Exam Essay Revision

In an article “From tripod to Cosmos: Anew metaphor for the language arts” written by Baines, it states that nowadays the focus of writing instruction transfers from finished products into various skills. Contemporary teachers provide different teaching plans to make students write in a variety of modes such as description, narration, and evaluation for different aims and audience. By classroom activities which teachers provide, students have to share and publish their thoughts, and acquaint with the literary forms. In addition, the teaching of composition has been altered by the computer. Writing for nonprint media has become the most profitable way to edit and publish the works, and students can take advantage of network resources to enrich their articles.

The trend of teaching composition indicates that we should try to think and organize our articles in a deeper and subtler way. The focus of writing becomes various because we need to leap out our original limited thoughts if we want to make our writing skills improved. Therefore, teacher plays an important role to guide students to understand how to develop and constitute their thoughts. When I was a fresh man, the teacher asked us to do “brain storming” before we write. Besides, to look into more specific points of view, we have to collect many related materials and then to analyze them. “Working shop” is also significant for us, we can know the defects of our articles and than modify them by listening to classmates’ opinions. Using computers and multiple media such as film and television give us the environment to acquire the materials which related to your topic and include diverse perspectives. You can research the arguments of why some people support a specific standpoint, while some people choose to the opposite side. By comparing the two aspects, you can strengthen your ability of thinking, and understand how to express your own thoughts appropriate.

Moreover, by using computer and projector in the class, students' works and media materials can be showed to the whole class. It is really convenient for both teacher and students to share their viewpoints with each other. For instance, because the teacher has guided us to use computer and Internet resources since I entered the university, I am familiar with posting my articles and videos on the blog. I had prepared powerpoint and videos in the class to express what I want to write about. Through the process of publishing and sharing, I would acquire better ideas to write my articles.

Learning how to write articles of various types is important. Thinking out of the box and sharing your opinions is what we should do. We should think why we write and whom we write for, instead of absolutely relying on the teacher to teach us how to write. The teacher is just a person who leads us and guides us to found our own ideas. There are abundant resources especially network resources which can help us to learn how to write. Because of the focus of writing changes and the modern technologies, the way of learning how to write becomes more interesting and convenient. It is a good transition for us.