Explain how effective is David Crystal in refuting John Humphrys’ thesis that texters are destroying the English language?

Introduction to the Assignment

We’ve been discussing the differences between “opinion” and “argument.” An opinion, we’ve
said, is a position founded on an unquestioned belief. It may be that a person simply feels a
certain way. In contrast, we’ve agreed that an argument is a more sophisticated and laborious
process of convincing someone else to believe what we do. In other words, if an opinion can be
reduced to the words, “I think/feel that X is a certain way,” an argument differs in that it
expresses the proposition, “I think/feel that X is a certain way, and here’s why you should
agree.”

Although arguing requires a writer to provide evidence for ideas, not all evidence is equally
convincing; similarly, an author’s handling of that support, their analysis, may fall short. There
are, as we’ve noted in class, better and worse arguments about a given topic.

Assignment
In this assignment, you will be analyzing two articles: John Humphrys’ “I h8 txt msgs” and David
Crystal’s “2b or not 2b.” Both articles are available under Canvas: Files.

Explain how effective is David Crystal in refuting John Humphrys’ thesis that texters are destroying the English language? Defend your answer with a careful analysis of both articles.

Your goal in this paper is to persuade your audience to adopt your position. As such, it’s
important for you to avoid summarizing or merely describing, the text you are writing about.
Instead, include an introduction paragraph that leads up to an insightful thesis statement, and
defends that position through a careful analysis of textual evidence in your body paragraphs. End
your essay with a brief conclusion paragraph. We will be discussing strategies for composing
each of these essay components.

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