Southeast Missouri State University Eng120 Cuyama
This assignment asks you to respond to the topic both articles address with an argument of your own in an essay that is 4-6 paragraphs in length.
In your argument, be sure to:
- Include a thesis statement identifying your position on the topic. To develop your thesis, provide clear topic sentences/sub-claims/reasons.
- Support your argument with evidence of and analysis from the provided texts, using correct MLA format for citations. Follow PIEIE paragraph format.
- Be sure to address and respond to a counter-argument in your essay.
This is the article…
OMG: Social Media May Wreck Your Kid’s Writing
By Ruth Campbell published in
Opposing Viewpoints in Context,
2015
Convertible laptop computers are being loaded with software Friday for Central High School
students to begin using in January [2014]. Teachers say the usage of computers and social media
on smartphones has caused students’ writing skills to wither.
The prevalence of Facebook, Twitter and texting has all but obliterated punctuation,
capitalization and apostrophes in schools, threatening the future of formal writing, educators say.
Immersed in Technology
And it’s no wonder. Cape Girardeau public school students, for example, start learning
keyboarding in kindergarten to get them used to technology, curriculum coordinator Theresa
Hinkebein said. But she noted kindergartners already know how to operate smartphones and
have computers at home.
Keyboarding itself doesn’t have an effect on grammar and formal writing, but with people
relying more on electronic devices, physical handwriting also is disappearing.
Hinkebein said students are taught cursive writing the second semester of second grade, and
kindergarten through 12th-grade students are taught when it’s inappropriate to use informal
language.
“Our teachers really try to help our students understand the difference between formal and
informal writing,” she said.
But students come to school “already immersed in technology,” Hinkebein noted.
Students are more likely to commit certain grammatical errors because they use the conventions
of texting, tweeting and Facebooking in their formal academic essays.
Assistant superintendent for academic services Sherry Copeland said though spell-check and
grammar software exist, students still need to know how to spell and use correct grammar.
Copeland said she has been on job interviews where a prospective employer has asked her to sit
down and write something longhand.
Southeast Missouri State University writing instructor Eric Sentell said in an email to the
Southeast Missourian that since he began teaching six years ago, he’s noticed a difference in the
quality of students’ writing.
“Students are more likely to commit certain grammatical errors because they use the conventions
of texting, tweeting and Facebooking in their formal academic essays. Occasionally, I see actual
‘text language,’ like using the letter ‘u’ instead of the word ‘you,'” Sentell wrote.
Most of the time, it’s lack of capitalization, punctuation and apostrophes, Sentell said.
Code Switching
“Everyone speaks and writes differently for different audiences, but some students struggle to
switch between the informal codes of texting and social media and the more-formal codes of
standard written English and academic or professional writing. After noticing increases in text
language and other grammatical errors, I began emphasizing ‘code-switching,’ or adapting one’s
writing to one’s audience,” Sentell wrote.
“I observed a significant reduction in those errors and an increase in the overall quality of my
students’ writing. But some capitalization, punctuation and apostrophe errors still creep in every
now and then.”
Central High School principal Mike Cowan, a former English teacher, said texting language has
become so commonplace, he even noticed a billboard between Cape Girardeau and Oak Ridge
that used “U” instead of “You.”
“If we have a disciplinary situation in school, we always invite the student to write a statement
about what happened to try and get down to the facts of the situation. They’ll write in that kind of
informal expression. I see it more all the time. I think it is indeed an academic battle that faculty
teachers are fighting …” Cowan said.
For a while, Cowan said he fought texting, but he’s doing it himself now.
“Often I’ll get comments that I’ve been texting in complete sentences. Now I’m going for
declarative sentences. I guess I’ve even relented to some degree,” he said.
The bottom line, though, is over time people lose writing skills.
“I guess you could argue it’s not a loss, but it’s a displacement, a change. I’m not so sure how far
you can change and still continue to communicate accurately,” Cowan said.
Most of the time, it’s lack of capitalization, punctuation and apostrophes, Sentell said.
Code Switching
“Everyone speaks and writes differently for different audiences, but some students struggle to
switch between the informal codes of texting and social media and the more-formal codes of
standard written English and academic or professional writing. After noticing increases in text
language and other grammatical errors, I began emphasizing ‘code-switching,’ or adapting one’s
writing to one’s audience,” Sentell wrote.
“I observed a significant reduction in those errors and an increase in the overall quality of my
students’ writing. But some capitalization, punctuation and apostrophe errors still creep in every
now and then.”
Central High School principal Mike Cowan, a former English teacher, said texting language has
become so commonplace, he even noticed a billboard between Cape Girardeau and Oak Ridge
that used “U” instead of “You.”
“If we have a disciplinary situation in school, we always invite the student to write a statement
about what happened to try and get down to the facts of the situation. They’ll write in that kind of
informal expression. I see it more all the time. I think it is indeed an academic battle that faculty
teachers are fighting …” Cowan said.
For a while, Cowan said he fought texting, but he’s doing it himself now.
“Often I’ll get comments that I’ve been texting in complete sentences. Now I’m going for
declarative sentences. I guess I’ve even relented to some degree,” he said.
The bottom line, though, is over time people lose writing skills.
“I guess you could argue it’s not a loss, but it’s a displacement, a change. I’m not so sure how far
you can change and still continue to communicate accurately,” Cowan said.
Social Media Makes for Better Student Writing, Not Worse, Teachers
Say
By Joanna Stern
,
published in
ABC News,
July 16, 2003
Occasionally, Jennifer Woollven, an English teacher at West Lake High School in Austin, Texas,
finds some
Twitter speak — a FWIW or an “ur” — in a paper. But most of the time she finds that
her students are paying a lot more attention when it comes to their writing assignments,
especially when they know it might be shared via Twitter itself.
“As an English teacher who is trying to improve student writing, one thing I see is that people are
seeing greater ownership of their writing when they know it will be seen beyond the class and
the teacher,” Woollven, 40, said.
She has many of her 10th-grade students post their essays and creative-writing assignments on
blogs.
Woollven’s students aren’t the only ones who have found motivation, thanks to digital tools and
social media. A study released today by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life
Project and the National Writing Project has found that 78 percent of high school teachers agree
that digital technologies “encourage student creativity and personal expression.”
And to add to that, 96 percent agree that digital technologies “allow students to share their work
with a wider and more varied audience.”
Encouraging Collaboration, Creativity
Joel Malley, 38, has found the same thing in his ninth- and 12th-grade English classes at
Cheektowaga High School in upstate New York.
“It creates a culture of creativity,” he said. “They know it will be watched and viewed. It won’t
just sit in a closet,” Malley said of his students’ digital story-telling projects, which include
everything from blog posts to documentary videos.
Kristen Purcell, the director of research at Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, said other
middle and high school teachers shared that the use of social media tools has sparked more
creativity in students.
“Some teachers view social media as another avenue for creative expression,” Purcell told ABC
News. “Most teachers told us they wouldn’t consider texting or tweeting as formal writing, in the
strict sense, but they used the term pre-writing. Students start to express their thoughts and that
means students are writing more and they see that as a plus.”
Malley also has his students use Google Docs to write and share their writing with him and their
classmates. The collaborative word processing app, which allows users to see the editing in real-
time, has allowed students to peer-edit and also speed up the writing process. And Malley isn’t
the only one using apps to teach writing.
Pew found that 50 percent of the teachers surveyed say the Internet and digital tools make it
easier for them to teach writing; 18 percent say they make it more difficult and 31 percent see no
real effect. With all that tech, though, 94 percent of the teachers encourage their students to write
by hand.
Pew surveyed 2,462 Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers across the
country for the report.
Effect on Analysis and Spelling
But it’s not all positive. Both New York’s Malley and Austin’s Woollven, who participated in the
Pew study, shared that while it isn’t a pervasive problem, students do mistakenly use shorthand
or texting language in papers and assignments.
“I see a lot of writing that has text language: ‘ur’ for ‘your’ or not capitalizing words,” Woollven
said. “For kids who have grown up texting and instant messaging, it is pretty engrained. It is
something you have to keep reminding and keep looking at.”
According to the report, 40 percent say digital technology makes students more likely to use poor
spelling and grammar, although 38 percent say it is “less likely” to cause those mistakes.
There is also the effect of the speed of the new technologies. Forty-six percent of teachers said
that digital tools have made students write too fast, causing mistakes and carelessness. “They are
bombarded by so much and they are used to things quickly posting on social networks,”
Woollven said. “They aren’t always thinking about revising.”
In focus groups, teachers shared with the Pew authors that the shorter and more concise forms of
digital social expression seem to affect students’ ability to read and write longer texts.
Still, many teachers — and according to Pew’s numbers, the majority of teachers — believe that
tech is only making writing stronger in certain aspects. And many teachers are up for the new
challenges.
“Teachers have been complaining about the declining standards of writing for what seems like
150 years,” Malley said. “I disagree with that. They [students] write differently for me than they
do on their Twitter accounts, and if they don’t, it’s my job to let them know what the difference
should be.”