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Technology in the Writing Classroom
Technology affects both the process and product of composition. Students often complete multimodal writing assignments that combine traditional textual elements with pictures, data visualizations, video, sound, animation, etc. Similarly, students' use of many technologies while composing an assignment can impact the final product. This is true even for technologies that aren't directly involved in the writing process in the way that, for instance, word processors are. Mind mapping technologies can help students relate ideas to one another. Graphic design programs can help students organize their ideas visually or let students write for specific audiences and contexts. Audio recording technologies can give students expressive freedom beyond the constraints of written work. Countless more examples abound.
These technologies, however, should not be introduced to the classroom without forethought. One danger inherent to any technology is that an assignment that uses that technology can inadvertently become more about learning to use the technology than about the intended learning outcomes. Thus, making sure students understand what they are being evaluated on (i.e., their work, and not necessarily their skill with the technology), have access tohelp materials, and have time to get familiar with the technology can all mitigate this danger. These strategies tend to hold true no matter the age of the students. While it's typical to assume that younger students have greater facility with technology because they are "digital natives," research suggests that that's usually not the case. Young students still need to learn to use a new technology just like they would learn any other new skill.
When handled with care, technology can be a boon to the writing classroom. Generally, the benefits of technology in gaining new literacies, learning independent problem solving skills, and showing students the wide range of applications of composition in their lives outweigh the risks. In this resource, we suggest some ways that teachers can take advantage of widely available technologies to teach writing outcomes and help students develop multiple digital literacies.
Mindmapping
There are a number of free options for mindmapping and similar exercises online, including MindMup, Bubbl.us, and Lucidchart, but common office programs like PowerPoint can also do the job.
Stages of the writing process:
- Invention/pre-writing
- Drafting
- Peer review
- Revision
Purposes:
- Visually organizing an essay or argument
- Synthesis (spatially relating different concepts)
- Reverse-outlining an existing draft to understand how the pieces fit together
Affordances:
- Mindmapping digitally allows for easier movement, erasing, and re-doing than with pen and paper
- No constraints of paper size — maps can go wherever students take them
- Can use images, links, etc. from research in the maps
- Can spatially show (and compare/contrast) the relative importance of points, check for balance in developing arguments
Activities:
- Have a peer reviewer reverse-engineer an outline of their peer's paper and let the writer compare their own outline with the reviewer's. The writer and reviewer can discuss differences between the two outlines, evaluate the reviewer's response to what the writer intends to show in the paper, and make a revision plan.
- Have students synthesize multiple sources together using a mind map; first, make a mind map for each source summarizing its points, then connect the nodes to understand how the sources relate to one another, agree, and disagree.
- Have students create an outline of their paper with a mind map. Compare outlines on the board/projector to understand how different arguments can be organized through visual shapes (narrow at the top and broad at the bottom, like a triangle; narrow at beginning and end and wide in the middle, like a diamond; etc), and what each of these shapes can do.
Collaboration
Especially when teaching remotely, collaboration on writing projects is a common part of writing instruction. Leveraging technology effectively to help facilitate collaboration can help students focus on building collaboration skills rather than focusing on getting in touch with each other, and can help teachers more effectively monitor and help with collaboration in the moment. Tools for collaboration can vary depending on what's available, but Google Docs, Slack, and various kinds of video conferencing software (e.g., Zoom) are common tools.
Stages:
- All stages, but especially:
- peer review/revision
- brainstorming
Purpose:
- Sharing work among students, especially when remote teaching or in case of absences, not finishing work in class, etc.
- Responding to feedback in a way that leaves a written record
- Co-writing documents for a group project
- Brainstorming, taking collaborative notes, or creating a wiki in class
Affordances:
- Rather than discussing peer review or feedback verbally in class, students can write feedback down in comments in Google docs or similar word processing software for later review
- Students can assign action items by tagging their classmates ("@Purdue Pete, could you look at this paragraph when you get a chance and let us know what you think?"); teachers and students can see division of labor in who is participating the most on the document
- Students can still participate remotely in the case of illness or other absence
- In class, students can all contribute to a class document at the same time to create a crowdsourced wiki about a topic, share notes, etc.
Activities:
- Have students doing group projects write a team charter memo collaboratively, laying out expectations for how their team will work together, solve conflict, and help each other get their work done.
- Have students use separate pages in a Google doc to answer discussion questions or take notes during a think-pair-share activity, so all the notes are available to all students afterwards.
- When introducing a new technology, have students create a list of tools or functions in the technology in a collaborative document, and then assign one tool or function to each student to research and create a guide on how to use it. Assemble the guides into a wiki that students can refer to when using this technology on another assignment.
Audio Production
Writing is not a purely textual endeavor: much of the journalism we encounter is in podcast form. This is not the only audio genre whose production is intertwined with the writing process, however. For instance, pop music can teach poetry in a way that engages young students. Similarly, audio dramas that tell stories with sound design are experiencing a resurgence from the days of radio. Assigning an audio composition can be a great way to help students learn multimodal literacies while still teaching organization, structure, and argument. Additionally, because the various genres of audio composition are more commonplace or "real" for students than something explicitly tied to school, like a traditional essay, these genres can give students opportunities to engage with audience and context in new ways. Though many programs can allow students to edit audio, one free, especially easy-to-use platform is Audacity.
Stages:
- Drafting
- Remediation
- Reflection after writing
Affordances:
- Specific audience and genre characteristics help students learn to analyze a rhetorical situation and adapt appropriately
- Finding and incorporating fair use music, sounds, and effects teach students about fair use, copyright, and attribution practices in public settings outside school
- Working with speech, sound effects, music, timing, and delivery encourages students to develop multimodal literacies that interact with and build on traditional written literacies.
Activities:
- Have students produce a 3-5 minute podcast remediating a previous project, like a research paper or a literary analysis. Students can write a script, record the script, and include effects, music, and edit their own speech to fit the time constraints and needs of the piece. Students can then write a short reflection detailing how they rethought their original project with a new audience and context to create the podcast, and what design choices they made to achieve those goals.
- Have students record a voiceover for a PowerPoint or other presentation deck to make a presentation remotely; students can write a short reflection describing how they made conscious rhetorical decisions in accompanying their slide deck.
- Have students record an interview with a classmate, family member, teacher, etc., and edit the interview to tell a cohesive story in 5-10 min. Students can write a short reflection describing how they came up with interview questions, how they decided which material to keep and which to trim or delete, and how they set up the story for an interested audience with music and effects.
Visual Production
Much of the writing we encounter in our daily lives is accompanied by or part of a visually designed composition; blog posts include pictures and GIFs, websites focus on usable design, marketing materials grab our attention with photos and data visualizations, and infographics condense pages of text into quickly digestible bites of information. Many free online tools such as Canva and Piktochart give users templates to start with and the power to customize most features. Commonly available office software also has robust visual design capabilities, and students with access to professional-grade products like Adobe Photoshop can develop facility with industry-standard technology.
Stages:
- All, but especially:
- Drafting
- Remediation
Purpose:
- Working multimodally encourages students to adapt to changing rhetorical contexts and audiences
- Genre conventions for visual compositions help students gain genre awareness while building visual literacy
Affordances:
- Generally, visual production assignments allow students to play with arrangement and meshing textual and visual elements, similar to audio production
- Since some tools have premade templates students can use as starting places, there can be less anxiety about having to start from nothing; by the same token, students learn how to make customization decisions in accordance with their audience and context
- Like audio production, using a mix of elements means students have the opportunity to learn about citation and fair use outside of a school setting
Activities:
- Have students remediate an essay or other project into an infographic for public consumption (or poster, to hang in classroom for future students, etc). Students can write a short reflection describing how they decided to rework their original project into something new for a new rhetorical situation.
- Have students create a photo essay with captions; students can write a reflection discussing their choices and intentions.
- Have students redesign a book cover, poster, course syllabus, assignment sheet, or other document to be both more visually appealing and more useable; students can write a reflection describing their rhetorical choices.
- Navigation
- Purdue OWL
- General Writing
- General Writing Introduction
- Writing Style
- The Writing Process
- The Writing Process Introduction
- Writing Task Resource List: What Do You Need To Write?
- Invention: Starting the Writing Process
- Prewriting (Invention)
- Organization & the CARS Model
- Writer's Block
- Stasis Theory
- Creating a Thesis Statement, Thesis Statement Tips
- Developing an Outline
- Reverse Outlining
- Proofreading
- Time Management: Conquering Long Assignments
- Writing with Feedback
- Academic Writing
- Academic Writing Introduction
- The Rhetorical Situation
- Establishing Arguments
- Logic in Argumentative Writing
- Historical Perspectives on Argumentation
- Paragraphs and Paragraphing
- Essay Writing
- Conciseness
- Paramedic Method
- Reverse Paramedic Method
- Adding Emphasis
- Sentence Variety
- Using Appropriate Language
- Active and Passive Voice
- Email Etiquette
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- Using Foreign Languages in Academic Writing in English
- Public Speaking and Presentations
- Learning from Lectures
- Common Writing Assignments
- Common Writing Assignments Introduction
- Understanding Writing Assignments
- Argument Papers
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- Annotated Bibliographies
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- Mechanics
- Mechanics Introduction
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- Sentence Clarity
- Parts of Speech Overview
- Sentence Clarity Presentation
- Sentence Fragments
- Transitions and Transitional Devices
- Dangling Modifiers and How To Correct Them
- Parallel Structure
- Two-Part (Phrasal) Verbs (Idioms)
- Capitals: Help with Capitals
- Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
- Grammar
- Grammar Introduction
- Spelling: Common Words that Sound Alike
- Numbers: Writing Numbers
- Adjective or Adverb
- How to Use Adjectives and Adverbs
- Appositives
- Articles: A versus An
- How to Use Articles (a/an/the)
- Prepositions
- Pronouns
- Relative Pronouns
- Count and Noncount Nouns
- Subject/Verb Agreement
- Verb Tenses
- Active Verb Tenses
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- That vs. Which
- Punctuation
- Punctuation Introduction
- Punctuation
- Sentence Punctuation Patterns
- Independent and Dependent Clauses
- Conquering the Comma Presentation
- Commas
- Apostrophe Introduction
- Hyphen Use
- Quotation Marks
- Visual Rhetoric
- Visual Rhetoric Introduction
- Visual Rhetoric
- Analyzing Visual Documents
- Using Fonts with Purpose
- Color Theory Presentation
- Designing Effective PowerPoint Presentations
- Data Visualization
- Undergraduate Applications
- Undergraduate Applications Introduction
- Advice from Undergraduate Admissions Officers
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- Graduate School Applications
- Graduate School Applications Introduction
- Overview
- Researching Programs
- Statements of Purpose
- Requesting Recommendation Letters
- Writing a Research Statement
- Personal Correspondence
- Community Engaged Writing
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- Research and Citation
- Research and Citation Resources
- Conducting Research
- Conducting Research Introduction
- Research Overview
- Conducting Primary Research
- Evaluating Sources of Information
- Searching Online
- Internet References
- Archival Research
- Writing a Literature Review
- Using Research
- Using Research Introduction
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
- Paraphrase Exercises
- Writing with Statistics
- Strategies for Fair Use
- Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation
- Resources for Documenting Sources in the Disciplines
- APA Style (7th Edition)
- APA Style Introduction
- APA Overview and Workshop
- APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)
- General Format
- In-Text Citations: The Basics
- In-Text Citations: Author/Authors
- Reference List: Basic Rules
- Reference List: Author/Authors
- Reference List: Articles in Periodicals
- Reference List: Books
- Reference List: Other Print Sources
- Reference List: Electronic Sources
- Reference List: Audiovisual Media
- Reference List: Other Non-Print Sources
- APA Legal References
- Footnotes & Appendices
- Numbers and Statistics
- Additional Resources
- APA Headings and Seriation
- APA PowerPoint Slide Presentation
- APA Sample Paper
- APA Tables and Figures
- APA Classroom Poster
- Changes in the 7th Edition
- General APA FAQs
- MLA Style
- MLA Style Introduction
- MLA Overview and Workshop
- MLA Formatting and Style Guide
- General Format
- MLA Formatting and Style Guide
- MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
- MLA Formatting Quotations
- MLA Endnotes and Footnotes
- MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format
- MLA Works Cited Page: Books
- MLA Works Cited Page: Periodicals
- MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources
- MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources
- MLA Additional Resources
- MLA Abbreviations
- MLA Sample Works Cited Page
- MLA Sample Paper
- MLA Tables, Figures, and Examples
- MLA PowerPoint Presentation
- MLA FAQs
- MLA Classroom Poster
- MLA 8th Edition Changes
- Chicago Style
- CMOS Introduction
- CMOS Overview and Workshop
- CMOS Formatting and Style Guide
- Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition
- General Format
- Books
- Periodicals
- Web Sources
- Audiovisual Recordings and Other Multimedia
- Interviews, Personal Communication
- Legal, Public and Unpublished Materials
- Bluebook Citation for Legal Materials
- Miscellaneous Sources
- CMOS Author Date Sample Paper
- CMOS NB Sample Paper
- CMOS NB PowerPoint Presentation
- CMOS Author Date PowerPoint Presentation
- CMOS Author Date Classroom Poster
- CMOS NB Classroom Poster
- IEEE Style
- AMA Style
- ASA Style
- APA Style (6th Edition)
- APA Style Introduction
- APA Overview and Workshop
- APA Formatting and Style Guide (6th Edition)
- General Format
- In-Text Citations: The Basics
- In-Text Citations: Author/Authors
- Footnotes and Endnotes
- Reference List: Basic Rules
- Reference List: Author/Authors
- Reference List: Articles in Periodicals
- Reference List: Books
- Reference List: Other Print Sources
- Reference List: Electronic Sources
- Reference List: Other Non-Print Sources
- Additional Resources
- Types of APA Papers
- APA Stylistics: Avoiding Bias
- APA Stylistics: Basics
- APA Headings and Seriation
- APA PowerPoint Slide Presentation
- APA Sample Paper
- APA Tables and Figures 1
- APA Tables and Figures 2
- APA Abbreviations
- Numbers in APA
- Statistics in APA
- APA Classroom Poster
- APA Changes 6th Edition
- General APA FAQs
- Using Citation Generators Responsibly
- Using Paper Checkers Responsibly
- Style Manual Glossary
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Teacher and Tutor Resources
- Writing Instructors
- Writing Instructors Introduction
- Parents
- Grades 7-12 Instructors and Students
- Non-Purdue Users
- Purdue Instructors and Students
- Adult Basic Education
- Writing Across the Curriculum: An Introduction
- Creative Nonfiction in Writing Courses
- Poetry in Writing Courses
- Teaching Detailed Writing and Procedural Transitions
- Teaching OSDDP: A Guide for Professional Writing Instructors
- Email Etiquette for Professors
- Writing Letters of Recommendation for Students
- Writing Tutors
- Writing Tutors Introduction
- Meeting One-on-One with Students
- Tutoring a Résumé
- Tutoring Cover Letters
- Tutoring Creative Writing Students
- Tutoring Lab Reports
- Tutoring Grammar
- Tutoring Deaf Clients
- Teaching Resources
- Teaching Resources
- Remote Teaching Resources
- Remote Teaching Resource Portal
- Technology in the Writing Classroom
- Adapting Projects to Online Classrooms
- Sharing and Presenting Work in Remote Classrooms
- Teleconferencing in the Writing Classroom
- Cloud-Based Platforms in the Writing Classroom
- Remote Peer Review Strategies
- Writing Prompts for Analyzing Nonfiction
- Nonfiction Analysis Framework
- Writing Prompts for Analyzing Fiction
- Activities for Remote Creative Writing Classrooms
- Discussion Forum Practices for Creative Writing Classes
- Conducting an Interview Presentation
- Writing Process Presentation
- Organizing Your Argument Presentation
- Peer Review Presentation
- Visual Rhetoric Slide Presentation
- Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation
- Effective Persuasion Presentation
- Teaching and Assessing Grammar
- Analytical Research Project Presentation
- OWL Video Offerings for Instructors
- Conducting an Interview Presentation
- Job Acceptance Letter Presentation
- Invention Presentation
- Preventing Plagiarism
- Preventing Plagiarism Introduction
- Contextualizing Plagiarism
- Contextualizing Plagiarism
- Truth or Consequences
- Handout: Truth or Consequences
- The Big Picture
- Authorship and Popular Plagiarism
- Copyright and Plagiarism
- Handout: Copyright and Plagiarism
- Collaborative Authorship
- Handout: Collaborative Authorship
- Defining Our Terms
- Class Plagiarism Policy
- Comparing Policies
- Handout: Comparing Policies
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting
- Peer Summarizing
- Anonymous Paraphrasing
- Paraphrasing from Media
- Handout: Paraphrasing from Media
- Using In-text Citations
- Handout: Using In-text Citations
- Quoting Others
- Handout: Quoting Others
- Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation in Context
- Handout: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation in Context
- Translingual Writing
- Writing in the Engineering Classroom
- Why Include Writing in Engineering Courses?
- Using Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Types of Writing Assignments for Engineering Courses
- Conceptual Writing Prompts
- Explain-a-Problem Writing Prompts
- How Stuff Works Writing Prompts
- Real-World Example Writing Prompts
- Design-a-Problem Writing Prompts
- Open-Ended Design Writing Prompts
- Writing Tips for Students
- Assessment and Feedback of Engineering Writing
- Research Team
- OWL Presentation Mode
- Writing Instructors
- Graduate Writing
- Announcement
- Introduction to Graduate Writing
- Graduate Writing Topics
- Graduate Writing Genres
- Thesis & Dissertation
- Subject-Specific Writing
- Professional, Technical Writing
- Professional, Technical Writing Introduction
- Workplace Writers
- Effective Workplace Writing
- Audience Analysis
- Prioritizing Your Concerns for Effective Business Writing
- Parallel Structure
- Activity and Postmortem Reports
- Tone in Business Writing
- HATS: A Design Procedure for Routine Business Documents
- Basic Business Letters
- Accentuating the Positives
- Memos
- Four Point Action Closing
- Grant Writing
- Donation Request Letters
- Technical Reports & Report Abstracts
- White Papers
- Revision in Business Writing
- Business Writing for Administrative and Clerical Staff
- Writing in Literature
- Writing in Literature Introduction
- Writing About Film
- Literary Terms
- Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism
- Introduction to Literary Theory
- Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction
- Formalism
- Psychoanalytic Criticism
- Marxist Criticism
- Reader-Response Criticism
- Structuralism and Semiotics
- Postmodern Criticism
- New Historicism, Cultural Studies
- Post-Colonial Criticism
- Feminist Criticism
- Gender Studies and Queer Theory
- Ecocriticism
- Critical Race Theory
- Critical Disability Studies
- Writing About Fiction
- Writing About Literature
- Writing in Literature (Detailed Discussion)
- Professional, Technical Writing