A June 15 Chronicle of Higher Education article by Josh Keller describes the “Stanford Study of Writing” and how this massive, longitudinal study of the writing lives of students might “settle the argument” about the way Internet writing affects/inflects writing ability.  The article also mentions a smaller study of the writing habits of Michigan State first-year students and other efforts to launch similar longitudinal studies.

So many people are interested (and invested) in this question of how the Internet changes the way we write. These studies have the potential of putting composition work into the mainstream media–and focusing attention on the deeper writing and communication potential of these environments and away from the most recent versions of the old “these kids today can’t write!” attitudes.

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