Crafting Digital Writing: Composing Texts Across Media and Genres

by Troy Hicks

Written for teachers of writing by a teacher of writing, Crafting Digital Writing is both an introduction for teachers new to digital writing and a menu of ideas for those who are tech-savvy. Troy Hicks explores the questions of how to teach digital writing by examining author's craft, demonstrating how intentional thinking about author's craft in digital texts engages students in writing that is grounded in their digital lives. Troy draws on his experience as a teacher, professor, and National Writing Project site director to show how the heart of digital composition is strong writing , whether it results in a presentation, a paper, or a video. Throughout the book, Troy


To preview a sample of Crafting Digital Writing .

Genres: Education, Professional Development, Teaching, Nonfiction, Writing

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2013

Reviews

[Nicole Perry Kurilchick · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some good reminders and practical ideas here.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful book. I especially like that the focus is on writing and the ways that technology helps developing writers more than it is on the tools themselves (which seem to change a lot). I like that it is principle-based; that seems to have lasting power.

[Jennifer Dines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hicks writes from the perspective of a writing teacher. Crafting Digital Writing is exceptional in building off traditional elements of writing pedagogy (i.e. use of mentor texts; analysis of and reflection upon purpose, audience,craft, and genre) and showing the relationship between these elements and the creation of digital writing pieces.
Throughout this book, Hicks restates that writing teachers should guide students in being deliberate and intentional with their work, and the examples he gives demonstrate how the genres unique to digital writing (audio and video in particular) provide powerful ways to enhance a writer's message and intention. Hicks also presents a variety of mentor texts with sample analysis questions framed around the MAPS mnemonic (mode, media, audience, purpose, situtation). Additionally, examples and analysis are explicitly embedded in Common Core standards and text types (narrative, informative, argument).
I plan to use the ideas presented in this book in my ESL teaching and teacher coaching and collaboration work this year.
Note: I read this book for the #EdTechReads Summer Book Club offered by the Boston and Waltham Public Schools.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3 & 4 stars. I enjoyed Chapters 1-5. They made me think, developed ideas and sparked conversations within the group of colleagues that were reading the book together. Chapter 6 (I'm hoping that's the right chapter # - videos) was full of ideas for readers who have not tried something in this area before. It simply did not help me personally. Chapter 7 - social media felt too surface...not diving into fully developed ideas. Seemed like just a quick picture, but I was looking for stellar examples and simply did not find them. The final chapter, as perhaps intended, felt repetitive. Many of the main ideas behind Hick's perspective on digital writing were solid. The constant reminders to have intent and purpose in this work is important. Also not to be forgotten- teach the writer first, then the writing and finally the technology.

[ElaBrainBump · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a worthwhile investment of reading time for anyone who teaches writing K-12. It's an excellent review of or introduction to the possibilities, responsibilities, and guidance integral to writing through digital means. Hicks provides QR codes and links to examples of student work in elementary, middle school, and high school from a variety of educators across the country. I appreciate how committed Hicks is to the traditional literacy skills of craft, genre, and grammar, but he enhances the process through digital means and provides relevant ways to assess student work. He addresses web text, presentations, audio text, video text, and harnessing social media. He provides multiple digital avenues for each type of writing. This is a dense, slow read, mostly because a reader will want to closely examine the examples and tools on the web.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed several aspects of Hicks' manual on crafting digital writing, paramount among them the pragmatic and clear approach it took to talking about several genres of writing, suggesting various software platforms that teachers could use to explore them, and analyzing several digital writing projects. However, in the end, I felt Hicks' approach was somewhat too basic, both in the digital writing projects he analyzed (his critiques were fair, but the projects themselves were more elementary than I would have liked to see as a college professor) and in the theoretical grounding he brought to his analysis. It's a decent manual to start with if you have no experience either working with or on digital writing projects, but I doubt I will go back to it for anything more than references to software programs.

[Lynda Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed some of the chapters of this book and particularly found value in coming together with colleagues to determine how to best make changes in my teaching to incorporate some of the ideas presented. I found the last two chapters were not as helpful, partially due to school constraints and too much of a leap for me and partially because some of it seemed to be review. It is amazing how quickly all the options for digital tools keep changing. I keep feeling like I am just about ready to understand something and, then, boom, something new is more efficient and I haven't quite mastered the first option.

I hope to try more this school year and will use this as a reference and my colleagues as my ever-needed support. Here's to teacher risk-taking!

[jmjester · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who ever hopes to teach digital writing, this is a must read. Troy goes even further than in his previous work, Digital Writing Workshop, into how composing alphabetically and digitally need to be held to the same standards and, more importantly, how to teach into doing so. I really appreciated the student samples he provided both within the book and the QR codes so we could manipulate them ourselves.

Go buy this now.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the chapter on social media would be least worthwhile, but I was surprised.
Gives me new experts to investigate, such as Renee Hobbs and Richard Beach. I was also glad to see mentions of librarians such as Joyce Valenza and Robin Williams work about design

Thoroughly connects the MAPS and Common Core, almost to the point of repeating himself in every chapter.

Gave me support of strategies I'm already using as well as ideas for 'next steps' as I support classroom writing.

[David Sebek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Troy Hicks creates a very readable book that continues to inspire teachers to help students craft digital writing. The different suggestions and ideas have helped me to focus some fractured units and integrate the ideas more cohesively to help the students create products that take advantage of their affinity for using the internet to extend their relationships. I am excited about the new years and getting students creating and expressing their ideas.

[Mandy Havert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is geared to K-12 and yet the ideas and principles are transferrable to the higher education sphere. I look forward to writing more both professionally and personally in the area of digital writing. My primary targets are blog posts, twitter feeds and biographies and summaries of my work and roles as a librarian and information professional. Hicks' book is a good primer and reference tool to link you to valuable support sites.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I read Crafting Digital Writing, the word I kept coming back to was INTENTIONAL. How do we as teachers make digital writing assignments more intentional and how do we help students create more intentional digital lives? The fact that Troy Hicks will continually leave these questions in my head made this book worth the read.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent books with excellent ideas. I've wanted to refine how I use digital writing in my classroom and this book provided excellent ideas and plenty of new ones that I had not yet considered. Highly recommended for the classroom teacher of any discipline hoping to increase their digital literacies.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can always tell how much I adore a book, based solely on the number of "come back to this frequently" Post-Its I add to the already existent annotations. I went through somewhere around 35 Post-Its for this book. If you teach writing, have any age students around you who are writing in any capacity, and live in 2016, you should devour and mark this book up as a constant "go to" text.

[Tommy Buteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read with lots of support for why digital writing is an important tool for teachers and how it meets the standards. What he presents is well done and easy to understand. An excellent book for those starting out with digital writing.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way information is presented in this text. It's engaging and informative. Digital literacy is important to understand, and if there were one book (for the time being, anyway, since technology evolves so quickly) to read on the subject, this is it.

[Devin Schoening · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read with some practical ideas for utilizing technology to enhance student writing. The ideas shared in this book meshed with a lot of things I have been sharing with teachers during the past few years. It's always nice to hear someone else is thinking and doing the same things.

[Jill Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated every bit of info. Although it will likely be dated in a few years, this book is exactly what I needed right now.

[Teacherward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read and invaluable resource.

[Carlene Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about integrating technology effectively throughout the writing process

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intentionality. That's the message I gathered after reading Troy's book. I also gathered new resources and a better understanding of how to guide myself and my students viewing of digital texts.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book in order to write a review on Middlweb. It is a great book; I even went back and changed my lesson plans based on the ideas in this book.

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chockful of ideas and suggestions. A real help.

[Chelsea French · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many applicable resources in this book! Really made me rethink my curriculum.