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Student Name
Ms. Hughes
AP/GT Phoenix III, Period 2
31 January 2011
AP Style Prompt:
In the essay below, journalist Ellen Goodman comments on the impact technology has had on
interpersonal communication. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay,
analyze how Goodman uses rhetorical strategies to convey her attitude toward this new
technological phenomenon.
Slow Down and Listen Up
In today’s fast-paced world, where expedience reigns, the old-fashioned art of communication
has largely been overshadowed by the marvels of new technology. Through e-mail, text
messaging, and other electronic means, people are able to connect with each other more quickly
and easily than ever before. However, there still exist those, such as journalist Ellen Goodman,
who prefer the pen-to-paper and face-to-face type of dialogue. In her essay “In Praise of a Snail’s
Pace,” Goodman expresses her critical attitude toward the detrimental effects new technology
has had on communication through the effective use of figurative language, contrast, and
paragraph structure.
From the outset, it is evident that Goodman believes true communication takes time,
especially in instances where heartfelt emotion must be expressed. For example, she states that
she would never send a condolence, thank-you note, or wedding invitation electronically because
“it would be like serving Thanksgiving dinner at a fast-food restaurant” (Goodman 222). For the
reader who might be guilty of transferring these types of important messages over the internet
without thinking twice about it, this simile evokes familiar images that provide insight into
Goodman’s perspective. Thanksgiving dinner, a tradition in which families gather together to
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share a relaxed, home-cooked meal, could not possibly be held at a fast-food restaurant, where
emphasis is placed on speedy but impersonal service. In the same way, the comparison suggests,
the efficiency offered by technology cannot substitute for the time-honored tradition of slow but
personal communication between friends. Goodman further expounds upon the idea that “there
are rituals [one] cannot speed up without destroying” with a similar simile near the end of the
passage (222). By describing the act of “paying attention briefly” as something “as impossible as
painting a landscape from a speeding car,” she provides another example of a traditional skill,
the ability to pay attention, which has been negatively impacted by the ubiquity of technology
(223). Here, the comparison to a speeding car is particularly fitting. Many are riding through life
at the breakneck speed made possible by technology, rendering the attention span required to
perform a task such as painting a good picture impossible to attain. Goodman, through these
well-placed instances of figurative language, helps the reader identify with familiar images that
in turn point toward her belief that technology detracts from what ought to be done slowly and
carefully.
To further highlight the nature of the effects of technology on daily life, Goodman fills the
essay with contrasts. One important contrast comes in the form of a paradox as she characterizes
society as “connected and yet fractured” (222). At first glance, this statement seems nonsensical.
However, by listing other pairs of antithetical statements, Goodman provides evidence to support
this claim. She mentions that a superabundance of technology leaves society feeling
“overstimulated” but “unfulfilled” because “continuous partial attention inevitably feels like a
lack of full attention” (222). These contrasts clearly present the harmful consequences of being
over-connected to technology and as such, emphasize that meaningful communication requires
slowing down and giving one’s full attention rather than simply increasing the number of
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connections. Reducing the excessive use of technology, Goodman implies, is the only way to
mend the societal fractures caused by an overwhelmed populace. Goodman is clearly in favor of
the growing movement to re-establish more traditional forms of interaction, as evidenced by
another significant contrast presented in the essay: the differences between past and present.
When she observes that “a ringing cell phone once signaled… importance to a client” while a
client now would be “impressed when [someone turns] off the cell phone,” she expresses
approval, by identifying with the “impressed” client, that people are choosing to “pride
themselves” on disconnecting from their electronics (222). Similarly, she notes that while You’ve
Got Mail was the “cinematic love story” of the past, “today’s romantics are couples who leave
their laptops behind,” once again associating a lack of technology with a positive aspect of
human nature (223). By contrasting the negative side of over-connection with the positive side of
non-connection throughout the passage, Goodman reaffirms her attitude that technology impairs
quality of communication.
In addition to the various features of language and contrast that indicate Goodman’s feelings
about her subject, the structure of the essay itself reflects her observation that society has become
much too fast-paced. As if to acknowledge that most of her technology-savvy readers would not
have the attention span to read through text of any great length, she limits the size of her
paragraphs to no more than six simple sentences. In this way, one idea leads hurriedly into the
next, mirroring the “interrupted and distracted” way many live today (222). One of the briefest
paragraphs in the essay, consisting of just two sentences, reads as follows: “As for text-message
flirtation, a young woman ended hers with a man who wrote, ‘C U L8R.’ He didn’t have enough
time to spell out Y-O-U?” (223). This extreme brevity reflects the idea expressed within the
paragraph that communication suffers because society has become too enthralled with the speed
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of technology. The man being referred to had so lost touch with proper communication that he
was unwilling to spell out even a three-letter word. Through this short paragraph and the other
equally short paragraphs it is buried within, Goodman not only provides multiple examples of
the impact technology has had on communication, but also rushes the reader through these
examples, helping the reader to become fully aware of the substance of Goodman’s message.
As technology continues to advance, it seems as if society is doomed to become increasingly
disconnected as a result of breakdowns in interpersonal communication. However, all hope is not
lost. If more like Ellen Goodman and the young technology-rejecting individuals she has written
about embrace conversation without electronics, the art of communication will be preserved.
Then, the essays of the future may even laud the equilibrium that has been reached between new
technology and old tradition.
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Work Cited
Goodman, Ellen. “In Praise of a Snail’s Pace.” The Language of Composition: Reading∙ Writing∙
Rhetoric. Eds. Renée H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 221-3. Print.