Krystal Powell
Ms. Cauley
ENGL 1102
24 February 2014
Reading Response: Internet

Tom Standage's main point was to prove how the telegraph completely changed communication. For the opening of the essay the author decided to go with the giving background information approach and to end it the author closes with his final thoughts about the telegraph and how its had an impact on life today. Evidence used to support the thesis including things like telling how the telegraphy paved the way to creating things like the telephone, stock ticker, and teletype machines. Also, the author mentions how there was so much hype around the invention of the telegraph and talks about the numerous events that took place to celebrate it. I believe this evidence was incorporated very effectively because the many examples help make his point more believable. The author is known as credible for this topic when you read the intro that gives us information on what colleges he went to and what he learned there. Furthermore the first paragraph informs us about his current job and a few books he has written. I think some motivation for this writing may have been the fact that the author took engineering himself making this an interesting topic for him and a topic like the internet is an easy one for readers to relate to being that its something most of us use on a daily basis. The passage that caught my attention was when the writer stated that someone sending a dispatch to India from London had to wait months before receiving a reply before the telegraph was made. A statement like this is so shocking to hear as someone who's living in the modern world, because I know if someone had to deal with this today they'd be furious having to wait so long for someones reply knowing that we have all this high-speed technology now. Writing approaches I would consider taking from this is using background info to grab the attention of the audience and using very supportive facts to help readers understand my point of view.