Writing Matters: class test version

Writing Matters unites research, reasoning, documentation, grammar and style in a cohesive whole, helping students see the conventions of writing as a network of responsibilities writers have...

...to other writers. Writing Matters clarifies the responsibility writers have to one another--whether they are collaborating in an online peer review or drawing on digital and print sources in a research project--to treat information fairly and accurately and to craft writing that is fresh and original--their own!

...to the audience. Writing Matters stresses the importance of using conventions appropriate to the audience, to write clearly, and to provide readers with the information and interpretation they need to make sense of a topic.

...to the topic. Writing Matters emphasizes the writer's responsibility to explore a topic thoroughly and creatively, to assess sources carefully, and to provide reliable information at a depth that does the topic justice.

...to themselves. Writing Matters encourages writers to take their writing seriously and to approach writing tasks as an opportunity to learn about a topic and to expand their scope as writers. Students are more likely to learn about a topic and to expand their scope as writers. Students are more likely to write well when they think of themselves as writers rather than as error-makers. By explaining rules in the context of responsibility, Writing Matters addresses composition students respectfully as mature and capable fellow participants in the research and writing process.

Contents

PART 1 Writing Matters: Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Designing

1 Writing Responsibly in the Information Age

a. Writing Today

b. The Writer’s Responsibilities

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Your College’s Plagiarism Policy

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Taking Yourself Seriously as a Writer

2 Planning Your Project

a. Analyzing Your Writing Situation

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Your Audience and You

b. Analyzing an Assignment

c. Generating Ideas

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Note Taking and Plagiarism

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Keep Track as You Browse

d. Narrowing or Broadening a Topic

e. Working with Others: Planning a Collaborative Project

3 Organizing and Drafting Your Project

a. Crafting an Effective Thesis

b. Organizing Your Ideas

c. Preparing to Draft

d. Drafting: Explaining and Supporting Your Ideas

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Made-up “evidence”

STUDENT PROJECT: FIRST DRAFT

e. Writing with Others: Collaborative Projects

4 Crafting and Connecting Paragraphs

a. Writing Relevant Paragraphs

b. Writing Unified Paragraphs

c. Writing Coherent Paragraphs

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Guiding the Reader

d. Developing Paragraphs Using Patterns

e. Writing Introductory Paragraphs

f. Writing Concluding Paragraphs

g. Connecting Paragraphs

5 Drafting and Revising Visuals

a. Deciding Whether to Illustrate College Writing Projects

b. Using Visuals as Evidence

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Exploitative Images

c. Deciding Whether to Copy Visuals or to Create Them

d. Revising Visuals

6 Revising, Editing, Proofreading, and Formatting

REVISING GLOBALLY: LEARNING TO RE-SEE

a. Gaining Perspective

b. Rereading Your Draft

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: The Big Picture

c. Reconsidering Your Title

REVISING LOCALLY: EDITING WORDS AND SENTENCES

d. Choosing Your Words with Care

e. Editing Your Sentences

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Making an Essay Long Enough without Wordiness

REVISING WITH OTHERS

f. Peer Revising

g. Working with a Tutor or Instructor

PROOFREADING AND FORMATTING

h. Proofreading

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Beware the Spell Checker!

i. Formatting an Academic Text

STUDENT PROJECT: FINAL DRAFT

j. Creating and Submitting a Portfolio

PERSONAL STATEMENT

PART 2 Reasoning Matters: Reading, Thinking, and Arguing

7 Thinking and Reading Critically

a. Comprehending

READING RESPONSIBLY: Engaging with What You Read

b. Reflecting

c. Preparing to Write

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Drawing Inferences

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Understanding criticism

STUDENT PROJECT: CRITIQUE

8 Analyzing and Crafting Arguments

a. Persuading and Exploring

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: The Well-Tempered Tone

b. Reasoning Logically

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Considering Counterevidence

c. Avoiding Logical Fallacies

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Visual Claims and Visual Fallacies

d. Making a Claim

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Choosing a Fresh Topic

e. Appealing to Readers: Intellect, Authority, and Emotions

ARGUING RESPONSIBLY: Making Oral Arguments

f. Unearthing Assumptions

g. Considering Alternative Viewpoints

h. Organizing Arguments: Classical, Rogerian, and Toulmin models

STUDENT PROJECT: EXPLORATORY ARGUMENT

PART 3 Media Matters

9 Designing Printed and Electronic Documents

a. Understanding the Four Principles of Design

b. Planning Your Design Project

c. Applying the Principles of Design

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Selecting Fonts with Readers in Mind

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Designing for Those with Impaired Color Vision

10 Writing for Multiple Media

a. Writing and Answering Email

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Maintain Confidentiality in Email

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Email and Privacy

b. Creating a Website or Web Page

c. Writing in Interactive Media

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Flaming

11 Making a Multimedia Presentation

a. Identifying your Purpose, Audience, Context, and Genre

b. Devising a Topic and Thesis

c. Organizing the Presentation

d. Preparing and Rehearsing the Presentation

e. Delivering the Presentation

f. Speaking Responsibly

LISTENING RESPONSIBLY: Active Listening

PART 4 Research Matters

12 Planning a Research Project

a. Analyzing the Assignment's Purpose, Audience, and Method of Development

b. Setting a Schedule

c. Choosing and Narrowing a Research Topic

d. Drafting Research Questions and Hypotheses

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Using Printed Sources

e. Choosing Research Sources Strategically

f. Establishing a Research Log

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Avoiding Plagiarism at the Start

g. Building a Working Bibliography

13 Finding Information

a. Finding Information on the Web

b. Finding Other Electronic Sources: Interactive Media

c. Finding Articles in Journals and Other Periodicals Using Databases and Indexes

d. Finding Reference Works

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Using Wikipedia

e. Finding Books Using Library Catalogs

f. Finding Government Publications

g. Finding Multimedia Sources

h. Conducting Field Research

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Conducting Interviews Fairly

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Avoiding Manipulation and Bias in Observations

14 Evaluating Information

a. Evaluating for Relevance and Reliability

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Keeping an Open Mind

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Online Plagiarism

b. Evaluating Online Texts: Websites, Blogs, Wikis and Online Discussion Forums

c. Evaluating visual sources

15 Using Information and Avoiding Plagiarism

a. Valuing Research

b. Using Information Ethically: What You Do and Do Not Have to Acknowledge

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Using Illustrations and Acoiding Plagiarism

c. Making Notes That Help You Avoid Plagiarizing

d. Making Research Notes That Help You Write

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Annotating versus Making Notes

e. Summarizing

f. Paraphrasing without Patchwriting

g. Quoting

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Using Quotations Fairly

h. Using Analysis, Interpretation, Synthesis, and Critique in Your Notes

16 Writing the Research Project

a. Drafting a Thesis Statement

b. Organizing Your Ideas

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Acknowledging Counterevidence

c. Drafting Your Research Project

d. Revising, Proofreading, Formatting, and Publishing Your Project

PART 5 Documentation Matters

17 Documenting Sources: MLA Style

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Citing and Documenting Sources

a. Creating MLA-Style In-Text Citations

b. Preparing an MLA-Style List of Works Cited

Books--Printed and Electronic

Periodicals--Printed and Electronic

Other Electornic Sources

Audio and Visual Sources

Miscellaneous Sources

c. Using MLA Style for Content and Bibliographic Notes

d. Formatting a Paper in MLA Style

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Of Deadlines and Paperclips

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT: MLA STYLE

18 Documenting Sources: APA Style

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Citing and Documenting Sources

a. Creating APA Style In-Text Citations

b. Preparing an APA-Style Reference List

Books--Printed and Electronic

Periodicals--Printed and Electronic

Other Electornic Sources

Audio and Visual Sources

Miscellaneous Sources

c. Formatting a Paper in APA Style

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Of Deadlines and Paperclips

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT: APA STYLE

19 Documenting Sources: Chicago Style

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Citing and Documenting Sources

a. Creating Chicago-Style Notes and Bibliographic Entries

Books--Printed and Electronic

Periodicals--Printed and Electronic

Other Electornic Sources

Audio and Visual Sources

Miscellaneous Sources

b. Using Chicago Style for Tables and Figures

c. Using Chicago Style for Content Notes

c. Formatting a Chicago-Style Paper

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Of Deadlines and Paperclips

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT: CHICAGO STYLE

20 Documenting Sources: CSE Style

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Citing Sources

a. Creating CSE-Style In-Text Citations

b. Preparing a CSE-Style Reference List

Books--Printed and Electronic

Periodicals--Printed and Electronic

Other Electornic and Miscellaneous Sources

c. Formatting a CSE-Style Paper and Reference List

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Of Deadlines and Paperclips

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT: CSE STYLE

PART 6 Genre Matters: Writing in and beyond College

21 Writing in Literature and the Other Humanities

a. Adopting the Approach of Literature and the Other Humanities

WRITING RESPONSIBLY: Reading with Study Guides

b. Using the Resources of Literature and the Other Humanities

c. Citing and Documenting sources--MLA and Chicago Style

d. Using the Language of Literature and the Other Humanities

e. Understanding Writing Projects in Literature and the Other Humanities

STUDENT PROJECT: WRITIGN ABOUT FICTION

f. Writing about Poetry

STUDENT PROJECT: WRITING ABOUT POETRY

g. Writing about drama

PROFESSIONAL PROJECT: REVIEW OF A PLAY

22 Writi...