Jim on:Clive Thompson on the New Literacy

I do like the way that Clive Thompson, in his article on the New Literacy has taken the work of Andrea Lunsford a professor from Stanford University, and used it as a defense against those that say that modern literacy is dead. I would have to say that until he pointed out this study of professor Lunsford, my first thought would have been to agree with the statement that Thompson quoted Professor John Sutherland as saying that, “An age of illiteracy is at hand.” (1) In reading the points that Thompson brought out from Lunsford’s study I would have to agree the w are indeed entering a new and bright age of writhing. What I found of particular interest is the idea of what rhetoricians call kairo in which the idea that people writhing today have a great ability to assess their audience and adapt their tone and technique to best get their point across (1) I believe that this is a character quality that are society is teaching us all, for better or for worst, I am not sure.
So I would have to agree with Thompson when he states,” But its also becoming clear that online media are pushing literacy into a cool direction.” (2)