McSweeny’s response

In the articles “Internet-age writing syllabus and course overview” and “College writing assignments with real world applications” from McSweeny’s Internet Tendency, there is a clear commentary amongst the satirical tone of both pieces. The message being that younger generations unappreciation of books and other print media is having negative effects despite the illusion of positive growth. This is well outlined in Internet-age Writing when the author Robert Lanham writes “Students will examine why former generations carried around heavy clumps of bound paper and why they chose to read instead of watching TV or playing Guitar Hero.” This is written in a section titled “reading is stoopid” and while it’s written in a very dry, funny way it still shows that the preference for media that’s easier to consume doesn’t impart the same lessons. The whole piece pokes fun at kids these days (lacking better words) and how young people aren’t getting the same information on grammar and spelling, so while it may be easier to watch a couple tiktoks and call it a day, no actual knowledge is being retained. By writing this in such a sarcastic funny way, its impossible not to look at how ridiculous this notion is. In College Writing Assignments, author Cameron Dodd writes in a similar way, coming up with all too real but still hilarious situations in which traditional writing techniques could be applied. This turns the idea that academic writing classes will only be applied to academic writing situations on its head. Maybe in the 1930’s people would scratch their heads and worry about writing their next collection of essays to be displayed in the library, but a much more modern worry is “oh shit how do I tell my mom I’m dropping out of college”. By framing the article that way it both highlights that academics have to evolve with the times or they will end up out of date and obsolete, and that modern problems require modern solutions. I’m not going to find a college course on how to handle my family members asking me for money, because those two points have not merged yet. Even though it’s hilarious to think about writing a college essay on one of Dodds topics such as “Write a Post-It note to your landlord with a feasible yet non-cliché explanation for being late on this month’s rent.” it still shows the gap between those two problems extremely well.