Writing Tips from Reflection #1

Writing @ Technology ‘Technology’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘digital.’ Be specific about your use of the word and the technological tools you are critiquing. Computers and the Internet have well-documented histories. Don’t make broad or sweeping generalizations about their arrivals when you can be exact.

Thesis Statements & Claims Our reflections are short so we need to offer a clear, concise claim early in the work. Re-read your writing multiple times (days apart when possible) for a clearer perspective. “They [students] are spending more and more of their time engaged in interactive multimedia and multitasking and less time focusing on any one particular thing. With this reflection I will be discussing what teaching methods are being used in order for children to succeed in the classroom.”

Pronouns…everywhere That, this, it, they and other pronouns (words that stand in for some other more specific noun) were used extensively in these reflections. Don’t use a pronoun when you have the opportunity to instead clarify your point and reinforce your claim. “Since computers and cell phones have become a prominent part of the society, it has forced younger generations to change their way of learning.”

Ending a Paragraph w/ Quotes Quoted material helps substantiate your claim. But, remember that this is *your* paper and your claim. Don’t end paragraphs with someone else’s ideas – end by building off of those quotes and making the writing your own. Research also shows that heavy media multitaskers “are not only less capable of filtering out irrelevant stimuli from their environment, but also are less capable of filtering out irrelevant representations in memory” (Ophir, 15585).

MLA Citations… http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/11/