Unit 1 Reflection

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Unit 1 Reflection

At the start of Unit 1, I wasn’t out on the hunt for 4 “perfect, credible sources”. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded if I found a horribly false article to analyze. However, I believe all four of my sources are of high quality. Two of the sources I analyzed were given to me by my professor and the other two were off of Google Scholar and the Syracuse Libraries site. It was my goal to use these educational sources rather than simply typing “Writing and Technology” into a Google search box. Just using Google would have most likely given me less credible sources.

The only source that I had an issue with was my 2nd  source. It was about an experiment done regarding technology in a writing course and I wasn’t too pleased with the subject sample. Only 12 students took place in the experiment which took place at Umass Amherst. The author, Susan Kirtley, wrote in her description of the experiment “The group of 12 students who enrolled in the class was composed of 9 women and 3 men (though one of the women later dropped out of school), ranging from first-year to senior. Though not ethnically diverse (one self-identified as an African-American), they were diverse in their thinking, background and age. Although large generalizations certainly can’t be drawn from such a small, relatively homogeneous group, this sampling presents a wide variety of experiences and also demonstrates that individual students have articulate, intelligent perspectives on how they deal with technology in their college classes.”  In the end however, the sample size was my only serious issue with this source. Furthermore, my favorite source and the one that I believe succeeded the most was the podcast by Lindy West. We listened to this in class and I thought it was brilliant to relate back to our overall class inquiry. Although this source was a personal story and biased to West’s opinions, it was extremely emotional and informative on the topic of Internet trolls. I would however not recommend this source for someone looking to find a fact-based article. Furthermore, I do not outwardly see any large holes in my analysis’s. I believe my sources were pretty credible and provided me important information. Based on my own knowledge, none of these sources necessarily contradicted what I previously knew. In each of my analysis’s, I provided my own knowledge and personal stories to help back up the information given to me in the various articles. I think combining the information from the sources and from myself personally gave a unique spin to each source. Adding my own knowledge helps me stray away from simply summarizing a source. I also like to add in my own information to make the sources almost feel as if they belong to me now.

            Throughout this Unit, I used technology greatly to assist me in writing my final analysis’s. Everything I found was researched on the Internet as I spent several hours looking for the perfect sources to use. Furthermore, I thought technology played a very important role in peer advising. It was extremely convenient to be able to share our blogs and comment directly on them with the other students. It was convenient for me to comment on another student’s blog however it was also extremely convenient to read all the comments my peers left for me. Next, this may be obvious but I prefer to type on my laptop rather than hand write because it comes out much cleaner and it saves me a great amount of time. Without technology, I do not believe I could have successfully executed this unit. 

            After looking at the assignments for unit 2 and 3, I believe I could use my 3rd source for  unit 2. My thesis would include something about how social media influencers should use their power to post for good on top of what they already post in regards to their entertainment content. I think this source could greatly strengthen such a thesis. This source would also be great for this unit because it has many different perspectives as it was a live Q&A done with various politicians. As for unit 3, I believe I could reuse the Lindy West podcast. I would love to make a technology based argument surrounding Internet trolls and the toll they take on users. I think Lindy’s personal experience with Internet trolls would make for a great example to include in my final piece for this unit. Lastly, unit 3 is to be turned in on a different platform and I think creating my own podcast could be a great idea. 

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