Writing Assignment Intro and one Body

Alex Schlack

RWS100

Chris Werry

September 7, 2014

Writing Assignment Rough Draft

            In the text Smarter Than You Think, written by Clive Thompson, is a very interesting piece of work that talks about the change and evolution of reading and writing over the past thirty to forty years and stresses upon the benefits of the new technological advancements today.  A little background information about Clive Thompson; Clive is an American Journalist born in Canada and graduated form the University of Toronto where he studies political science and English.  He then started working for New York Times Magazine where he got interested in learning about digital technologies and their social and cultural impact on publications. In his work, he is mainly trying to get us to believe that people have the wrong views on technology and social media, because as he talks about and backs up with facts, is that today the amount of words being spoken and read a day have increased drastically over the years and have actually made the average person smarter.  In my analysis form his text, I will examine the various uses of strategy that he uses in order to get his point across, and also the evidence that backs it up.

            One of the claims that Clive uses to support his main argument was to specify exactly how more reading and writing benefits that way you public think. In doing this, he uses various journalists and American scholars who study this stuff as well to assist him.  As Deborah Brandt said, “It helps Clarify one’s thinking,” “It crystallizes your thought.”  You see this very important. Because society today thinks that all this tweeting and facebooking is a big distraction an brain killer when in reality it helps us due to all the reading; it clarifies our thought process.  One of the strategies that Clive uses to support his evidence is through ethos, and how he establishes credibility in his research. Gaining insight from all these journalists is extremely helpful when trying to convince the reader. Clive also throws out tons of facts and statistics with the hope of shocking the reader, and to exemplify how often people actually write and talk each day.  Utilizing intellectually evidence and statistics is a major strength, by persuading the reader by overwhelming them with information and surprising them with notes that never knew about.  One aspect that Clive does lack though in his writing is the opposing view. He never really talks about what the people who disagree with him, think as well.  That is important so Clive can say this is what people think, this is what I know. He can empower the public by doing so, and help influence peoples point of view on this dispute.