Exploring Thompson

Ally Ferrell

RWS 100

Werry Section 27

5 September, 2014

Exploring Thompson

Thompson makes a great argument in his essay, “Public Thinking”, but he seems to leave a few questions unanswered. The first question that I would like to hear his input on is, is technology the only reason writing has advanced so much in the past few decades? Thompson explains thoroughly how the internet has increased students’ writing abilities. However, he does not mention the possibility that the public school system has increased in rigor and expectations. It’s very clear that the internet has some affect on today’s written works, but it is hard to believe that it’s the only reason. Another question that I feel Thompson fails to answer completely, or at all, is what are the negative effects of the internet and other technology have on today’s writers. I personally can think of many ways that the sharing works and writing for an audience could worsen a piece of writing.

One of Thompson’s arguments that I found extremely persuasive is the fact that with this relatively new technology, people, especially teenagers, are writing much more than past generations. Things like Twitter, blogs, texting, emails, posting comments and replying to other’s posts may seem like just a few words at a time, but those words add up. Thompson tells a story about a Kenyan blogger who claimed that she could never write an entire book, but then realized that she had a compilation of about two telephone books worth of blog posts(page 46). If one put together all of a teenager’s tweets, texts, and other various minuscule writing tasks , it would be shocking to see how much she or he had written in just a year or possibly even a week. I also found Thompson’s personal story of his mother to be particularly convincing. He explains how she grew up in the era before technology, and that even though she was well-written and the postal service was convenient, she only wrote about four letters each year. The convenience and small amount of time it takes to write an email or text compared to a hand-written letter has made it much less of a hassle to send messages. However, what made the essay as a whole less persuasive as a whole to me was that Thompson does not acknowledge any opposing views. It makes me believe that he does not have a strong enough evidence to even attempt to refute these  other arguments.

Thompson opens up his essay with a story of a Kenyan woman who actively posted on her online blog. I think he does this for a few different reasons. The first one would be that it is easy for the readers of this essay to connect with her. She started out as an American student who had difficulties getting her words onto paper at first. She didn't realize how much she was actually writing through her blog just like many of us don’t realize how much we write when we text, tweet, or comment on YouTube videos. The second reason he uses this story is because it contains examples of all of his claims throughout the essay. It shows the effects of having an audience, clarifying thinking, and the idea of networking. In just one short story, he is able to prove that these effects exist.