Michaela Cullington, author of “Does Texting Affect Writing,” declares texting does not affect students writing. Cullington uses facts to support her overall claim, and gets many teachers’ opinions on the subject. The author did not use valuable sources, which questioned her overall purpose. Cullington used a lot of her own opinion throughout the text, but lacked supporting facts. The story has many flaws, making Cullington argument on how texting is not affecting students writing, not reliable. Cullington’s story is targeting teachers that believe texting is doing harm to students writing. She is mainly targeting the older teachers who do not have great experience with phones. She targeted older teachers because they tend to not be up to date on new technology. Cullington started her writing off by sharing an …show more content…
Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor at American University, believes that texting is harming students writing. She states, “So much of American society has become sloppy and laissez faire about the mechanics of writing” (131). The author used this quote to drawl in the teachers who believe texting is harming students writing. Cullington goal is to make them continue reading and learn how she believes texting is actually beneficial. By putting the opposing view point of texting affecting writing in the beginning, is confusing to the target audience. The readers have to continue reading the whole story to understand the authors target audience. This makes the beginning of the story misleading to the target audience.
The overall purpose of Cullington story is to persuade and inform the audience that texting does not affect writing. She believes students do have a texting language, but they know when not to use it. Cullington started her paper off with using information on the opposing view point of texting. She gathered information from teachers on their intake on the problem of texting affecting students
As a student myself, I understand the dislike for writing and the idea that it's not as useful as other things. This piece shows students that writing is so much more than that, but you can only see this if you understand the purpose and
These people say that technology allows us to access many sources of information at the touch of a button therefore gaining the ability to acquire greater amounts of knowledge without the superfluous details. Some even claim that technology allows us to reach our “ideal psychological state” through the stimulation short-term attention-grabbers on the internet (Anderson, “Just One More Game..”). It has even been claimed that texting “motivates students to write, practice” despite the fact that texting has detrimental effects on spelling, grammar and syntax (Cullington, “Does Texting Affect Writing?”). Socrates thought that with the development of writing, people would lose the knowledge they carried inside their heads. Socrates’ fears were proved to be unfounded though.
As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”
Today, texting has become the most widely used communication technique for teenagers and young adults. It is written in completely informal language and it has no literature value in it. Although the critics believe texting is destroying literature value, McWhorter has another opinion in mind. McWhorter thinks that texting is another form of language that is developed by teenagers. It is the creation of a brand new language evolving from the old literature.
In her essay "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington presents her argument that texting does not impact formal writing written by students. She discusses the concerns presented by many people about how texting language can transfer into writing, but through the use of personal experiences and credible sources she discusses how this is not true. Her use of multiple different studies and situations help boost her argument and allow the reader to truly see how students actually do formal writing. She presents a strong argument as to why those who believe students don't have the control and knowledge to write formally, instead of with text speak, are wrong.
The influence of textspeak on teenagers' writing is a polarising concept with both fans and critics of texting weighing their opinions. In her essay, "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington, a previous student of Marywood University in Pennsylvania, outlines her investigation into whether or not texting affects writing. Cullington analyzes the critiques of texting and why critics believe that texting has a detrimental affect on teenager writing. Along with the critics,
Authors do a review of literature on the topic of at risk students to see if technology will help them excel in writing and reading. Researchers included many factors that needed to be considered before making a decision about the benefits of using technology with at-risk students. The data can be used in either a qualitative or quantitative study in the future. Castek, J., Hartman, D. J., Leu, D. J., Coiro, J., Henry, L. A., & Zawilinski, L. (2007). Thinking about our future as researchers:
After reading the first chapter, writing with Style, from “Thinking Well”, by John R. Trimble, he made it seem as if he was writing about my writing when he explained a novice writer. Trimble explains how a novice writer would write by giving examples of how their style of writing looks like. For example, Trimble explains how new writers unconsciously write and how they are not aware of their egocentrism. He states what a novice would have to achieve objectivity, empathy, courtesy and social sensitivity in order for him to have a readable style. Trimble then discusses what makes a veteran writer and how their thinking process reflects their writing situation.
It is essential to captures the reader 's interest and this will be done by finding how to well write a thesis sentence that will want the readers to keep reading and find out more about the thesis. In “Does Texting Affect Writing?”, Cullington used voice markers to demonstrate what others had to say about texting. For the reader, the voice markers help to integrate quotes of what others stated connecting it back to the argument. This made the text run smoothly for the reader and not lose focus. “To avoid confusion in your own writing, make sure that at every point your reader can clearly tell who is saying what” (71).
The use of texting has resulted in laziness and betrayal of writing on the English
All of these factors combine and work well together to form a well-executed argument within Cullington’s essay. Cullington begins her essay by addressing her opposition: “It’s taking over our lives” (pg. 361). She cites studies done that suggest that a decline in the quality of students’ formal writing has occurred since the advent of text messaging, and she also cites teachers who believe that their own students’ works are influenced for the worse by the students’ being accustomed to texting and using textspeak. Cullington then proposes her opposing position that the writing of students is unaffected by their use of texting and text speak. She also cites studies that support her thesis that text messaging and textspeak do not have an effect on
When reading the book, “Fahrenheit 451” and the article, “The Great Imagination Heist” they argue the same topics yet different. The are both saying arguing about books and technology. In the book the character Captain Beatty has a interesting conversation with Montag about books and why they must burn them. In the article it is claiming why we should read more and be more involved in reality. Both stories give good valid logic to behind their thoughts to point out the claim.
Not So Fast” Andrea Lunsford researched students’ writing for 30-plus years to see what effect new technology has on how students learn. Lunsford discovered that students are actually improving their own writing skills with the help of mass media. Not only does it allow students more access to educational resources and information, but it also encourages students to do more creative thinking and writing outside of class which Lunsford refers to in her article as “life writing.” In her research she recalls the account of a student who sent a friend a text message which was completely informal and would be considered unprofessional by most piers. However, the same student also sent a very formal and professional report to her faculty adviser later on.
Not So Fast”, conducts her own study with a few colleagues to take notes on how students writing skills are changing. She decides to conduct another one twenty five years later to see how much the writing skills have changed since technology has been updated and became more available to students. She found that “students today are writing more than ever before.” Although we still have the same amount of writing errors as before, the patterns of errors are different. Many people argue that technology is only making our writing skill worse, this study helps to prove a different theory.
Recent research has revealed that texting (in class, in meetings, at dinner) has become a significant problem in the United States. A recent university study found that 90% of college students surveyed admitted texting during class. Some even admitted sending messages during tests (Mockingbird5,2009). This rampant abuse has led some professors to ban phones during tests and/or during all classes. One professor informed students that if he even saw a phone during a test, the owner would receive an automatic zero, whether the phone was in use or not.