Does Texting Affect Writing Michaela Pullington Summary

In her essay, “Does Texting Affect Writing?” published in They Say/ I Say book, Michaela Cullington describes how texting affects writing. She includes points how texting has taken a toll on students’ writing. Some effects include punctuation, spelling and grammar, sentence structure errors and so on. Then she gives other viewpoints that argue that texting does help writing. Although some teachers advocate texting helps students’ writing, Cullington provides details to show that it hinders formal prose. Cullington starts her paper by opening it up to draw the reader’s attention by asking “Does Texting Affect Writing?” and, in fact, does texting affect writing is her title. In her first paragraph, she answers the rhetorical question by defining

2). Cullington uses another source by author Jacquie Ream, saying “Keep It Short and Simple” (as cited in Cullington, 2010, p. 2) to write more efficiently. Another source dissents that point stating that the younger generations lack communication skills due to the shorthand acronyms in texting affecting not just the writing but also spelling. The same source also states that texting has changed emotion in the student's papers due to the use of emojis in

Her theology teacher continues what Cullington has stated earlier that abbreviations are the main problem that keeps recurring in students writing (Cullington, 2010, p. 3). Therefore, the teacher points out how many times the use of abbreviation occurs and then subtracts points for each use. Her English teacher expresses a different opinion supporting texting that it is helping reinforce more straightforward writing that can be used in conversation but adds that it degrades analysis and critical thinking strategies. From what Cullington took away from the teachers’ opinions were that they pointed towards texting affecting writing in a right