Reading & Writing in the Academic Community - Softcover

Mary-lynch-kennedy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 013099653X ISBN 13: 9780130996534

Publisher: Pearson Education Limited, 1998

Synopsis

This innovative rhetoric/reader provides an introduction to--and extensive practice with the purposes, forms, and processes of academic reading and writing across the curriculum. It illustrates in detail all the steps in the entire reading-writing process from reading the original source to revising the final draft--for a variety of essay types.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This innovative text/reader provides an introduction to -- and extensive practice with -- the purposes, forms, features, conventions, and processes of academic reading and writing across the curriculum. It shows students how to organize an essay using patterns that reflect their thinking, that focus on their rhetorical goals, and that meet their audiences' needs. It illustrates in detail all the steps in the entire reading-writing process -- from reading the original source to revising the final draft -- for a variety of essay types.

From the Inside Flap:

Preface TO THE STUDENT

When you come to college, you join a new community. It consists of a group of people who share knowledge, beliefs, and values and operate according to a set of agreed norms. The type of writing done in this community is well established, and it follows certain expectations and conventions. In some ways, it is like high-school writing. You will find yourself writing for similar purposes—to respond, compare and contrast, argue, and analyze. But in other ways, college writing is different.

College writing assignments often have a greater degree of specificity than high-school assignments. Another important difference is that they require you to engage other writers' texts. When you use textual sources, you are expected to do more than simply report to your audience the set of facts or body of material that you have read. You are expected to alter the reading material so that it fits your own writing purpose. For example, a high-school writing assignment might ask you to write an essay on the causes of the growth of poverty in the United States, whereas a comparable college assignment might ask you to evaluate the views of Lester C. Thurow and Barbara Ehrenreich on the feminization of poverty. The college assignment focuses on a particular feature of poverty and requires you to read, analyze, and perhaps compare the texts of two authors and evaluate their positions. You will have to summarize, paraphrase, and quote the reading materials in your essay, and you will also have to keep in mind that your professor is more interested in your appraisal of Thurow's and Ehrenreich's views than in your explanation of them.

Sometimes college students are mystified by academic writing assignments. They find them analytical, abstract, and impersonal and are puzzled by their inability to do well on them. Reading and Writing in the Academic Community aims to make academic writing assignments accessible. Our goals are to help you attain the habits of mind needed for academic reading and writing and to give you a ready command of the forms, features, and conventions of academic prose. We take you through the reading and writing process, showing you how to tackle assignments in phases: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. We also provide you with many helpful models of other students' work.

Throughout Reading and Writing in the Academic Community, our foremost consideration is your purpose for writing academic essays. The book is divided into three parts. Part I, "Reading and Writing Conventions," focuses on your purpose for reading the sources that you will draw on in your essays. Part II, "Writing Academic Essays," is driven by a central question: What do you want to get across to readers in your academic community? At the heart of each essay you write is the particular purpose you want to accomplish. On one occasion you may decide that the best way to get your readers to understand a difficult issue is to compare and contrast two authors' views. Another time your aim is to persuade your readers of your viewpoint. In another paper you may want to analyze and evaluate other writers' views.

Whatever your purpose for writing, you can fulfill it more easily if you know how to organize your essay using patterns that reflect your thinking. In each chapter in Parts I and II, we show you how student writers typically arrange texts for various purposes and we guide you through the process of composing essays of your own.

Since so much of your college writing will require you to draw on sources, a key ability is critical reading. That is why Part I focuses on the reading process. Chapter 1 offers you a set of powerful strategies for assertive reading and shows you how to apply them to your assignments. Chapter 2 introduces you to three basic conventions of academic writing—summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting—and provides you with extensive practice using these techniques.

Part II is devoted to essay writing. In Chapter 3, we discuss responding to sources, showing you how to compose essays by relating your own knowledge and experience to the material you read. In this chapter, you will find pointers for creating titles and openers; developing a thesis; and crafting paragraphs, including introductions and conclusions. You will also learn a number of useful strategies for revising preliminary drafts of your essays.

In Chapters 4, 5, and 6, we take you through the process of composing essays while engaging multiple reading sources. Chapter 4 explains how to make comparisons and contrasts that draw on textual sources as well as on your own ideas. We pay special attention to assignments that ask you to compare and contrast the views of two or more writers on the same topic. Chapter 5 offers suggestions for writing four types of papers that draw on multiple sources and, in some cases, your own knowledge and experience: a summary of multiple sources, an objective synthesis, an essay written in response to multiple sources, and a synthesis essay written for a specific purpose. The focus of Chapter 6 is developing strong arguments supported by reliable reading sources. We take you through the process of clarifying and refining issues, probing both sides of controversies, composing an arguable thesis, and marshaling a body of solid evidence to make a strong case.

In Chapter 7, we take up analysis and evaluation. We first show you how to write a systematic rhetorical analysis of a reading source. Then we explain how to compose an essay in which you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a source according to a set of established criteria. Finally, we take you through the process of writing an essay in which you analyze an issue objectively, "unpacking" it so that your reader can understand its complexities. Chapter 8 sets forth a process for conducting independent library research: posing questions and setting research goals, searching for information in print and electronic sources, and composing a research paper. In this chapter, we make a special effort to explain the use of computerized catalogs and indexes and the Internet so that you will feel confident using these powerful tools to obtain information for your research papers.

You will notice that throughout Parts I and II, we make extensive use of sample student essays. As we analyze these models, we guide you through the process of composing similar essays of your own.

Part III of the book is an anthology of compelling, high-interest reading selections. Chapters 9 to 14 focus on provocative, timely topics: grades in higher education, technology and society, tastes in popular music, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, racial profiling, and gender equity in sports. Following Part III, you will find one appendix of updated information on MLA and APA documentation styles and another on writing essay examinations.

As you analyze the reading sources and write essays for the assignments in this book, you will master the basic conventions of academic writing. Eventually, these conventions and processes described in this book will become second nature, and you will be able to execute the processes with very little effort. TO THE INSTRUCTOR:
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECOND EDITION

The second edition of Reading and Writing in the Academic Community continues to present a comprehensive rhetoric covering assertive, critical reading and the major types of academic writing students encounter as undergraduates and an anthology of timely, high-interest readings. A distinct strength of the book is that it makes few assumptions about students' prior experience in the academy and provides explicit, step-by-step instruction in paraphrasing, summarizing, quoting, writing essays in response to readings, composing synthesis essays, and using sources to compose comparison-and-contrast essays, argument essays, analysis essays, evaluation essays, and research papers.

The second edition contains many new features that make the book more flexible and enhance its usefulness as a combined rhetoric and reader. The book has been expanded from two parts to three. Instead of combining rhetoric and reader, the reading selections now have a section of their own, Part III.

Part III contains six entirely new chapters containing twenty-seven new reading selections on provocative topics: grades in higher education, technology and society, tastes in popular music, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, racial profiling, and gender equity in sports. We continue to accompany each reading selection with a prereading activity and reading comprehension questions that encourage students to (1) grasp the informational content, (2) decide what form, organization, and expository features the author uses, and (3) analyze rhetorical concerns, such as the context of the piece and the author's purpose with regard to his or her audience. As in the first edition, several writing assignments accompany each reading, and a further selection of writing assignments is presented at the end of each topically related chapter of readings. Questions, exercises, and activities give increased attention to group work and collaboration. Throughout Parts I and II, many new sample student essays and exercises have been added, and the text has been rewritten to reflect these changes. A strengthened presentation of thesis statements appears in Chapter 3, "Responding to Sources." Chapter 6, "Drawing on Sources for an Argument Essay," has been greatly expanded to include a detailed discussion of marshaling a body of solid evidence and making a strong case through ethical, emotional, and logical appeals. Chapter 7, "Analysis and Evaluation," has been substantially revised. The section on analyzing and evaluating literary works has been deleted, and a new section on writing an exploratory analysis essay has been added. Chapter 8, "Writing Research Papers," has changed significantly. It now includes an updated section on electronic resources and electronic and Internet research; new sections on using virtual libraries, locating and evaluating information on the World Wide Web, and collecting information through surveys and interviews; and a new sample research paper. Appendix A on MLA and APA documentation styles has been brought up to date. A new appendix (Appendix B) presents strategies that will enable students to do well on essay examinations. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We owe special thanks to the students at Cornell University, Ithaca College, and the State University of New York at Cortland who contributed essays to this book. We are greatly indebted to Christina Haas and Linda Flower for the concept of "rhetorical reading," to Marlene Scardamalia and Carl Bereiter for "knowledge-telling" and "knowledge-transforming," to Victoria Stein for "elaboration," and to Linda Flower for "writer-based and reader-based prose." We have also drawn on the work of other researchers and writers, including Edward Corbett, Peter Elbow, Donald Murray, and Mina Shaughnessy.

At Prentice Hall, we have had the privilege of working with an outstanding team: Vivian Garcia, Leah Jewell, Corey Good, Brandy Dawson, and Kathy Sleys.

We are also grateful to our reviewers for their helpful suggestions and insightful analysis: Susan North of the University of Tennessee, Sara McLaughlin of Texas Tech. University, Maryanne Felter of Cayuga Community College, Chris Jennings of Tidewater Community College, Eileen Thompson of Lane Community College, George T. Karnezis of North Central College, Margaret Dawe Baughman of Wichita State University, Lyle W. Morgan of Pittsburgh State University, and Stuart Barbier of Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne.

Finally, we want to thank Nancy Siegele and Bill Kennedy for their help, humor, and support in getting us through yet another revision of a textbook.

Mary Lynch Kennedy
Hadley M. Smith

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson Education Limited
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 013099653X
• ISBN 13: 9780130996534
• Binding: Paperback