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Michael Babcock Dr. Jan Reiman English 1101 March 21, 2013 Writing to Explore: Writing Log Earlier this week I started tracking what I wrote and found out some interesting things about my writing. The first thing I noticed was how often I text and how little I actually say in my texts. Most of the time when I text my girlfriend it ends up being silly things like hearts or something to remind her Im thinking about her. While there were instances where we communicated important information, texting doesnt particularly lend itself well to meaningful conversations. When I want to talk to her about something important I try to actually talk in person about it. Facebook messaging fell under a similar category as texting for me although I didnt use it much this week. I also noticed how I didnt write anything or really even communicate with my family in the past four days. Through this observation, I realized that I should be more conscious of communicating with people especially when Im stressed or busy. This theme continued into the area of my work emails where I really only sent two emails in the four days. I think recording what Ive written has helped me see the areas where I need to improve my written communication. On the academic side of things, I thought it was interesting to note the differences between my writing for this class and my writing for an engineering lab course. On Sunday, I revised and reflected on my midterm reflection using digital composition tools and was trying to see the big ideas and explain things in relation to the general themes that had developed within

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my paper. On Monday, I handwrote a lab report in my lab notebook but included digitally generated graphs and figures.

I found it ironic that I was using more advanced composition technology while writing my midterm reflection for an English class than when I wrote something for an engineering class. Im supposed to use passive voice verbs and follow all these rules for my lab reports as well, but I usually only follow them for the typed reports since they arent as particular when grading handwriting. I also thought it was interesting that despite all the technical tools available there is still a place for handwriting even in a technical major. I even use handwriting to take notes in all my classes, since Im the only person who needs to be able to read it. Overall, I noticed how unconsciously I code switched based on the audience or assignment I worked on. I tend to dismiss writing as a secondary form of communication in

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social situations, and downplay how useful writing (even handwriting) actually is in my day-today life. I think this assignment helped me realize that writing plays a more important role in my life than, perhaps, I thought it did.