Technology and Writing

In the article “Clive Thompson on the New Literacy,” Clive Thompson explains how technology has improved the writing of students. In the beginning of his article, Thompson quotes English Professor John Sutherland of University College of London that technology has created students writing to become “bleak, bald, sad shorthand.” However, Thompson disagrees with this common believe and uses Writing and Rhetoric Professor Andrea Lunsford of Stanford University for his side.
From 2001 to 2006, Professor Lunsford gathered 14,672 student writing samples. These samples included everything from essays to chat sessions. She discovered that students today have written more than any other generation before them. Also, most of students’ writing is done online (blogs, facebook, chats) and so they have a stronger kairos (sense in how to address an audience within their prose).
Since students have been writing to a virtual audience, Thompson states that “for them, writing is about persuading and organization and debating, even if it’s over something as quotidian as what movie to go see.” Thompson explains how many of her students are unmotivated and disappointed in their classroom work because they know that it is not going to be read by a public audience, rather that it is only going to be read by the professor to receive a grade. And when it comes to “bleak, bald, sad shorthand,” Lunsford states that she has never seen any sign of shorthand within her students’ work.
Most people admit that the public opinion on how technology has affected writing is that of Professor Sutherland. However, Thompson had presented a convincing argument on how it has increased students kairos. I agree with Thompson that students’ writing on the internet has improved their karios. They have showed through Lunsford study to have less enthusiasm when writing for a professor rather than writing for an audience. Writing for an audience gives the students more of a sense of importance with their writing and their ideas. They feel that they are making an impression on the world through their writing and that it is contributing to a larger discussion than they can see. I used to believe the public opinion that the internet is worsening the writing of the rising generation. Many people believe that students are becoming lazy because so many resources are at the end of their fingertips. But through social networks students have the opportunity to write more than any other generation before them. As Thompson said “it’s also becoming clear that online media are pushing literacy into cool directions.” In my opinion it is true that online media is pushing literacy into cool directions, but it is also essential to have good education to know how to correctly craft an academic paper. Students may be walking into the classroom with a stronger idea on how to word their ideas and opinions into their papers, but they need proper instruction on how to present them. The internet is blooming writing in young people today, and it is evident in all the writing that students are presenting around the world.