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Kyle Brown

Jan Rieman

English 1103-006

April 13, 2011

This Inquiry process has been quite the ordeal. First of all just thinking of a topic

to write about was hard. I had to think of something that would keep me interested and

that I would find a lot about. Then came the research, which was probably the easiest

part of the whole process. Finally the paper came and it was time to do my best. There

has been a lot of thinking involved in this paper but I think it has helped me to be able to

create my own opinions and find my voice on opinions other than my subject matter of

this paper. Although this probably is not my best work I would like to think that I gave it

my all. I think my writing style has improved greatly throughout the semester and it

shows more on this paper than any of the others. What works well in this draft are my

opinions. I think that I have been able to find my voice and really put forth my opinions.

The area that I think I need work on is keeping a steady flow in the paper. That is the key

to keeping your reader interested. As you read, think about how the Internet has

influenced your writing.

The Influence of the Internet on Language and Writing

The Internet is taking over our lives. That sounds scary but it has been slowly

creeping into every aspect of our lives in the past decade or so. With all of the

information being crammed into our heads through the Internet on a daily basis it is

undoubtedly changing our outlook on the world around us, and the way we choose to

spend our free time. People are using the Internet as a newspaper, book, and television
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and even as a movie theater. The Internet has changed all of these aspects of our lives but

is it changing our language and the way we write and the way we communicate? When I

set out to do my research I wanted to answer this very question. I found many different

opinions; some claimed that the English language is being butchered by the Internet

while others claimed it is making and writing more complex than it has ever been. There

were also claims that it is changing the way we communicate.Be it for the good or the

bad, I believe that the Internet has forever changed language, the way we write, and the

way we communicate.

Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University, believes that

there are three main influences of the Internet on language. The first influence Baron

describes is writing used as an expression of informal or spoken language. She argues,

“messages may be peppered with words like cuz (because) and ya (you)” (177). I think

that being used in regular writing the use of these words would be egregious but in an

instant or text message the use of these words would be just fine. I agree with Baron that

this kind of writing is having an effect on language but when we are writing a text

message it is not meant to be formal, it is meant to be informal like a phone conversation.

I have heard that people have let these acronyms slip into their writing but fort the most

part they said that they had caught themselves. If one day these acronyms are accepted in

the English language we will know we are in big trouble.

The next influence that Baron implies is with the Internet becoming more

prevalent in our lives we have started to compound words more. “The Internet may nudge

language toward more compounding, though not because of a frontier spirit” Professor

Baron implies. “Increasingly, I find that students are genuinely confused about when to
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use a compound” (178). I have often found myself caught in this dilemma that Baron

describes. There are words like “a lot” and “News Paper” that are often difficult for me to

remember if they are a compound or not. This has come from the hours that I have spent

on the Internet. If you look up something on Google or type a web address in the search

bar they always are one word because websites do not have spaces in their names. I agree

with Baron that this compounding of words is changing our language.

The final aspect of the Internet that Baron emphasizes has changed our language

is the “spell check” feature commonly found on word processing programs. Baron

emphasizes that since we have spell check to correct us, every time we make a mistake

we are missing out on a potential opportunity to improve our orthography (178). I have

always thought of spell check to be a savior but I acknowledge her argument that we miss

out on those precious opportunities to improve our writing skills. This is a bad effect that

the Internet and technology have had on writing. A whole new generation of writers is

going to use spell check and will probably not take the time to learn how to spell certain

words correctly. On the other hand, they may not even need to in the future but if all the

computers crashed all over the world they would be out of luck.

Another facet of writing that the Internet is changing is Academic or college

writing. The Internet has undeniably changed college writers with the advent of

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs and many other forms of social networking. Josh

Keller, a journalist for The Chronicle of Higher Education, argues, “the rise of online

media has helped raise a new generation of college students who write far more, and in

more diverse forms, than their predecessors did” (742). Keller also implies that “while

many scholars see this new writing as engaging and connected to an audience, many
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argue that online writing such as tweets and instant messaging encourage bad writing

habits and lack of a focused argument for academic writing” (743). Throughout his article

Keller is arguing that out-of-class writing has a broader audience than in-class writing,

and accomplishes clear goals. I agree with these statements but I know that while social

networking has opened the door for students to become more opinionated and has made

them become more everyday writers, they are less focused forms of writing and

sometimes they can translate into the world of academic writing.

The Internet has affected language so much that it now is starting to affect the

way we communicate with each other. I have grown up during the age when the Internet

evolved into something bigger than it was ever expected to be. First there was email and

instant messaging, now we have evolved into social networking and Skype. These have

all changed the way we communicate in that now we have so many different means of

communicating with each other. Skype Video chatting has grown in popularity over the

past few years and is becoming very popular. With social networking we can see what

everyone we know is doing at the exact moment they do it. You can link accounts to your

phone and get updates at any time. With this has come a loss of privacy but without a

doubt it has changed our language. David Crystal, a lecturer at Bangor University implies

that “language being such a sensitive index of social change, it would be surprising

indeed if such a radically innovative phenomenon did not have a corresponding impact

on the way we communicate” (237). Jenny Preece, the dean of the College of Information

studies at the University of Maryland, also suggests that “with the advent of the telephone

and television, the introduction of computers into the home is changing how people

interact socially” (20). I agree with Crystal and Preece in that the Internet has had such an
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impact on the way we connect to the world, that it in turn has altered the way we

communicate and interact socially with people around the world.

The fact that people have acclimated language to fit new areas is proof in itself that the

Internet has changed language and writing. Crystal insists, “What is truly remarkable is

that so many people have learned so quickly to adapt their language to meet the demands

of the new situations, and to exploit the potential of the new medium so creatively to

form new areas of expression. It has al happened within a few decades” (242). I

acknowledge the fact all of this has happened only in a matter of years. The Internet was

created only a few decades ago and has only started to be used to its potential in the

recent years. I have always thought that language has adapted through all forms of

technology but with the Internet we can use pictures, sounds, videos and all forms of

media to express ourselves and get what message we want out to the world if they are

willing to see it.

So is the Internet changing language and the way we write and the way we

communicate? I believe that it has forever changing these aspects of our lives. I have

found in my research that many different arguments can be made. Some say it is making

our language worse and some say it is helping to make our language more complex. One

principle rings true throughout all of my research: the Internet is constantly changing our

language, the way we write and the way we communicate with each other.
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Works Cited

Baron, Naomi S. Always on: Language in an Online and Mobile World. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2008. Print.

Crystal, David. Language and the Internet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,

2001. Print.

Keller, Josh. “Studies Explore Whether the Internet Makes Students Better Writers.” The

Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle.com, 15 June 2009. Web. 23 Mar.

2011.

Preece, Jenny. Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability. New

York: John Wiley, 2000. Print.

Kyle,

Nicely done! You present an engaging look into the issues of the internet and its effects

on our communication. There is no doubt that the time we spend in cyberspace affects

how we read and write (and you may want to include reading in your revision as well, at

least in passing).

Ideas for revision: pargagraph 2 seems weaker than your others and you may want to

think how to supplement your information there. Also, you do veer off from the internet

itself with the idea of spell check in para 3, and may want to modify this approach some.

See my marginal comments for further suggestions. Please write a talk back.
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Professor Rieman,

Thank you for your good and constructive feedback. It is great to know that a

teacher is actually taking their own time to read your paper and not just looking for

grammatical errors even though there were quite a few in my paper! Thank you for all of

your constructive feedback. I will remember your tips and apply them to the academic

writing I will be doing in the future.