Clive Thomson who is the author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds For the Better is a Canadian freelance journalist, blogger and science and technology writer. He writes to inform the public about the great benefits advancements in technology has given us by using real life examples and testimonies of people. Thompson does this to show people who might be skeptical about how the internet can actually benefit our society and not destroy it. In the portion of his book that we will be focusing on, “Public Thinking”, Thompson claims that the more a person writes the better they will become at writing over time. In this paper, I will examine Thompson’s claims and show the different types of strategies he uses to support his claims and possibly sway his audience.
Thompson begins his text with a story of a woman named Ory Okolloh whom is a perfect example for one of his main claims. While studying law she was encouraged to start a blog by some of her colleagues. At first she had no idea what to write but eventually the more she did it the easier it became. She says, “I became very disciplined,…Knowing I had these people reading me, I was very self-conscious to build my arguments, back up what I wanted to say.” (Smarter Than You Think 48) Her quote ties in perfectly with one of Thompson’s main claims which is, a person can become a better writer if they have an audience. A study done on students by professor Brenna Clarke Gray proves this. She assigned her students to create Wikipedia entries on Canadian writers to see if it would change the way they wrote and it did. Thompson writes, “ …the students explained to her, was that their audience—the Wikipedia community—…were harder “graders” than Gray herself.” (Smarter Than You Think 56) Thomson uses concrete evidence, a study, to show that the audience really does have a great affect on how careful people are when they write.
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