Swales' Outline

Move 1: Establishing a Territory

· The importance of this research is that it shows how technology is changing writing and how students are benefitting and changing because of the evolving digital age.

· Students’ writing processes are changing with technology as they go through school and advance through college. Their research is changing and the way they do research is changing also.

· Wardle and Downs explore how students’ writing develops as they progress through college and look at how writing is taught.

Move 2: Establishing a Niche

· Technology is improving the quality of new research because it gives the researcher much easier access to countless other opinions and research.

· There is little research on how writing processes change for students from high school to college.

· How do students adapt their writing from high school to college?

· Many researchers have done studies relating to this subject (i.e. how writing processes change as students progress through college)

Move 3: Occupying the Niche

· The purpose of this research is to explore how technology is changing writing and how students are benefitting and changing because of the evolving digital age.

· Students’ writing processes are changing and the way that they do research is changing due to the advancement of technology.

· First, I state my own knowledge and experience with the subject. Then, I look into other studies and research and finally discuss my findings and answer my research question.

Chapters 7 & 8 quiz

My research for Core IV is exploring how students’ writing is evolving from high school to college with the exploding digital age and advancing technology. The research that I have done fits under the category of an argument of fact. Some of my research contains studies that follow students from early college careers to the end and shows how their writing has changed as they progressed through school. Students are fronted with many different writing situations through college and must adapt to satisfy each assignment and professor. There is debate whether writing can be taught to students in a short, two-semester period, if it can even be “taught” at all. One of the main articles that I have looked at while doing my research is Elizabeth Wardle and Douglas Down’s “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning “First-Year Composition” as “Introduction to Writing Studies”. This article argues that teaching writing to students is near impossible. They argue that even the students’ professors and themselves are still studying writing and it is best learned through experience, practice and research. This is something that can easily be argued, but it also supported by observations and facts throughout the article and the researcher’s studies. Another article that I have closely looked at during my researching is Chris Anson’s "Distant Voices: Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology." This article is also very debatable but is supported by facts that the researcher has gathered. This article talks mainly about the teaching methods of writing and how technology is changing the way it is being taught. He presents evidence that technology is being used in classrooms and students are developing a more varied argument because of the use of the Internet and the many sources that are a click of a button away. Students can gather much more information much easier from all over the world. All of the researchers that I have examined have all stated a developed issue in the beginning of their research and stated a clear hypothesis before they go into the facts and backing information and studies that they have gathered in an attempt to answer their research questions. While writing my own research question and exploring many different sources of information, examining many different opinions, gathering my own observations and information, and eventually writing my own research report, I have chosen the evidence that I find are important in getting my point across and getting people to see things how I see them, in order for them to make sense to others. This is what makes my research paper an factual argument. I have set up a research paper in a way that describes what I will be researching and describing the situation, making a claim that brought me to my research question, and I supported my claim with evidence and facts that I have gathered. The evidence that I have gathered is cited and considered a peer reviewed, respected article from a scholarly journal. With all of these elements put together in an effective way, I have a argument of fact research paper.

Research Reflection

My topic deals with writing at a college level and how technology is changing the way students write. The research that I have done on this topic is very interesting and the opinions and conversations going on around my topic is appealing because I am a college student and this applies closely to my life. The research that I've done also shows how writing develops from high school to college and even throughout college. This research and information is helpful and is going to be useful when I am writing at a higher level on topics that apply to my major.

Researching this topic is difficult because it is rather specific. I have gathered information, although I am still looking for more. Some articles that I have found focus more on the actual technology that is evolving as the digital age advances. It is difficult to weed that information out and find how the actual writing processes are changing and developing as students progress through school.