Carlos Gomez
Professor Allen
ENC1102
September 28, 2015
Texting: A Whole New Form of Communication? By now everyone has heard some kind of remark by someone expressing their opinion on how they believe texting is destroying English writing skills. Popular belief states that English writing skills are declining between teenagers and young adults due to text communication. While this statement can be argued, John McWhorter proposes that this myth might not be completely true, but instead explains that it has transformed into a separate form of communication. In McWhorter’s explanation, he states many verbal and visual examples where one would maybe interpret a simple word many ways, but is actually much more than what is being seen. Based upon …show more content…
Being his audience in his Ted Talk are mostly made up of people around his age, some relate when he explains a view that most of audience would agree on. In a sense, he builds up his audience into believing that his piece is really about how texting is a “scorn”, but rather addresses the audience that the belief is simply not true. In fact, he states that texting itself has transformed into a separate form of communication between modern day adults, especially teens to younger adults. This can come as a surprise because one would not consider texting as nothing more than a simple message sent from one person to another almost instantly. While having his audiences’ interest, he begins to explain the difference, and advantages, between actual writing, speech communication, and texting. Using humor, he demonstrates an example of a well written text from Edward Gibbon. McWhorter compliments the piece, but states that although well written, it is too formal to use in regular speech and that some should not talk like that “if they’re interested in reproducing.” Although an extreme assumption, this comical approach helps spark his audiences’ emotion, especially those who still are not fully convinced of his ideology about
Professor Allen
ENC1102
September 28, 2015
Texting: A Whole New Form of Communication? By now everyone has heard some kind of remark by someone expressing their opinion on how they believe texting is destroying English writing skills. Popular belief states that English writing skills are declining between teenagers and young adults due to text communication. While this statement can be argued, John McWhorter proposes that this myth might not be completely true, but instead explains that it has transformed into a separate form of communication. In McWhorter’s explanation, he states many verbal and visual examples where one would maybe interpret a simple word many ways, but is actually much more than what is being seen. Based upon …show more content…
Being his audience in his Ted Talk are mostly made up of people around his age, some relate when he explains a view that most of audience would agree on. In a sense, he builds up his audience into believing that his piece is really about how texting is a “scorn”, but rather addresses the audience that the belief is simply not true. In fact, he states that texting itself has transformed into a separate form of communication between modern day adults, especially teens to younger adults. This can come as a surprise because one would not consider texting as nothing more than a simple message sent from one person to another almost instantly. While having his audiences’ interest, he begins to explain the difference, and advantages, between actual writing, speech communication, and texting. Using humor, he demonstrates an example of a well written text from Edward Gibbon. McWhorter compliments the piece, but states that although well written, it is too formal to use in regular speech and that some should not talk like that “if they’re interested in reproducing.” Although an extreme assumption, this comical approach helps spark his audiences’ emotion, especially those who still are not fully convinced of his ideology about