Computer tools may be dumbing down student writing
In one of this week’s most-mailed articles from the Chronicle,
G. David Pollick, president of Birmingham-Southern College, says:
“The style of writing is changing — it’s becoming conditioned by
models and forms,” he said. Grammar-checker features of word
processors, for instance, often mark flowery phrases as mistakes and
suggest bland alternatives, he said. “You start to lose a lot of
artistic and aesthetic quality.”“It increasingly makes the language a dead language instead of a live
language,” he added. “If a computer model starts to become the form of
communication, then what you end up with is a language that is dying
instead of one that gets richer and richer through use.”
Professors Give Mixed Reviews of Internet’s
Educational Impact [subscription required] By Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of
Higher Education, (August 12, 2005) Volume 51, Issue 49, Page A32.
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