clive thompson

In Clive Thompson’s latest article “The New Literacy,” He introduced an argument of how the new generations of kids today are becoming more illiterate from the use of technology or how kids are revolutionizing today’s modern writing.  Thompson introduces an English Professor from University of London John Sutherland early into his article.  Professor John Sutherland Stated that Kids today can not write and technology is to blame. Facebook encourages kids to just blabber about anything and how power points are now replacing kids to do essays.  After reading Thompson’s intro with Professor John Sutherland’s statement you would come to think that this article would be about how kids are “dumb-ing down” in today’s English writing.  Thompson then introduces a Andrea Lundsford, a English Professor at Stanford University to argue Professor John Sutherland statement of today’s generation of kids using technology to teach them improper English.  In a 5 year span, Professor Andrea Lundsford  has collected 14,672 student writing examples that varies from essays, journal entries, emails, blogs, chats and even text messaging. She has saved and reviewed all these writing documents for a project called “Stanford Study of Writing”.  After studying Students writing documents she has stated a argument that kids today with new technology and social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, SMS Texting do not actually teach kids improper English and but actually helps them to write better. After reviewing all the students documents, Professor Andrea Lundsford statistics shows that 38% of kids writing today are taking place our of the classroom in their own free time.  It shows that after all students who constantly update their “status” on facebook, Twitter, and other Social networks actually add up, to where students “status” are almost the same amount as a small writing paper. Therefore whether students are updating their “status” on social networks and showing improper English, they are still educating themselves by simply writing more.  before the internet has been introduced, students would have never wrote so much after class unless it was a homework or it has to do with their job. Now a days, after the introduction of the internet, students would be writing a lot more than before in various forms whether it would be updating status on social networks, blogging, chatting and even on site forums. Writing out of class, student have learned a amazing technique in writing called rhetorical evaluation or kairos. When Professor John Sutherland believed that Kids today are writing in improper English to show that students are becoming less educated, Students to day are using the improper English to catch their ideal audiences attention. This is called Rhetorical Evaluation, evaluating your audience and writing towards them and keeping their attention. Before students would be writing less due to the fact that students were un-enthusiastic because the only audience that students had when writing a essay was the teacher and for only a good grade. Writing on the internet has revolutionized the way kids learn and write.  Professor Andrea Lundsford’s studies shows that students write more on their free time now because students are more enthusiastic when they write about what ever they want and how they want. By writing more, you are essentially practicing your writing and English skills.