{"id":1938,"date":"2009-09-03T17:35:34","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T17:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2009-09-03T17:35:34","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T17:35:34","slug":"were-in-the-middle-of-a-literacy-revolution-wired-magazine-on-the-new-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/09\/were-in-the-middle-of-a-literacy-revolution-wired-magazine-on-the-new-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"“We’re in the Middle of a Literacy Revolution”: Wired Magazine on the New Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"wired\"I\u2019ve got more great stuff for you on how social media is affecting our lives.\u00a0 This is a fascinating piece from Wired<\/em> magazine called \u201cClive Thompson on the New Literacy\u201d<\/a> that covers briefly a study by a Stanford University professor named Andrea Lunsford of 14,000 pieces of writing by college students\u2013academic papers, blogs, texts, chat sessions, and more\u2013that analyzes the style today\u2019s students use to write. (Image: Mads Berg\/Wired<\/em>)<\/p>\n

This study enters the debate currently raging over whether students are writing far more poorly in today\u2019s digitized world than they used to.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how Wired<\/em> writer Clive Thompson sets the table:<\/p>\n

As the school year begins, be ready to hear pundits fretting once again about how kids today can\u2019t write\u2014and technology is to blame. Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into \u201cbleak, bald, sad shorthand\u201d (as University College of London English professor John Sutherland has moaned<\/a>). An age of illiteracy is at hand, right?<\/p>\n

Andrea Lunsford<\/a> isn\u2019t so sure. Lunsford is a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, where she has organized a mammoth project called the Stanford Study of Writing<\/a> to scrutinize college students\u2019 prose. From 2001 to 2006, she collected 14,672 student writing samples\u2014everything from in-class assignments, formal essays, and journal entries to emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. Her conclusions are stirring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s Lunsford\u2019s surprising conclusion for her study:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven\u2019t seen since Greek civiliztion,\u201d she says. For Lunsford, technology isn\u2019t killing our ability to write. It\u2019s reviving it\u2014and pushing our literacy in bold new directions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s what else she found:<\/p>\n

The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them. That\u2019s because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, a stunning 38 percent of it took place out of the classroom\u2014life writing, as Lunsford calls it. Those Twitter updates and lists of 25 things about yourself add up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here\u2019s the final take-away from the study, as Clive Thompson sees it:<\/p>\n

The fact that students today almost always write for an audience (something virtually no one in my generation did) gives them a different sense of what constitutes good writing. In interviews, they defined good prose as something that had an effect on the world. For them, writing is about persuading and organizing and debating, even if it\u2019s over something as quotidian as what movie to go see. The Stanford students were almost always less enthusiastic about their in-class writing because it had no audience but the professor: It didn\u2019t serve any purpose other than to get them a grade. As for those texting short-forms and smileys defiling serious<\/em> academic writing? Another myth. When Lunsford examined the work of first-year students, she didn\u2019t find a single example of texting speak in an academic paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The whole thing is worth reading.<\/a><\/p>\n

My take?\u00a0 I\u2019m not so convinced.\u00a0 I do agree that the multiple platforms on which today\u2019s youth communicate does likely help them to learn how to communicate to diverse audiences.\u00a0 That is a useful skill, one that we could undervalue, especially those of us who emphasize the importance of formal writing.<\/p>\n

But with that said, I really wonder whether today\u2019s students write as well as Thompson and Lunsford seem to think they do.\u00a0 I have served as a grader a few times on both the graduate and undergraduate level, and I was stunned at the poor writing in the papers I encountered.\u00a0 It\u2019s one thing to be able to text, \u201chey dude tht game rocked 4 me\u201d and another to argue persuasively, logically, and even elegantly for the reasons behind Rome\u2019s fall.<\/p>\n

With that said, this is an article that is worth serious consideration.\u00a0 The insight that today\u2019s students actually write more than any other generation is history is worth pondering in its own right, and does perhaps balance our perception of things.\u00a0 Christians have a vested interest here, as we value both clear communication and high-level thought.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s necessarily a \u201cChristian position\u201d here, but conformity to Christ and His dominion over all of life necessitate that we think about this matter.<\/p>\n

In addition, I would say that while blog comments and message board discussion often get hammered as unprofitable (and regularly with considerable justification), I personally often find simulating, logical discussion on intelligent blogs and websites.\u00a0 You\u2019d be surprised at how sharp and thoughtful a discussion of obscure NBA players can get<\/a>.\u00a0 I, for one, love that kind of technical, involved analysis.\u00a0 Before web 2.0, basketball nerds like me had no such outlet.<\/p>\n

Whether Lunsford and Thompson are right or not, it\u2019s clear to me that you can\u2019t simply slam web 2.0 and move on.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mixed bag.\u00a0 The same collegiate goofballs that are turning in shoddy history papers are those posting highly nuanced and intelligent observations of the University of Florida football team\u2019s recruiting decisions.\u00a0 I for one wonder if this is not a net loss, but it\u2019s at least interesting to think about, as the article leads us to do.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve got more great stuff for you on how social media is affecting our lives.\u00a0 This is a fascinating piece from Wired magazine called \u201cClive Thompson on the New Literacy\u201d that covers briefly a study by a Stanford University professor named Andrea Lunsford of 14,000 pieces of writing by college students\u2013academic papers, blogs, texts, chat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[485,905,1237,13270,2708,2709,13302,3039,3090],"class_list":["post-1938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrea-lunsford","tag-clive-thompson","tag-facebook","tag-social-media","tag-stanford-communication-study","tag-stanford-study-of-writing","tag-twitter","tag-web-2-0","tag-wired-magazine"],"yoast_head":"\n"We're in the Middle of a Literacy Revolution": Wired 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