In today’s society, in the United States of America, the topic of text messaging often creates controversy. The question is, “is texting harming our society”? Is one person’s perspective more accurate over someone else’s; will we ever know? The very wise John McWhorter an editor at The New Republic and columnist for The New York Daily News as well as a teacher of linguistics, wrote an article called “Talking With Your Fingers”. Throughout McWhorter’s passage he discusses the issue of whether or not text messaging has become a negative aspect of our society.
McWhorter stands fully on what he believes throughout the article. His belief is well demonstrated through various examples throughout the text. He states in his article that some …show more content…
In his article, he approaches the reader with ethical and logical appeal. Since he is a well-educated individual serving in different positions to better his knowledge in the area of languages he is a perfect candidate for arguing against whether or not texting should be viewed as a language. In this approach the author uses ethical appeal. He begins his article stating, “The latest word on the street about English in America --- always bad, it seems---is that the shaggy construction of texting and e-mail spells the death of formal writing” (McWhorter 178). In the article he argues against the belief that text messing and emailing is going to destroy formal writing for the upcoming generations. He supports his view point with examples of unspoken languages that are useful in many societies, which is an example of a logical appeal to his readers. McWhorter said, “Writing was only invented roughly 5,500 years ago with the emergence of cuneiform picture writing in Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey, whereas humanity arose a good 200,000 years ago, with language probably tracing back to at least 50,000 years and most likely much further” (178). He argues the fact that a spoken and a writing language are two very different things, sometimes people create a language that will never be a “formally” written language. His view point on texting is that people should view texting and emailing as a different language in society, just as among the other languages in today’s world. McWhorter informs his readers, “Even today, only about 100 of the world’s 6,000 languages are written much…” (179). He states in his writing that there are many languages in the world that are not formally written and text messaging could be categorized under one of those. He relates to text
McWhorter stands fully on what he believes throughout the article. His belief is well demonstrated through various examples throughout the text. He states in his article that some …show more content…
In his article, he approaches the reader with ethical and logical appeal. Since he is a well-educated individual serving in different positions to better his knowledge in the area of languages he is a perfect candidate for arguing against whether or not texting should be viewed as a language. In this approach the author uses ethical appeal. He begins his article stating, “The latest word on the street about English in America --- always bad, it seems---is that the shaggy construction of texting and e-mail spells the death of formal writing” (McWhorter 178). In the article he argues against the belief that text messing and emailing is going to destroy formal writing for the upcoming generations. He supports his view point with examples of unspoken languages that are useful in many societies, which is an example of a logical appeal to his readers. McWhorter said, “Writing was only invented roughly 5,500 years ago with the emergence of cuneiform picture writing in Mesopotamia, what is now Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria, and Turkey, whereas humanity arose a good 200,000 years ago, with language probably tracing back to at least 50,000 years and most likely much further” (178). He argues the fact that a spoken and a writing language are two very different things, sometimes people create a language that will never be a “formally” written language. His view point on texting is that people should view texting and emailing as a different language in society, just as among the other languages in today’s world. McWhorter informs his readers, “Even today, only about 100 of the world’s 6,000 languages are written much…” (179). He states in his writing that there are many languages in the world that are not formally written and text messaging could be categorized under one of those. He relates to text