This is an article that we had to read in English 503
The new Literacy
It says that young people are writing more than any previous generation, ever, in history.
This is proved by the Stanford Study of Writing, directed by Professor Andrea Lunsford.
The study gives people who wonder whether Google is making us stupid and whether Facebook is frying our brains an awnser.
The study began in September 2001, when Lunsford invited a random sample of the freshman class to participate in the study. She invited 243 students and 189 accepted. That is about 12 percent of that years class.
Students submitted all the work they did for their classes, and also submitted as much as they wanted of life writing (writing they did for their self, families, friends and the world at large.
The students submitted about 15,000 pieces of writing, including emails in 11 languages, blog postings, private journal entries and poetry. Only 62 percent of the writing was their schoolwork.
Lunsfords conclusion is; although today's kids are writing more than ever before in history, it may not look like the writing of yesterday. The focus of today's writing is more about instantaneous communication. It's also about audience.
Comparing the Stanford students writing with their peers from the mid-1980's, Lunsford found that the writing of today's students is about three times as long.
But the youth of today is more likely to make different kinds of errors than 20 years ago. The number one error 20 years ago was spelling. Today the number one error is using the wrong word.
That could be because young people are changing words and writing the different, like a text message language. With the more playful, inventive and spontaneous forms of writing available to them, are today's students losing the taste for more complex English ?
I liked this article, it shows that some people don't think the youth today is "stupid". It shows that the youth today can write and like writing. Even though they are not writing big novels about some Greek god or about the first world war, they are still writing.
