Michael Cullington's Essay Does Texting Affect Writing?

Michaela Cullington was a former student at University in Pennsylvania when she wrote the essay of “Does Texting Affect Writing?” Have you ever thought if texting truly effects our writing style when it comes to college levels? Cullington did research of her own from different people group asking this question. Her thesis sentence was “IT TAKES OVER OUR LIVES” (…). The way that she capitalized all the letters is something that can engage the reader and the curiosity of knowing what is taking our lives?

In her essay “Does Texting Affect Writing?” Michaela Cullington addresses the issue of text messaging possibly causing poor communication skills and the use of textspeak, abbreviations used during text messaging such as “LOL” and “g2g,” in students’ formal writing. Cullington argues that “texting actually has a minimal effect on student writing” (pg. 367). She addresses the opposition directly, even citing credible sources. However, she also cites credible sources with better information to support her point, and even conducts an experiment of her own.

Article Analysis: The Importance of Writing Badly Bruce Ballenger’s article titled “The Importance of Writing Badly” takes a rather peculiar approach to addressing the issue of effective writing. The author eccentrically argues for the importance of ‘bad writing’ by describing different reasons to support his arguments. He argues that it is normal to apportion blames without understanding the root causes of poor writing skills. The author quotes different people who have expressed concerns about poor writing among students including his doctor. He proceeds by explaining why he would encourage his students not to concentrate on their poor writing experiences.

Everyone’s An Author with Readings by Andrea Lunsford, Michal Brody, Lisa Ede, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters; is about how everyday writing is very closely related to academic writing. This book discusses The Need for Rhetoric and Writing, Genres of Writing, The Role of Argument, Research, Style, and includes Readings. The text also bridges the gap between Facebook and academic writing, showing how some tactics students use in social media may also be used in their academic

Not So Fast” Andrea Lunsford researched students’ writing for 30-plus years to see what effect new technology has on how students learn. Lunsford discovered that students are actually improving their own writing skills with the help of mass media. Not only does it allow students more access to educational resources and information, but it also encourages students to do more creative thinking and writing outside of class which Lunsford refers to in her article as “life writing.” In her research she recalls the account of a student who sent a friend a text message which was completely informal and would be considered unprofessional by most piers. However, the same student also sent a very formal and professional report to her faculty adviser later on.

Are our communication skills declining due to the vast internet use? Technology has given individuals the ability to do things that would otherwise be considered impossible. However, while technology has provided the ability to communicate with people halfway across the world and opened a comfortable space for teens, it is believed to have affected not just the interaction among others, but furthermore writing skills. Although technology and communication has given individuals the ability to do things that would not have been done before, writing online has had a negative impact on a person’s writing skills which can be proven through the writings of Malcolm X, Gannon, and Daum.

An essay titled "does Texting Affect Writing?" was published by Michaela Cullington while she studied to gain her masters degree in speech and language pathology at Marywood University. In her essay she claims that texting and texting language neither benefits or harms a students academic writing. Michaela Cullington asserts that a conspiracy has been going around concerning how texting can limit a students writing ability in ways such as not being able to convey emotion in writing, forgetting how to write a formal English paper and use correct punctuation, and most of all a decline in spelling.

The author, Natalie Wexler is a one of the founders of the board of trustees for the Writing Revolution. In her article, Why Americans Can 't Write, with the advent of email, writing ability has become more important than ever, and writing deficiencies have become increasingly apparent. The writing skills have been lacking in America, and the reason is because schools have only 24% of the students in eighth and 12th grades were proficient in writing and just 3% were advanced. The exercise doesn 't provide kids with the tools they need to write analytically. The standards in middle and in high schools teachers expect students to know things.

In her essay "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington presents her argument that texting does not impact formal writing written by students. She discusses the concerns presented by many people about how texting language can transfer into writing, but through the use of personal experiences and credible sources she discusses how this is not true. Her use of multiple different studies and situations help boost her argument and allow the reader to truly see how students actually do formal writing. She presents a strong argument as to why those who believe students don't have the control and knowledge to write formally, instead of with text speak, are wrong.

Not So Fast”, conducts her own study with a few colleagues to take notes on how students writing skills are changing. She decides to conduct another one twenty five years later to see how much the writing skills have changed since technology has been updated and became more available to students. She found that “students today are writing more than ever before.” Although we still have the same amount of writing errors as before, the patterns of errors are different. Many people argue that technology is only making our writing skill worse, this study helps to prove a different theory.

Goldwasser claims that “They’re connected, they’re collaborative, they’re used to writing about themselves, on their own time, rather that its being a forced labor when a paper is due”. Facebook status’, tweets, and Pinterest “how to’s” are instantly posted and shared every second presenting to the world the unique segments of writing from teenagers (and adults!) all over the world. Individuals are

Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 481-495.

Today, texting has become the most widely used communication technique for teenagers and young adults. It is written in completely informal language and it has no literature value in it. Although the critics believe texting is destroying literature value, McWhorter has another opinion in mind. McWhorter thinks that texting is another form of language that is developed by teenagers. It is the creation of a brand new language evolving from the old literature.

Katie Hafner’s article “Texting May Be Taking a Toll” divulges that texting is becoming a major issue among teens, leaving parents and teachers struggling to find ways to keep up and get it under control. The article begins by proposing that teenagers are texting more and more often and it could be taking a toll on their health; sleep deprivation, stress injuries, failing grades, and many more. The author illustrated this by saying “...it is leading to anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation,” (1). This quote specifies that kids are more focused on their phones and the text messages they are receiving, then they are on their classes, grades, getting adequate amounts of sleep and their

Writing is a vital part of life. Before the creation of written language human communication was limited to verbal, in-person conversations. Everything changed when writing allowed thoughts and ideas to travel farther and more efficient than ever before. Writing is a talent that we learn at an early age and only hone as we proceed through our academic careers. This being said, as with any talent every writer has strengths and weaknesses.