes while examining my cellular phone’s text message inbox. I found many different instances and styles of “informal literacy.” This provides a testimony of usage from a source other than Facebook. Also, it provides information from an artifact rather than the specified site.

13) Sunstein, Bonnie Stone, and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Field Working: Reading and Writing Research. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

This is one of the assigned texts for the class this project is intended for. It discusses the methods and practice of field working. It provides a background for the field working process and examples of its practice. It is the text involved with my entire knowledge of field working.

14) Carter, Shannon. Literacies in Context. 2nd ed. Southlake: Fountainhead Press, 2008.

 This is the other side of the text assigned for the English class. It contains various essays and articles involved with the scholarly conversation on literacy. Assigned readings in this book influenced a large portion of my research direction. Also, the ideas in this book influenced a major portion of my ideology on literacy presented in this study.

15) Facebook.

This site is a major networking site used by millions of people all over the world. The major goals of this site are to provide people with a place to calmly sit and communicate with each other. It is a superhighway for sharing ideas. This is my major research site and area of focus. Also, some of the information on this site provided me with a few necessary statistics for my research.

16) Martin, Adam. “RJ4.” Online posting. Sep. 15, 2009.

 This is an assigned research journal reflecting on articles from the assigned text. I begin to go into teaching ideologies and practices during the early years of TAMU-Commerce. This journal is specifically relevant because it is the first that pertains to my final research goal. It provides many solid arguments and points that are involved in my research question.

17) Martin, Adam. “RJ10 (b)” Online posting. Oct. 5, 2009.

This research proposal was assigned to present the proposal of my research question. It discusses the points of my question and my methodology for obtaining an answer. This provides insight into my goals for this project. It also serves as a first draft for my formal research proposal.

18) Martin, Adam. “RJ [5-9, 11]” Online posting(s). Sep. 17, 2009-Oct. 6, 2009.

 These are the remainder of my online research journals. They are varied in content, mostly analyses of assigned readings. They are not entirely relevant to my research goal, but should be included because they were part of the process that brought me to point in my research that I am at now.

19) Bailey, Rachel, Samantha Reece, and Caroline Carlson. Front door dry erase board. 2009.

 Prairie Crossing Apartments, Commerce. This is an artifact that I pass on my way to my car every day. On my neighbors’ door, there is a dry erase board and marker. People will just write comments as they walk by, every day, something new and creative. This is a very interesting piece that provides insight into the random everyday use of “informal literacy.” It is without doubt the most non-conventional piece in my portfolio.

20) Unknown. We Want Your Story. 2009. TAMU-Commerce Hall of Languages, Commerce.

This is another artifact very similar to the dry erase board. In the Hall of Languages, there are posters covered with blank index cards up on the support columns. They are intended for students to walk by and write whatever may be on their hearts. This contributes to my project due to the nature of the language used by the majority of the students. It also is another place where simple communication is encouraged.

21) Martin, Adam. Cell phone. 2009. Personal collection of Adam Martin, Commerce.

This artifact is my personal cellular phone. I am focused on my text messages primarily, but some of the features can provide other information. This is another source for tons of informal language. Also, it is another connection to Facebook.

22) “SMS Language.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Nov. 28, 2009.

This is an online article that discusses “informal literacy.” This is Wikipedia’s page discussing my research topic. This provides a very useful source of information for my project. It is a much more structured version of the information I am pursuing.

23) “Text Messaging Abbreviations.” Webopedia. Nov. 28, 2009.

 This page is basically a giant list of all of the abbreviations commonly used in informal literacy. It is an alphabetical listing of these abbreviations and their respective definitions, with a small introduction to the topic. This provides a rich source of information for my project. A massive list of abbreviations proves very useful.

24) Suler, John. The Psychology of Cyberspace. Nov. 28, 2009.

This article provides a more educated perspective on the subject matter. Rather than simply defining “informal literacy” or listing its uses, it provides a discussion of why we use it. It gives me something to reflect on and presents many valid arguments that prove to be directly relevant to my research.

25) Orwell, George. 1984. New York: New American Library, 1949.

This novel is based in the future (from when it was written) in a world entirely controlled and surveyed by the government. In this novel, the citizens speak with a shorthand version of the English language. This is the portion that is relevant to my research. I am comparing Orwell’s fictitious world with the one we live in to see how close we are to his nightmare.

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