Writer's Letter - College Composition | ENG 111, Study notes of English Language

Download Writer's Letter - College Composition | ENG 111 and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! Bishop 1 Brett Bishop ENG 111 Miss Watson 03 November 2010 Writer’s Letter Overall, I enjoyed writing this paper. It was a lot of work, from start to finish, from locating sources and writing an annotated bibliography to making final edits and revisions. It feels very good to have finished and completed it and to be able to look back, read it, and be completely happy with the way it turned out, regardless of grade given. At first, I actually had no idea which topic to pick for this task, and it was not until discussing this problem with my girlfriend that she brought my attention to the debate over the use of technology in the classroom. Attending the same high school, we have both experienced the lack of technology use allowed there, and now in college, although different ones, its substantial growth. It seemed like the perfect topic to discuss, as I was interested in it, but not overly passionate about it, so I went with it. The intended audiences for this piece, which I hope were made fairly obvious in the writing, were high school and college students, their parents, and their teachers, both at Miami University and at all other schools across America. I chose to write in a standard, traditional paper form, as this is what I am most familiar with. Also, I felt this would be the best way to reach my entire intended audience, as I could not give a speech to every student, parent, and teacher in America, and I could also not certainly send them all a letter. To locate many of my sources, I relied on the Miami University Library Database, the Department of Education website, and also the traditional Google Search. I also conducted a very informal interview with another student on the Miami University campus, my roommate, Michael Bednar. Overall, I found about eight or nine sources total, however, I only chose to use four due to the word restrictions of this essay and also the sites’ reliability and credibility. During the revision process, I did not receive many good suggestions from my peers. The main suggestion seemed to be to add in a source which provided a statistic to back up my claims. Although I fully agree this would aid in my argument, I challenge anyone to find a source that includes this. In all my research through the Miami Libraries and even my Google Searches, not a single reliable statistic could be found. Other than other small copy edits, I did not receive much critiscm. The decision to reorganize the two paragraphs dealing with the negative aspects of technology use was all my own. While writing, it felt like I was repeating myself a lot in these paragraphs, and thus from the start I knew I wanted to combine them. Bishop 2 Through this essay, I not only learned more about my topic, but I also learned how to find reliable sources by using the Miami University Library Database. This essay also gave me more practice on my revision and organizational skills, which I believe have helped me become a better, overall writer. Bishop 5 what they look like later” (1). If a student is not distracting with their cellphone use, why should a teacher worry about their use? Both laptops and cellphones pose a variety of beneficial and obstructing results to a student’s study habits. Laptop use in the classroom allows a student to keep in contact with the educator as well as other students easily, and also allow for faster and easier note taking. Cellphones allow students to keep in touch with parents in the event of an emergency, and to also allow students at poorer schools to stay current with technology advances by using their phones as calculators and “mini computers”. The main drawback to these technologies is that they may cause students to become distracted in class. However, even before the invention of these technologies, students still became distracted in class. Students can sleep, daydream, draw, work on other assignments, pass notes, and the list goes on and on. It is unnecessary to ban these technologies as their benefits certainly outweigh the “chance” that they may be distracting. If a student wants to pay attention in a class, they will, regardless of the technology provided to them. If they do not, they will not. It is up to the student to decide if they will allow themselves to become distracted with technology. Some inevitably will, however, many more will focus on technologies’ positive benefits and use them to enhance their learning environment. Bishop 6 Works Cited Bednar, Michael A. "Opinion on Technology Use in The Classroom." Personal interview. 20 Oct. 2010. Fried, Carrie B. "In-class Laptop Use and Its Effects on Student Learning." Computers and Education 50.3 (2008): 904-16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Oct. 2010. Shaw, Katherine. "Students and Cell Phones: Controversy in the Classroom." Associated Content - Associatedcontent.com. 4 July 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/4903/students_and_cell_phones_contr oversy.html?cat=9>. "Using Cell Phones to Support Teaching and Learning." U.S. Department of Education. Web. 09 Oct. 2010. <http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/cell-phones-support- teaching-learning>.