The history of higher education often reflects the history of writing educators striving to teach within the brief, prescriptive window of first-year writing and to change the course of struggling writers. It remains as true now, however, as in 1958 when Hovey suggested, “the way to learn writing is to write” (p. 437). Yet, most educators lack the stamina and the resources to stay with every student for as long as it takes (Silva, 2012) to inculcate them with the habits of thinking, interpreting, and presenting to which critical readers ascribe good writing (Nauman, Stirling, & Borthwick, 2011; Graham, Schwartz, & MacArthur, 1993). Further, despite good intentions and the common portrayal of college writing assignments as invitation to join new discourse communities (Carroll, 2002), students often maintain rational beliefs that writing in college means giving the educator at the front of the room what she wants (Jeffery & Selting, 1999). As such, college writing remains a familiar but …show more content…
Particular technologies produce changes in the way students write (Dailey, 2004), but many of the concerns Hovey (1958) raised before such technologies existed remain relevant today. Many first-year students, and more often those students who place into DE writing, still struggle with skills like applying knowledge about what an essay needs to contain (Best, 1996), spelling (Bennett-Kastor, 2005), and the conventional rules of written discourse (Wall, 1986). Technology use suggests a possible contributing factor to these problems, but some technologies also suggest new solutions (Grabill, 1998; Stan, & Collins, 2002), and many of those same students prefer computer-assisted writing instruction (Fang, 2010; Wresch, 1984) to more traditional
For Professor Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, online communication is not as devastating as some critics argue that it reduces people 's ability to read, write, and think in a clear, logical and critical way. They point out considerable problems like reductive abbreviations substitute for complete words and sentences in writing and the fast speed message exchange reduce the time for thinking. On the contrary, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the Internet is only another field that can expose some weak and unsophisticated writers (171). The technology itself has nothing to be blamed, but it is essential for people to step back and discuss how to develop new ability to face the challenge of the new technology. After all, technology improvement
As I was reading Melissa Duffy’s “Inspiration, and Craig Vetter’s “Bonehead Writing,” I found myself connecting with Vetter’s paper more than Duffy’s. I found that the presentation in “Bonehead Writing” to capture my attention, and that Vetter’s feelings about writing was similar to my opinion on writing. Through his wording and humor, I think Craig Vetter wrote the best essay. I find that the wording and presentation of an article or essay influences my opinion of the writer, and it affects how I receive the idea they are trying to present to me. Craig Vetter uses a blunt approach to convey his idea that writing is nearly impossible to teach, and describes writing as “A blood sport, a walk in the garden of agony every time out.”
In her essay "Does Texting Affect Writing?", Michaela Cullington presents her argument that texting does not impact formal writing written by students. She discusses the concerns presented by many people about how texting language can transfer into writing, but through the use of personal experiences and credible sources she discusses how this is not true. Her use of multiple different studies and situations help boost her argument and allow the reader to truly see how students actually do formal writing. She presents a strong argument as to why those who believe students don't have the control and knowledge to write formally, instead of with text speak, are wrong.
Though the world is becoming dependent on technology, are we becoming overly dependent? Cursive writing is an important writing skill that should be taught in schools, that is on the edge of becoming extinct. At least 41 states in the United States don’t require public schools to teach cursive anymore. This will greatly affect students because not everything is capable of being done on the computer. Even though technology is a great agricultural advancement cursive writing is still a beneficial tool to be taught and not overlooked.
Everyone’s An Author with Readings by Andrea Lunsford, Michal Brody, Lisa Ede, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters; is about how everyday writing is very closely related to academic writing. This book discusses The Need for Rhetoric and Writing, Genres of Writing, The Role of Argument, Research, Style, and includes Readings. The text also bridges the gap between Facebook and academic writing, showing how some tactics students use in social media may also be used in their academic
All of these factors combine and work well together to form a well-executed argument within Cullington’s essay. Cullington begins her essay by addressing her opposition: “It’s taking over our lives” (pg. 361). She cites studies done that suggest that a decline in the quality of students’ formal writing has occurred since the advent of text messaging, and she also cites teachers who believe that their own students’ works are influenced for the worse by the students’ being accustomed to texting and using textspeak. Cullington then proposes her opposing position that the writing of students is unaffected by their use of texting and text speak. She also cites studies that support her thesis that text messaging and textspeak do not have an effect on
Writing About Writing, A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 481-495.
Through trial and error, college students are having to figure out what constitutes as acceptable writing for every one of their separate classes all on their own without their ethnic backgrounds taken into consideration. While although Dave was considered privileged because of his years of experience in classrooms that consisted of teachers and students who shared similar social backgrounds, “students from diverse communities may need… teachers in the disciplines… [to] provide them with assignments and instructional support appropriate for first steps in using the language of their community” (262) McCarthy’s findings contribute to the notion, “learning to write… is not only a developmental process that occurs within an individual student, but also as a social process, that occurs in response to particular situations” (236). Although McCarthy only documents Dave as he takes this “journey across the curriculum”, her study is addressing the college student body as a whole. She declares that the success of a student is determined not only by their intelligence, but also their ability to adapt to a wide range of social and academic settings without any negative interference towards their
In her study, Lunsford collected thousands of student writing samples from a five-year period, specifically from 2001-2006 (Thompson 157). The findings of her study are gripping. She found that because young people do much of their communicating via online forums, the additional keystrokes are fundamental in reviving their ability to write (Thompson 157). A whopping thirty-eight percent of all writing done by Stanford students during this study occurred outside of the classroom (Thompson 157). This piece of information alone may be indication enough that her logic was strategic.
Not So Fast” Andrea Lunsford researched students’ writing for 30-plus years to see what effect new technology has on how students learn. Lunsford discovered that students are actually improving their own writing skills with the help of mass media. Not only does it allow students more access to educational resources and information, but it also encourages students to do more creative thinking and writing outside of class which Lunsford refers to in her article as “life writing.” In her research she recalls the account of a student who sent a friend a text message which was completely informal and would be considered unprofessional by most piers. However, the same student also sent a very formal and professional report to her faculty adviser later on.
Williams’s article is written in a subjective viewpoint. His audience for this particular journal entry is towards other educators, as he himself is also a writing professor at a university. Because of the author’s educational background, he can use his own experiences to address issues with teaching methodology in writing. Williams begins his article with a quote from an unidentified individual whom he met at a conference: “I’m not so sure that an academic journal should be focusing so much on identity when what we’re supposed to be doing is teaching academic literacy” (710). With this introduction, Williams is able to address the common stigma he has come across throughout his career as a writing educator.
Not So Fast”, conducts her own study with a few colleagues to take notes on how students writing skills are changing. She decides to conduct another one twenty five years later to see how much the writing skills have changed since technology has been updated and became more available to students. She found that “students today are writing more than ever before.” Although we still have the same amount of writing errors as before, the patterns of errors are different. Many people argue that technology is only making our writing skill worse, this study helps to prove a different theory.
With technology skill demands imposed by online assessments and classroom writing assignments, it is evident that typing is an essential skill student must hold, in order
What have you identified as the key ideas, arguments, perspectives of the author(s)? Adams (2016) provides her lived experiences of writing by her hands, then laptop to claim that our bodies must learn to make writing a habit – what we do without having to think about it (p. 485). Also, when we read, our perceptual body already apprehends a word’s meaning before we are able to mouth it (p. 493). Adams finds out that although technology such as autocorrect or spell-check functions may enhance our writing, we also need to learn to ignore its interruption and distraction to our flow of writing.
UCLA is the main subject of this paper and offers free consultation to students wanting help. In return graduate students pay a fee that aids in the funding of the writing center. A second part of their plan involves a cross-discipline selection of writing