Beyond Traditional Literacy: Using New Media to Develop Traditional and Multimodal Literacy A LY S S A B O B I C H
FOR DECADES, professors have lamented a
In the thirteen years since this study was
growing number of students who enter college
published, new media, including social media,
without the basic literacy skills necessary
online videos, and text messaging, has ingrained
to perform well in a rigorous academic
itself into our everyday lives, transforming
environment. Yet a 2008 study comparing
how we communicate and express ourselves.
writing errors in first-year college student
Students are no exception to this evolution.
essays across the past one hundred years found
Although once again there has been a public
that, on average, “the rate of student error…
outcry against new media’s detrimental effects
has stayed stable” (Glenn 360). Compositions
on writing skills of the generation growing up
have, however, changed: “emphasis on personal
with the Internet in their pocket, I argue that
narrative has been replaced by an emphasis
these new forms of media have simply reshaped
on argument and research” and papers more
the type of writing in which students engage,
than doubled in length compared to data from
even offering opportunities for an expanded
1980 (Glenn 351-352). Student writing has not
literacy. New media both familiarizes students
deteriorated in quality; it has simply taken a
with traditional literacy skills and introduces
different form.
new, multimodal literacies invaluable to their
A LY S S A B O B I C H is a Los Angeles native studying English and Finance at Loyola Marymount University, where she was recently recognized as the 2022 English Program Scholar. Her fascination with the role of linguistic conventions in creating meaning within discourse communities inspired her essay “Beyond Traditional Literacy." Written in Fall 2021 for Dr. Aimee Ross-Kilroy's Theory of Teaching Writing and Literature class, the essay examines the stylistic conventions of digital communication and their application in
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teaching traditional writing. After graduation, Alyssa plans on completing her first novel and continuing her education at Loyola Marymount University's School of Education.
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