Unit 3. Bards of the Internet

obsolete adj.
No longer used because sth new has been invented 淘汰的，过时的 An obsolete word. 一个废弃的词 Obsolete technology Electronic banking may make over-the- counter transactions obsolete. 电子银行服务也许会淘汰柜台交易。 These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market. 这些货品过时了, 在市场上卖不了高价。
differences from published writing as well as
justifications for its survival and prevalence.
Lead-in
Question for Discussion: 1. How do you view net-writing, i.e., things published on the Internet, as compared to the traditional forms of writing? 2. Can you predict the future of netwriting?
Unit 3 Bards of the Internet
By Phillip Elmer-De Witt
Phillip Elmer-DeWitt
Learning Objectives
New words and phrases Structure of the Text features of expository organizational pattern To be familiar with the use of quotations Practical Writing
render
cause to be in a particular state/condition 使变得；使成为 Render sth useless/ineffective His rudeness rendered me speechless. 成百上千的人因为地震而无家可归。 Hundreds of people were rendered homeless by the earthquake.

Question:
Why does the author relate what happened to telephone to computer? —By relating this, the author seems to suggest that writing, which went out of style with the invention of the telephone, is experiencing an unexpected comeback with online letterwriting.

Ｐ３８：
CompuServe：美国最大的在线信息服务机构之一
Computer time-sharing service
使一台计算机同时为几个、几十个甚至几百个用户服务的一种操 作系统。把计算机与许多终端用户连接起来，分时操作系统将 系统处理机时间与内存空间按一定的时间间隔，轮流地切换给 各终端用户的程序使用。由于时间间隔很短，每个用户的感觉 就像他独占计算机一样。分时操作系统的特点是可有效增加资 源的使用率。
Question:



What is implied when the author says ―… the media of McLuhan were supposed to render obsolete the medium of Shakespeare…‖? "the media of McLuhan" refers to the new media that became popular in the 20th century, such as radio and movies, while "the medium of Shakespeare‖ refers to the traditional way of ―letter-writing‖. Contrary to what is expected, at a time when the media of McLuhan were supposed to make the media of Shakespeare out of date, letter writing on the Internet is enjoying the greatest development since the 18th century.
Ｐａｒａ２
Which makes what's happening on the computer networks all the more startling‖ —Here "which" is a relative pronoun referring to the situation mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The sentence would be grammatically acceptable if it were restructured as "All this makes what's happening on the computer networks all the more startling."
―...and give their fingers--and sometimes their mind--a rest‖ —and prefer to use the telephone rather than the pen (in a humorous way)

Review
Scrawl &Scribble [‗skrɪbl] to write quickly carelessly 匆匆书写 No scribble on the wall. 禁止在墙上涂鸦。 Don‘t scrawl on the wall. 不要在墙上乱涂。 Scribbler n. a journalist, author/other writer
Text Comprehension
Go
through the text and finish Exercise1&2 on P23 the text and figure out the structure of the text.
Re-read
Structure Analysis
Part Ⅰ(1-2) Introduction (networks) Part Ⅱ(3-6) problem of netwriting—poor quality and underlying reasons Part Ⅲ(7-9) cite examples in defense of netwriting and analyze reasons Part Ⅳ(10-11) merits of networks Part Ⅴ (12-13) a counter-argument
Para 1
Intensive Study
One of the unintended side effects of the invention of the telephone was that writing went out of style. When telephone was invented, no one realized that it would outdate writing. Unintended—adj. not deliberate or intentional go out of style不再时兴，过时 These lyrics and melodies never go out of style. 而且这些歌词和旋律永远不会过时。 Nhomakorabea
The sentence implies that, instead of being rendered obsolete, letter writing is experiencing the fastest development since the 18th century, though it is in the ―online‖ form. Telephone makes writing out of date
Text Explanations

In this essay the author describes the
current fashion of net-writing, explores the
causes of the poor quality of writing found
on the internet, explains its merits and
America Online (AOL): the world’s largest online information service
Prodigy: an official website, providing internet access and related valueadded service 网络联机服务
Intensive Study

Paragraphs 1&2 The first two paragraphs are an introductory lead that presents an analytical[,ænə'litikəl] comparison between what happened to writing when the telephone was invented and what is happening on computer networks now.