Clive Thompson explains both sides of an argument on his article “New Literacy”. In his article he explains how kids today can’t write properly and that technology is to be blamed for that. Thompson includes support for both sides of the argument though. On one side he has John Sutherland who is an English professor at University College of London who strongly believes that Facebook, PowerPoint, and “texting” have replaced well crafted pieces of writing. Sutherland fully blames technology for improper writing or as he likes to call it “narcisstic blabbering”. So in other words what Sutherland is saying is that even though this new generation writes a lot more than all the past generations; it is not doing us any good. It is making our writing worse because when we write with technology we don’t take the time to perfect it like if we were in a classroom writing on paper.
Thompson also includes the other side of the argument in his article though. According to Andrea Lunsford who is a professor of writing and rhetoric at the Stanford University all the writing that is taking place that has to do with technology is a good thing. Lunsford truly believes that all the writing we do, no matter how we do it; it is helping us. So she is implying that the more we write the better. Lunsford is even comparing our generation to the Greek revolution, arguing that “technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it-and pushing our literacy in bold new directions”. In other words what Lunsford is saying is that all the writing methods and forms that our generation is creating are making our literature greater than it has ever been!
My point of view on this whole argument is the same as Lunsford’s. I too believe that we are in the middle of something great here. No past generation before us wrote so much. Whether
we write on Twitter, Myspace, or just text; we are writing and to me that is what’s important. We are a new generation, different from all the rest, and influenced by technology in a very positive way. This generation uses a lot of made up abbreviations when informally writing such as texting but that does not mean that we don’t know how to write properly by using correct grammar and punctuations etc. Writing in different kinds of forms just makes our writing greater and expands our literature. Who knows where this new writing revolution will take us. In the end I believe that this whole writing revolution will make our writing greater.
This issue is important because this will definitely affect our future. The people that believe technology has made our literature suffer want to take action now, and keep it from making our writing worse. The people that believe the total opposite of that want to show their support towards the new generation that has made our literature evolve in different ways. This issue is important to those people also because it reveals important facts and information that is very interesting. Like the fact that our generation does a lot more writing than all the past ones. Also that we don’t just write while we’re in school like all the past generations, but that we alos write a whole lot outside of school.
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
i agree with your opinion on how technology is affecting the literature of todays generation. Good length.Very nicely done.
ReplyDeleteNicely written, I like how you expressed your opinion and explained how our generation is very different then ones of the past. Good work describing both sides of the article.
ReplyDeletei agree that as long as we are writing something is better then writing nothing. its important to write inside and outside of school because it helps are writing grow. the more practice the better.
ReplyDelete