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Texting is the downfall of the young generation’s minds and linguistic skills. This misconception drives the older generation mad due to their inability to get outside their stubbornness to allow the adaptations to the times. My reasons for researching this topic are to understand the way this community conducts itself and presents its rhetoric. Being able to control your rhetoric and apply it to your work is something essential when it comes to a community trying to make a claim. My discourse community focuses on the effects of texting on our youth. There is a scientific journal called PLoS One where there are articles that cover the effects that texting has on younger generations. My discourse community is simply trying to address the misconceived notions that revolve around the topic of texting. Most people believe that texting ruins our linguistic skills when it comes to writing, speech, and social situations. However, my discourse community wants to make it clear that this is a normal part of the evolution of language and is the reason why language to this day still thrives due to its ability to adapt. My sources use various tactics to relate to their projected audience, including, visual rhetoric, injecting a pathos into their writings, and finally adding an ethos to persuade the audience with facts.
My first source by John Mcwhorter, is a Ted Talk expressing his view on the stigma that affects our older generation. He takes the stance that texting is advancing language rather than the preconceived notion that it’s destroying it. Mcwhorter uses examples from previous generations to try and make his audience see that they aren’t the first generation to have the same concerns. He uses these examples to make the audience self-reflect, but at the same time allows him to connect with his audience and claim to be just like them. The goal of his presentation is to show the audience the errors in their mindsets and try to make them adopt his way of thinking. His point of view on texting and his expertise allow him to persuade his audience as well as make the audience see him as a reliable source. His visual rhetoric also allows for the connection between him and the audience because he is dressed casually just like an average blue/white collared worker. These minor details enable him to persuade his audience and build a connection with them to solidify his claim.
The article written in English Live uses a comedic approach to start the reader off with a connection to the article. It then makes an argument for both sides of the debate and shows the differences in opinion. On top of that, it also acts as a pros and cons to texting and the effects it has. The article was meant to target the older generation and with that in mind, the way the article starts is key to its success. The exaggeration of the abbreviations at the start of the article shows how comedic texting can be. This makes the audience not take it seriously which is the goal of the article. Texting shouldn’t be something that’s taken so seriously, but rather taken in a comedic way where it’s just people talking and not writing deliberate forms of writing.
Both articles inject pathos through comedy to show their audience that texting shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Texting is simply a new form of communication that was enabled through technology and the evolution of our language. Another aspect of the two articles is that both make it so that they include facts and examples to show why their point is valid and correct. The stance that these articles take is what makes their entire argument come together and what enables them to use tactics that involve their rhetoric. Taking a stance against the common stigma brings them attention and the increased attention also allows for their ideals to be heard by a larger mass of people. Any subject that’s against the norm causes it to become looked at more even if it’s not in a positive light. Being able to take that attention and transform it into an experience for the audience enables them to persuade and show why their mindsets should be adopted by their audiences. Both articles try to show the reasons why texting is not destroying language and the beneficial outcomes that come from texting.
In conclusion, the way these articles present their argument and the way that they connect with their audiences allows them to highlight the misconceptions that revolve around texting. The rhetoric presented by both articles is similar in a way and expresses the way that this group comes together to push the same point. Although both sources have different levels of credibility the endpoint is the same whether it’s a Ted Talk from a scholar linguist like McWhorter or a writer for English Live. It’s important to understand that the constant bashing about texting and its negative effects is simply the ignorant words of the older generation who doesn’t fully understand it due to it being the youth’s evolution and not their own.
My analysis is on the misconceptions of texting and the projected audience that I am trying to convince is the older generation. I am showing how my sources use rhetoric such as pathos and ethos to convince their audiences that the stigma that they all believe in is misguided and wrong. My rhetorical situation is to state the ways that these articles support my thesis and to use ethos to show my readers why these sources are key to understanding my argument. Showing the techniques used by this group allows the readers to self-reflect and allows them to get out of their ignorance. My issue with my draft is that I believe that I may have messed up with my punctuation especially when it comes to my commas. Another concern that I have is that I want my analysis to appeal to an older generation and the fact that I’m of the younger generation creates a barrier where I can only relate to them so much. I’d like to know if my draft possesses good rhetoric to connect with my projected audience while at the same time making it clear that I am of the younger generation for credibility purposes. The only sources I have is about older generations connecting and I want my analysis to have a younger generation member connect to an older one to diminish the gap between our mindsets.
Sources:
- The Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children. PloS One, Public Library of Science, 31 Mar. 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4816572/ (Links to an external site.)
- McWhorter, John. Transcript of Txtng Is Killing Language. JK!!!’. TED, https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk/transcript?language=en.
- Is Text Messaging Ruining the English Language? EF English Live, 30 July 2019, https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/english-in-the-real-world/is-text-messaging-ruining-the-english-language/.
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