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.