McSweeney’s two essays give insight on how writing classes should work in today’s world. While traditional writing classes think they know what they are teaching you, these two essays create a fantastic set of humorous satire that pokes fun of the ridiculous writing styles in our modern day in age.
In Robert Lanham’s “Internet-Age Writing Syllabus“, a syllabus, similar to any other one in college, is displayed for a class for nonreaders. This hilarious interpretation flips writing on its head, making fun of the current readers and writers of our generation, who use insane abbreviations for everything and cannot properly read a full text to save their lives. While it makes fun of these people, it is also a huge waking call for the future writers who want to get out in the job industry, as the industry has turned into this social-media craze where a blog is right next to a gossip ad. The humor allows us to laugh at the state of writing, while also understanding how vital it is to improve writing in this digital life.
In Cameron Dodd’s “College Writing Assignments with Real-World Applications“, 11 absurd assignments were created to see who the most powerful writer in the universe is. These assignments are incredibly difficult, from writing a non-cliche explanation about your late rent to your landlord to writing an obituary for an asshole family member who you do not like. They really challenge the writer to embellish some kind of reason while knowing full well it is almost impossible. Dodd fully knows all of these are futile, and that is what really makes his humor as perfect as possible.
What both of these essays have in common is testing the capability of writing. We live in a world where you can no longer live safe all the time. With these humorous examples, it is an important time in society, in a world where text messages and tumblr control the world, where writing needs to be improved and tested in order for the quality of work to reach its full potential.
kyleokane 