Exploring Thompson

       In Clive Thompson’s “Public Thinking” he goes into detail about how having an audience improves the way we write by providing the reader with a lot of evidence such as studies and statistics. Some questions I have for Thompson about his text are, Do you Clive Thompson believe that everyone who has some sort of social media account can write better than someone who has never had one? and Is there ways to become a better writer without the presence of an audience or technology?

Thompson makes a lot of good claims in his text but one that stood out to me the most was when he talked about how an audience can make people better writers. He writes, “Audiences clarify the mind even more. Bloggers…think about he fact that someone’s going to read this as soon as it’s posted. And suddenly all the weak points in their argument, their clichés and lazy, autofill thinking, become painfully obvious.” (Smarter Than You Think 52) I found this claim to be very persuasive because he states something that everyone who has ever written something for the public to read has been through. In other words he makes his argument very relatable.

Another element from Thompson’s text that I found most persuasive was that he used a lot of evidence to support his claims. Such as, “Researchers have found similar effects with older students and adults. When asked to write for a real audience…students write essays that are substantially longer and have better organization…than when they're writing for their teacher.” (Smarter Than You Think 55) In the presence of an audience people tend to think more about what they write which in exchange turns out to be a better essay. 

Although Thompson does a great job of appealing to the reader by providing them with text that they can relate and with a substantial amount of evidence to support his claims he misses out on one thing. He does not provide any views from people on the opposing side. This was one big weakness in his text. Thompson persuades his audience but never includes counterarguments which he can rebuttal to. 

Other than that flaw in Thompson’s text he does a very god job at everything else. Such as when he introduced Kenyan-born Ory Okolloh at the beginning of “Public Thinking”. I believe Thomson does this to show as an example of how much the effect of an audience can have on a blogger which is also the main claim for his whole text. He uses Okolloh’s story as something that people can relate to because it’s something that actually happened. In sum, Thompson writes a very good and persuasive text that can sway the reader very easily.