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.