The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Composition: A Somewhat Cheeky but Exceedingly Useful Introduction to Academic Writing - Softcover

Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554814456 ISBN 13: 9781554814459

Publisher: Broadview Press, 2019

Synopsis

Considering the composition classroom as a mad scientist’s laboratory, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Composition introduces different kinds of writing as experiments. Writing an essay is a task that can strike fear into a student’s heart, but performing an experiment licenses creativity and doesn’t presume that one knows the outcome from the start.

The Mad Scientist’s Guide covers the kinds of writing most often required on college campuses, while also addressing important steps and activities frequently overlooked in composition guides, such as revision and peer reviewing. Actual examples of student writing are included throughout, as are helpful reminders and tips to help students polish their skills. Above all, the Mad Scientist’s Guide seeks to make writing fun.

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock is Professor of English at Central Michigan University and an Associate Editor for The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. He is the author or editor of 22 books on questionable topics ranging from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Edgar Allan Poe. These include The Monster Theory Reader (University of Minnesota Press), The Cambridge Companion to the American Gothic (Cambridge UP), The Age of Lovecraft (with Carl Sederholm, Minnesota), Goth Music: From Sound to Subculture (with Isabella van Elferen, Routledge), The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters (Ashgate), The Vampire Film: Undead Cinema (Wallflower), and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Wallflower). Visit him at JeffreyAndrewWeinstock.com.

Review

“In an ideal world, writing would be taught with joy, create a sense of adventure, emphasize invention, and be full of monsters. Welcome to that ideal world. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock’s The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Composition will resonate profoundly with students and teachers who want an accessible, enjoyable, and riveting invitation to best writing practices―and to unbounded imagination.” ― Jeffrey J. Cohen, Dean of Humanities, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University

“As its subtitle promises, The Mad Scientist’s Guide to Composition is somewhat cheeky, but the subtitle undersells just how useful it is. Focusing on real issues that plague student writing and student writers, Weinstock walks students through the process of writing an essay from start to finish, identifying common missteps and questions that may arise while providing examples from his own students’ writing and the work of published authors. Whether read from beginning to end or mined for appropriate sections to complement ongoing work in a class, this Guide is a must-have for anyone with a sense of humor looking to be a better writer or for composition instructors hoping to make reading about writing, well, a little bit more fun.” ― Leah Richards, LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York

About this edition

• Publisher: Broadview Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1554814456
• ISBN 13: 9781554814459
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264