Fluent Essays

2+ quotes from Writing about Writing 1st or 2nd edition. I attached the pdf version of this writing.During this course, we have discussed workplace discourse communities. With these workplace discourse communities in mind, explain some of the communicative similarities/differences between these and academic discourse communities (in terms of communication). What impact has this class had on you as a writer? Choose different readings/concepts discussed in class that have made you think differently about writing persuasively, What is the biggest lesson you will take with you concerning the social nature of language and argumentation as you move beyond ENG? writing_about_writing_a_college_reader_s.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Changing what you know v writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, you’re likely to do different things — better things — with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts generally. Our lives as readers and writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct texts by using words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather than the only way of thinking about correct ways of using source material. The concept of error is not natural or inevitable — rather, it’s a concept that was at some point created by people with a particular set of values. Changing what you know about writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, you’re likely to do different things — better things — with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts generally. Our lives as readers and writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather than the only way of thinking about correct ways of using source material. The concept of error is not natural or inevitable — rather, it’s a concept that was at some point created by people with a particular set of values. Changing what you know about writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, you’re likely to do different things — better things — with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts generally. Our lives as readers and writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct texts by using words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather than the only way of thinking about correct ways of using source material. The concept of error is not natural or inevitable — rather, it’s a concept that was at some point created by people with a particular set of values. Changing what you know about writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, you’re likely to do different things — better things — with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts generally. Our lives as readers and writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct texts by using words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather than the only way of thinking about correct ways of using source material. The concept of error is not natural or inevitable — rather, it’s a concept that was at some point created by people with a particular set of values. Changing what you know about writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, you’re likely to do different things — better things — with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts generally. Our lives as readers and writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct texts by using words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather than the only way of thinking about correct ways of using source material. The concept of error is not natural or inevitable rather, it’s a concept that was at some point created by people with a particular set of values. Changing what you know about writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, with you’re likely to do different things — better things — with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with INTEGRATED a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts MEDIA generally. Our lives as readers and writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct texts by using words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write SECOND EDITION WRITING ABOUT WRITING A College Reader “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather than the only way of thinking about correct ways of using source material. The concept of error is not natural or inevitable rather, it’s a concept that was at some point created by people with a particular set of values. Changing what you know about writing can change the way you write. If you change your ideas about what writing is supposed to be, you’re likely to do different things better things with your writing. Many of the things we believe about reading and writing aren’t exactly right. We walk around with a lot of misconceptions about writing, reading, and the ways we interact with texts generally. Our lives as readers ad writers would make a lot more sense if we could see these misconceptions for what they are. Writers construct texts by using words and images to develop ideas. Who we are bleeds into our texts even if we strive to write “objectively” or “factually.” Different readers bring different experiences and understandings to texts and, as a result, they construct various meanings from them. Many of the things we believe about writing are constructs. Our thinking about plagiarism is a set of ideas we’ve built up over time, rather Elizabeth Wardle Doug Downs Writing about Writing A College Reader 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv.indd i 27/11/13 5:51 PM this page left intentionally blank 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv.indd ii 27/11/13 5:51 PM Writing about Writing A College Reader Second Edition Elizabeth Wardle University of Central Florida Doug Downs Montana State University Bedford / St. Martin’s Boston • New York 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv.indd iii 27/11/13 5:51 PM FOR BEDFORD/ST. MARTIN’S Publisher for Composition: Leasa Burton Executive Editor: John E. Sullivan III Senior Production Editor: Bridget Leahy Assistant Production Manager: Joe Ford Marketing Manager: Emily Rowin Editorial Assistant: Rachel Greenhaus Copy Editor: Steve Patterson Indexer: Leoni Z. McVey Photo Researcher: Christine End Senior Art Director: Anna Palchik Text Design: Brian Salisbury Cover Design: Marine Miller Composition: Cenveo Publisher Services Printing and Binding: RR Donnelley and Sons President, Bedford/St. Martin’s: Denise B. Wydra Editorial Director, English and Music: Karen S. Henry Director of Marketing: Karen R. Soeltz Production Director: Susan W. Brown Director of Rights and Permissions: Hilary Newman Copyright © 2014, 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America. 8 7 6 5 4 3 f e d c b a For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000) ISBN: 978-1-4576-3694-3 Acknowledgments Acknowledgments and copyrights can be found at the back of the book on pages 805–09, which constitute an extension of the copyright page. It is a violation of the law to reproduce these selections by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the copyright holder. 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv.indd iv 27/11/13 5:51 PM Preface for Instructors Writing about Writing is part of a movement that has been growing steadily for years. As composition instructors, we have always focused on teaching students how writing works and on helping them develop ways of thinking that would enable them to succeed as writers in college. We found ourselves increasingly frustrated, however, teaching traditional composition courses based on topics that had nothing to do with writing. It made far more sense to us to have students really engage with writing in the writing course; the best way to do this, we decided, was to adopt a “writing about writing” approach, introducing students directly to what writing researchers have learned about writing and challenging them to respond by writing and doing research of their own. After years of experimenting with readings and assignments, and watching our colleagues do the same, we eventually developed Writing about Writing, a textbook for first-year composition students that presents the subjects of composition, discourse, and literacy as its content. Here’s why we think Writing about Writing is a smart choice for composition courses: Writing about Writing engages students in a relevant subject. One of the major goals of the writing course, as we see it, is to move students’ ideas about language and writing from the realm of the automatic and unconscious to the forefront of their thinking. In conventional composition courses, students are too often asked to write about either an arbitrary topic unrelated to writing or, conversely, about anything at all. In our experience, when students are asked to read and interact with academic scholarly conversations about writing and test their opinions through their own research, they become more engaged with the goals of the writing course and—most important—they learn more about writing. Writing about Writing engages students’ own areas of expertise. By the time they reach college, students are expert language users with multiple literacies: they are experienced student writers, and they’re engaged in many other discourses as well— blogging, texting, instant messaging, posting to social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube, and otherwise using language and writing on a daily basis. Writing about Writing asks students to work from their own experience to consider how writing works, who they are as writers, and how they use (and don’t use) writing. Students might wonder, for example, why they did so poorly on the SAT writing section or why some groups of people use writing that is so specialized it seems intended to leave others out. This book encourages students to discover how others—including Sondra Perl, Mike Rose, James Paul Gee, their instructors, and their classmates—have answered these questions and then to find out more by doing meaningful research of their own. Writing about Writing helps students transfer what they learn. Teachers often assume that students can automatically and easily “apply” what they learn in a writing course to all their other writing—or at the very least, to other college writing. This v 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv.indd v 27/11/13 5:51 PM vi PREFACE FOR INSTRUCTORS assumption sees writing and reading as “basic” universal skills that work the same regardless of situation. Yet research on transfer of learning suggests that there is nothing automatic about it: David Perkins and Gavriel Salomon found that in order to transfer knowledge, students need to explicitly create general principles based on their own experience and learning; be self-reflective, so that they keep track of what they are thinking and learning as they do it; and be mindful, that is, alert to their surroundings and to what they are doing rather than just doing things automatically and unconsciously. A writing course that takes language, writing, reading, and literacy as its subjects can help students achieve these goals by teaching them to articulate general principles such as “Carefully consider what your audience needs and wants this document to do.” In addition, it teaches them to reflect on their own reading, writing, and research processes. Writing about Writing has been extensively class tested—and it works. The principles of this writing-about-writing approach have been well tested and supported by the experience of writing instructors and thousands of students across the country. The first edition of Writing about Writing was formally class tested in a pilot at the University of Central Florida, an experiment that yielded impressive outcomes in comparative portfolio assessment with more traditional composition courses. Assessment results suggest, among other things, that the writing-about-writing approach had a statistically significant impact on higher-order thinking skills—rhetorical analysis, critical thinking about ideas, and using and integrating the ideas of others. The writing-about-writing approach also had a significant impact on how students and teachers engaged in writing as a process. The first edition of Writing about Writing was used in a variety of composition programs across the country. Based on positive feedback from those users, we have even greater confidence that this approach is successful. Features of Writing about Writing, Second Edition Topics That Matter to Writers Writing about Writing is organized around concepts and principles from Writing Studies with which we think students should become familiar: how texts in general—and ideas about writing in particular—are constructed; what writing processes are and how they work; what “literacy” means and how people become literate (or multiliterate); how communities use and are shaped by discourse; and how writers can gain authority when writing in college. These issues are framed in the text as questions, each of which forms the basis of one chapter. Many of these are issues that were covered in the first edition, but some are new. All have been re-ordered to create a carefully sequenced and scaffolded learning experience for students: • Chapter 1: Literacies: Where Do Your Ideas About Reading and Writing Come From? • Chapter 2: Individual in Community: How Do Texts Mediate Activities? • Chapter 3: Rhetoric: How Is Meaning Constructed in Context? • Chapter 4: Processes: How Are Texts Composed? • Chapter 5: Multi-Modal Composition: What Counts as Writing? 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv.indd vi 27/11/13 5:51 PM PREFACE FOR INSTRUCTORS vii By asking students to find their own answers to these questions, we encourage them to reflect on past literacy experiences and to be mindful of present ones, making them directly responsible, in the end, for their own learning. Framed Around Threshold Concepts about Writing The chapter concepts have been re-thought and re-ordered around what we think are some central “threshold concepts” related to writing. Threshold concepts are concepts that learners must become acquainted with in order to progress in that area of study—they are gateways to learning. Naming and using threshold concepts is an approach that has been used in the United Kingdom and now increasingly in the U.S. to improve teaching and learning in various disciplines and programs. Because they are central to work in a particular field but are often assumed and unstated, threshold concepts when explicitly identified can better help students come to understand ideas that are central to that field or phenomenon. Researchers Ray Land and Jan Meyer have argued that threshold concepts are often troublesome, and can conflict with common knowledge about a phenomenon. We think that this is particularly true when it comes to writing. Much of what we have learned as a field about writing conflicts with commonly held assumptions about writing. For example, many people believe that “good writers” are people for whom writing is easy, while research about writing suggests that “good writers” are people who persist, revise, and are willing to learn from their failures. Threshold concepts are now the organizing theme for the second edition, and we’ve arranged them in a sequence that we believe assists understanding of each subsequent concept. • Chapter 1, “Literacies: Where Do Your Ideas about Reading and Writing Come From?” engages the threshold concept that writing performance is informed by prior literacy experiences, or in simpler terms, that our reading and writing past will shape our reading and writing present. • Chapter 2, “Individual in Community: How Do Texts Mediate Activities?” engages the threshold concept that writing mediates activity. In other words, that writing gets things done, makes things happen. • Chapter 3, “Rhetoric: How Is Meaning Constructed in Context?” introduces students to some underlying rhetorical concepts; for example, that good writing is dependent on the situation, readers, and uses it’s being created for. • Chapter 4, “Processes: How Are Texts Composed?” asks students to engage several threshold concepts about writing: that writing is knowledge-making, that making knowledge requires ongoing and repeating processes, and that writing is not perfectible. • Chapter 5, “Multimodal Composition: What Counts as Writing?” emphasizes the threshold concept that writing is by nature a technology. Writing involves tools, and writing is not “natural” (in a biological sense). Challenging but Engaging Readings Because our intention in putting this book together was to invite students directly into scholarly conversations about writing, most readings in the book are articles by rhetoric 01_WAR_3694_FM_i_xxiv. ... Purchase answer to see full attachment