The sources from my writing are here in Diigo :) Let's get er done!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qp1MFV9HScRw91jLg45BhmnjPXuFVdOt1gvqDhvS9yc/edit

The National Literacy Trust surveyed 3,001 children from England and Scotland for what it said was the first significant study of young people's attitudes to writing in the UK. It found that 49 per cent of young people believe writing is "boring". However, 57 per cent of those who used text-based web applications such as blogs, said they generally enjoyed writing compared to 40 per cent who did not. Those who had a blog or profile on a social networking site (SNS) also appeared to be more confident in their writing ability: 61 per cent of bloggers and 56 per cent of social networkers claimed to be good or very good at writing, compared to 47 per cent of those who had neither. A total of 13 per cent of children surveyed had their own website, 24 per cent kept their own blog and 56 per cent had a profile on a social networking site. Such web activity was also credited with encouraging children to engage with more traditional forms of writing. Those who were active online were "significantly more likely" to write short stories, letters, song lyrics and diaries than those who had no online presence, the study found.

HEADLEE: Well, then let me ask you about length. I mean, we were joking earlier about using 140 characters or less, there are many people who argue that something like Facebook or Twitter actually decreases young people's attention span for reading. That, you know, when they're getting all their information in these little bips, blips, and clips that they're not ready to read that multipage investigative report or even a long novel like Moby Dick. JUNCO: Right, well, to that I say two things. One, I've conducted research to show that that isn't the case. That students actually - they get a lot from putting their words in 140 characters. I think it forces them to be concise and to be very thoughtful about what they write. But another part of that is that, for better or worse, this is our society now. We have been thinking in news bites for a very long time and 140 characters for a very long time. I mean, you know, being in the biz, right, you know that you have to grab people's attention very early on with short statements. And so I think part of that is learning how to read the vast amounts of information that's basically thrown at them everyday through traditional and newer media.

This is the sharable link to a Google Doc we can all update in real time to compose our argument with all of the research we have gathered.