Michael Cullington's Essay Does Texting Affect 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.

Nevertheless, not all researchers think alike, some of them will probably dispute the contradict claim such as what Dr. Clare Wood; Reader in Developmental Psychology at Coventry University has said in her article, “We were surprised to learn that not only was the association strong, but that textism use was actually driving the development of phonological awareness and reading skill in children. Texting also appears to be a valuable form of contact with written English for many children, which enables them to practice reading and spelling on a daily basis (Plester and Wood).” However,

Michaela Cullington’s essay “Texting and Writing” explores the possible effect of teen texting on formal writing in school. Cullington lists three different hypotheses scholars pose about the cor- relation between the two: those who criticize texting for its negative impact on writing, those who believe texting is actually a beneficial exercise in writing, and those who see no relationship at all. Cullington begins her analysis with the first theory, quoting concerned teachers, citing the shock- ing statistic that “only 25% of high school seniors are ‘proficient’ writers” (90), and adding testi- mony from two of her former teachers. Cullington then explores the second take on texting and writing by providing contrasting testimony from other teachers who believe that texting is a bless- ing to their students’ writing. Cullington retrieves support for these two opposing views from inter- views and previous studies. To explore the theory that texting is irrelevant to formal writing, how- ever, she performs her own research, gathering results from seven students, two teachers, and an analysis of students’ written work. Despite the testimonial evidence against and in support of tex- ting, Cullington’s own results show that texting has “no effect, positive or negative, on [students’] writing as a result of texting” (95).

Additionally, having social media and the internet, texting, email etc., also creates more chances of writing. Most parents and teachers think that this is causing a downfall in school and literacy capabilities but in reality its actually helping. According to Thompson (Source G), she believes we are in the middle of a literacy revolution. This generation writes more than any other generation before. Most peoples’ writing happens outside the classroom. It

We as a society are evolving with each generation to come. We are getting stronger, faster, and smarter. Just as cell phones are no longer square blocks with numbers on them and TV’s are not in black and white, writing itself has also evolved. Once upon a time many wrote and spoke in a Shakespearean form of language and over the years it has evolved into something we call modern English. In recent years, technology has advanced greatly and cell phones have become one of our primary use of communication. With cell phones came a new form of writing called text messaging. Text messaging is used to send short, concise messages to anyone around the world. Often times text messages involve the use of abbreviations which stand for different things and also involves frequent use of emoji’s as a form of expression. This form of writing is now considered informal writing and is not acceptable in academic settings. In Michaela Cullington’s essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she touches on both sides of whether texting is hindering students writing or if it’s actually having a positive effect. She then makes is clear that she believes most students are educated enough to know when text speak is appropriate and when it’s not so therefore it has no effect on students. Although, I agree with her thesis, she lacks credibility due to her insufficient evidence. In addition, I also believe

After reading Texting and Writing, by Michaela Cullington, I do not agree with many of her viewpoints. Cullington argues that texting does not affect a students writing. Textspeak, the abbreviation and shortening of words like used when writing a text message, does affect the way a student writes because they use the abbreviations, and their writings tend to lack punctuation. When a writer uses excessive abbreviations on a regular basis they can get stuck in the writer’s head causing them to use them in all of their writings. Cullington did make good points of her own opinion on texting and writing in her piece, but I disagree with her and believe that texting and

Throughout “Does Texting Affect Writing?” words such as textspeak, communication, writing, writing abilities, students and teenagers are

In Michaela Cullington’s article, Does Texting Affect Writing, Cullington talks about the debate of texting affecting students’ writing. Many people concluded that there has been a strong positive or negative affect on students writing. In Cullington's article, she concluded that scientifically there is no evidence for either of the sides of the debate. Many teachers agreed that texting does inflict bad habits on students’ writing. Other teachers insisted that texting helped with students’ imagination and creativity while writing.

In the article “Does texting affect writing” the author Michaela Cullington seeks to find the answer to this controversial question. Cullington researched and performed some experience to help come up with her own conclusion. She interviewed some teachers that believed that there is a conspicuous decline in writing skills. They attribute this to texting or textspeak. For example, some of the teacher interviewed say that when students write it is hard for them to show emotion in their words.

Reading the chapter, you can gather the author, Michaela Cullington, approaches the main idea through explaining how many adolescents enjoy texting may improve their writing skills by stating "if they frequently write through texts, they will be more motivated to write formally." Michaela points out that texting may be good for adolescents; however, this must be done correctly. She states that while texting you are trying developing a message with as little words as possible, this helps kids learn to summarize chunks of information. In her own personal research, she noted that texting very minimal effect upon her student's writing, but she found that texting does not hurt a student’s formal language.

In Cullington’s investigation of the modern texting age, she determines that texting has no effect on formal writing. Testimony from teachers across America has concluded, “texting is inhibiting good writing.” (362) Although texting is more informal and lacks acceptable grammatical structure, students still practice good writing; students are given the opportunity to elaborate on vocabulary knowledge and eventually learn some variation of sentence structure, before reviewing the concept in grammar (elementary) school. However, Carr’s testimony does not compute with the authentication of Cullington’s

In today’s society one would not be able to communicate effectively with the world if writing was not involved. People all around the world send emails, texts, and letter to numerous amounts of individuals each second. Talking on the phone is slowly becoming a thing of the past while the writing side of technology is taking over. The meaning of writing is changing in society. Writing used to be specifically for academics or the occasional letter to a loved one. As time has passed writing has taken more forms and more meanings. In the world we live in now writing is classified as texting, emailing, instant messaging, and even comments or tweets on social media. Although writing has these multiple new forms, it still holds its academic side strongly. Everything with meaning in turn affects a person’s day to day life. Writing has the effect of making one more intellectual. Writing has become a bridge between communication and the cultures and people of today’s society. It gives way for different options in stating sentences or phrases. (Olson). Each affect should change with age. As a person grows older, their writing styles should mature and take on a more professional aspect.

In 2010, Michigan State University’s Writing In Digital Environments Center conducted a study about college students and their thoughts on texting. The

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.

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.