Alerted this morning to a new book, A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers and the Digital Revolution by Professor Dennis Baron. Professor Baron appears to be providing the larger context to counter the argument that technology is destroying our ability to write.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or even a professor, to grasp that every meaningful innovation affecting writing (and perhaps every innovation period) has been met with some degree of skepticism, scorn, disdain, fear or anxiety from some sector. Every technology adds to and subtracts from the prior experience, forcing us into a perpetual cost-benefit analysis when faced with the choice of tools to apply to the writing trade.

So, how does that cost benefit analysis play out in the current digital writing environment? How are our students, immersed in short form blogging and texting, faring in more demanding intellectual writing pursuits? Well, never fear (or fear less), as Professor Baron suggests that these students grow out of their “childish” writing styles to address their audience appropriately when the time comes to do so. Just like some children are born to be writers, while others are not, technology ultimately should not hamper or hinder their efforts to communicate.

Hat tip to Legal Writing Prof Blog.