Clive Thompson's A New Literacy Summary

Isaac Shantz-Kreutzkamp
English 100

Clive Thompson's article: "The New Literacy", focuses on the controversy surrounding the use of technology in the education system. He argues the point that sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace actually can contribute positively to a student's learning. By practicing the rhetorical element, or "kairos", people using these online tools can speak to a specific audience, and tailor their mode of writing appropriately.

The main source of information he uses is Andrea Lunsford of Stanford University, who used 14,672 samples of writing from students in the Stanford Study of Writing project.He debates that using websites on the internet can raise a person's sense of rhetorical awareness and make possible a variety of useful applications for the concepts that are learned in chatrooms, webpages and in texting their friends. I think that while this is important, it does not help if you are speaking in a gibberish only understandable to your specific audience. Prose is fine, but grammar and syntax are also vital to the success of a writer. "Bleak, bald, sad shorthand" is the phrase John Sutherland of the University of London English professor puts it, is a very good way of pointing this out. You cannot afford to alienate all outside audiences if you slip into slang and acronyms only knowable to your select viewers at the expense of shutting everyone else out.

Andrea Lunsford's work debunking the belief of texting translating into poor writing, and increasing writing prowess outside the classroom, is good news however, though it's important to realize that although thirty-eight percent of all writing done by college students is outside the classroom, it's comforting to see that there is still much worth reading.