Due 9/25/18
With the extreme advancement in technology in the world in recent years, the ability to write is literally at everyone’s finger tips, more than ever before. This leads to skeptical questions asking if this extreme ease leads to better writing, or simply just more of it. In Clive Thompson’s Public Thinking, he argues that this public forum called the Internet in fact leads to an improvement of writing, along with many other benefits for people of all ages. With websites that allow people to write stories, comment on other’s stories, or simply blog about their lives, there has never been a better and easier way to express one’s feelings publicly or have an outlet for creative writing. This concept of public thinking has affected writers in many ways, including an improvement in writing, knowledge, and the way they think and see the world.
People have written in journals for decades; jotting down their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Some may do this to simply keep record of things happening to them, but according to Thompson, writing these things down helps clarify their thoughts. He assures that professional writers have claimed “writing forces them to distill their vague notions into clear ideas” (51). While something may be unclear in their heads, writing it down helps them unravel it and understand. Not only writers feel this way, but famous poets have also commented on this claim. Thompson includes Cecil Day-Lewis’ quote: “We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand,” to further back up this idea (51). The internet provides an online forum not only for people to have an outlet to share thoughts with others, but to also be able to understand their own thoughts as well. This is what is beautiful about modern-day technology, writing to the masses is just as simple as writing for yourself. Due to public thinking, clarifying one’s thoughts has never been so simple and easy.
Thompson’s best and most noticeable strength is his ability to mix in evidence with his claims. He uses a variety of sources including statistics, quotes, and personal experiences. His claims are powerful and persuasive because of the evidence he chooses. In the beginning, Thompson starts with a story about a Kenyan blogger and her political motive behind her desire to write. She is not anyone famous or well-known, but her story speaks to the audience, and was a great selection by Thompson. After this story, he transitions into the plethora of information and words that are found on the Internet. The exact quotes and data he uses was perfect to back up this claim that there is a multitude of writing on the Internet, and no other kind of evidence would have this same effect on the audience. To back up his claim that writing clarifies thinking, he uses the words of famous poets and writers. Since he used these quotes, he was able to establish credibility with the audience, because they can learn about writing’s effects from actual famous writers. Thompson’s main strength is the evidence he chose to use for each exact claim, because each certain kind adds the right effect he intended to have on the audience.
Deegan Roecker 