Writing: what and who?

[see: Feenberg 1989]

Recent years have seen the proliferation of remedial writing courses in colleges, and the gradual decline of the childhood pastime of reading for pleasure. Feenberg states: in this context CMC seems to promise that writing will once again become a universal form of expression. Who will be writing though? And what type of writing will they be doing? Will the formal writing be done by an ever-decreasing few, or will there greater adoption of informal writing, in informal contexts?

I wonder though, given the rendered-down vocabulary of texting, the informal writing style of email, and the conversational writing style of weblogs that there will indeed be a shift towards more writing... but a less formal writing in which the message is more important than any other factor?

[tag: writing]