an Annotated Bibliography essay about the "GUN CONTROL"

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The Future of Composition

When was the last time you had to write a paper by hand? Do you remember how difficult it was? Now, with advances in technology, you can type a dozen pages on a computer and edit them without having to write anything again. In the past, technology has done great things for composition. While computers have provided a lot of utility for us to type documents, is there more technology could do for us? What new technology can we use to make college composition classes better? In this annotated bibliography, I will look at several sources that discuss ways modern technology can be used to enhance the college composition classes. Comment by Matt S: Attention grabbing statement to get your readers to reflect on their own lives. Comment by Matt S: Thesis statement which shows the exact goal of this essay. You do not have to be this direct, but just get these sentiments across.

Anderson, Dan, Anthony Atkins, Cheryl Ball, Krista Homicz Millar, Cynthia Selfe, and Richard Selfe. “Integrating Multimodality into Composition Curricula: Survey Methodology and Results from a CCCC Research Grand. Composition Studies. 34.2 (2006). Print. Comment by Matt S: Full MLA style citation followed by annotation.

In an empirical study on multimodality in the contemporary classroom, the authors of this piece discuss the results of their 141-question survey from 2006. In this statistical study, the authors ask questions on what role multimodality plays in their institution, how much access they had to digital tools, and what means were available for faculty to learn technology to name a few of the questions. Though this study does provide concrete statistic, given the fast pace changes in technology, at eight years old this study may already be dated. Additionally, the scope of the survey was quite small, as the participants were mostly acquaintances of the authors, as there few efficient options available to locate multimodal institutions. Comment by Matt S: Extra space added to make the citations easier to navigate.

Ewing, Laura A. “Rhetorically Analyzing Online Composition Spaces.” Pedagogy. 13.3 (2013): 554-561. Print.

Laura Ewing reflects on her experiences teaching an online, multimodal, composition II course.  In this course, Ewing had students examine their “online personas” (556-557), observe the rhetorical goals and strategies of YouTube videos and Yelp! Comments.  Ewing’s pedagogical strategies here are intriguing as a majority of her work seems to shift the focus onto here students as composers, and contributors to online dialogues.  This helps shift from the paradigm of students as mere collectors of facts for their teaching, and helps to abate the idea of writing as having the single purpose to appease their instructor.  Ewing’s class strategy of analyzing internet videos and comments also seems of particular use as it allows students to see classical rhetorical strategies in action, as opposed to mere theory. 

Ewing says, “Working in spaces like Yelp and YouTue required students to consider the rhetorical context of the space while pulling from what had previously been posted” (555).    

Hawisher, Gail E., and Cynthia Selfe. "Globalism And Multimodality In A Digitized World." Pedagogy 10.1 (2010): 55-68. Print.

In this article, Hawisher and Selfe closely examine two young international students as they progress through their education. In this article, the two students, Gorjana and Shafinaz, make specific note of their experience with technology growing up, and how technology has not only affected their studies, but how they keep in touch with relatives. This is important in a rhetorical sense as these young students must make choices based on what medium will allow their communication to resonate with their family and friends. This article also goes on to, subtly, make the point that the advent of technology has broken down barriers to the world, and now rhetors are no longer limited to their immediate audience, but available to the entire world. Because of this, rhetors must pay specific mind to this, and not ignore technology when presenting, as the world is cognizant of technology, and to ignore it would be remiss.

The world is changing, and with the influx of technology, we need our classes to change as well. Throughout the articles examined in this piece, it is clear that technology can co-exist with classical means for composition. Technology has many advantages, and when used properly, students can be exposed to a variety of new ways to create meaningful texts. This annotated bibliography was dedicated to examining the idea that technology can enhance composition courses, and the research does indeed seem to support that claim. Comment by Matt S: Restating the thesis. Comment by Matt S: A works cited page is not required, as you have all of your citations already listed in the body of this annotated bibliography.