Using Technology to Teach Writing
Christine R. Russell, JD
School of Communication
Overview
According to Kathleen Yancy in “Using Multiple Technologies to Teach Writing," “[t]he
process of writing--and teaching writing—is in the midst of a tectonic change…. The
change is in the new technological tools, and in how these tools affect composition and
the relationship between writer and audience” (38).
Writing and technology are major components in the work life of a communication
industry professional. In fact, journalists or public relations professionals often either
succeed or fail in the workplace, based a great deal on their ability to communicate
effectively and rapidly in written form using the appropriate technology available. Yet
too often educators stay attached to the old pencil-and-paper way of teaching writing
skills. The School of Communication is tasked with training students to write in rapid
fashion, against deadlines, for a number of complex mediums, including TV, radio, the
Internet, as well as for hybrids like blogging and vlogging that are occurring as a natural
consequence of the integration of emerging technology in the workplace. It is natural and
necessary for people in this industry to be competent and comfortable using technology
as a tool to gather information and execute different writing styles.
Because the School of Communication moves students from writing in a more academic
style to writing for various more practical purposes including to convey information, to
report the news, to entertain an audience, to advertise a product or service, to generate
interest in a client, or even to repair an image in the public arena, we must find new and
innovative ways to help our students integrate technology into their communication
processes. Our students must learn to write quickly and efficiently without sacrificing
style and clarity, and they must use appropriate industry format to communicate their
messages. Additionally, they are usually gathering data from the web instead of from live
people-especially when on tight deadlines. In fact, it is not uncommon for interviews to
take place either using a phone or using IM or email. For example, many of our students
entering the field of journalism will find themselves writing web news, which requires
rapid and constant updating. Students must learn the most efficient way to gather accurate
and essential material. Writing is not a solitary experience in our industry and students
must also learn to collaborate in their writing processes and to integrate the functions of
data gathering, critical thinking and writing and creativity. We in Communication see it
as Yancy does: “[w]hen writers start out early moving back and forth between different
tools and composing processes, this way of thinking becomes normal and comfortable to
them” (39). In most ways, then, this view is contrary to the standard writing-as-process
mantra taught in first-year writing. What we teach is professional writing, the kind of
writing our students must do on the job.
What some of us have found in our classrooms, as so many other educators have in the
past, is that students have several problems preventing their successful execution of this
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kind of work. First, they are often afraid of failure and end up with a complete mental
meltdown and utter mind blank when faced with an empty computer screen. Second,
several of us have found that students need to develop more faith in their ability to
acquire, understand, and communicate information rapidly in many different
environments. Lack of confidence can be deadly to our execution process in the public
relations and journalism industries. Inexperience incorporating technology into this
process also undermines the student’s confidence and so we try to train them through
repetitive and challenging exercises to become more familiar and secure in their own
ability to write in this newer, more fast-paced work environment.
Teachers in the School of Communication use a number of different strategies to train
students. However, the one best suited for use by other disciplines comes from our PR &
Corp Writing class. Students are asked to write a news story, based partially on material
provided to them. They are asked to also include additional material gathered on the web.
This encourages students to do active research while in the process of executing the
writing assignment. It requires quick critical thinking skills and rapid, effective writing
based on the material provided as well as on the material students find while writing the
story as back-up data. We typically break this assignment down over several class
periods since the idea is to teach students to work efficiently using technology to gather
supporting data. Each part of the project is timed so students are aware of the time
constraints, and creating constraints in this way adds a level of excitement and even fear
for some. We also ask that they write in two different formats. (This assignment can also
be varied by asking students to work in small groups of three for an opportunity to teach
them to work collectively under pressure to produce a product. It is also simple enough to
have students work in only one format on one writing assignment.)
This assignment meets two of our School’s goals then. First, it helps students who have
significant anxiety about the writing process overcome that anxiety simply by writing.
Yancy correctly notes, “ [c]ollege-age students, like all writers, often find themselves
'blocked' on at least one writing assignment” (40). In this case, however, students are so
immersed in the process and become so used to writing and thinking rapidly that they
often forget to be nervous about the process and their performance during it. The second
goal the assignment meets occurs when students develop the ability to identify the main
thrust of the information, gather supporting data for their stories, and then execute their
written documents efficiently and effectively using technology as a natural extension of
their workspace and available tool packages.
Activity
Students are asked to prepare two pieces, a print news story and a broadcast scripted
news story, on the same subject but for either radio or TV. These students are usually in
Tuesday and Thursday classes so they have one hour and fifteen minutes to do the work
each session, and the assignment must be completed in two class periods. Class is held in
a lab so students have access to Word and to the web to go back and retrieve information
they missed and that might be necessary for completion of the exercise.
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Students then prepare the written documents using the proper format. They are
encouraged to write in clear, concise style for the appropriate audience and venue.
Because they are working on a deadline, they get an idea about how difficult it is to write
quickly, in a particular form, for a particular audience. (They have access to basic
templates for layout purposes, but this, again, is not necessary for other disciplines.)
When the work is complete, it is submitted to the instructor.
In the first class, students are given a fact sheet with the basic descriptions of the story
involved. We use breaking news or highly charged news so students will find additional
material quite easily. However, any fact set can be used for this assignment. Students
then are seated at a computer and told that they will be required to write two news stories
and that they will be required to find the best focus for their stories given the different
mediums and audience compositions, research for additional data to add depth to the
stories, and then actually write the stories in appropriate forms. Students are told they
will have only two class periods or approximately 2 ½ hours total to complete the
assignment. Students choose how to start, and we do not intercede at all. The teacher
becomes an observer. At the end of the first day of class, each student’s work is saved to
disc and left with the teacher until the next class period. We ask students not to continue
work on the project until the second day of class during class time.
On the second day of class, students are handed back their work and reminded their
deadline is at the end of this class, when their work must be submitted by email to the
teacher. Although this initially causes some level of panic for students, they rapidly settle
into the task and work towards completing the project. At the end of the period students
are required to turn in what they have completed regardless of the status of the work—
finished or not.
During the following class, the instructor prints the work and students are put into groups
of five. Students then evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the work and make
suggestions for revision. The work is peer edited, then, and a new version may be
submitted by the students for additional evaluation. Students receive from the teacher an
analysis of the first version of their work and a second evaluation of their corrected work
after peer editing. Over time students become more and more adept at thinking through
connections and data for inclusion in their stories and even more adept at using
technology both to design their documents and to gather information. We use this method
in ever shortening time frames over the course of the semester so that students become
used to the process of writing against deadline through repetition. The process of
allowing peer editing and resubmission is used to give students who are just beginning to
learn how to do this sort of writing task an opportunity to learn to use technology and to
write under strict constraints; this procedure also provides a sort of emotional safety net.
However, over time the net is removed and students learn to live with the results of their
initial work, as they will find to be the case in the workplace.
For the final class, I prepare samples of work that exhibit both the strengths and typical
weaknesses of the submitted writing in a sort of mock editorial meeting so students can
learn from one another’s writing experience. We evaluate appropriateness of tone,
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evidence of audience analysis, correct grammar and spelling, creativity and conciseness
of material. We discuss the effects of reading the material aloud for clarification. (I
actually encourage students to read all material aloud when they write in this industry as
they have a tendency to write in an overly institutionalized way that is unacceptable in
their working environment. Reading out loud helps them hear how the writing sounds to
the reader. This is particularly important for scripts that are intended to be read aloud on
air.)
The exercise can be narrowed and shortened by providing students with fact sheets on
any subject and giving them 30 minutes or any similar deadline to write a short piece in
whatever form requested. Next, allow the students a few minutes to read the work aloud
and to edit it before submitting it electronically in class to the instructor. I see this process
much the same way as I see the process one might employ in teaching speech. We can
overcome anxiety about the process simply by doing it and doing it under some time
pressure. This assignment is easy to adapt across disciplines depending on your learning
goals. Some teachers use the shortened version without peer evaluation as a way to teach
students to write and think quickly and to see technology as a common and integral part
of their writing process. The depth and breadth of this assignment depends entirely on the
goals set by the teacher involved.
References
Yancy, Kathleen. “Using Multiple Technologies to Teach Writing” Educational
Leadership. (Oct 2004).