Portfolio Entry #2: Academic Writing

Portfolio Entry #2

• PowerPoint Presentation - Summary and Key Information on Academic Writing Advice from the University of Toronto (available at https://writing.utoronto.ca/ ).
  
  
• Direct Download for the pptx file: https://tinyurl.com/AcademicWritingBazan

~ Metacognitive Analysis of ICT tool (PowerPoint) ~

I personally find a tool like PowerPoint (or any other that allows creation of slides) very useful, as it lets me present all the key information of a certain topic or topics in a dynamic and visually interesting format. The presentation can be then shared to fellow classmates, who in turn have the possibility of using it as material and/or notes to study for an exam. This tool can also be used to create colorful and captivating presentations to use with my own students, especially with children; PowerPoint allows the use of transitions, music, sounds and other attractive effects, which can almost turn any slideshow into a "movie" that children will often find much more interesting than plain text or static writing on the board.

~ Metacognitive Analysis of Contents and Relation to Teaching ~

The University of Toronto created a very complete course for Academic Writing, which provides an excellent pool of resources to learn about the rules and guidelines for writing properly in English. I believe this course is useful because it helps us develop our writing skills along with critical thinking and reading, proper research and organizing our ideas before actually working on a writing. It also provides examples of common mistakes, how to spot them and how to solve them. As for how this content relates to teaching, I believe it is of vital importance to integrate proper writing instruction into our own courses so that our students can learn from that along with the normal contents that are being taught. Eventually, they will find it useful as well, should they decide to write a book or a magazine article some day!