Reading response 1 "The New Literacy"

Clive Thompson the author of “The New Literacy” proves that technology isn’t hurting the writing of our youth but it also improving it in different ways. He gets his point across by using the views of different authors. The first author is John Sutherland an English professor at the University College of London. The other author is Andrea Lunsford a professor at Stanford University. John Sutherland’s view is that technology is ruining the way kids right in today’s day and age. He describes youth’s writing as “bleak, bald, sad shorthand.” Both Clive Thompson and Andrea Lunsford disagree completely. Andrea Lunsford created a project called the Stanford Study of Writing where she collected 14,672 student writing samples. She used in-class assignments, formal essays, journal entries, emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. Through all of these assignments she found out that students write a whole bunch more than adults from different generations and also the students will socialize more on internet sites through their writing. The students did not use their shorthand writing that they use in texts in class assignments or essays. Andrea Lunsford found that the students writing could have been more developed but the students can learn that in class from teachers and professors. That’s what they are there for. Teachers and professors are there to teach the students and help them improve their writing. Through Clive Thompson’s article Andrea proves a point that students like to write to an audience. She declares this by stating “gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing…For them (the students), writing is about persuading and organizing and debating.” Students didn’t want to write in class essays because only the teacher would be reading them and they were only being written for a grade. Andrea Lunsford also claims “What today’s young people know is that knowing who you’re writing for and why you’re writing might be most crucial factor of all. My view is that I am one of many students who like to write for a purpose and to know who I am writing to. Knowing this my writing will be more adapted to my audience. Also I am one of many students who use texting, Facebook, and now a blog on a regular basis. Each of these writing forms has not affected my writing in a bad way. Using technology in my writing I still check for spelling and grammar. Also I make sure the right tone is coming across because you are not talking the person directly. Through using these sources I feel my writing has improved a little and I write more often. Meaning I socialize more and also help others with their writing more. Through texting I have friends that can’t spell and I text them back the correct spelling for the word they were trying to say. Technology is helping writing in many ways, but the structure of the class room is also important so that we remember the ways to write an essay and still sound professional in the future.