Reading and Writing

Bill Schaff

Professor Leake

Writ 1120

January 26, 2013

Reading and Writing

Reading and writing has been evolving ever since it started in the stone ages and will never stop evolving as long as we keep reading and writing. While we may not see cave paintings as literacy, it was their way to pass information on to the next generation and our reading and writing all progressed from this idea. I feel like it has to evolve though, every new innovation, form the invention of paper to the ability to surf the web, progresses reading and writing a step further. Whether people argue this progression in literacy is positive or negative, there is no debating that it will continue to happen as newer and newer technology immerges into our society. I believe that this change is not only necessary but also vital to staying up-to-date with how fast societies are progressing.

            Literacy, in my opinion, has to progress from generation to generation. With new mediums and technologies being invented daily, we are capable to accomplish so much more than ever thought possible. In Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making us Stupid”, he notes, “we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice” (2). Even though texting and emailing are not the most formal written texts, it still allows us to read and write much more than we ever have. Without things new mediums such as computers and the Internet we could still be hand writing letters and papers for personal and scholarly work. Also, writing back when there was only pencil and paper was all formal. I believe that individuals did not write in an informal tone because it was not instantly delivered. If someone made a grammatical or spelling error in their hand written letter they could not just instantly fix it like we can today. The letter could take days to arrive to their intended individual. Only recently have writings taken on an informal tone which I believe is due to the new mediums that we communicate through. If someone sends a text message and it contains a spelling error, that person can instantly send another text to correct what he/she spelled wrong. This can all be done before the intended receiver ever reads the message. In my opinion, it is technology that is allowing individuals of this generation to write in such an informal tone, but the difference between the last generation and this one is that this generation has two different style of writing. “We see students moving with relative ease across levels of style (from the most informal to the most formal)” (Lunsford, 2).

Some individuals may still argue that technology has made our reading and writing skill levels drop. “News, political debate, theater, art and books are judged not on the power of their ideas but on their ability to entertain”, argues Chris Hedges (2). He goes on to explain that because of technology, people will only look at pictures if possible and not read in depth about it. Hedges implies that we are slowly loosing the ability to read and write well because of technology improvements. I could not disagree more with what Hedges is saying. Technology is improving the way we read and write but in a different way than it has before. Individuals will distinguish their style of writing depending on whom they are writing for. Andrea A. Lunsford, an English professor at Stanford and previous Director of Reading and Rhetoric, notes that, “young people are for the most part aware of the context and audience for their writing—and they make the adjustments necessary to address them effectively” (Lunsford, 2). So yes, individuals of this generation write with terms such as “How r u?” and “Going 2 store 4 food, get you something?”. But that is mostly to friends in an informal writing style, whereas if they were going to write a paper for school or a letter, they can switch off the informal way of writing and write in an academic style. Also, Lunsford suggests a very accurate argument in my opinion. She explains that if the writing ability of this generation is actually diminishing, we should really ask ourselves if the children are loosing the ability to read and write or it the education system and teachers are not effectively teaching the children (Lunsford, 3).

            Technology has had a very significant impact on how people write. Just in the sense that the Internet has provided individuals with unlimited resources all at their fingertips. This a major improvement to how we write. The term “Pancake People” (Carr, 7) is an extremely accurate term for the people of this generation because of the immense variety of information we can access. To be able to reference nearly any academic writing in the world just by a simple “Google search” has not only made writing better but it allows for much more detailed and accurate writings. Also, it’s not only this generation who is experiencing this great change in writing. When the typewriter was invented, it created an entirely new way of writing for individuals. Back in 1882, a man named Friedrich Nietzsche was going blind and could no longer write. Writing was a passion of his that he could no longer do. He purchased a typewriter and this gave him the ability to once again write (Carr, 3). Technology can not only improve the way we wright but it can also, as in Nietzsche’s case, give the power of writing back to people. These new mediums allow us to write in a way that will push ourselves further and further. For all we know, if we had not made these refinements in our reading and writing mediums we could still very possibly be drawling pictures on cave walls. These new ways to read and write are turning us into a different kind of literate generation but it is still a very literate generation. Society as a whole would not be able to progress a fast as it has with out these new mediums for reading and writing because information would not easily available for individuals to reference and use. But, progression is not the only benefit of literacy, it has many other major benefits. For example, by having a literate community, people can accurately judge situations and can engage in effective action for a just society (Scribner, 12).

Defining literacy is a very hard this to do, there is not just one way that we can define literacy. Scholars have tried to make an “umbrella definition”, a definition that would define what literacy is as a whole but there are always contradicting statements in it (Scribner, 1). Now Urban Dictionary does not have the most reliable definitions for words but I do agree on their definition of literacy. Urban Dictionary defines literacy as, “Having the ability and comprehension level enabling one to efficiently communicate with others within a specific profession. However, a common misconception of this word defines it as having the ability to read with comprehension.” In my opinion, this is spot on. I believe that writing and drawling all started as a way to communicate information from group or generation to the next, it’s not how well we can read or write but how we communicate with each other. I believe that this idea needs to be taken into consideration when determining how well people can read and write. If individuals are communicating with one another and understand what he/she is trying to say than I think they are literate. Chris Hedges argues, “In our post-literate world, because ideas are inaccessible, there is a need for constant stimulus.” I ask why, why do you think that this generation, my generation, is not literate. Just because we do not read the way you do or text in with proper grammar, does not make us illiterate. It make us different, it makes us unique. Our literacy is based on a different way of reading and writing but studies show that this generation is writing more than the previous and the writings are three times as long (Lunsford, 2).  

I believe that the future holds significant changes for the way we read and write. If you look at where we have come from in terms of writing, from a very formal and hand written style to texting with extremely improper grammar, one has to wonder where it can take us. What will be the next great thing in writing, what will the next generations literacy skills be like, the generation before this one had trouble with spelling words, this generation has trouble with using the “wrong word” because of spell check (Lunsford, 3). Will the next generation have good spelling and use the “right word” but not be able to hand write anything? Then we look at reading, the generation before this one would read entire books and articles in depth, this generation mainly skims articles and books online to find what they are looking for (Carr, 2). Will the next generation even be reading books or will computers be reading books to them. I believe that no matter what the future holds for reading and writing it will always be there, it’s just the way that individuals read and write will change and we must embrace this change or society will not progress.

Works Cited

1) Urban Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=literacy>.

2) Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making us Stupid. N.p.: n.p., 2008. 1-8. Print.

3) Lunsford, Andrea A. Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-3. Print.

4) Hedges, Chris. America the Illiterate. N.p.: n.p., 2008. 1-3. Print.

5) Scribner, Sylvia. "Literacy in Three Metaphors." 93.1984: 6-21. Print.

What Blogging Is To Me

So far, blogging has not been for me. I definitely do not hate it but I would personally rather spend my time doing something different. I have yet to find myself truly engaged in the blogs that I have been posted but I feel that is still partly contributed to the fact that I’m still not entirely sure what blogging is. For me, the hardest part of blogging is relating it to myself. I find myself writing it more in an essay format rather than a personal writing. I am not used to the idea of putting my unfact-checked opinion in the writing, I am always trying to base my blogs off of real ideas and opinions that I have found research on to back-up my argument but I believe that is not how blogs are supposed to be done. On the contrary, I have found writing a response to the articles very easy to accomplish. Going into making my blog I was very nervous that I was not going to be able to free write a long enough passage for my blogs but I have been able to do that with out even thinking about it. My opinion for blogs has also changed over this course and over reading the articles on blogging. I went into it thinking that blogging had no merit to writing and it was all just personal opinion. But, now that I have experienced this phenomenon called blogging, I realize that there is much more to it than just biased opinions. People who blog, blog about current events and respond to articles through it. It’s the individuals who instantly respond to your blog to criticize what you have written that keep you in check from writing outlandish things. 

Literacy

Literacy to me is much more than just if an individual can read and write. People say that children of this generation are not literate, but in Andrea Lunsford's article "Our Semi-literate Youth? Not So Fast", she argues that while yes children do text with abbreviations such as "Whadda-ya-know" and "How r u", they use different styles of writing to suit different audiences. I completely agree with this because I personally change my writing style for my audience. If I were writing this as a text to a friend and not in a blog, my writing style would change significantly. Lunsford says "these young people are for the most part aware of the context and audience for their writing- and they will make the adjustments necessary to address them effectively." Also, in Sylvia Scribner's article, "Literacy in Three Metaphors", Scribner makes a very good point and that is, "Literacy is an outcome of cultural transmission; the individual child or adult does not extract the meaning of written symbols through personal interaction with the physical objects that embody them." I could not agree more with this statement, if the individuals teaching us literacy are not doing a good job then we will not be very literate. I am not the only one who agrees with this as well, Lunsford agrees that the underlining problem with semi-literate children may actually lie with the instructors. Another thing that both Scribner and Lunsford agree upon is that literacy changes over time. Individuals of the last generation were illiterate in their own ways, they were more likely to miss spell a word. Now with technology, kids are more likely to use the wrong word, for example there, their, and they're. Lastly, one thing that has not changed over time in my opinion is Scribner's metaphor, literacy is power. By being literate, societies are more capable of analyzing situations and taking action to make a just society. All in all, literacy is shaped by many different things, I believe that Carr is right that google is making us stupid, Hedges is right that people mainly listen or choose things based on pictures and not reading, Lunsford is right that instructors may be the ones making children semi-literate, and Scribner is right that literacy can mean so many different things. There are always going to be semi-literate people in the world, but what makes them semi-literate changes from generation to generation with improving technology. 

Carr VS Hedges

In Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Carr firmly believes that not only Google, but rather the internet as a whole is making us more likely to just skim articles rather than read them. Carr is explaining this when he says, “the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” He goes on to say, “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” Carr firmly believes that the more we are on the web, the harder it will become for us to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Continually, Chris Hedges’s article, “America the Illiterate”, argues that America as a whole is becoming more and more illiterate. Hedges says in his article, “Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate.” He also says that this number goes up by about 2 million people a year. By having such a high illiteracy rate, Hedges claims that people will stop thinking for them selves. For example, if a presidential candidate appears to be making point that an individual agrees with, that individual is sold and will vote for that candidate. People will not check what they hear anymore, they will not read up on their favorite candidate to make sure his plans meet his claim. Also, Hedges uses the example that people go to McDonalds not because they like the food but because there are pictures on the menu for them to pick from. There is a huge connection between Carr’s article and Hedges’s article. Carr argues that because of the Internet, people are not reading in depth, they are just skimming. People may know a lot of topics but are not well informed on any of them. Carr says, “we risk turning into ‘pancake people’—spread wide and thin.” This relates to Hedges because Hedges believes that people have lost the ability to think for themselves so they are not informed on topics passed what they see on the news.

Reading and Writing

Reading to me is a way to gain knowledge and gain opinions. When you read an article or book, not only do you get the views of what the author is trying to say but you instinctively make you own opinions on the text. In Harris’s book “Rewriting”, Harris makes a great point about reading that I agree with. That is that when you are reading something you are looking for what the author is trying to achieve, what position does he or she argue, and what problems they are trying to explore. By doing this, not only do you acknowledge the authors opinion but also you make a clear assessment on your opinion of that topic.

Writing to me is a way to express what you are trying to say in your own words. I agree with Sullivan that when he writes blogs, he still references texts but always states his own opinion. I see writing not as much as a fact-checked text but a way to express your own thoughts on certain topics. Also, like Sullivan, I see writing as a way to reference back on how you were feeling to a certain time and day. For example, you would be able to see how you felt right after September 11 happened because you wrote it down.

Harris VS Sullivan

Much of Harris’s idea of reading and writing is based on the idea he calls rewriting. Rewriting to Harris means drawing from, commenting on, and adding to the work of others. He explains that almost all work has some traces of other texts in it but it is not about reciting the work of others but rather interpreting what they have written for your texts. Harris says that you need to apply what you have learned from someone else’s text and apply it to yours. This also goes along with Harris’s idea of move. Move to Harris means that don’t recite exactly what a text says but you should move past their thesis to the underlining ideas and that is what to include in your text. There are a number of similarities between Harris and Sullivan but a big one to me is how they both say that you need to interpret texts into your own ideas. Harris calls this forwarding, where an individual will insert his or her own opinion on a text and post it back to a particular group of people. This is very similar to Sullivan’s idea of blogging but instead of posting to a small group, individuals will read a text, write his or her own opinion on it, then post it on a blog for everyone to see. Another similarity between Harris and Sullivan is analyzing the texts to see what they are trying to achieve, what position they argue, and the problems they try to explore.  Both Harris and Sullivan believe that you need to look more in-depth into the texts than just what you see on the surface but in blogging you can post your personal beliefs whereas writing needs to be more fact checked. I am starting to see that blogging as writing is a way to post what you believe about a text or event but still referencing that particular text or event. It’s a way to express what the problems are with a text or event in your own words and with your own opinions.