Hamilton 1

April Hamilton
Professor Lohmeyer
English Composition 101
December 13, 2016
Text Me Your Essay
Text me your essay, said your English teacher. Dont know how to respond or possibly
confused as of what he/she said? Were we not always taught to write adequately? Perhaps we are
entering a new era of writing and need to update our writing skills in order to keep up with the
new advancements in todays society. Michaela Cullington attended Marywood University in
Pennsylvania. She graduated in 2014 with a masters degree in speech and language pathology.
While she was at Marywood University, Cullington wrote the essay Does Texting Affect
Writing? In this essay Cullington argues how a students writing abilities are not affected by
texting.
Texting has a positive impact on a students writing because of the ability to motivate
students to write, be able to practice different kinds of writing skills, and allows them to have
confidence in what they are writing. Cullington brings forward the point that students have an
interest to write because in a text, they learn how to summarize what they want to say in the as
few as words possible (Cullington 364). Through a text, a student that encounters with writing or
having good grades, provides the student to have more practice in exercising a form of writing.
Students have the ability to practice writing through a text. It is easy for students to text since
they are comfortable and enjoy doing it as well (Cullington 365). Cullington writes how new

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forms of texting have become quite popular by using abbreviations. In Cullingtons view,
Teenagers have, for example, created an entirely new languageone that uses abbreviations
and symbols instead of words, does not require punctuation, and uses short, incomplete phrases
throughout the entire conversation, (Cullington 365). Cullingtons point is that teenagers are
still able to understand each other in what they are saying when the writing is abbreviated.
Cullington does her own research to find out if texting affects a students writing abilities.
By creating surveys for students, questions for teachers, and analyzing students assignments, it
helped Cullington discover how her peers and people of other ages have different viewpoints on
texting effecting writing. After this research, Cullington was surprised how different the students
and teachers answers were (Cullington 367).
Results through Cullingtons research proves that texting does not affect a students
writing. From students survey answers, students know when it is appropriate to write formally
and the difference between texting and formally writing (Cullington 367). She also found that
through her questioning with the teachers that they agreed with the assessment. Cullington
gathered information and figures from other experts to support her own argument.
On the basis of Cullingtons research and support, she can confidently state that texting
has no significant effect on student writing. According to Cullington, most people dont think of
the positive impact texting has from motivating students, allows different kinds of writing skills,
and giving confidence. She also was surprised how differently the students answers were from
the teachers answers when she surveyed them. Cullington found it intriguing through her results
how students and teacher have the same thought of knowing when and when not to write
formally.

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Citations:
Cullington, Michaela. Does Texting Affect Writing? They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in
Academic Writing with Readings 3rd ed. Ed. Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2015. 361-370. Print