Sunday, October 25, 2009

Clive Thompson On The New Literacy

In this article, Andrea Lunsford believes that "technology isn't killing our ability to write, but reviving it- and pushing our literacy in bold new directions." She states how young people today write far more then any generation before them. With all the social networking, instead of just writing in school back when computers weren't invented, kids now write when they are home as well. Lunsford's study showed that students these days almost always write for an audience which is why it showed they were less enthusiastic about in-class assignments. With in-class assignments, the students only audience is the professor. Also, according to one of Andrea Lunsford's examinations, out of all the first year students, she didn't find a single example of texting speak in a paper.
I agree with Andrea Lunsford to an extent. I believe that students are reading and writing a lot more since computers had been invented, but i also believe that their is a difference between "typing" and "writing". When a student is writing in school, they are forced to use proper grammar and spelling, but, when a student is typing online, they aren't forced to do anything. Also, if a student is reading online they never know if anything they read is actually true, and their could be grammar and spelling mistakes that they could unfortunately get used to and start to use themselves.

Questions

1.) What's the difference between "typing" and "writing"?

2.) Are social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter benefit ways of reading and writing?

3.) Do students actually write more online then for school?

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