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Clive Thompson on the New Literacy Rhetorical Analysis

Clive Thompson gave an excellent debate on the study findings made by Professor

Andrea Lunsford in his article that goes by the name "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy."

[CITATION Cli09 \l 1033 ]He starts his discussion by giving a brief on the Pundits' beliefs on the

way they criticize that digitalism has ruined the writing skills of many children. But Clive tries to

convince them that technology has not ruined the writing skills of these children but has evolved

them to another technical level. These arguments brought out by Clive Thompson through

various rhetorical strategies that convince most critiques that technology has not killed the

children's writing abilities but has enabled the reviving of these abilities.

Clive Thompson tried to argue out using some of the critical rhetoric methods. One of the

techniques that he used to ensure that his audience got convinced is when he utilized ethos such

as using his position as a professional Author and Journalist. His job gave a real appeal to the

audience, a situation that made them be keen and synthesize the message being presented and by

so doing, his mission had been accomplished. Another area that he used ethos is in the use of

Professor Andrea Lunsford one who was a specialist in rhetoric and writing prose to present his

arguments. Andrea position made the message be seen as real since he a specialist in this very
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subject that is being discussed. He explained to them on how Professor struggled to ensure that

he has found the truth behind this riddling issue. Thus, the audience got the sense in Clive's

arguments.

The other thing that made this article author succeed in his arguments is the utilization of

pathos as one of the best rhetoric strategies. This is where he tells them that professor organized

a Stanford study of writing project to scrutinize the prose of the college students. This idea gave

a lot of weight onto his argument since the audience felt the weight and logic that the cases

carried. They took the information as well-researched information and is one that comes from a

reliable source. He further elaborates to them that the writing skills that these modern children

use in class, is one that is mostly acquired from outside courses- that is through chatting in social

media like Facebook and Twitter. He states that whenever these children are text chatting, they

gain a lot of skills that they could go before the revolution. This makes the audience to see the

impact that is carried by the arguments and hence correcting the blames that they had put onto

technology that is the one messing up with the writing abilities of the children.

Last but not least, Clive Thompson has utilized the logos in convincing his audience. This

is seen where he gives a comparison that the current children are the best writers than the one

that existed before the Greek Civilization. This put the audience into a fixed position, and the

logic sank into their processor, thus configuring out that technology is not the real cause of

deterioration of the children's writing skills. He further shows the audience that prior before

technology revolution and the coming of the internet, most American mostly wrote down

something unless it is an assignment or any other thing that forced them to produce texts. This

showed how technology has helped most American learn how to write as much as possible

without any push or guidelines. Through the synthesis of logic that was contained in
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comparisons, the audience got convinced that really technology came to revive writing skills and

not killing it and hence Clive's goal or target was reached.

In conclusion, technology has not come to kill the writing ability of children as "pundits"

say but has begun to make a new revolution in writing. Has happened to take writing abilities

into another level. This is due to the practices that most children are making when writing short

and long texts during chatting, updating their daily social media status and many other

involvements. As discussed by Clive Thompson, people should not become misled with the

beliefs they possess about technology. Technology has come to upgrade our status in both life

and academic sectors.

Works Cited
Thompson, Clive. Clive Thompson on the New Literacy. 2009.