The New Literacy

The article The New Literacy by Clive Thompson is about the way kids, and how they write and what has change from the past. The article states how kids today can’t write and technology is to be blamed. Lunsford who is a professor who disagrees says "technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it and pushing our literacy in a bold new directions." According to her study from 2001 to 2006 she collected writing’s samples of emails, in-class assignments, essays and etc. Based on her conclusions she stated that she "did not find a single example of texting speak in an academic paper." Rather than the technology has hurt us, it has made the kids write more after leaving school, because most people in the past after leaving do not ever write a paragraph again unless it is for a purpose. She also found that the students, when the students write they write for an audience which helps them write better. But when they do in-class writing they only write for the professor and the only purpose is for them to get a grade. I agree with Lunsford that writing on the computer is not harming us nor it is affecting the way we write in class. The new literacy is helping us because many we write more when we are on the computer.

1) What is the difference between writing to an audience and writing for a professor?

2) How is writing on the computer different from writing on paper ?

3) Does writing on the computer benefit us more than writing on paper?