Exploring Thompson

Gerald Lappay
RWS 100
Professor Werry
September 4, 2014

Question #1 (to Thompson): In your piece, you describe places on the internet where you found immense amounts of writing. What was the most interesting website (or area of the internet in general) where you found interesting pieces of writing? Why were they so interesting?

Question #2 (to Thompson): This generation of young people has its highs and lows. Some can generate interesting, thought-provoking pieces and others ... can produce garbage. What are your thoughts on this generation and its writers?

One element I found persuasive was the "we write a whole lot" example. I get hooked when someone pulls big numbers like that, because I want to know how and where he got those figures.

Another persuasive element was the study on children he presented. When I read pieces like these, I really resonate with studies done on children. I'm not absolutely sure why that's the case.

An element I found less persuasive was when Thompson transitions into answering the question of "how is all of this writing changing our cognitive behavior?" (Public Thinking 51) It gets pretty dense and easy to lose focus on reading the piece.

At first, the story about Ory Okolloh can seem to be one of the most dense, uninteresting aspects of Public Thinking. But as Thompson goes on about sharing your ideas, be it online or otherwise, the story about a blogger sharing her ideas online seems to connect with the rest of the piece.