Brandon Sohn

UWRT
Mitchell
12/10/17

Writing, Technology, and Research Reflection

Reading and writing are both connected to each other in many important ways. Without
the proper reading and inferencing skills, it would be impossible to be able to be a good writer.
There are certain writing techniques that intertwine with reading, as does every SLO except for
maybe the composing processes. SLOs like critical reading, critical reflection, knowledge of
conventions, etc. involve reading but also must be understood in order to create successful
writing. If one does not understand how to transfer the proper use grammar, literary devices, etc.
from what they read, then they will obviously be an unsuccessful writer.
Writing can do many things. It can persuade, inform, entertain, anger, shock, and provoke
a various other amounts of emotion through the specific style of the piece of writing. Writing can
be geared towards a specific discourse community or towards a general diverse public. For
example, a Fox News article might anger or disgust people who have democratic point of views
and opinions, as the news site is geared towards a more conservative crowd. A book like The Boy
in the Striped Pajamas may evoke sad emotions and even tears due to its subject matter and the
author's efforts for the reader to grow emotional attachments to the characters. Another example
would be in my Activism Project, where I created a website attempting to persuade readers not to
use social media. I used factual information yet presented it in a way that would cause the reader
to question his or her social media habits, such as the following sentence: Did you know that the
average person will spend a cumulative amount of 5 years and 4 months of their life on social
media? (Business Insider) (Writing as Activism November 19 2017). My intention of the
essay was to inform and persuade.
In order to compose an effective piece of writing, there are many tools that writers use.
Asides from the SLOs discussed earlier which are vital to effective writing, there are also a
various amount of tools and devices that can help a writer better convey his or her message ,
whether it be a persuasive essay, a research paper, or an emotional novel. Transitional devices
such as known-new can help for smoother transitions between paragraphs. Signal phrases help
transition text-to-quote and vise versa, and devices such as the paramedic method make the
meaning of the writing clearer for the reader. In my extended inquiry project, I was able to use
devices such as the paramedic method, signal phrases, known-new transitions, etc. An example
of known-new is displayed in my Inquiry Essay when I state the following: While some
question the effect of texting, social media and texting are two different forms of online
communication. Texting is typically a private communication between one person or a small
group of people. Social Media is communication on a platform where the public can easily
access, such as Twitter or Facebook (WikiAnswers) (Research Essay November 20 2017).
Since the genre of my writing was an informal research essay, I made sure to use many in-text
citations to show where I was getting my statistics and facts from.
Another effective strategy to use when putting together a piece of writing is taking
advantage of rhetoric strategies. These include the use of allusion, paradox, repetition, statistics,
satire, irony, etc. The use of these rhetorical strategies is especially important in trying to convey
to the reader the message the author is trying to send. A persuasive essay might call for allusion
and repetition, while an informal essay like my extended inquiry project called for statistics. The
understanding of what discourse community the writing/communication is being intended for is
important as well. For example, I when I predicted that the discourse [...] zombies would use
(during an apocalypse) would be more centered around body language and tone of voice,
because they mainly speak in moans and or grunts. The few humans that remain alive might talk
in code, use hand motions more often, or speak in small sentences (Studio 6 October 29
2017). I inferred this because the humans would want to avoid contact with the zombies, thus
speaking in hand motions and gestures. This is how understanding discourse is important in
writing as well. These strategies all contribute to the effectiveness of a piece of writing.