The+Persistence+of+Writing

= Thomas Burkdall. “The Persistence of Writing.” =

// EDUCAUSE Review //, vol. 44, no. 3 (May/June 2009): 58–59. Internet.

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 * Abstract **

An intellectual apocalypse may be looming: Caleb Crain informs us that the "Twilight of the Books" is upon us, whereas Steve Jobs tells us that the concept of Amazon's Kindle is "flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."1 At the Conference on College Composition and Communication in March 2009, workshops focused on how to assess multimodal assignments, rather than the traditional essay. And the Modern Language Association annual convention in December 2008 opened with a panel on multimedia. Is reading dead? Is the teaching of writing becoming a more difficult exercise because of these mounting cultural pressures against reading and writing? It appears that we might as well "stop the sea" (as Leopold Bloom muses in //Ulysses)// as take up arms against the onslaught of multimedia. = = =** Argument **=

In this article, Thomas Burkdall addresses the question as to whether or not multimedia is killing people’s desire to read and write. He makes his opinion on the matter clear by quoting Mark Twain: “The reports of the death are greatly exaggerated.”

Burkdall is not at all afraid of the rise of multimedia as he personally uses it in his own work and teaches it to his students. However, he believes that multimedia will never replace the value of reading and the written word. When he makes his argument, he subtly reveals how much he values reading by commonly quoting works from authors like Jonathan Swift and Marcel Proust. Writing, he believes, is a form of communication that is essential to the development of humanity.

It is not until the end of the article that Burkdall reveals how much he respects multimedia. He believes multimedia can be used to better convince our audience of what we say through our writing. After all, a good argument depends on how compelling it is, both audibly and visually. Instead of wasting our time bashing writing or whining about how multimedia is replacing writing, we should start teaching both so students can better learn the value of expression.

=**Key passages**=

“Even if multimedia expression will eventually dominate our intellectual discourse—as it, arguably, has now come to dominate our popular communication—the written word and its systems will continue to have an influence on us.”

“Rather than banishing writing or lamenting the development of multimedia, as Socrates famously deplored the introduction of writing, let us teach both writing and multimedia. Each has distinct purposes and effects that students will discover as they explore their expressive and analytic potential.”

“Reading allows both contemplation and discourse, offering isolation and community. More important, reading and writing have altered us and continue so to do.”

=**Works Cited**=


 * 1) Caleb Crain, "Twilight of the Books: What Will Life Be Like If People Stop Reading?" //New Yorker//, December 24, 2007, <@http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge_crain>; Jobs quoted in John Markoff, "The Passion of Steve Jobs," //New York Times//, January 15, 2008, .
 * 2) Nancy Bunge, "Assign Books, and Students Will Read," //Chronicle of Higher Education//, October 17, 2008, p. 24.
 * 3) Crain, "Twilight of the Books."
 * 4) Maryanne Wolf, //Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain// (New York: HarperCollins, 2007).
 * 5) Marcel Proust, //On Reading//, preface and translation by John Sturrock (London: Penguin, 1994), p. 27.
 * 6) Walter J. Ong, //Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word// (London: Methuen, 1982), p. 78.
 * 7) Jack Goody, //The Power of the Written Tradition// (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000), p. 133.
 * 8) Ong, //Orality and Literacy//, p. 104.
 * 9) Sturrock, preface to Proust, //On Reading//, p. vii.
 * 10) Crain, "Twilight of the Books."
 * 11) Wolf, //Proust and the Squid//, pp. 228–29.