Reading Response #1: The New Literacy

Literary “pundits” - as Clive Thompson refers to the critics of new technology in his recent web article "The New Literacy" - have begun spinning the web of controversy about the development of technology (especially in education) and whether it has negative or positive affects on the literacy of students. This controversial topic is substantial in importance because if there is fear of a slip in the intellectual state and level of literacy of our generation, then we must strive more to uphold our quality of writing because it is a crucial aspect of our everyday lives. Current cultural trends mentioned in "The New Literacy" include references to the crude manner by which people write and communicate between one another by means of technology, such as through cell phones, the internet, and PowerPoint presentations. According to Clive Thompson, some believe that texting has begun to consolidate, or rather deteriorate our knowledge of the traditional backbone adhered by most most as acceptable writing (like spelling, conventions, and paragraph structure). Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that modes of communication such as writing on the internet or texting have had a conversely more positive affect on learning, or at least not a negative affect. Thompson says that these newer and much less traditional writing vices are instead “pushing our literacy in bold new directions.” Through the Stanford Study of Writing, he comes to the researched conclusion that students have not only been writing more than ever before but also more out of the classroom than previously, because of technology and it's benefits rather than hindrances. This generation has begun taking advantage of their ability to make conversation “the Greek” way, by using internet chat facilities and boards to make discussions public and get responses from people all over the world, and from unique perspectives. If anything, Thompson makes it a point to say that students would much prefer to have a real audience (which is exponentially more practical even if it's over the internet) rather than just their professor. My own view on this matter is that in most ways, technology and it's recent advances in the educational world has been much more help than anything else. Though I concede that sometimes students don't necessarily use technology in the right way, especially for academic purposes, I still maintain that for the most part, students and their writing abilities have ameliorated and flourished through developments in technology. For example, and in my own personal experience, I have noticed that the use of PowerPoint presentations has made a positive impact on improving many people's presentation, summarizing, speech, and social skills. Some might object that this is not the case and such a device has 'dumbed-down' the norm for education. I reply that I quite frankly don't agree and that as long as usual and traditional modes of teaching are still administered, and the use and growth of technology are left to improve, technology will just become another added bonus and a newer, more modern approach to teaching students. This issue is important because our quality of education is important, and there is an increasing amount of advances daily in the field of technology that we must keep up with or we'll all be left in the dust.
-Tristin.

Hello everyone my name is Julie, I graduated from Mount Vernon High School in June 2009. I am currently a freshman at WCC. I love to play soccer and act, I played 4 years varsity soccer at MV. Also i was in two plays one being a musical! Here at WCC I plan on getting my AA and transferring over to either Yakima or Shoreline Community College to enroll in the Dental Hygiene programs both schools offer. But before i receive my AA, I would love to travel Abroad. My junior year i went to Spain with my soccer team to play in a tournament(the Donasti Cup), it was the best experience ever! Over there we met up with my coaches friends who were studying Abroad there. We interrogated them all about their experiences and if they recommended it. They did so now i so badly want to go back and study Spain! I also would love to go to Greece, it is so beautiful over there! My favorite thing to do during the summer is go camping every year my family along with 6 other families go to Lake Pearrygin! So pretty much all of my best friends from kindergarten plus all of my new friends from high school that we bring each year go camping and it is the most fun ever! We go tubing, wake boarding, biking, running, joyrides into town(Winthrop), walks, rope swinging(we finally found a rope swing after 6 years of going there). My dad has a boat because we live on Big Lake in Mount Vernon, so he mostly tows us around the lake. I have yet to get my boating license, which my younger brother got this year. I have a pretty big family, 2 sisters and 2 brothers. My oldest brother is happily married for 8 years with 2 kids and one step son, my oldest sister is married, my other sister is older and has a baby and is engaged to the baby daddy, and then i have my younger brother who has no extensions to the family along with me. My two oldest siblings are half, but my oldest brother I pretend is full. I also have a bulldog named Amy Jo and a cat named Sweatpea. Oh and one thing that may be important to know about me is that i faint easily, I don't know why but I do. Well that's enough about me! I cant wait to get know all of you! See you all in class!

Assignment #1 - Ruthie

In todays world technology has taken over such a large part of our everyday lives, it would almost be imposable to escape, just as Michal Walsh's video, “A Vision of Students Today” demonstrates. Each student has a different point to make about how technology affects them, and their school work, most of which came off in a negative way. “I will bring my laptop to class, but wont use it for classwork.” Statements such as this prove that technology is in some ways a distraction to some students in todays world. This issue is an important one for a few different reasons, but the one big elephant in the room is the fact that the education of todays youth determines the future of this country. Without a proper and well supported education all the hard work that generations before us have put into making this country a fabulous and safe place for us to live, will be flushed down the toilet.
To put the video into the same perspective as “They Say, I Say”, the “They Say” is society. Society is saying that technology is something that is making a difference in our world for the positive. “They” believe the more we let technology help us, the better and more easy our lives are going to become. While the video demonstrates the “I Say” half of the discussion that is saying that while technology can be very helpful yes, it can also become a major distraction and crutch that our generation has been taught to lean on. Each side of this debate has its valid points, but Walsh really seems to make a clear point about how the majority of students are being somewhat crippled by this huge advance in technology.
Trends such as facebook, and emailing in general have become the main way people are choosing to communicate and this is being proven in Walsh's video. Kids in the classroom stated that they they would read hundreds of emails and facebook profiles this year, while they would only read eight books for school. Those numbers right there show where technology stands in todays society.
My own personal view on this topic of whether technology is hurting or helping our generation is an indecisive one. While i think that the advances in todays technology has helped with education, but i also think it has hurt just as much. Using myself as an example, if my internet was working i cam guarantee that i would have had my internet browser pulled up on my screen just as often as i have had my word document open. It just becomes a distraction when you have the option to be doing other things besides school work.

Reading Response #1

In “Vision of Students Today”, an online video, students and a professor, Michael Wesch from Kansas State University demonstrate that, networking, music, socializing, etc. is becoming more of a concern than studying, academic writing, and education. Wesch and his students prove that many students spend more time focused on online socializing, socializing via texting, talking on their phones, listening to music, etc. than they are on studying, academic writing, paying attention to their lectures. Although Wesch does not say so directly, It seems as if he assumes that technology is taking over student lives and ruining academic writing. What message you personally believe Wesch is trying to get across is debatable. It is an interpretation of what message you take from his video “Vision of Students Today”.Based on my experiences technology may be ruining our academic writing since students spend more time texting, emailing, instant messaging, than students spend on academic writing. Even while writing essays for classes, we are ruining our abilities at good spelling and grammar since while we writing those essays, when we make a mistake spell check is essentially correcting our mistakes, it is the same thing with our grammar errors that are done in our writing. While doing our nonacademic writing we are less focused on our writing errors and more focused on face booking, texting, and etc. The video in fact could be very debatable some may feel that he is trying to prove that technology is doing a positive effect on students academic writing while others may feel the way I do.My own view is that Wesch is trying to prove that students today are more focused on socializing via technology than they are on their education. I do feel that I am also involved in this even while writing this response I am not sitting here completely focused but on MSN Instant Messenger. Though I concede that technology may be ruining our academic writing, it is also true that it is beneficial to our writing since we can use technology as a great source for studying, maintaining our schedules, looking for extra help, etc. I still maintain that technology today is doing a negative effect on our academic writing. For example many people, myself included in our academic writing end up using the texting short forms, grammar and spelling may be since we don’t give it much thought when texting or any other form of writing that we do that isn’t academic. Although some might object that technology is only beneficial to our academic writing and it has no negative effect on our writing, I reply that in fact is that it is negative to students academic writing if technology is abused, those who feel that technology is not negative to their academic writing may not be in the same situation of those who do feel that technology is negative to their academic writing. This mainly depends on how technology is affecting your every day life. The issue is important because it is affecting almost every students lives depending on personal choices.

Reading Response

In the article “The New Literacy” by Clive Thompson a statement put forth that questions whether or not technology is benefiting or hindering our generations writing styles. In the begging of the article Clive Thompson states that “PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into "bleak, bald, sad shorthand”. By making this statement Clive Thompson makes the reader believe that he is against that idea, but then later contradicts himself an example of using “They say, I say” writing technique. Later in the article Thompson states one professor’s opinion that technology actually helps our generations writing. The professor that Thompson was referring to organized a mammoth survey of almost 15,000 students writings and she found evidence that suggests technology helps us in our writing. In the article the professor was quoted saying "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization,". She goes on to say that before the internet people never really wrote unless it was apart of their jobs. In modern times with Facebook and twitter people are talking writing and conversing all day everyday. The professor also goes on to say that “Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, a stunning 38 percent of it took place out of the classroom—life writing, as Lunsford calls it. Those Twitter updates and lists of 25 things about yourself add up.” The study concludes that students like to write outside of the class room because they know there audience and there’s more then just one person the professor. The professors survey conveyed that “this explosion of prose good, on a technical level? Yes. Lunsford's team found that the students were remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos—assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across”.
As for my opinion on how technology affects our generations writing styles, and its benefits I agree with Clive Thompson and the professor. I know that I am writing and texting people and constantly adapting myself, my tones and writing styles to fit who I am talking to. The only thing that I see could be a problem is sometimes personally I forget how to spell certain things due to texting and abbreviating so much. Clive Thompson went on to say that “The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing” and I completely agree with that statement whole heartedly.

The New Literacy / Visions of Students Today

Many people assume that technology is taking over the way our generation is communicating. In classrooms, students are using their laptops for facebooking, emails, etc. instead of using them for school related work. Students are payin more attention it seems to texting their friends in class rather than paying attention to what their teacher or professor is saying. Students claim that school work and what they are learning in clas is not relevant to their lives outside of the classroom; so why bother? Considering the fact that their lives outside of school are consumed by new technology such as computers, the internet, cell phones and, not lectures or textbooks. "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy" written by Clive Thompson, talks about how our generation actually writes more often than past generations due to new communication. It is because texting or communicating through email gives people the opportunity to write for an audinence other than their school teachers. When they write to family or friends they can express themselves more personally in their own style of writing.
In the video, "Visions of Students Today" by KSU professor Michael Wesh, showed scenes of students showing some interesting statistics about how students really spend their time in class and out. Students aren't using technology for class as much as for Facebooking or Myspace use. Students buy books and laptops to use for school that cost a lot of money and don't read them while other people around the world don't have enough for an education at all. Being a student is expenseve and a lot of students take their education and opportunity for granted. The bottom line is that technology has surrounded us and we need to figure out a way to seperate it from our school work, or find a better way to intertwine the two.
As a student myself, I have heard many different opinions about weather technology is dampering our learning in he classroom or weather the classroom should be more open to technology. I am someone who texts all of the time however, through my experiences and observations I believe that texting is a good way to communicate but it is dampering peoples connection and way of communicating when they speak face to face. Students should leave texting for outside of the classroom and use their computers for doing inclass work. Teachers allow you to use laptops in the classroom and use their computers for doing in class work. Teachers allow you to use laptops in the classroom, therefore technology is being used int he classroom already. Technology is a clear example of the growth of human kind, however there still needs to be a line drawn between the world of communicating through technology and using technology to benifit us in the classroom.

Reading Response

“Texting has dehydrated language into bleak, bald and sad shorthand”, suggested English professor John Sutherland from the University College of London. Some people believe students are losing the ability to write because of all the technology available these days. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc…encourages student to write about school unrelated issues which distracts them from school lessons. Texting is also believed to be one of the problems because it gets in the way of practicing proper grammar. Do you believe technology is causing illiteracy?
Andréa Lunsford claims that technology is improving creativity and ability in student writing. Stanford Study of Writing shows that student these days do more writing then ever before . Lunsford concludes that technology is reviving and pushing our literacy in a new direction. Now that internet is available students are a lot more interested in writing. Most students email or text message their friends through out the day, they do a lot more writing than they realize. Internet chat rooms are helping students be more comfortable with showing their writing in public which also motivates them to improve their writing skills because they know who’s reading it and why they’re reading it. Technology is improving persuasive writing, because something as simple as recommending a restaurant improves persuasive skills. Although Clive Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that technology is improving student writing.
My own view is that sites such as Mysapce and Facebook, is improving student writing because it‘s something that is popular among young people and they do more reading and writing there than in school. In school, instructors require you to write about a certain topic which I think blocks me from thinking creatively plus the only audience in the classroom is the instructor. Emailing, texting, or updating my Myspace profile could be as simple as describing my trip to the mall to what I feel about a world related issue, there are no restrictions to my writing. Knowing that people read my Myspace profile makes me write in a more interesting way to keep the readers interested. After I graduated high school the only writing I would do were updating my Myspace profile or text messaging my friends which kept writing. Though I concede that technology is distracting student learning in class, I still maintain that it‘s helping us become better writers. For example most of the writing I do is outside of the classroom on the internet or texting on my phone. Although some might object that texting and emailing is affecting my grammar and spelling, I reply that it‘s making my writing more creative and more interesting. The issue is important because this type of technology wasn’t available to the generations before us. Therefore we need to develop a way to use this technology to our advantage, and possibly use this in student curriculum.

Reading Response No. 1

In his recent work, Clive Thompson suggests that the induction of technology has started a literacy revolution, forever changing the way we write. Thompson tires of all the pundits fretting about how kids today can’t write – and that technology is to blame. Thompson, with the help of Andrea Lunsford a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University contest that technology is pushing our literacy in bold new directions and that technology is here to help not hinder our writing. From 2001 to 2006 Andrea collected 14,672 student writing samples – everything from in-class assignments, formal essays, and journal entries to emails, blog posts and chat sessions, concluding that technology might have gotten a bad rap.

Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that the education of academic writing in University and Colleges haven’t kept up with the technology wave. In fact students write more today than any other generation and technology is to credit. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, e-mail and texting are just a few examples; Thompson notes that before the Internet came along, most Americans never wrote anything, ever, that wasn’t a school assignment. The vast majority of teens have eagerly embraced written communication with their peers as they share messages on their social network pages, in emails and instant messages online, and through fast-paced thumb choreography on their cell phones. Thompson states that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in his generation did) giving them a different sense of what constitutes good writing. In addition, different audiences expect different types or formats for texts. Readers of Environmental Impact Statements don't want to read rhyming poetry extolling the virtues of nature. Mothers getting letters from children don't want to read a laboratory report about the events of the past month. Knowing the knowledge level of your audience will help you determine how to write, how much information to include, how long to make your text, how subjective or objective you should be, and how formal or informal your text should be and technology greatly improving our ability to write to/for these audiences.

My own view is that technology is the reawakening of writing, I personally facebook, twitter, myspace, text and e-mail at least ones ever hour. Though I concede that technology can promote narcissistic blabbering, I still maintain that technology is here to help, not hinder. For example Yume-Hotaru's first novel was a best-seller in Japanese bookstores, and he wrote it entirely with his thumbs on a cell phone, reports CNN.com (link below). Lara Farrar a CCN reporter states that since it emerged in Japan nearly a decade ago, the cell phone novel, or keitai shosetsu, has moved from a little-known subgenre to a mainstream literary phenomenon. Keitai shosetsu sites boast billions of monthly users while publishers sell millions of copies of cellular stories taken from phones and turned into paperback. Although some pundits might object that a cell phone novel is in no means academic writing, I reply that the people have spoken the books are becoming best-sellers. The issue is important because the pundits as Thompson would put it, encompasses a large present of professors in our educational system and those pundits need to embrace technology not turn there back on it. Times have changed, technology is here to stay, and it’s started a literacy revolution, net/net the education system of academic writing needs to evolve with technology, work together and move forward – currently it’s stagnant.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/25/japan.mobilenovels/index.html?iref=newssearch

The New Literacy - Techno Writing

In discussions of literacy, one controversial issue has been how technology is involved in a student’s writing. Clive Thompson has recently published an article concerning this new literacy that technology has crippled a student’s ability to write. John Sutherland, a professor at University College of London English, agrees, claiming that not only the unique language of texting, video, PowerPoint, and internet profiles “encourages narcissistic blabbering,” but also “has dehydrated language into bleak, bald, sad shorthand.” A professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, Andrea Lunsford, disagrees saying technology is not all to blame. Lunsford has conducted a study from 2001 to 2006 to collect and analyze 14,672 student writing samples, everything from essays to texting. She has come to the conclusion that this writing by technology is a “literacy revolution,” continuing that “technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it…” Today’s generation writes more often to a larger audience than any before them. Whether or not people today are writing more often, the question at hand is, is this “techno writing” hindering the ability to write proficiently. What Lunsford and her team found that was so significant is that due to this new literacy, students are more adroit in what is called kairos. Assessing the audience and adapting your tone and technique to best get your point across is what karios means. What it comes down to is good teaching and the mastering of formal academic prose is still a must. However what matters most out of this new literacy, is that students writing changes dramatically in and out of the classroom due to their audience, or what and who they are writing to and about.
My own view is that too many people depend on the internet, or technology as a whole. This dependence has, I believe, harmed our ability to write. Texting is what is talked about most because it is one of the main ways people communicate, or write. This type of writing is sloppy shorthand and some may and probably already have carried this over into their academic writing. I myself am not addicted to texting or chatting on the internet, while others that I know are addicted to this style of writing. When texting you could possibly spell things wrong, use slang and abbreviate words and not have to worry about if the other person(s) is going to understand what you just wrote because that is how the general public communicates by texting. This form of writing can carry over to writing academic papers, which is harmful. Though I must agree that technology has shifted a student’s writing, for the reason that this generation understands and adapts their own writing style just to communicate and get their point across to the audience. With this style of writing I have seen people write grammatically incorrect. This issue is vital because what I call “techno writing” is to blame for this grammatically incorrect way that flows over into our academic writing. By using this “techno writing” to converse with your audience, I arbitrate, is harmful to a students’ writing.

Assignment Response

John Farley In Clive Thompson’s recent article “The New Literacy” he suggests that current students have a very keen sense of literacy because of the new forms of writing available to the world via facebook, myspace, blogging, and texting, etc. He examples Andrea Lunsford’s study at Stanford University and how writing samples of fourteen thousand students shows that the new forms of writing are reviving modern day literacy. Thompson claims that before internet came along, fewer people would write outside of school work, unless their job required them to produce text. Another statement by Thompson suggested that students today almost always write for an audience. This leads to a different sense of good writing. Although Thompson does not directly say that class is only a small portion of learning now, he hints this by saying, “It didn’t serve any purpose other than to get them a grade.” This stirs up the notion that school classes in 2009 should be more interactive with students in order to give way to a higher, more valued level of education and thinking. My view and opinion on this topic is similar to Thompson’s ideas and conclusions. I have seen firsthand how helpful and beneficial online social networking is to my writing. Since I have started using Facebook, my knowledge of different words and phrases has almost doubled. My cell phone texts also help me out when I don’t know a word, and spell check is as easy as a click away. I no longer need to take more time to look into a dictionary to find the word I need. This is as convenient as it is helpful to my writing and comprehension skills. The furthered use of these things will not hurt my writing skills, making them bleak and boring, but make them strong and resistant with new ideas and ways to create my style of a good piece of writing material. Some might object to these new ways of writing and communication. John Sutherland, for example, is quoted saying that texting has dehydrated language into “bleak, bald, and sad shorthand.” However, the evidence points to the thinking that texting and online communication has stirred a new age where more students and kids appreciate writing. In conclusion, I have “soaked up,” enough information on this topic to have an understanding of both sides to this story. I understand why some are hesitant to agree with the proof that these new forms of communication are helping people further their vocabulary and writing style into new more widespread audience based material. This article is important because, not only does it talk about the importance of these new forms of communication, but it brings up the idea that ways of teaching students in the future is crucial and that some reform needs to be made. I think that Clive Thompson brought this idea up very vaguely and I was able to hear that tiny voice in his writing. Summing up Thompson’s article, I have realized how these new forms of communication have helped my writing and comprehension skills immensely.

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My names Anthony and I guess that I have to tell you about myself. I don't really do anything except sleep and eat. I just try to work for money to spend on stuff and just hang out. Now that I'm back in school i don't really have time for anything else which doesn't bother me, in fact school helps keep me out of trouble. I don't have a family except for an aunt, a cousin, and of course my cigarettes. Don't have anything planned for the future and I don't really care for it. Anyways, that's all I have to say about myself really. Sorry that this things short.

What They Say About New Literacy

Clive Thompson wrote about the new literacy in our culture today and what he thinks has been true about the way our generation has changed writing. He believes that “texting has dehydrated the language into ‘bleak, bald sad shorthand.’” That of which, he quoted from an English professor at London University. Thompson goes on the talk about how the use of the internet has influenced our generation to talk and write more than compared to those prior top us, even though the writing we do is typically to an ‘audience.’ My own view is that the internet has sparked a newly found interest in literature, for the generation in live in and it continues to grow. Though I believe that the type of writing teens do isn’t just to ramble on about nothing, it has to have some sense of meaning. Facebook is there to communicate with people you wouldn’t normally see. While texting is to talk to friends to plan dates. These two ways of communication aren’t going to corrupt the basic grammar and spelling that is used in school. For example, Lunsford from London University collected 14,672 student writing samples and said, “Technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it- and pushing our literacy in bold new directions. This shows that not all the new changes in technology and writing have made every piece of writing people turn in or print out, into ‘sad shorthand’. Although some might object that writing as either good or bad, I reply that it depends on not only the reader but the writer. When someone believes a piece of writing is awful they go by what they believe is to be necessarily bad, they must have a reason. Not all the reasons will be the same in every one’s writing. Just think of what we’re comparing to the new types of writing people do. Before, “Americans never wrote anything ever, that wasn’t a school assignment.” Having people write more, should be a major jump on its own. We could still be without the advances in the internet and people wouldn’t be practicing any type of literature. Just because the generation now writes differently outside of school, doesn’t mean it’s gone down to become bad. It’s gone to become more like the Greek civilization. Forums and blogs are there to create ideas to inspire arguments and one another’s ideas. This just shows that our main focus of writing has changed. that doesn’t mean we’ve completely abandoned the way we write in school. This is a good thing the writing we do outside of school has created a new way for people to write to others. This issue is a good thing because “texting short-forms and smileys defiling serious academic writing” Hasn’t been shown to be much besides a myth. Lunsford examined work by first-year students, the ones I would see as being the most textually active, and in there work she didn’t find a single example of ‘texting speak” in an academic paper. This shows that our generation can be well into texting and never show the miss use off grammar that they might in a text. People may stereotype our generation to not know how to write well when it comes to what we write online in blogs, or in a text. But it’s just that we use Facebook outside of school and people aren’t used to it like the generation before us. So, when you look at the larger view of what our generation writes in comparison to school and home, you will find results close to what Lunsford did.

Hi! My name is Melissa but a lot of people call me May May, so if you want you can call me that too. Well I guess the point of posting this is to tell you a little about myself, hummmmmmm I don't know were to start...well I am a Jr. in high school and have been home schooled my whole life, well if you don't count when I went to MK school when I was 4 and my family lived in Costa Rica. ( and no, I don't speak Spanish ) I have always loved being home schooled, I have been able to do sooooo many other things, like horses, choir, violin lessons, theater, and so on. And all when everyone is in school..FUN!! Let me clear up one issue though, home schooling isn't all fun we have to work just or even harder than kids that go to school. Also home schooled kids are most of the time smarter!!!!!!! Thats cause we can go at our own pace and learn better...Also the most common question asked of home schoolers is, "do you like socialize?" Hahahaha of course we do, I have like a ton of friends, and actually a lot of them are home schooled as well sooo that makes it easy to hang out with them..Well to move on with this, I have a horse, his name is Rascal and he just turned 4 and I think he is the cutest thing in the world. His real name is Midnight's Golden Touch, but that takes a long time to say and so I just call him Rascal, or poop butt...LOL JK normally he is pretty good, but he does have his days when your sure he got up on the wrong side of the bed, on purpose. Well I guess the most interesting thing about me is that I want to one day become a FBI Special Agent. All of my friends say noooo you cant do that, your way to sweet, hehehehe...they obviously haven't seen my bad side..I don't want to do the action part just the interrogation part! So thats my goal, and I am sooo excited that I can start reaching my goal at Whatcom! OK well thats a little about myself, hope I didn't bore you to much. I am really excited to get to know more about all of you and I hope we all have a great time with English So thats it.:-)

How Technology has Changed Us

How Technology has Changed Us

In his recent work Clive Thompson suggests that American’s today tend to believe that technology is to blame for student’s “bad” writing. The “bleak, bald, sad shorthand” as Professor John Sutherland puts it. But that is not what Thompson claims as his belief; Thompson feels that student writing today has taken a huge turn for the better. Since students are writing so much more these days, and a lot of the writing is done outside of the class room, in social settings, he agrees with Andrea Lunsford when she states, that it is “pushing our literacy in a bold new direction. Lunsford also states that technology isn’t killing our ability to write but that it’s reviving it.” Before the internet, most Americans hardly ever wrote anything, that wasn’t required of them, now people are constantly writing for enjoyment as well as for school. People fear that student’s bad grammar when writing to friends will carry over to their academic writing, but as a study done by Lunsford on 14,672 Stanford students’ show, that writing has actually improved with the use of technology. Lunsford found that “students were remarkably adept at what rhetoricians call kairos-assessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get there point across.” (From Clive Thompson’s article on the New Literacy) Since students are constantly writing for an audience, they get a different sense of what good writing is. Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently regards technology as having played a great part in making writing better today. My views co inside with Thompsons, we might have to pay the price of some down fall in writing, but what of this new found love of writing, do we just want to throw it all away? I don’t think so; to have the love of writing is the beginning of creative writing. With technology there comes a price, and if the price is as little as a few grammatical errors, well than I say the price is well worth it. I.M, facebooking, texting, ect. Have all opened a door to further interpersonal communication, and with interpersonal communication comes happier people, and happier people make for a better world. So as you can see I feel strongly that the good things about technology out way the bad. Technology has added greatly to the good of this world and without it, I don’t know where we would be, Stone Age? J So I say to all the people, who feel strongly that technology is the cause of bad writing, look at the facts and then think again. When I first read the article I felt that Professor John Sutherland was correct in thinking technology was causing students “bad” writing, but I changed my mind when I looked more closely at this issue. As I was looking further into this, I came across this article.”When asked to evaluate the progression of their own writing abilities over the past year, three-quarters of teens (77%) think that their writing skills have improved. One in five (22%) see little or no change, and just 2% feel that their writing skills have actually declined. This belief shows little demographic or socio-economic variation. Of these teens whose writing skills have changed for better or worse over the past year, more than half (53%) feel that the writing instruction they receive in school is a major factor driving that change. A somewhat smaller number (39%) cite the technology tools they have used for writing as a major factor, and just one in four teens cite their personal (non-school) writing as a major factor behind their writing improvement. These rates are consistent across all major demographic and socio-economic groups. (Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Teen/Parents Survey on Writing. Sept. – Nov. 2007) I believe when you mix good teaching with technology, you will see a great change in writing as we know it today.

Kiefer's Embarassing Text... jk it's the bomb

Check me out look.
Clive is alive like the hip-hop thrive,
I'm not sure who he is but I'm sure he's got wive...s, that is
Do you like pop with fizz?
Do you like old english men all up in your biz about writing?
He's fighting to tell you why we suck.
He says that all the texting just puts us out of luck with ability,
Stability of writing in itself.
He says that all the slang is putting damage to his health,
And Clive agrees, about as much as now I have to sneeze and I don't,
I won't and Thompson feels the same way,
Our writing and rhetoric is improving everyday,
We got kairos like greeks,
Spirals like geeks in our mind that unwind like lunatic freaks.
I guess that he's saying facebook is a blessing,
And old english farts just need to stop messing,
Cuz our writing is thriving and improving everyday,
Oh, one more thing,
Tell your mom I say "hey."

Reading Response One

“The New Literacy,” an internet article written by Clive Thompson and published by Wired Magazine, covers the contentious subject about technology and how it is affecting our writing habits and skills in positive and possibly negative ways. One negative point made in the article was that texting jargon is finding its way into student’s school writing; the notion was later disproved and labeled as a myth after Lunsford a professor of writing at Stanford University stated that she had not found any texting shorthand throughout her first year student’s assignments. On a positive note, the article claims that advancements in communication technology is “reviving our ability to write and pushing it in bold new directions,” as stated in the text.
After reading the article and making connections with it in my own experiences and views on the topic. I found that to me technology is a like a double edged sword. Our relationship with technology in our daily lives has its favorable and unfavorable impact on our writing habits and developmental skills. As stated in the article, the current generations are writing exponentially more outside of school then previous generations. Also, not only do we use writing as form of communication more, but, as stated in “The New Literacy” our audience has changed drastically too. Because of the growing popularity of ‘Blogs’ and social networking websites such as Myspace and Facebook writing has gained a much broader audience then before. Before the age of the internet, as stated in the article, previous generations would typically only produce well structured written ideas in a school setting and rarely outside.
The internet does make much favorable advancements in this generation’s writing. Giving access to a limitless database of information gives writers more than what they could bargain for. But on a side note, the internet can also become a distraction for student writers; the computer that sits in front of them also gives access to an inexhaustible amount of distractions too. Creating and fueling reasons for procrastination and a lack of focus on in class and out of class assignments. Not only can a personal internet connection give motivation to distract students in class, but another culprit and mobile device, the cell phone.
On another side note, but still related to the article, texting jargon may not appear to have an effect on a student’s academic writing performance, but it can and does have an adverse effect on a student’s center of attention in class. My generation’s infatuation with always wanting to be connected and in contact with one another has found its way into the classroom as a distraction. It’s apparent that it’s the student’s decision to create a distraction for themselves, but the fact that some students do text in class does make cell phone usage and texting have a somewhat of a negative impact on focus in the classroom.
Although it is heavily debated for obvious reasons weather or not technology’s association and usage of writing for communication has a negative or positive impact on academic writing. It does have a double edged sword like effect with favorable and unfavorable aspects, but in my opinion, the positive greatly outweighs any negative impact on a student’s writing it might have.

Reading response #1

The Youtube video, “Visions of Students Today” by Michael Wesch demonstrated how this new age of technology is influencing student’s exposure to writing. Welch claims and proves through his video that many students these days are using Facebook, e-mails, texting, etc. as the main style of writing used in their everyday lives. Michael Wesch is making the point of this new age technology taking over academic writing for students. Although Michael Wesch does not say directly through his video, I think he assumes that new age technology is ruining writing for students, even though it is not very clear through the video. My opinion is that he is looking at the facts that technology is just taking over students lives, and does in no way relate to academic writing he teaches in class. It may also be that with all this other exposure to writing with technology, he feels that students are being saved. It is a very debatable topic.

The Youtube video of “Visions of Students Today” creates assumptions that can be very debatable depending on how each person views the video. I think that what this video’s message is saying is that the new age of technology exposed to students is ruining the amount of academic writing, which happens in class. Many would think that with all this extra E-mailing and texting would benefit students, but I think it kind of ruins everything we were once taught in academic writing. I sometimes find even myself, when writing essays or reading responses such as this one using the bad habits I learned from text messaging or E-mailing. I revise my work and come over many abbreviated words as your would see in a quick written E-mail to a friend. It ruins the academic structure to a well-written paper with everything I learned from texting. Since I spend about 90% of my writing non-academically, it comes much more natural as I am writing an essay or response. In the Youtube video “Visions of Students Today”, it showed many of the students holding up different signs with information and statistics. The students in the video are making the point that even though they go to class, they seem like nothing. Class sizes are huge, barely any professors know students names, and they honestly don’t usually do all the assigned readings, which most are not even relevant to their lives. I may be contradicting my point by sort of saying these students rely on technology to save themselves from not much academic writing exposure but it’s their fault for not doing their homework. In some cases I do believe that technology can save us, but I do not believe that technology will be Facebook, texting, E-mailing, etc. Technology has changed us and how we write greatly, debatably for the better and for the worse. Academically speaking, I feel that new age technology is hurting the writing we do in class. We are getting exposed to much more writing than in the past but none of this is really going to help us when we are in school.

Response #1

Critics, are claiming that my generation is going through an age of poor literacy due to the wide spread use of "dumbed down" English. Many of these critics associate the wide spread use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for allowing the use of a short hand English to become dominant in our world. One of the biggest critics is John Sutherland who claims; that technology such as movie and various electronics have allowed for poor grammatical shorthand to become so popular in our culture that the "civil" language or the well crafted essay is designed is slowly being replaced, by this boring and dull shorthand.
Andrea Lunsford? Is a professor who has been collecting students work for the past five years, throughout these years she has graded nearly 15000 papers and has found no difference between students that would even lead to the "dumbing down" o a generation, and takes it one step farther claiming that we are going through a literary revolution almost as the Greeks did thousands of years ago. Lunsford argues that our generation relies on writing and similar thinking processes so much on a daily basis that it has just be come habit. But probably the biggest difference is that kids these days almost exclusively to a specific audience. Lunsford also believes that students have a Switch to control if they use proper format, in a formal essay, or use shorthand to talk to their buddies about the new movie that just came out.
I agree with the idea, that in a way there is a writing revolution going on because I never thought about how much time I really spend between chatting to my friends on the computer or texting, not all of the responses I give follow the rules I would use in a formal paper but it means that my brain is constantly leaning how to deal with new questions and how to formulate answers and opinions even if it's over something as silly as debating which movie to see. The key part to all of this, is knowing who your audience is and I agree with Thompson because even when writing an essay one of the most important steps is to know who you're writing for and how to present your material in a way that is most efficient and effective which our generation is able to handle, due to the heavy influence of writing in our lives.

Natalie's Reading Response 1

Many people believe that texting, facebook, chat rooms, instant messaging, e-mail, and other technological fads are turning students into unprofessional writers. In “A New Literacy” the writer, Clive Thompson, expresses his opinion; he believes, along with KSU professor, Andrea Lunsford, that student writing is improving with the help of technology. It’s giving writing a voice. I agree with Thompson; new technology is creating a powerful and new type of writing.

Technology is extremely beneficial to students for more reasons than one. Thompson makes a good point when he says that “unless [previous students] got a job that required producing text…they'd leave school and virtually never construct a paragraph again.” Students today write everyday with the help of technology. It’s not necessarily what they’re writing but the mere fact that they are writing. Their writing is creating a new era in writing; it’s becoming personable and entertaining to read. They will continue to write, even if it’s on facebook, for the rest of their lives with great thanks to technology.

Andrea Lunsford has been studying students writing for five years. She’s examined student papers and found many myths about technology and students to be false. Such as, the myth that says students papers are filled with “texting short-forms and smileys,” she found student papers to be free of them. Smileys help give text messages a mood. When I text my friends, I use them because they add to my overall message; but in an essay I would never dream of using one. I believe students today have the knowledge to determine when different styles are accepted.
Another change in student writing today is the passion. I believe students today feel they have a voice and a right to express how they feel about a topic. Student’s “writing is about persuading and organizing and debating;” there is purpose behind their writing. Also, students use blogs to share their personal opinions on many controversial topics; creating a new world where they can express themselves without being judged or criticized for what they think, feel, or believe.

In addition, another argument many people make is technology is a distraction to students. I accept as true that technology isn’t an interruption to a student, as long as he or she doesn’t allow it to be. If a student chooses to facebook or write e-mails instead of finishing an assignment, that is ultimately his or her decision. When I have an assignment due, I put my phone on silent, stay off facebook, and get it done. If doing well in school is a priority, then the student will put aside technology and give their full attention to the assignment at hand.

In conclusion, technology is a valuable tool for students in this era. Students now have the opportunity to write frequently and in return it’s giving student writing a voice. Students can share their ideas, thoughts, and beliefs with more than just their professor. Technology has created a world where writing is popular; even if it includes smileys.

Reading Response #1

In Micheal Wesch's recent video he implies that we have relied so much upon technology that it has not only become a burden, it has become almost an obsession of sorts. Stating that student A has spent x amount of hours on twittering, and student B has spent x amount of hours surfing the web. Yet they only spend a small amount of time on schoolwork in comparison. I've always believed that technology should be embraced rather than ostracized. but this is not the belief of everyone.
I think that this video was made to create awareness and prompt response, and that its main message is change. That change needs to happen within our school system, and soon. Although Micheal Wesch does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that with this constant barrage of technology the school education system will degrade.
On the other hand, common sense seems to dictate that students have a very strong connection with technology. Some parents and teachers who do not share this connection may view this as a problem. Just as some view it as a technological revolution. Even now there is conflict between traditional teaching and "online classes". So this leaves us individually with a choice on whether to embrace technology as many have, or to reject it for being harmful to education.
When it comes to the topic of technology in school, most of us will readily agree that it is used and needed within our school system. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how far this should be taken. Should we completely integrate blogging and e-mailing into our school system? Whereas some are convinced that we should absolutely integrate technology into our school courses, others maintain that it could be harmful. Especially if you have an older generation of students mixed in with the younger more tech savvy crowd. One might assume that everyone would know how to blog, but unfortunately that is not the case. But should we let this hold everyone else back that is more comfortable online? I believe that these questions have gone un-asked, or whomever should be asking them choose not to.
As the video illustrates, a new standard of learning is being brought down upon college students. And along with this, there is also a new standard of importance. Many students, myself included, feel like they are just jumping through imaginary hoops to meet whatever end goal they may have. This new standard of learning has been significantly lowered. We are no longer learning about what we want, or what is necessary, only what others tell us we need to know. As a result half the students aren't even listening or thinking about what is being taught because they remain uninterested.
For example, I have a text book that i bought. It was well over $100 dollars, and I opened it maybe two or three times and studied a few pages. But when it came time to return it, they wouldn't accept that copy of the book. Apparently they had moved on to a new eddition. How is that fair? What kind of "learning" is really taking place?
Also the video makes it a point to ask, how much learning is really going on, with stadium sized classes and almost no one-on-one time? Where are the students really getting thier writing practice from? The 100 texts per day or the 1 essay they write a week? There is also a problem of relevancy. How important are your classes to you? Maybe not at all. I'm sure that there are several students out there that are only taking thier classes only because they are either being told to, or it is some sort of prerequisite for a class they are actually interested in.
In conclusion i think that we have an unrecognized crisis coming up, that is best defined by a quote in the video. "I did not create the problems. But they are MY problems."

Analysis of the New Literacy

Common sense and pundits today seem to believe that technology is to blame for poor writing skills. Has Facebook chatting, texting, and twittering cause students to be unable to compose well written essays? These issues were brought up in Clive Thompson’s article on the “New Literacy” from Wire Magazine dated August 24, 2009.
Clive Thompson reports that Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, conducted a study called the Stanford Study of Writing. In her research, from 2001 through 2006, she collected several forms of writing from a variety of students. She found that students were writing more than any generation before them. They are accomplishing this by using today’s technology as it is a significant part of daily communication. Lunsford discovered that even with the new forms of communication they were still able to write properly in their academic papers. Today’s online writing tends to be more conversational. One of her conclusions is stated in the following quote: “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization”. Lunsford also concluded that technology today is not killing the ability to write but transforming it and taking it in a new direction.
Before today’s technology, students did little to no writing outside of the classroom unless it was required for their jobs. Clive Thompson believes that these new forms of communication like Facebook chatting, texting, and twittering are giving students more opportunities to write, and teaching them to be concise. Students today often write directly for a specific audience with a goal of persuasion. Thompson also believes it is still very important to learn good writing techniques but knowing who and why you are writing plays the most important role. He implies that these new types of writing enhance a student’s ability to write persuasively.
I’ve always believed that in order to write well one must be taught the fundamentals of written communication. I hadn’t considered that conversational writing through Facebook chatting, blogging, emailing, instant messaging and texting could enhance your writing skills. After reading this article and considering the matter, I now understand how technology and these new forms of communication are helpful in building our writing skills.
This is an interesting topic to discuss because writing is a critical and frequently used skill in society today. It affects nearly everyone today since new forms of communication are giving more people the opportunity to write regularly. Therefore everyone should be concerned with this topic as technology has really opened new avenues of communication across industries and across the globe.
In conclusion, technology has actually made a positive impact on writing in a variety of ways. Technology has presented new forms of communication with new styles of writing. As Clive Thompson points out, students can write today and technology has not hindered but rather enabled them in the area of written communications. Technology is not the cause of the problem but the foundation of a new paradigm of communication. Whether the measure is the amount, level, or impact of writing, today’s students can write.

Reading Response #1 (Alex)

In Clive Thompson’s recent work, “The New Literacy”, he suggest this new generation of students are much more advanced than the previous. Thompson claims that texting, blogging, twittering and updating facebooks do not negatively effect students ability to write. Thompson uses Andrea Lunsford for an example to prove his point. Lunsford makes a bold statement saying, “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization.” The reasoning for Lunsford’s statement was her mammoth project also known as the “Stanford Study of Writing”. In this study she collected essays, emails, blogs, chatting sessions and much more. This study made her realize how much writing takes place outside of the classroom. Lunsford goes to say technology is not lessening students writing, it is only making it better. The Stanford students seemed not to be as enthusiastic about writing in class because there was no audience. There was no purpose for the essays besides a grade. Thompson ends his argument by saying, “…knowing who you’re writing for and why your writing might be the most crucial factor of all.” Students only ask for the purpose of why they are writing something.
I never thought about how much I actually write until I read “The New Literacy”. In my opinion I also believe students writing is improving the more twitter updates, blogging and texting they do. Unlike writing the traditional five paragraph essay, this gives students a chance to communicate without a template. When students blog or text they do not have to worry about a thesis statement or topic sentences. The only thing that concerns them is how their audience is going to react and the reason for them to start writing in the first place. Usually as human beings we start writing because something set us off. We disagree and then want to put our own opinion out there as well. I know that I ask questions like, why are we writing these essays? What is the purpose? I have come to realize there is really no purpose for writing a five paragraph essay. Yes, it is always good for persuading essays and timed writes. Although the majority of writing is not that. In the real world we write to people about how we feel in letters and so on. Some would argue that students now, could not hold a long conversation due to all of the texting. Being a teenager I would obviously disagree. Majority of the texting we do are intense conversations that need a lot of thought put into them. “Your audience”, that is the other person, has to understand what your saying. What I mean by that is, sarcasm which is a huge factor when you can’t hear the other persons tone of voice. Plus if you think about how much we text, what are all the things we talk about? Aren’t we going to run out of things to say? No, because we are saying them in a creative new way each time. The traditional five paragraph essay takes away our creativity. Blogging, twittering and facebook updates are where our creativity appears. Using these outside of school is only going to improve our writing in class tremendously.
-Alex

Reading Response 1

In his recent work, Clive Thompson responds to pundits everywhere who suggest young people today don’t know how to write. In the article, Clive Thompson on the New Literacy, he disagrees with those who make these claims. And I agree with Thompson.
In Thompson’s article he brings up the argument that kids today do much more “life writing” than the generations before. From personal experience, I can say that this is true. Communication between friends and me is often through Facebook, text, and online chat. Whereas the communication between my parents and their friends is either though phone or the occasional email. That is if they can finish the letter before becoming frustrated and quitting because they’re tired of typing letter by letter with their index finger. Nearly all of my friends now have cell phones with keyboards and spend far more time using unlimited texting than their minutes.
Thompson refers to a study done by Andrea Lunsford, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University. Lunsford collected 14,672 student writing samples between 2001 to 2006. These samples included everything from class assignments, essays, journal entries, emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. She found that 38 percent of the writings took place out of the classroom, which she calls “life writings”. I myself can say that a decent chunk of my writing is also done outside of the classroom.
Some may say that the “life writing” kids do through text and online chat, using abbreviations and leaving out punctuation, is corrupting their academic writing. Thompson addresses this in his article by referring to referring a study done by Lunsford which examined the work of her first-year students and didn’t find an example of texting speak in a single academic paper.
In his last two paragraphs of Clive Thompson on the New Literacy, Thompson explains how young people benefit from life writing. “The brevity of texting and status updating teaches young people to deploy haiku-like concision,” Thompson points out. Then he goes on to say “we think of writing as either good or bad. What today’s young people know is that knowing who you’re writing for and why you’re writing might be the most crucial factor of all.” I strongly agree with this detail of the article. Isn’t the whole point of writing to communicate a point to an audience? Whether that may be through a formal essay that summarizes a novelist’s purpose to an English professor or a text message to your “bff” that says, “ur my bff4l c u tnt @ the party!” Each audience is receiving a message that has purpose to them and context from the author. Although that text message may not be formal or academic, the young person has communicated to their audience in a successful manner. Furthermore, that same author is able to compose an academic paper which also has context and communicated to an audience in a successful manner.
I see eye to eye with Thompson when he claims that knowing who the audience is and why you’re writing to them may be the most crucial factor of writing. I believe that factor is well practiced by young writers today, through both academic and life writings.

Scarlet's Reading Response

In Clive Thompson’s recent article, ‘The New Literacy” he argues against claims that Facebook, texting, blogging and other methods of social networking, are depleting young students’ writing of substance, content and heart. He supports his claim by citing Andrea Lunsford’s mammoth project called “The Stanford Study of Writing.” Her research concluded that today’s new technology is in fact improving students writing and encouraging them to write outside of the classroom. She goes as far to say, “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization.” Thompson later goes on to talk about his own findings on the subject. He believes that online chats are helping young people engage in conversations with each other, and in doing so are writing much more than they have in the past. He references a group of Stanford students who were uninterested in writing academic class papers for their professor alone to read and grade. They wanted an audience to read and respond to their ideas, to have a debate. Thompson concludes his argument by saying that today’s young adults have figured it out, “ knowing whom your writing for and why your writing might be the most crucial factor of all.”
In my opinion I think technology has improved young people’s writing. Until reading The New Literacy I never really saw updating my Facebook and texting my friends as writing, but these methods provide an opportunity to communicate indirectly with others as opposed to more traditional methods of face-to-face contact. I think we appreciate defining ourselves as a new generation with new methods to communicate and share ideas rather than being directed as to how to produce them in the classroom. I believe that teenagers have always wanted to offer their opinions and discuss them, having the option to use other means than a five-paragraph essay. However, now that we have access to these alternatives it is unlikely we will return to the older methods of communication which means that teachers need to join the new revolution. In a recent Youtube video by Welsh, students are shown holding signs stating that they are often on Facbook while in class, while others say they have plenty of ideas but are unable to express them in a way that meets their teacher’s expectations. As this new technology has been developed teachers need to connect with their students and use blogging and other methods of social networking to their advantage. I think in doing so everybody would benefit; students could share their ideas with a larger audience and teachers would most likely see an improvement in their students’ work. Social networking has given young adults a chance to express their ideas indirectly without fear of confrontation or criticism. A door has opened to a whole new era of communication and it would be foolish for professors and other members of academia not to explore and take full advantage of these new, cutting edge resources.
~Scarlet

Response to Clive Thompson's The New Literacy

In 'The New Literacy' by Clive Thompson, a
controversial issue is whether today's technology is to
blame for students not being able to write.Two example
professors referenced in this writing have two very
different opinions on this matter. One of these professors
even conducted a research project on the issue to further
support her opinion. This being such an important issue
it's a hot topic for debate, whether you're a professor,
student or parent.

On the one hand English professor John Sutherland
argues that today's technology (facebook, twitter, texting,
etc.) is dehydrating language into "bleak, bald, sad
shorthand" (Professor John Sutherland). In other words he
is saying all of the texting shorthand used by students in
their everyday personal writing is tarnishing their
academic writing.

On the other hand Andrea Lunsford, professor of
writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, contends the
opposite. "I think we're in the midst of a literacy
revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek
civilization," says Lunsford. In making this comment,
Lunsford argues that technology is not only reviving our
ability to write it is pushing it in cool new directions.

Although Thompson does not come right out and
declare it directly, he indubitably sees eye to eye with
professor Andrea Lunsford. Thompson himself writes, "It's
also becoming clear that online media are pushing literacy
into cool directions." The essence of Thompson's argument
is that technology isn't slaying our ability to write. He
goes on to state, "What today's young people know is that
knowing who you're writing for and why you're writing might
be the most crucial factor of all." Basically, he is saying
all of the texting short forms used in students personal
writing is not impairing their academic writing.

My personal opinion is that technology is the only
thing keeping a large majority of students engaged in
writing. Professor John Sutherland makes a good point, that
texting is sad shorthand. I couldn't agree more! All the
abbreviations and smileys I really don't know what to call
it, it's like a language of it's own. However, professor
Andrea Lunsford's project called 'Stanford Study of
Writing' a huge project taken from 2001 to 2006. In the
five year span she collected over 14,000 writing examples
from Stanford students, and not just their academic
writings but all of their writing; blogs, texts, chats,
etc. In her findings Lunsford resolves this whole debate if
you ask me. First of all it shows that students today write
way more than any generation before us. Granted 38% of this
took place outside the classroom, but does that really
matter? The answer is no! Another great point made in her
study is that this other language students are using in
texting and other online writing, is not transferring into
their academic writings. Finally and really the most
important factor of this whole piece, is that students
today know the most crucial factor of all. Which is knowing
your audience and writing to it! To conclude I agree 110%
with Clive Thompson and Andrea Lunsford. I feel as long as
students keep their audience in mind when writing this
other language used in texting and other online writings
will not be a problem.

Thompson Reading Response #1

In, “The New Literacy” a recent piece by Clive Thompson it is argued that technology is not ruining our generations writing skills but actually improving them. Thompson has found, “…technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s revising it-and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.” The methods used have been adjusted to fit the audience, so the students have discovered a true purpose for their writing. Thompson doesn’t come out and state directly, however he did imply that Americans are better off now since we do have the ability to write on the internet. Before hand people would complete their assignments to pass school but once that was over a lot of cases showed that they wouldn’t put together another sentence again.


One consequence of Thompson’s theories is that the counter argument proposes the internet has been draining our language. It was called by a professor, John Sutherland, from a University College of London, “bleak, bald, sad, and shorthand.“ With the fast small instant messages, egotistic videos and blogging this is apparently going against the progress of our societies skills. There has been question of an new illiterate age coming but this has been shown to clearly not be the case.


My personal view is that technology has been useful for refining my techniques and just giving me more practice. I love being able to chat with people, it offers plenty of opportunities to share stories with friends, and getting others opinions. It makes me able to relate to what Thompson was sharing about us being more aware of changing our tone for our listeners. I do notice that some of my own responses are simple smiley faces or one word answers I still am able to hold onto the big picture of writing. For example, I use writing as a way to vent my thoughts and I feel it has been great practice for me and I grew to love this style of talking even more then usual. Although some might oppose the constant usage of phones and computers I truly believe they have advanced us, us being this generation of students, in multiple ways.


This issue is important because there are also times where the internet can take advantage of a students time, instead of studying we could be found on facebook, twitter, and myspace. Therefore it is hard to see that technology is helping us when it is taking up hours we could be spending to work for classes or something of greater value. However it is important to analyze that we have gained from the small writings that are given by these websites. And there is no need to worry about the shortened words or phrases to be found in any of the papers or work that is due. Just because computers and cell phones are incredibly common does not mean by any stretch that this is going to change how we write. Andrea Lunsford, a professor at Stanford University, expressed her opinion and stated, “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization.” We should embrace this “revolution” and truly start to prove that this generation is very different.

Reading Response #1

In a recent article Clive Thompson brings a new interesting view on technology and its impact on student literacy. Because of the poor grammar of texting and quick internet messages over social sites such as Facebook, many people today think that technology is killing the literacy of today's young people, but Mr. Thompson disagrees with that view. In fact, Mr. Thompson claims that technology is actually reviving student literacy. According to a recent study by Andrea Lunsford, a professor at Stanford Univerisy, 38 percent of a student's writing takes place outside of the classroom! That is a big jump from previous generations that used to only write when they had a class assignment. Another major find from this study is that students are learning how to address their audiences, and change their writing style to fit their needs. The reason for this according to Thompson's essay is that almost all the writing that takes place on the internet or over texting is "conversational and public." Another find that the study listed was that students are not bringing their text speak over into their academcic essays. It found that students knew when something was appropriate or not. Thompson seems to infer that my generation is to be one of the most literate generations of the last few decades.
In my own view I tend to agree with Thompson. I use technology almost every day be it chatting on facebook or texting a little love note to my girlfriend. I find in my own experience that in my writing I am often writing conversationally to an audience. Often times it is just a quick email here, a comment of someone's picture there, or a cute little note to my girlfriend, but I am always directing my words to a certain audience and changing my style to fit the needs of who I am talking to. Also, I write these things everyday outside of the classroom by my own free will. I'll admit I may not check my grammar to make sure it's perfect when I write online or in the text, but I write often and I know who I am writing to. For example when I write on Facebook I will say things to certain friends that I am comfortable with that I wouldn't say to others because it may offend them. Or if I'm texting my girlfriend I'll reference little inside jokes that only we would understand. I believe Facebook is also a great way to improve conversational writing because a lot of the comments you leave are part of a conversation with many other people besides just one on one writing. The writing on your profile is also directed at the people reading it.
I had never really thought about the topic of technology and literacy before, but after reading Mr. Thompson short article on the subject I have noticed what he said in my own writing that I do. I believe that technology has improved my writing, and even if it didn't it still gives me a reason to write in a way that I enjoy and that should at least count for something.

Thompson reading response

In the article “The New Literacy” by Clive Thompson a very controversial issue is put forward, whether or not technology is corrupting younger generation’s writing. Thompson suggests that with all the multiple types of electronic communication we use today, technology is “pushing our literacy in bold new directions”. At the beginning of this reading Thompson states the opinion of one professor who believes “an age of illiteracy is at hand”. Throughout the article, Thompson continues to side with Andrea Lunsford who is a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University. There she organized an immense project called the “Stanford Study of Writing”. That she used to inspect the problem of whether or not technology is indeed hurting kids writing today.
One implication of Thompson’s treatment during “The New Literacy” is that because such a tremendous amount of socializing takes place everyday online or simply through text, the young people of today are actually writing far more than past generations ever did. In fact, “a stunning 38 percent of [the student writing that was collected] took place out of the classroom” according to Lunsford’s project. Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that in no way is technology demeaning the writing of children.
My own personal view is that technology is helping to improve writing for the present day generation. Though I concede that some kids do use technology foully and it has ended up making their writing “bleak, bald, shorthand”; I still maintain my outlook that technology is helping to perk up the writing of my generation. For example, students today almost always are writing to an audience (most of the time subconsciously) which wasn’t as easy in past generations because they didn’t have texting, email, blogs or facebook like we have access to today. Although some may object that texting and emailing is in no way helping the writing of children, I reply that with all the extra writing we take part in outside of school we have on our own learned many important techniques of writing. For example, we know how to have a voice in our writing and how to change our tone in our writing to fit different audiences.
This issue is important because many teachers are expected to teach material from ancient books that have absolutely no relation to their student’s everyday lives and experiences. Having access now to all the information on the internet, pupils are paying less attention in class because they are bored and do not comprehend why they are obliged to learn this mandatory material. From this problem a lot of people believe these failing grades are to be directly related to technology and texting. When in fact the problem is not technology or texting but the coursework students are assigned. People need to realize that instead of discouraging the use of texting and technology (in fear it will cause us to become poor spellers or in general writers) our civilization needs to encourage the use of technology because it truly is helping.

Reading Response 1

In the article “The New Literacy” by Clive Thompson. There is a debate about the effect of technology on the writing of our generation. Some people like Professor John Sutherland have called it “bleak, bald, sad, shorthand.” While others like Professor Andrea Lunsford think “We are in the midst of a writing revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since the Greek Civilization.” Lunsford has also said “Technology isn't killing our ability to write, it is reviving it, pushing it in bold new directions.”
Lunsford thinks we are redefining writing because we write for an audience. When we write something we make it easy for anybody to understand what we are saying. By reading Thompson's article you can safely assume that he tends to agree with Lunsford because a majority of the information he presents in his article support Lunsford's claims. Thompson also makes several points of his own to show that technology has had a positive effect on writing. Thompson said “Before the Internet came along, most Americans never wrote anything that wasn't a school assignment or if it was required by there job to produce text, they would leave school and never write a paragraph again.”

This is not a subject that I personally have often thought of. However after reading this article and giving this debate some thought I can say that I agree with Lunsford think technology is not hurting our writing, simply changing it. I do admit that our way of writing is not very well crafted or fluent like the writing of earlier generations. I still think that we are changing writing for the better. My main reason for taking this side of the issue is because I appreciate the new way of writing from the audience's point of view. I like how easy it is to learn something new or to understand what someone is trying to say, because there is so much information written all over the Internet that was written so it would be easy for us to understand. For example you can go on the internet and look for instructions to tie a tie, and someone will have written easy to follow instructions on how to that. Not a multiple paragraph essay about it. This is my main reason for preferring our type of writing to long essays. Some people may argue that writing long essays improve the flow of your writing and helps to build technique, and I would agree with this argument because they does help to improve many different writing skills. However I would say that I prefer our more simple form of writing in most instances. I would rather write for an audience because it is easier for the reader to understand and it is easier for the author to write then a lengthy essay. I think this is an important issue because it could effect future English classes and how they are taught. Will they be taught as they have been in the past? Or will they be changed and adapted just like our style of writing has been? Only time will tell.

Cameron's Intro

Hello everyone my name is Cameron Partlow! I just recently graduated from Lynden High School this past school year and I am now starting my first year here at Whatcom. I have grown up in the same house on the outskirts of Lynden all my life, and up until high school I was homeschooled. I, for the most part, enjoy school and I am looking forward to the rest of my freshman year here at Whatcom. Some of my hobbies include: Paintballing, Snowboarding, Hangin' with my homiez, and playing video games.

As far as the forms of writing I do most, I would have to say that they are facebooking and texting. I often write facebook messages to my friends asking them what they are up to and how they are doing. I like to keep in contact with my friends who are more distant, or friends I haven't talked to in awhile. I text mainly with my girlfriend. We are in a long distance relationship, and it costs a lot of minutes to talk to eachother except for on nights and weekends because we have different cell phone providers. We both have unlimited texting however and we fill in the gaps during the day sending cute messages to eachother. :) I perfer other forms of communication to texting, but it is nice to be able to send little messages back and forth to my girlfriend!

Reading response

The debate about technology and writing is stretching on. Weather or not technology will change the writing styles of the future. In recent work Clive Thompson wrote “The New Literacy”. First he begins with an anti-technology view. John Sutherland claims that “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafter essays, and texting has dehydrated language into lack bald, and shorthand.”
Then Clive Thompson goes on to explain that technology hasn’t influenced a disgraceful way of writing. Then he shows many different points of evidence that Andrea Lunsford from Stanford that supports his idea. Andrea Lunsford says ”I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution that likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” This proves that the writing has changed. Also many think that the people will use “texting language” in academic work. Lunsford examined that in first year students not one of the “texting language” was ever used. Lunsford collected vast type of writing sample, and found out that our generation write about 38% outside of the classroom. Most Americans never wrote after schooling unless their job required wring. There are many more different types of writing including bogs, introductions to themselves, updates, and academic work
He himself doesn’t imply that he is for the technology. He shows most of his information that he is for technology. He closes the article with, ”we think of writing as either good or bad. What today’s young people know is that knowing who you’re writing for might be the most crucial factor of all.” He points out that the younger generation has figured out a way to attract the audience’s attention. Which was unknown until recent years, because people would only write for the academic use. The people write much more because of the technology. Many of the things online are “status updates”. Haikus have become much more popular.In my own opinion, I think technology is a very valuable resource to the people. I don’t believe that the population should spend all there time using Facebook or texting. I think they should spend a little time everyday writing with correct grammar and spelling. This will improve both academic writing and writing for pleasure. I think that the writing revolution is going to come weather we like it or not. More and more technology is invented each day and there is no way to avoid it. I believe all the texting will help introduce new word into vocabularies. I still believe that we will eventually change for a good reason. It will improve the way people think. But, for now and a while we are in a gray area of where the writing should try to be as much as it used to be. Although some young people may say that if we stay this way then we will never get anywhere. I think technology should be used wisely, until all of the soft spots have become stronger. People enjoy writing for audiences. Skills of audience wring g has become much more common.

Reading Response #1

In Clive Thompson’s recent article “The New Literacy” he suggested that the big boom of technology among students has been beneficial to their writing techniques. Many people however disagree with his stance, for example he uses an idea from John Sutherland who thinks that “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into bleak, bald, sad shorthand.” Throughout the piece Thompson implies (using research by Andrea Lunsford) several times that he disagrees with Sutherland’s stance. For instance, through a study done by Lunsford about the writing of Stanford Students Thompson disproves the myth that kids have started to use “texting speak” and “smileys” in essays. He also hints that the “New Literacy” is pushing our writing in “bold new directions,” because this generation is always writing for an audience, which (according to Thompson) much different than generations in the past.

Thompson shows the importance and benefits of writing for an audience throughout his work. In Lunsford’s research she found that the Stanford Students were “remarkably good” at “accessing their audience and adapting their tone and technique to best get their point across.” Thompson also says (once again using information provided by Lunsford’s study) that students are also much more enthusiastic about what they write if they aren’t just writing for a professor and when what they write means more than “just a grade.”

In my own experiences I have found that most adults agree with the stand point of John Sutherland, that technology has been a curse rather than a blessing for our generation. My English teacher last year is a perfect example of this; she was constantly saying that the quality of our writing is decreasing because we are drowning in technology.

Although my former teacher is right technology is everywhere, my own view is more similar to Thompson’s. I personally feel that since I’ve started using Facebook, Myspace, texting, and programs on the computer the quality of my writing has improved. These programs have forced me to practice writing more, and to think more about what I write depending on who I’m writing to. Therefore, I can also relate to the Stanford Students in Lunsford’s study because just like them my enthusiasm for writing increases when there is an audience. I would much rather speak to my peers or the public in general to get my opinions out there, instead of writing robotically for a teacher and giving them exactly what they want to hear. Another fear many adults have (pointed out in Thompson’s article,) is that “texting speak” has become part of our generations writing. My own view is that this is not a rational fear for them to have. When I write I want my audience to fully understand my thoughts, if I used short handed “texting speak” then I feel like I wouldn’t be successfully conveying my message to the reader.

The new style of writing that is described in Thompson’s article is new, exciting, and different than what most people have seen before. At first glance it may seem “bad” but taking a closer look will show that there’s much more too it than what meets the eye.

the new literacy (esther's response)

In the ongoing debate of whether technology is advancing or stunting our writing as a whole, Clive Thompson suggests that it is, in fact, a good thing. In his recent article in WIRED magazine, ‘The New Literacy,’ he suggests that while on the surface it may seem like students today should be regressing as writers they are proving the exact opposite. A study done by Professor Andrea Lunsford of Stanford University claims a “literacy revolution” is breathing new life into the world of writing, both in and outside the classroom.
Professor John Sutherland of the University College of London slanders this generation’s language as “bleak, bald, sad shorthand;” pointing to online accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging in general as culprits. Although Thompson does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that those same sites are not only getting us to write but also motivating us as writers to improve on and grow in our style and delivery in order to reach and speak to a broader audience. To say that writers today are more egotistical is irrefutable, but does that fact overshadow the reality that today’s writers have adapted their tone and put forth a more compelling argument in order to be heard? And for any writer, shouldn’t that alone be the ultimate goal?
On the one hand I agree that by no means is emailing, texting or blogging going to render my generations writers inept or unable to compose intelligent and thought provoking works. We are constantly online expressing ourselves, whether we’re sending emails or a stream of consciousness (i.e. blogging); we are still furthering ourselves where writing is concerned. In this new era where we literally have the world at our fingertips, if a writer wants to have an audience it is necessary to create thoughtful, well informed and well articulated material.
On the other hand I do see how modern technology is bastardizing the English language. As an avid text junkie I have been the recipient of innumerable messages filled with misspelled words, sentence fragments and acronyms I don’t understand. I feel the overwhelming use and acceptance of shorthand as a form of everyday writing is unacceptable. Do we have so little time that we can’t type ‘talk to you later’ instead of TTYL? Are we really that lazy? Furthermore, does being able to express yourself constitute being a good writer?
Even with LOL and its counterparts littering conversations, both verbal and written, Professor Lunsford found no evidence of them anywhere in the academic writing of first year students. I’d like to see the same type of study done in a less formal setting. An Ivy League education makes for somewhat biased results. Regardless of how many emails or texts a student might compose throughout the course of their schooling, the foundation for critical and intellectual prose are already in place. It is simply second nature.
As far as text speak and blogging go, they are new additions to our writing culture and therefore it is too early to judge their impact on our writing skills. When the next generation of writers is of college age their writing will be an indication of whether technology is advancing or stunting our literary abilities.

Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

After having read "the New Literacy," it becomes apparent that skeptics still exist revolving the subject of technology being introduced and actually benefiting the scholastic world. The author of this essay however, Clive Thompson, is not found in this crowd. He rather suggests that there are some who feel technology is corrupting the way this new generation of students write. This affects me because he is referring to my generation of students. I don't completely agree with the idea that technology corrupts how my peers and I write, though I do find some valid points in the argument.
Technology is a blessing. It allows students to multi-task on a whole different level than any previous generation. We have endless sources of information both relevant and completely irrelevant and the click of a mouse. It's completely incomparable to any generation before us as far as speed and accessibility of information goes. This is why it's important to me, and the structure I see technology providing for my studies. Thompson's idea of why technology isn't a bad thing for students is for another reason.
He believes in what a Stanford prose professor had to say in answering the claims that technology is a burden to the new generation of writing. This would be that all of the use of facebook, twitter, and any similar sites that have blown up in popularity among most people in the teenage to mid-twenties age group, actually help and bring a new era of writing to this generation. Due to all of the social interaction in between people on these sites, it increases their ability to distinct between what audiences the kids in this generation are writing to. This then teaches them to adapt their styles of writing. In Thompson's article, this was compared to the Greek form of argument, which was said to be the last time a similar writing type to this was seen. It was compared to the Greek form of argument because of the same use of tools such as persuasion, and adapting to the audience in which you are a peaking to. A form that I believe is called kairos in Thompson's article.
The point that is being put across is that technology is reviving an od style and ability of writing. Sure it can distract any student while in the classroom by having them go on facebook or something similar, but isn't the same distraction possible with a bored student drawing in their notebook. At least with sites technology is reminding students how to adapt to their audiences in their writing. This is important because not only does it provide a wide variety of writing styles, it allows students to differentiate when to use "texting type" writing, and when to use "academic type" writing, such as omitting smilies and whatnot. What it comes down to is the more relevancy the writing has to do to the students life, the more they learn how to grow in their writing. That is how texting, facebook, and similar writing sources are helping this new generation of students that Thomas discusses.