Journal 2: Daily Communication

Learning Journal 2: Your Personal Communication Habits Across Multiple Modes (750 Words)

The Assignment

Let's consider the role of communication in your daily life.  In English 101, we've discussed modes of communication that go beyond text on a page.  For this learning journal, we're going beyond the essays and text messages — we also want to consider how you use multimodal genres such as social media, talking over the phone, and video calls in your everyday life.

You can also reflect on your media viewing habits.  Do you prefer reading books or watching Netflix?  Is music an important part of your life?  Do you always keep the TV on in the background, or is it too distracting?

Questions to Consider

• How do you keep in touch with your friends and family?  Are you mostly sitting and talking over meals?  Do you use FaceTime?  Snapchat?  Text messages?  Handwritten letters?

• What's your favorite social media platform, and how do you use it?  Believe it or not, even visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram involve writing — when you aren't writing many words, each individual word you write carries more weight.

• What's your career plan, and how will writing play a role?  Although it's not reflection on the past per se, your view of the future is influenced by what you've heard in the past.  I've had many students say they "won't need writing" in their future jobs — jobs that often require sending emails, charting business plans, responding to customers, and other forms of daily communication.