Kathena Siegel Homework #11 10/24/2011 Exercise 14.3.

1 For this exercise, I chose a small part of a bigger conversation on Facebook chat that I was having with my best friend to analyze (with permission from him to do so): Zach: so should I just ask aly out? Kathena: yeah ill go ahead and IM her for you now Zach: no! no no no NO! Zach: actually you should asked for me biatchhh Kathena: OK Kathena: will do Zach: No K Kathena: dont worry, i will in due time Zach: srsly? Kathena: yeah probs tonight actually Zach: are you legit? Zach: not even kidding? Kathena: yeah i totes will dont worry Zach: no really, should I ask her out, not if she likes me? Zach: and are you really gonna ask her? Kathena: yeah i will if you want me to Zach: do I want you to? Kathena: yup Zach: it wouldnt be awk at all? Kathena: nope Kathena ill do it later (: Zach: kkkkkkkkkkkkkk! :D In this conversation, it is clear that it is very informal with examples of nonstandard spellings, lack of capitalization, use of abbreviations, and emoticans. Zach replaces the traditional spelling of bitch with biatchhh and going to with gonna. I also noticed that I never capitalized I throughout our exchange, but Zach did. Something else that intrigues me is the fact that I have a tendency to correctly use contractions, which is odd because I hardly capitalize words throughout this conversation. There are many instances in which abbreviations occur and include IM for instant message, probs instead of probably, replacing totally with totes, k for OK, and using awk for the word awkward. Extra letters are also added to the end of some words and emotican smiley faces are used in the last two lines of the conversation by both Zach and me. I think that this chat is colloquial mainly because Zach is my best friend so I am comfortable with him and also because proper etiquette and grammar are not taken into consideration when quickly conversing with peers through instant messaging. It is a very relaxed method of communication, which is why it seems as if Zach and I are speaking face to face. In my opinion, one of the main

purposes of using instant messaging is so that words are exchanged quickly and without much thought, as emphasized through this conversation.

Exercise 14.3.3 In Melindas Fitness Blog, a very appealing webpage is presented with multiple links to other resources and topics to give the viewer a variety of areas to explore. At the top of her page, a Motivation link appears with personal stories from Melinda regarding her weight loss. In one blog entry entitled Goal #1: Get Back to My Pre. Pre-Pregnancy Weight (aka, baby #1) there are many instances in which she is extremely informal, which came as a surprise to me as I read. Words and Syntactic patterns: 1) Losing those last 10 to 15 pounds took FOREVER! 2) I had my first child at the age of 20 and weighed 125 pounds, but it was a skinny 125-not much muscle to speak of, other than my soccer legs, but still, not much shape. 3) Right now my goal isnt necessarily to stay at 125, but I did wanna lean out some before I started to really focus on building muscle again. These examples hardly differ from spoken American English, but look grammatically incorrect on paper. If one were to say these sentences out loud, it seems conversational and informal which is why it is an easy and relaxed blog for readers to relate to. The fact that a Mom is trying to lose weight after having children is a topic that many can sympathize with. Her word choice is very simple and there are some instances of proper grammar usage, in addition to examples of inproper grammar usage which only adds to the informal tone of Melindas blog. Meanings of words and phrases and Morphology: 1) but I did wanna lean out some more. 2) other than my soccer legs. 3) Ultimately Im not real concerned about weight. Sometimes, it seems as if word order is an issue in this blog. This makes it confusing at times and conveys a certain level of vagueness to the reader. These phrases are examples of informal diction which only adds to the overall informal tone of the blog, as mentioned before.