Michaela Cullington On Texting

In Michaela Cullington paper on the influence that texting has in writing, she researches the positive and negative effects that sending text messages can have on a person’s capabilities as a writer. According to Cullington, “Text messaging—or texting, as it’s more commonly called—is the process of sending and receiving typed messages via a cellular phone.” (Cullington 2010 p. 1) Further, into the paper, Cullington begins to provide support for the side that believes texting is beneficial for all writers. In doing this, she goes on to develop writing that hooks the reader and keeps them reading until the end. Cullington creates her research by surveying students from different backgrounds with questions that ask how often a student texts and

This quick way of messaging allows kids of all ages to network with one another and share what they’re doing with their classmates. That being said, this article would be an exciting read for younger and older generations alike to dive into the patterns that are created by text messaging. In this paper, Cullington opens with “It’s taking over our lives.” (Cullington 2010 p. 1) This is an instant attention grabber that sparks interest in the reader. Further into the first paragraph, a pattern of the pronoun it, is repeated to express the different characteristics that texting holds. Before the use of cell phones, kids would make friends and then go to talk to them in real life. This is a way of life that is seen by many as a form of communication that the world needs to go back to, but allowing people to communicate any time of day instantly has become a global phenomenon in a sense. Throughout Cullington’s paper, she uses different forms of literary devices to express emotion, show comparisons, and further explain ideas. On page 5, Cullington speaks about how text messaging has become the latest manifestation. This comparison puts cell phone use as a whole into a larger picture for readers to grasp the scale of these

Several different citations to back up each side of the discussion are present which allows Cullington to disprove the opposing party. “This debate became prominent after some teachers began to believe they were seeing a decline in the writing abilities of their students. Many attributed this perceived decline to the increasing popularity of text messaging and its use of abbreviations”. This is a direct acknowledgment of the opposing argument that is later disproven in the article where she writes “...because they are engaging in written communication rather than oral speech, texting teens learn how to convey their message to a reader in as few words as possible” (Cullington 2010 p. 4). The ability to show how the other side is incorrect is what makes this paper so effective in its debate on whether or not texting affects