Reading Response #1

Everyday, millions, if not billions of Americans and other people around the world use technology in their lives. Technology is a normal thing growing up for young teenagers and many people on Earth today. Many people think that the technology we have come accustomed to is having a negative impact on our writing skills. Clive Thompson is a man that believes differently. In his article, "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy" he shows the benefits that we are getting from all this new technology we have been using in the past several years. Thompson uses the Stanford Study of Writing conducted by Andrea Lunsford, in which she collected 14, 672 student writing samples to help him show that the technology we have been using is actually making us better writers. The study showed that 38 percent of the writing Stanford students did was outside of the classroom, now that's a lot of writing! Later in the article Thompson goes on to say that, students are almost always writing for an audience, but when it comes to the classroom, "students are less enthusiastic about their in-class writing because it has no audience but the professor".

Thompson apparently assumes that with the new age of technology students are taking advantage of it and using it in their everyday lives. My perspective is very similar to that of Thompson, I believe that students will become better writers with the more practice they get. I do feel that the study at Stanford is a little biased because I mean, its Stanford, you have to have a high GPA and do excellent on just about everything to get in. So, of course you are going to be a good writer, and who in their right mind would turn in something for a study with you spelt like "u". I know I would reread all of my papers before submitting them.

Although, some might object that that's just my person view but if i think it, someone else might too. Also, with anything, basketball, doing laundry, washing a car, or even writing, the more you do it, the better you will become at it. Through life, you go through a series of motions, some get used more often than others, some only used one; but you will alwayss remember these motions and some you get more familiar with. I feel that this goes the same with writing. The more practice the better, even if it is on facebook, or texting or just writing a grocery list, every time you think of how to spell the words, what order things/sentences go in, how to make something sound better, and even where to put punctuation.

Writing is used in many different ways, so take advantage of these, next time you are texting a friend think about how this may impact the next writing you do for a class, you may surprise yourself and see that you did learn something from that silly conversation you had with your best friend about your new crush. You never know, just try I bet you will, even if it is just something little. You might be wondering why does this matter? or what does this mean for me or even who cares? Well you should care and it does matter. This issue is important because writing is used everyday, so if it's going to be effect by something like technology you should want to know about it.