Final Learning Blog Unit#2

Choosing the popular  genre of Facebook to do for my groups research project seemed like a very easy one to perform an experiment on. Considering the fact that it is widely testable, and widely used in our society by almost everyone! I was very positive that making two "out-of-the-ordinary" groups and inviting our peers to it will cause an instant reaction. However, I was shocked to notice that there were almost no reactions! I also learned that there are always going to be limitations to everything. We then made a status after the week of research on each of my two group members' Facebook pages, that wanted the opinion of the use of language on Facebook. We only received input on one of them which was the more formal event member. Throughout our project overall, I have realized that our society in little aspects to intently react to change but not too drastically as we expected.

1/2 Way Learning Blog Unit 2

This project for unit 2 has made me realize how I can now apply what I have learned from unit 1. For example, learning about different genres, in particular what exactly genres are. I have learned that genres are not just written down on paper stating a specific topic. They come in many forms such as blogs, diaries, chalk, and even the thing I use most today, Facebook. Now that I know what genres are it makes it easier to set up my project about Facebook groups with my group. Understanding how to break a constraint, such as informal and formal writing on Facebook like on my group project will lead to different reactions among our peers. I learned that language on Facebook is an easy thing to break because the overall idea of breaking a constraint is doing something, a drastic change to a written genre, out of the social norm. I also think that this project so far has helped me understand aspects that I was confused about like even where to start! At first, I didn't know what genre we should use, but then I realized that Facebook would be an easy one to perform an experiment on since almost everyone has one. The hardest part was to actually break a constraint. As an active user of Facebook, I thought about the formation of group invites and how they are usually written. Not so detailed or precise, just stating the info that people want to know about short and simple.

Research Proposal

Alexandra, Damian, Matt. 

Children’s Workshop For Reading

1. Statement of the “Problem.” 

Facebook’s overall structure and language is that of an informal genre. For example, groups have always written very informal, depending on the event taking place. The need for groups on Facebook are usually for invitations or just unspecific groups there to spread awareness. These groups are designed with as little detail as possible, and solely stating the basics. Among friends of people, this invitation to attend is then distributed. The person must then decide to attend/accept, decline, or even maybe attend. For our genre juxtaposition piece, we are using Facebook groups. 

1. Purpose of the Study.

We are creating two similar groups (one experimental, one control). We are trying to figure out whether we would expect our peers to attend a children’s workshop for reading tutor session overall. We are creating two groups, being sent out to two different populations. One will be informal language as Facebook’s structure is, while the other will be formal because this is a formal invitation to an event, unlike a party. The formally written group would also have to be described in as little detail as possible. We would then measure the number of likes, comments, acceptances, declines, and maybes. Overall, we want to test the reaction of our peers on the language of Facebook. 

3. The Research Question.

Does the change of informally/formally written language to formally/informally written language within Facebook genres, change people’s perception of joining a group?

1. The Research Design/Method.

Our group plans to take two of our three members with Facebook accounts, and create two different groups each, with the exact same event. The event is a tutor session entailed to help children practice their reading skills. One group member will make a group about this, but will make it written formally as it should be with a lot of detail. The other group member will design their group with as little information as possible, informal, and differentiate it from the formally written one, in order to cause the anticipated reaction of our peers. This is changing the language of Facebook. We then would measure the amount of likes, comments, and most importantly who attends and who declines.

1. Significance of the Study.

This study will not only get people on Facebook to understand the idea of breaking a constraint, such as language of a written genre, but how it affects the people’s conception of how they perceive something is supposed to be. For example, we are testing the people’s reactions to a formal event, while changing it to informal text. It is surprisingly interesting because Facebook is an informal genre. People expect a certain type of formality in writing, so breaking a constraint will show what effect it will have on them, as well as what reaction.