Internet writing is different and important Skills: none IT concepts: Importance of Internet writing, types of Internet writing, extent of Internet writing This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- Share Alike 3.0 License.

Where does this topic fit? Internet concepts –Applications –Technology –Implications Internet skills –Application development –Content creation (text)

“Probably the most important thing, and probably one of the surprises, is you have to work with people who are good writers.” “Everybody has to be a good writer.” Jason Fried When hiring, Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals, a leading Internet software company looks for good writers:

Jason Fried (34 sec)

Joel Spolsky says writing is important The co-founder of Fog Creek, a leading Internet software company: Being able to write clearly, write English clearly is more important to developing useful software, I think, than almost anything else. The full podcast, 2009.The full podcast (15 sec)

83% of parents of teens feel there is a greater need to write well today than there was 20 years ago. 94% of black parents say that good writing skills are more important now than in the past, compared with 82% of white parents and 79% of English-speaking Hispanic parents. 86% of teens believe good writing is important to success in life Pew survey, more information Parents and teens say writing is important

Internet writing is different Writing short documents Conversational writing Collaborative writing One of our content-creation data types is text – written documents. Three types of writing are common on the Internet: Some blog posts on writing for the Internet:

They have never used a card catalog to find a book. Text has always been hyper. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen. They have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time. Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on. Beloit College Mindset List, more informationmore information The class of 2013

75% of young people said they write regularly -- online and off. 56% of young people said they had a profile on a social networking site, such as Bebo or Facebook. 24% said that they have their own blog. Young people who write on a blog were more likely than young people who do not write on a blog to enjoy writing in general (57% vs. 40%) and to enjoy writing for family/friends in particular (79% vs. 55%). Young people with a blog (61%) as well as young people with a profile on a social networking site (56%) also displayed greater confidence, believing themselves to be good writers. Children write regularly, enjoy writing and are confident Survey of UK children ages 9-16, more informationmore information

US Undergrad writing More information How many hours per week do you spend online? 44.8% post videos on the Web 41.9% post on wikis 37.3% contribute to blogs Educause study of US undergraduates

Students are writing more than ever Some of their “life writing” is profound Their writing is done to achieve some purpose or goal Undergrads write more and better Stanford five year study on undergraduate writing, more informationmore information

I spend 3 1/2 hours a day online. I will write 42 pages for class this semester... and over 500 pages of I will read 8 books this year... 2,300 Web pages and 1,281 FaceBook profiles. I buy $100 textbooks that I never open. Kansas State undergrad experience Michael Wesch's class survey, more informationmore information Watch the video

Is this is your brain on … Hypertext Multi-tasking MTV Video games

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Internet writing is easy to copy

If Internet writing is different and important, so you should work on it. Writing short documents Conversational writing Collaborative writing Some blog posts on writing for the Internet:

A few questions

We discussed three common types of writing on the Internet. Without looking back, do you recall them? Can you give examples of each? Have you done each? What, for example? Can you personally identify with any of the conclusions in the studies of writing we mentioned? Do you feel you are as productive when multitasking as when you work on tasks one at a time?

Internet writing – different and important Skills: none IT concepts: Importance of Internet writing, types of Internet writing, extent of Internet writing This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- Share Alike 3.0 License.

Bonus material – Fried’s hiring criteria When hiring, Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals, a leading Internet software company looks for: A positive attitude A well rounded, flexible person A quick learner Trustworthiness – an independent worker A good writer (2m 42sec) Jason Fried The entire talk on software projects and design (44 min)