Writing in the 21st Century

For our poster, we emphasized Yancey’s idea that writing has transformed over the last century. Writing goes far beyond the traditional idea of books, text, and libraries. Writing has become incredibly prominent in our everyday lives through the increasing popularity of digital media. We are constantly writing on our phones, computers, and iPads. In many ways, this strong presence of digital media has allowed this generation to expand our ability to compose. Yancey argued that writing has traditionally been handwriting and testing, however, in the 21^st century, it has become much more knowledge-based. We focused on this idea in our poster and highlighted the importance of technology in relation to writing. Most people are constantly writing – whether they realize it or not. When you send a text message, post an Instagram, or even send a Snapchat, you are writing and publicizing ideas. Most students prefer to write and take notes on their computers, not by hand. However, this shift in forms of writing has proven to be just as powerful, important, and influential as handwriting.