Does texting affect writing?
Michaela Cullington has written a paper that examines the question of does texting affect writing. She uses the rhetorical strategies of logos and ethos to support her arguments that texting does not affect a student’s writing abilities.
The ethos strategy is when an author respects the reader by stating the opposing position accurately, which Cullington does in her essay. This helps her to get the readers to agree with her point. She also logically researches the idea that texting does not affect students writing skills using facts from credible sources (Purdue Writing Lab, n.d).
Her ethos strategy is to support her argument by utilizing facts from credible sources, like the research she did at Midwestern Research University. She also included her own experience as a student to help strengthen her argument that texting has no effect on a student’s writing.
She uses the logos strategy when she outlines her findings from her research, which she explains in paragraph three of her paper “Concerns About Textspeak.” This is done by showing her own personal experiences and results from her research. She then cites credible sources that have supported her thesis that texting does not have any effects on writing, such as Naomi Baron who is a linguistics professor at American University.
The research that she did was important because it allowed her to see what other people were thinking about texting and its effects on writing. She surveyed her school friends and two of her former English teachers. These people were asked to tell her when they started texting, how often they did it, what type of abbreviations they use, and if they thought it had an effect on their writing skills.
One of the things that she found out is that many of her friends were texting but they did not know the difference between text speak and formal writing, which would have a positive impact on their written communication skills. She even questioned her teachers about this and they all said that they knew how to write properly and never used text speak in their essays or any formal writing.
Another thing that she found out is that many students were using textspeak and emojis in their texting. This is not a problem as long as they are aware of when to use it and when not to.
Finally, she found out that the students who were using text speak and emojis in their texting had no negative impacts on their writing skills. These students did not scribble slang words in their essays and did not omit any punctuation.
The texting process has become much easier and more advanced, so it should not be a problem for students to have the same writing skill that they had in the past. It is just a different way of communicating that has been invented by teenagers.
