Assignment

Sample 1

Student Sample

Professor Griffin

English 1301

October 19, 2014

Preliminary Outline

Thesis Statement: Technology provides both positive and negative effects on learning, reading,

and writing in ways that impact one’s process of thinking.

I. Preliminary Introduction

Technology, over the years, has gone through many changes; changes that have effected

certain aspects of people’s lives. There have been countless of advances in technology

and of course, there is still a large number of advancement in technology at this time, and

people adapt to these changes every single moment when there’s news of a recent

technological advancement. Some people argue about technology one day being the

demise of mankind while others say that technology is the only of increasing the

intelligence of us all. There is no right answer. As a matter of fact, technology provides

both positive and negative effects on reading, writing, and learning that impact one’s

process of thinking.

II. Body

Reading, first of all, has been seen as one of the tools for succeeding in life, and

technology has provided a platform for more reading than ever before, but on the

other hand, technology has caused people to use a different form of reading.

a) A form of a new reading that has emerged recently is skimming.

Sample 2

b) Since most people now have easier access to a computer, they have the internet to

browse through which means that they are reading more and more.

c) “Reading…is not an instinctive skill for human beings…..We have to teach our

minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we

understand. “ (Carr 339). Basically, Carr explains how reading isn’t a skill we

already once we’re born.

III. Body

Second of all, writing has gone through many changes as technology has

advanced.

a) . Typewriters were introduced sometime a number of years ago, and it became a

lot easier to write in a typewriter than it was to write in paper.

b) However, there was always a change in the writing when using a typewriter,

despite it being slight, in the writer’s work

c) Just as typewriters saved loads of time, computers have served as a quicker form

of writing (typing) an essay, letter, etc.

IV. Body

Since the rise of technology, there is an easier access to information for people to

absorb, but the easy access to information also causes people to have less-stimulation

of the mind because the information is right in front of their faces; they don’t have to

‘think’ or ‘remember’ anymore.

a) People now have the material they want to learn in their computers, I-pods, or

phones.

Sample 3

b) Surprisingly though, learning has become a different experience for everyone as

now everybody relies on technology to learn new information.

c) The Internet has become everything to us; it’s become ‘our map and our clock,

our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator, and our telephone, and our

radio and TV’ (Carr 340).