The Writer's Response: A Reading-Based Approach to College Writing

THE WRITER'S RESPONSE teaches students not only the basics of paragraph and essay writingï'unity, coherence, and supportï'but also the basics of academic writing, making it a complete source for students preparing for higher-level work. Through a variety of exercises and extensive readings, the text teaches students to read carefully and summarize accurately, to recognize and respond to specific points in the material they have read, to synthesize ideas from several reading selections, and to evaluate and argue about the ideas they have found in their reading material. Although the authors' focus is on writing about reading, they also encourage students to use their personal experiences to develop and support their ideas. This combination results in a text that not only imparts the fundamentals of college-level writing, but also helps each student find his or her own voiceï'and discover that they do, indeed, have something to say.

Stephen McDonald has been teaching English since 1975. For seven years, 1977-1984, he worked as an adjunct instructor in San Diego County, teaching at three community colleges (San Diego Mesa College, Grossmont College, and Southwestern College). In 1984 he was hired as a full-time instructor at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, California. While at Palomar, he helped to design and subsequently chaired and administered the college's Writing-across-the-Curriculum program, also giving workshops to assist instructors from a variety of disciplines as they developed writing assignments and techniques that would work in their classrooms. He has served as Chair of the English Department at Palomar, as a member of the Faculty Senate, and as a participant on a variety of committees. He has also attended three Great Teachers Seminars hosted by Palomar College. In 1991 he was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2007 received the Palomar College Research Award for publications ranging from college textbooks to poetry. For the past two years he has served as Dean of Languages and Literature. In addition to THE WRITER'S RESPONSE, he is co-author with William Salomone of INSIDE WRITING: A WRITER'S WORKBOOK and IN BRIEF: A HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS. He has also published a chapbook of poetry titled WHERE THERE WAS NO PATTERN (Finishing Line Press, 2007) and many individual poems in a variety of literary journals.

William Salomone has a BA in English from Arizona State University and an MA in English from San Diego State U. From June, 1970 to June, 2005 he taught as an associate professor of English composition and literature at Palomar Community College at San Marcos, California, twice serving as chair of the English Department, several years on the Faculty Senate and one term as President of the Faculty. Along with Stephen McDonald, he published three English textbooks, beginning in 1986: INSIDE ENGLISH: A WRITER'S WORKBOOK, THE WRITER'S RESPONSE, and IN BRIEF, which is a handbook for developing writers.