The New Literacy Summary

In Clive Thompson on the New Literacy essay, Thompson points out that most people should be preparing themselves for others to assume that technology is making the youth less likely to be successful in good writing. However, for most of the essay, Thompson is showing the side of and is in more support of Andrea Lunsford's research. Within a five year span, Lunsford and her team collected 14,672 student writing samples. This included in-class assignments, blog posts, and various other sources of their writing. According to Lunsford, "Technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it-- and pushing our literacy in bold new directions". In other words, these social internet websites, such as Facebook or Twitter, are helping students to develop their writing, not make it backtrack. Before the internet came into the world, Americans hardly ever wrote anything unless their job required it. This means that there weren't any public forums that agreed or disagreed with a particular topic brought up at all. Today's modern society's form of online writing is meant to be presented to an audience, such as a chat or discussion boards help provide viewers with a like or dislike about a topic. For example, a movie review can give both sides to a movie (good and bad) and it can also provide a 1-10 rating scale so as to provide better information for movie goers to base their decision on for what movie to see. Without a main point in a statement, there is no conflict. I personally agree with Lunsford because I frequently text and Facebook all the time, and i never use improper language in any of my texts because if i do that, I could create a habit into misspelling a word in an assignment given to me in class. When I write to an instructor, I find no joy in writing because there is only one audience member overlooking my writing. I like having the sense that people can have an option to express how they feel about my writing. I also find no joy in writing to an instructor because I'm never writing on a topic of my very own. It is always some variation of a topic that I have no interest in whatsoever. Feedback, to me, is one of the best learning tools I could use to help expand my writing to a whole new direction. Lunsford states that "The modern world of online writing...is conversational and public, which makes it closer to the Greek tradition of argument than the asynchronous letter and essay writing of 50 years ago". Lunsford brings up a very key concept of agree or disagree in text, it is much like a conversation. Without conflict or interest, there would be no right or wrong answer; it would result as a statement rather than an open qustion. As a whole, I personally agree with Lunsford's study and research done on the evolution of modern day writing. It shows a movement towards a broader acceptance of technology in the future.