Analyzing Writing Styles: How the Internet Is Changing How People Listen, Article Critique Example

Introduction  

Writing is usually considered as an artistic process of putting words together to create a single thought that could affect the target readers. Understandably, this is the reason why many writers take different procedures in creating their written works so as to make sure that they are able to convey the messages they want to send to their audience. Most often than not, the reaction of the readers regarding a written piece depends on the strategy that the writer used to get their attention and retain their interest in the written work. For some writers, to be able to get the interest of their audience, they tend to tackle current events and implore on the different aspects that make up these issues and carefully put their ideas and research into writing. For Esther Dyson, her desire of reaching her readers came close to the evident correlation of social growth and how the internet specifically affects this aspect of modern human development. In her article Attention Must Be Paid: How the Internet is changing how people listen, she mentions about the most crucial points from which internet has changed the pattern of attention that the human society perceived it with in comparison to the then and now status of communication and popularity.

How did the author of this article find the most comprehensive ways of establishing her argument? How well did she present their opinions? Are there researches she used or at least some data from reputable sources that could better prove her assumptions as this issue is a primary social concern at present? These questions and other directive analysis queries shall be addressed in the discussion that follows. Focusing on the caliber of writing that the author used to present both her ideas and the collected facts for her topic, this presentation shall impose on whether or not the writing was effective enough to provide ample support to the thesis the writer hopes to present her readers with.

About the Article

Esther Dyson specifically wants to point out how the idea on the word “attention” has already changed through the years. Understandably, it could be identified that through her discussion, she intends to show the difference through citing some particular examples that defined attention in the past compared to the present years. She further identifies in her article that in the past, “attention” is only experienced by those who are made popular through media. Businesses that opt to use the attention-marketing are hoped to take on expansive and expensive ways to reach the attention of their target market. However, with today’s improved system of modern communication, attention is becoming a common matter for almost everyone.

Dyson cites networking sites in the internet to be one of the primary sources of popularity among people.  It could be realized that since the entrant of social networking, people have become more cautious of whether or not their online profiles are being viewed by their friends or their “followers”. TO make sure that they remain to be in the “popular” list of online personalities, they do best to update their profiles every now and then and constantly connect with other people to make sure that their online activity gets noticed and thus does not fall short when it comes to the attention-rate that everyone else wants to incur for themselves. In the same manner, businesses today are willingly presenting their profiles online to get more attention. Besides the fact that this is a much cheaper form of marketing compared to other media-approaches, getting attention from online followers specifically create a more definite reputation for the organizations who chose online popularity to be a form of marketing their business to the world.

True, Dyson analyzed the trend of “getting attention” to be a changing phase of human development based on communication and technology. People now are more interested in following those who think like them, people they may not actually know, but share the same positions and opinions as they do. The worth of attention has been shifted from putting interest on who is famous as suggested by the media to who is popular based on the thoughts of the people who chose to meet new friends and new personalities online.

Analyzing the Article’s Makeup

The primary basis of Dyson’s article is dependent on practical knowledge and the actuality of the topic being discussed. It could be observed how she used “common knowledge” as a strong foundation of her arguments in the article. Knowing that at least 80% of her readers know about “social networking” in the internet, she uses that social knowledge to create an edge in redefining the word “attention” in a way that the world is able to relate with at present. The voice of her writing could be clearly identified with the grammar she used which appeared like as if she was directly talking to her audience. Although her approach was formal in presenting the data that she has collected, she was careful enough to make sure that the readers would be able to easily relate to what she was trying to say in her article. Analyzing the course of her process in developing a common understanding among her readers, she makes sure that the topic she tackles could be easily understood by the public. For example, she utilizes this sentence to make a considerable presentation on what she is about to tackle within the content of her article: “Attention” is becoming more interesting now that the Internet makes it easier to measure it” (Dyson, Internet). Take note that in this sentence, she immediately engages her readers into the two primary elements she is going to present in her writing, “attention” and the “internet”. Placing this sentence at the end of the first paragraph of her article immediately puts the perception of the reader into condition as to what they are supposed to expect from the entire article.

When it comes to presenting the supporting facts to her argument, she utilize the convincing voice aiming to get not only the interest but also their concurrence on the opinions that she has which she suggests for their agreement. To make the discussion easier to follow, she utilizes a step-by-step presentation of the primary factors that make up the development of “attention” among human individuals in consideration with the relationship they share with others. Take note of this passage from her fourth paragraph where she says “Basically, attention has three quantifiable aspects: time, completeness, and value” (Dyson, Internet). From here, she tries to create a pattern from which the entire article would be based upon. Presenting this pattern early on in the discussion provides the readers a clear path on what they should expect from the presentation.

Another point of consideration that makes Dyson’s writing implicative and affective is the fact that she tried to use an example or illustration to further strengthen her argument on defining the development of “attention” perception among human individuals today. She makes use of the following example: Is Juan talking to Alice, but looking at the woman at the next table or thinking about the deal he’s working on? If so, only Juan knows how much attention he is allocating to Alice and how much to other things. (But Alice can guess!) Any speaker addressing an audience is getting the sum of the partial attention of its members, while giving each of them only a small share of her own. (Dyson, internet)

Basing from the example given, it could be considered that the voice of the writer has just garnered a personal style of presenting her facts. Instead of simply stating what she knows or what is evident in the activity of most people today, she tries to relate the situation upon the actual operations that humans intend to responsively correlate with others in their environment.

Conclusion

Every writer’s character is shown through the way he writes. This fact has been proven over time through analyzing the written crafts of several writing artists. The desire of the writers to be heard however is not enough to help them make worthwhile reads that the public would be able to respond to. From the discussion presented herein, it was clear how Dyson tried to convince her readers in consideration with her arguments about the developing span of attention based upon how the people perceive modern ways of communication and connecting with other through the internet. With the use of different writing strategies, the work of Dyson specifically speaks to her audience in a remarkable manner that does not only present facts, but also convinces her readers to her beliefs.

References:

Dyson, Esther. (2011). Attention Must Be Paid:  How the Internet is changing how people.  listen. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/project_syndicate/2011/09/attention_must_be_paid.html. (October 2, 2011).

Glaser, Joe. (2009). Understanding Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing. Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition.