In the article “On the New Literacy” Clive Thompson claims students today have an advantage when it comes to writing because they practice it all the time. He asserts that students are using technology constantly, via texting, Facebooking, Myspace, and e-mailing, and are writing to large audiences across the internet which no one used to do. Finding people at home constructing paragraphs of writing was not common. Before the internet, writing in school was the most writing that the majority of people did. Now finding a computer with internet in someone’s home is normal, and people type various exclaims and accusations frequently. Thompson reports that writing often is helping in class because students then know what constitutes good writing.
The issue is important because since technology is affecting students’ writing for the better we can use technology to our advantage and advance it even further, composing more complex pieces. Acknowledging that students enjoy writing to their friends and are more willing to keep doing something they take pleasure in can benefit future writing. I do not deny that students are writing more than other generations, and the practice they are getting may be little remarks they have posted on a blog, but all of those small blog posts add up throughout the week. Practicing reminds people that their writing can only improve, and if they enjoy the writing their doing they are opt to spend more time on their piece of work and make it sound the best that it can. By advancing technology even further students writing can continue to progress.
One implication to texting is the short-handed form of writing most people use. Scholars are complaining that all of the short-hand writing students do regularly will show in their academic writing, which will in return sound poor. Professor John Sutherland protested that writing of young students will be “bleak, bald, sad shorthand” writing. A professor retorted this claim and examined first-year student writings and did not find even one case of short-hand in any of their papers. Students obviously are not letting the way they write in a text carry over to their academic papers.
I’ve always believed that writing an essay for class was very different from e-mailing my best friend five times a week or texting my schoolmates throughout the day. I now realize that in reality, all writing is practice; and the more we do it, the more our writing can advance. Thompson reports that writing in the form of a text even gives us practice in writing “haiku-like concision.” Again, this is practice people in the past never had before.
People agree that generations never had this practice, but remind us that good literature came from these age groups too. I corroborate to this statement, and I like a lot of work from past generations, but if “practice makes perfect” there’s no need to oppose to the new technology that can improve young ones’ literature. Yes, people have composed excellent writing in the past, and practicing our writing daily can make sure we have outstanding writing in the future too.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Battersby said that writing for a large audience makes people want to write more than if it were less of an audience. And that technology is helping peoples abiltiy to write better. Says the issue is important cause people these days have access to internet at there homes where there used to be no one with a computer. Battersby then says that short hand writing used with technology is not affecting peoples acadamic writing. Goes on with the belief that writing emails and essays are two completly things. I agree that students these days are better writers than those of the past through technology.
ReplyDelete