When it comes to writing papers and making sure people are using the correct punctuation and making sure everything is spelled right, it can sometimes become a stressful time in the process. With technology comes stress because you have to learn how to use it properly and what not to do with it. With technology improving as the years go on, people have started to question whether the use of texting has affected the way people think and do certain things on a regular basis that ultimately affects human’s writing skills in the process. In the report, talking about the issues that come along with technology, it stated that it was “taking over our lives” (Cullington, 2010, p. 1). Technology is increasing day in and day out, and the writing will only get worse. In an article it states “90% of school children owned phones, and that 96% used text messaging” (Plester 2008. P.1). The fact that more than ninety percent of children use cell phones goes to show that technology has rapidly taken over everyone’s lives. And this number will eventually grow to a full 100% the more generations are introduced with technology.
During the article reading, it had multiple of the same things repeating it over and over. The words that were often used were technology, writing and teachers. In the report, the writer stated that only about 25% of high school students have “prominent writing skills” (Cullington, 2010, p. 2). Percentages are often used as well and provides the numbers that were tested
In Michaela Cullington’s article “Does Texting Affect Writing?” she addresses a superstition that the older generation of today believes to be a possible issue. This issue is the potential for texting via cell phones to negatively affect young peoples’ abilities to write correct, formal papers. In her writing, she logically dismissed these accusations by providing proof against this believe while presenting her defense in a persuasive manner.
Cullington moves onto introducing her experiment to test the ongoing debate and to get some more answers as to what texting really does to writing. Not only does she question students and teachers but she also takes the time to analyze several different students’ pieces to see how many errors occur throughout them. Cullington made sure to interview several different types of students to “allow for a wide array of thoughts and opinions on the issue” (366) so she could guarantee that there would be no kind of bias. Cullington asked teachers and students questions that were very alike but made sure to appeal to the type of audience they were and also trusted her “knowledge of them to help [her] interpret their responses” (366) as well as spot texting errors in the students’ papers. Cullington viewed “twenty samples of students’ writings” (367) to verify that she had a wide spread set of examples to gather information from.
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).
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
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
Throughout “Does Texting Affect Writing?” words such as textspeak, communication, writing, writing abilities, students and teenagers are
In the article “Does Texting Affect Writing” Michaela Cullington argues that texting has no longer affected student writing skills. Cullington grew to become fascinated in the subject after hearing high school European instructors complain that the amount of texting lessened students’ ability to spell, structure sentences, and communicate intuition in writing. Many teachers also complained how students left out punctuation in complex writing. However, in spite of the objections with texting, Cullington discovered that other instructors viewed texting as helpful aids to writing due to the fact that texting offers inspiration, or end up more confident in their writing. Given these scenarios, Cullington determined to lookup the controversy herself.
She states, “Teachers report finding “2” for “to”, “gr8” for “great”, “dat” for “that”, and “wut” for “what” (792). This statement shows valid evidence because the teachers actually set up a study to test the papers and to see what the students were actually writing and how they were using text language. She did many experiments with teachers and also the students to come up with her conclusion. One type of experiment she did was interview some of her old teachers who she knew stressed writing skills. She also established logic through stating, “The English teacher that she believes texting inhibits good writing-
Online media is pushing literacy in different and cool directions. Kids and teenagers today are coming up with new ways of writing. Clive tells us in The New Literacy,¨The brevity of texting, and status updating, teaches young people to develop haiku-like concision.¨ When kids text they write short and fast things and don't go into much detail. Since we are changing the way we write, in four years from now when we have even more new technology imagine how many more ways of writing there will be. He also says that, ¨For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.¨ But still most people think
Firstly, Michaela Cullington explains the argument of those who believe that texting negatively affects student writing skills. Cullington states that the “National Center for Education Statistics” claim that one-quarter of twelfth-grade students are efficient writers (362). Cullington also declares that Jacquie Ream, who is a former
Textspeak is believed to be corrupting the use of proper writing techniques of students, and at the same time, it is believed to be two sides to the issue of texting and writing. The other side of the spectrum is that the matter of texting has no negative effect on the writing of students. In some understanding some “SMS” text is used to make novels such as the “Ping Pong” series by Amy Lachapelle and Richard Petit (Bratu, & Palea, 2015). In all understanding that the represented evidence is that the idea of texting is not supported. An article has representations of complaints providing the argument against the use of texting because of the seeming lack of production of high school seniors with a twenty-five percent of being "proficient" writers (USA Today Magazine, 2008). This statistical data show that less than half of high school seniors know how to write an effective essay and express their own individual thought process and creativity. From effective writing’s being lost within texting, there are also the problems that occur with the use of improper grammatical form and the reluctances to try not to use slang and shortened terms of
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.
We all know technology is a good thing, right? Or is it? We can all come up with reasons why technology is helpful or appropriate like we can for a particular medicine. And while some drugs are really great to cure or prevent a disease, sometimes the side effects outweigh any possible benefit. The same is true with technology. Some common negative side effects of technology are kids playing on their phones instead of going outside to play or young people not interacting face-to-face as much as they used to. Parenting is an area that has suffered since the rise in technology, specifically with phone use.
Explanation of Research Approach and Alignment with Problem. Writing is one of the main sources of communication today. Throughout the years writing has changed drastically because many students are choosing to text and write the same way. Teachers are expressing their concerns about the lack of students writing skills. Many individuals feel texting has a negative impact on learners. Researchers argue that text messaging throw mechanics of writing out the door (quote). Today, text messaging is a must have for many individuals (quote). This tool is a quick way for them to communicate back and forth. While texting
Not only that technology has keeped me close to my family but it also helps to keep me in touch with the world. To clarify, it helps to keep me updated with all the current events. Many times, I have seen an argument or multiple posts about the same event taking place but I do not always know what’s happening. If something is fascinating or influential, I like to go look up the topic and read more about it. Technology has also helped me keep up with the new terminology; every once in awhile I see a new word that everyone is using and it is hard to understand the meaning of a sentence without the definition of the word. Therefore, I go and look up the definition or I read a few more posts to pick up on context clues which would lead me to understand the meaning of the sentence. An example is the world “fleek”;I didn’t know what it meant until I looked it up to make the sentence “I got my eyebrows done, now I’m fleek-ified” make sense. This is one way that technology keep me updated with current events and the new terminology.