How writing has changed --what does it mean for you?

An article by Eleanor Chute in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took a look at how writing is changing for the younger generations.

 She quotes professor of English, Kathleen Blake Yancey: “We’re moving from submission to participation… I think we're conceiving of writing very differently than we did before. We're understanding writing takes place in lots of different environments and for lots of different purposes.” She cites texting on phones, writing emails, and writing on social media sites.

The article states that Yancey thinks some schools try to erect a firewall between the writing students do outside of school and in school and that schools in the U.S. are only twenty percent toward understanding this. She points out that historically writing has been linked with punishment (like writing, “I will not…” a hundred times, or an essay on why it’s bad to…) and testing. Therefore, it’s no wonder so many people have at least a mild phobia around any kind of formal writing.

 Her conclusions are part of a nine-page report called “Writing in the 21^st Century,” and you can access it here (www.ncte.org/press/21stcentwriting). It’s worth a look; even though it’s not about writing professionally, it has implications for all of us.

(If you're interested in writing for the new media, there's a chapter about it in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available online and offline. Also see the associated website, www.yourwritingcoach.com)