Analysis Of Clive Thompson's 'On The New Literacy'

In the article, Our Semi-Literate Youth? Not so Fast written by Andrea A. Lunsford, Lunsford tells about how youth today are perceived to be less intelligent and too dependant upon technology. She goes on to show that she doesn’t agree with that assumption, she states that she has been working with college writes for over thirty years and has conducted studies showing the opposite. Lunsford thinks that with the advances in technology students are actually gaining more of a range of writing technique and greater adaptability to the changing audiences that students encounter. Through the exposure to different social medias and excess to people across the world, students have become more well rounded writers and show no decrease from the writing

In Michaela Cullington’s essay titled, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” the author tests the ongoing question of how today’s youth handles the effects of texting in the education system. Using successful evidence from both sides of the argument as well as participating in her own experiment, Cullington is able to fully demonstrate how texting does not interfere with today’s students and their abilities to write formally in the classroom.

People claim that new developments have caused kids to be so dependent on their devices, that they can't think for themselves. This claim can also be turned around by saying that technology has given kids more opportunities and chances to learn, and in particular, more opportunities to write (Source 7, Clive Thompson). An example of this is a study done at Stanford University, where it was discovered that Stanford students did a stunning 38 percent of their writing outside of the classroom (Source 7, Clive Thompson). With the developments of E-mail, texting, and social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, younger people are constantly writing in their every day lives. In the past, people would, for the most part, stop writing once the finishes their education. Now however, people are more comfortable, and more used to, writing. And while the argument that technology has decreased level of the vocabulary and vernacular of young people is true in some cases, the increase in writing shown by young people has led to a greater ability to convey information to other people, and a greater comfort in talking to people they don't know (Source 7, Clive Thompson). As Andrea Lunsford says, "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek Civilization" (Source 7, Clive

In his article, Thompson claims that there is an “audience effect” which is causing an improvement in writing. While talking about the important aspects of the increase in online writing, Thompson states that, “When you write something online—whether it’s a one-sentence status update, a comment on someone’s photo, or a

Technology has completely taken over when it comes to writing and it’s not fair to strip this curriculum out of schools and it’s especially not fair for the parents of young children to have to teach their children at home how to write in the cursive script I think it should at least be offered as an extra curriculum class such as music, band, and sports. I think that cursive writing could really benefit anyone children especially but for some reason the school systems have become so dependent on computer technology that a lot of the testing in schools are even done on a computer I remember doing CSAP testing and you had to make sure you filled in the correct bubble just right. As the author writes cursive is a lost virtue and to get it back is more than likely not going to happen this really makes me wonder what other skills schools no longer teach children I mean I know as parents it’s our job to prepare our children for the future but if it comes down to the point to where were having to teach our children the necessities to get them through life at home then what exactly is the point of public schools if they aren’t preparing our children for the future. To me cursive is like math people use it every day and if children aren’t being taught how to write it they definitely aren’t going to be able to

LaDwaina Barron-Lillard Mrs. Gage ENG 1301 14 September 2014 A Rhetorical Analysis of “The New Literacy” Clive Thompson Thompson employs the rhetorical appeal of logos and pathos effectively in his attempt to persuade his audience of the positive effect that social media and its platform has played in reviving literacy in the new generation. Although Thompson delivers a vivid picture of the progression of literacy; then and now by using factual statements and examples along with his warm tone, dissecting all of his persuasive appeals, shows that the lack of ethical appeal may cause his target audience to doubt his credibility.

A real audience forces most students to reconsider how they word their ideas. To avoid looking illiterate, most students will consult their teacher or a grammar and usage book to make sure they are adhering to good grammar guidelines. By writing online students feel motivated to do their best. For example, George Mayo, a Maryland middle school 8th grade teacher, found this to be the case. According to Morgan,“Mayo remarked that the level of motivation in his class soared when his students found out that pupils as far away as China were participating.” Therefore, social media can writing by motivating students to do their best.

The nature of writing has changed in the past century. While writing still remains a form of visual communication, much of this change has been a result of technological advancements such as, from pen to paper or from a typewriter to a networked computer. The changes and expansion in the ways we are able to write today have brought about changes in writing pedagogy as well. The teaching of writing has been part of formal schooling in the United States for over 200 years (Kean 7). One major pedagogic change in United States’ education has to do with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These standards have led to a change in the instruction of writing in schools. This paper, will focus on instructional changes of writing over time and current expectations for writing abilities as whole.

In recent discussion of, “Does Texting Affects Writing” by Michaela Cullington, one view is that texting has a negative impact on teens and their writing. Cullington shows both sides of what students, teachers, and professors have to say about the issue of texting; yet after research this belief may not prove to be true. Then she writes about personal experience regarding the issue.

Clive Thompson, in his chapter excerpt “Public Thinking,” from the book Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds For the Better published by Penguin Group, argues that the development of technology of mass communication improves the user’s writing and their ability to collaborate. To support his argument, he incorporates statistics to show the enormity of the production of writing, anecdotes to connect with the reader’s emotions, experiments to support the claim that people perform better in front of an audience, Stanford Study of Writing to support the claim that students are writing more than before and history to debate how the

Technology is taking over writing in school. Passage number two says that students are required to turn in typed essays and papaers. Typing classes are growing in schools because we right less and less to prepare us how to type. Most jobs today always send out emails and type up documents to other employees. Paasage number two also states that with technogoly growing everyday that even keyboards might not even exsist anymore.

Technology is quickly becoming a huge part of day to day life for nearly everyone. If you walk around most places, you will see a large percent of people either on their cell phones, on their computers, or using some other electronic device. While some of it is being used for business and other important things, most of the time, it is more for entertainment. It is because of this that people claim that technology is changing the way people think today. In his article “Is Google making us stupid”, Nicholas Carr argues that people have become dependent upon the internet for information rather than having to work to figure it out. In the article “Does texting effect writing”, Michaela Cullington argues that people’s texting is effecting the way people write because people don’t show emotion when texting, so that is translating back into their writing. Both arguments are effective, both appeal to emotion, but the more effective argument is Carr’s because it is a more sound argument based on logic and credibility.

Popular social media sites students are using are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. By using theses sites they are reading different posts about different topics giving them knowledge about different things happening in the world as well as different opinions in certain subjects (Li, Snow, and White, 2015). On Twitter they can look up trending hash tags if they are curious about a certain event or anything they find interesting. This way they are reading information they find intriguing. An ELL is more likely to read and understand a topic if it has meaning to them and they want to know more about it. Social media gives them the opportunity to read what their friends have to say and they can write their own posts. Practicing writing in another language is very important for ELLs and if using technology helps them want to do so more, then teachers should find a way to incorporate this in the classroom (Li, Snow, and White, 2015). A way do to so if having students create a tweet about what they learned in class on a specific topic then responding to other classmates. That way they are using their reading and writing skills they learned in class. ELLs are eager to use technology because it is a fun way to practice what they learned in school. However, especially in lower social economic statuses, students are more inclined to not

As I was reading “The New Teacher Book,” I started thinking to myself, “What exactly am I looking for again?” I knew that I had to find three important things that stuck out to me, but I did not really know what I was really looking for. I was aimlessly searching for the answers in the stories told by so many first year teachers, like Bill Bigelow, Kelley Salas, and Stephanie Walters. They were all confused and frustrated just like I was, except for different reasons. However, it was in their stories that I finally found what I was looking for.

In classrooms where the emphasis of cursive writing has been abandoned, the time taken away from learning to properly write, will be focused more on subjects like math, reading, and typing (Lee 98). It is assumed that student’s handwriting will eventually advance by surrounding the students with works of literature where they have the convenience of interpreting famous literary works into their own writing (Graham 10). Opposers argue that handwriting is antiquated and it is just a matter of time until technology will