BMCC English: Analyzing Cullington's View on Texting and Writing

This essay provides a critical analysis of Michaela Cullington's work, "Does Texting Affect Writing?" The essay explores Cullington's use of statistics, arguments from other authors, and rhetorical techniques to support her claim that texting has both negative and positive impacts on writing abilities. It examines her references to the National Center for Education Statistics, Jacquie Ream, Naomi Baron, and various teacher observations. The analysis also delves into Cullington's use of Kairos, appeals to logic, and references to experts like Dennis Baron and David Crystal. While acknowledging Cullington's credible sources and techniques, the essay argues that her work lacks a definitive stance and persuasive energy, ultimately questioning the effectiveness of her argument. Desklib offers a wealth of similar essays and study resources for students.

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Does Texting Affect Writing?
Texting has affected writing greatly in many ways. It has both negative and positive sides. Michaela Cullington tries to prove this
through her work of “Does Texting Affect Writing?” She uses studies from various authors to justify her arguments. In my own view,
I personally do not agree with the techniques that Michaela uses because at the end the author does not come with her own stand and
how to correct the issue. For instance, she says that most young people tend to use abbreviations when writing a message instead of
writing the whole word. This in turn affects writing abilities (Golden, Serena, 2009). In this case she does not tell us how this can be
changed. Therefore, an exploration will be done showing the techniques and strategies that the author uses to communicate her
message to the reader.

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The author uses various statistics to prove her argument. For instance she uses the National Center for Education Statistics. The
statistics state that only 25% of the seniors in high school know how to write well. The reason behind this is that today generation is
raised without being thought communication skills. Therefore, this leads to many people using acronyms plus shorthand in their
communications. The usage of acronyms and shorthand has in turn led to many students having the inability to write well and even
spell some words. Michaela Cullington also uses the argument of other authors to prove her point. For instance she uses Jacquie Ream
who is the former teacher. The teacher argues that students nowadays find it hard to convey emotions within their writing because they
are used to using smileys when communicating their emotions via texts (ProQuest, pp.12). She also uses Naomi Baron whom is a
professor. The professor says that the use of abbreviations has caused a decline in writing abilities. She states “so much of American
society has become sloppy and laissez faire about the mechanics of writing.” The author also uses drawings from various teachers
from various parts of the state to justify her argument. For instance she acknowledges that most teachers have reported that they have
found many students using “2” instead of “to”, “gr8” for “great” in their writings. To be specific she says that some teachers In
Minnesota who are of the seventh plus eight grade acknowledge that they have to take their time editing the papers because most
students use the short form words in their writings.
Cullington further uses Kairos in an effective way so that she can give an allowance to any reader to join the conversation in a
freeway. It also enables the readers to get in a thinking that is in relation to the piece after they have comprehended it since it is
relevant. This is proved through the argument that texting does not put emphasis on the punctuation part hence leading to poor writing
and grammatical errors. Cullington also tries to present the appeal to logic through the demonstration of her understanding the

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complexity of the issue. This is because the first two sections of her work try to show how the students use acronyms and how they
lead to the students becoming unable to spell words and write well. Cullington also uses the technique of referring to the comments of
other teachers. This is where she says that some teachers attribute that texting has caused a lot of difficulties in writing because they
spend most of their time in classes trying to teach the learners to use correct sentence structures plus construct comprehensive
sentences.
Cullington also uses technique for providing the references of other experts in establishing her logic. For instance she uses USA
Today Newspaper that competes with “The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times”, Dennis Baron the professor for English in
IIIinois University plus David Crystal who authored and co-authored over one hundred and twenty books. Since they are the credible
sources, they help in building the sense for trust amid the readers and the ideas of Cullington. This makes her argument to be even
more believable. Cullington also uses the technique of including herself as the “frequent texter”. She also uses the technique of
interviewing. This where she interviews the friends plus the former teachers who had thought her. These experiences play a great role
towards helping the readers become familiar with the personal level of Cullington. (Crystal, David pp.77).
Despite Cullington using the above rhetorical techniques to persuade the reader, the argument is not convincing. This is because the
work feels like standard academic paper that lacks interesting choice of words or even imagery to make it more convincing and
appealing. Cullington takes most of her time to getting the readers to invest on what she utters, only to disappoint us by giving a
conclusion which implies that the students plus professionals see no impact. This makes one to question the reader in that why should

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she take most of her time to show the advantages and the disadvantages of texting yet the reader herself does not have her own stand.
Reading the piece one would think that Cullington was more passionate about what she was writing but only to be surprised that the
work lacks energy. It is therefore very clear that she was only trying to notifying us and not transforming us. Generally, detaching
herself from the work turns off the readers but the ability of her blending the current and credible techniques is what tends to make the
argument effective.

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Works Cited
Baron, Dennis. A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution. Oxford UP, 2009.
Carey, Bridget. “The Rise of Text, Instant Messaging Vernacular Slips into Schoolwork.” Miami Herald, 6 Mar. 2007. Academic
OneFile, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?.direct=true&db=ed sgao&AN=edsgcl.160190230&site=eds-live. Accessed 27 Oct. 2009.
Crystal, David. “Texting.” ELT Journal, vol. 62, no. 1, Jan. 2008, pp. 77–83. Academic OneFile, search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?
direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.177163353&site= eds-live. Accessed 8 Nov. 2009. — — —. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8. Oxford UP,
2008.
Golden, Serena. Rev. of A Better Pencil, by Serena Golden. Inside Higher Ed., 18 Sept. 2009, insidehighered.com/
news/2009/09/18/barron. Accessed 9 Nov. 2009.
Shaw, Donita M., et al. “An Exploratory Investigation into the Relationship between Text Messaging and Spelling.” New England
Reading Association Journal, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 57–62. EBSCO Discovery Service for Marywood University, search.
ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=2564808 1&site=eds-live. Accessed 8 Nov. 2009.
“Should We Worry or LOL?” NEA Today, Mar. 2004, p. 12. ProQuest, search.proquest.com/docview/198894194?accountid=42654.
Accessed 27 Oct. 2009