Using Action Research to Improve Digital Writing Pedagogy

21st-Century Citizens thrive in a world of immediate and even instantaneous communication. Whether it be for business, personal, or educational purposes, people across the globe are interacting continually, every few seconds via various digital devices to maintain contact. This rapid connectivity has greatly simplified many processes in life, but simplification is not without consequence. Many young people are leaving their K-12 educational environments with a lack of knowledge of norms and expectations for written communication. This lack of mastery can lead to missed opportunities in both the job market and higher education. In some cases, employers are even forced to hire writing coaches to help employees improve written skills to interact with clients and customers. This leads me to ponder what we are doing wrong as educators. How can we overcome the writing weaknesses in our students? Is the rapid nature of the technological world perpetuating a lack of attention to detail? How can we leverage electronic writing in the classroom to better prepare young people for the future?

These questions along with my own observations in the classroom have led me to research the topic for my literature review: What are the weaknesses in the rhetorical beliefs of my students and how can an educator leverage technology to build a curriculum that produces conscientious writers who are able to tailor their writing to an audience and purpose?

It is my hope that my research and exploration will open my eyes to some new instructional practices I can utilize as I continue to implement my ePortfolio innovation plan. My students are already doing the writing; we just need to come up with a plan of attack for fine-tuning the work we are producing! Hopefully, this literature review will lead me in the right direction. My work is in its early stages, and I have spent the day drafting an outline along with measurement tools to help get me on the way to conducting effective research. I can’t wait to gather and document my results!