13.2: Book- Writing Spaces- Readings on Writing, Vol. I (Lowe and Zemliansky)

Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspectives on a wide-range of topics about writing, much like the model made famous by Wendy Bishop’s “The Subject Is . . .” series. In each chapter, authors present their unique views, insights, and strategies for writing by addressing the undergraduate reader directly. Drawing on their own experiences, these teachers-as-writers invite students to join in the larger conversation about developing nearly every aspect of the craft of writing. Consequently, each essay functions as a standalone text that can easily complement other selected readings in writing or writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at any level.

• 13.2.1: Backpacks vs. Briefcases- Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis

  Imagine the first day of class in first year composition at your university.* The moment your professor walked in the room, you likely began analyzing her and making assumptions about what kind of teacher she will be. You might have noticed what kind of bag she is carrying—a tattered leather satchel? a hot pink polka-dotted backpack? a burgundy brief case? You probably also noticed what she is wearing—trendy slacks and an untucked striped shirt? a skirted suit? jeans and a tee shirt?

• 13.2.2: Collaborating Online- Digital Strategies for Group Work

  Much of what you do in school, on the job, and in your everyday life involves the ability to work well with others.* Here, in college, your teachers will ask you to collaborate or work together in a number of ways. For example, you may be paired with one person to complete an in-class assignment, or you may be required to work with a group of three or four of your classmates to complete a semester-long project.

• 13.2.3: Composing the Anthology- An Exercise in Patchwriting

• 13.2.4: Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother With Logic?

  If we follow the war metaphor along its path, we come across other notions such as, “all’s fair in love and war.” If all’s fair, then the rules, principles, or ethics of an argument are up for grabs. While many warrior metaphors are about honor, the “all’s fair” idea can lead us to arguments that result in propaganda, spin, and, dirty politics. The war metaphor offers many limiting assumptions:

• 13.2.5: “Finding Your Way In”- Invention as Inquiry Based Learning in First Year Writing

  Imagine the initial meeting of your first year writing course.* After welcoming you to the course and going over the basics, your writing instructor prompts you and the other students to reflect on how you typically begin to think about approaching a writing assignment. Several hands raise and you listen as students begin answering.

• 13.2.6: From Topic to Presentation- Making Choices to Develop Your Writing

  Every semester, I ask my students for topic ideas, and then I write an essay for them.* When we’re in a traditional classroom, they watch me write the initial draft using a computer and projector; they comment on the writing, and I present revisions to them later. When we work online, they receive copies of all my drafts with changes tracked for their review and comments.

• 13.2.7: Introduction- Open Source Composition Texts Arrive for College Writers

  Of course all of these statements are the pronouncements of California’s current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. While in the first three instances he serves as a robotic killing machine (Terminator 2 and The Terminator), in the last statement he serves as a harbinger of a major change in the way textbooks are written, reviewed, published, and distributed in America (“Free Digital”). Long after the Terminator is terminated in our collective pop culture memories, the effects of open source textb

• 13.2.8: “I need you to say ‘I’”- Why First Person Is Important in College Writing

  At this point in your development as a writer, you may have learned to write “I-less” prose, without first person.* I-less-ness is fine; writing habits, like all habits, are best simplified when first learned or re-learned. Jazz pianists learn strict scales before they are allowed to improvise. Someone might go on a strict diet and then return to a modified menu after the desired weight is lost, and the bad eating habits are broken. Constructing arguments without using “I” is good practice for f

• 13.2.9: Navigating Genres

  Maybe this joke makes you laugh. Or groan. Or tilt your head to the side in confusion. Because it just so happens that in order to get this joke, you must know a little something about country music in general and in particular country music lyrics. You must, in other words, be familiar with the country music genre. Let’s look into country music lyrics a bit more. Bear with me on this is if you’re not a fan.

• 13.2.10: Reflective Writing and the Revision Process- What Were You Thinking?

  The first time I had to perform reflective writing myself was in the summer of 2002. And it did feel like a performance, at first. I was a doctoral student in Wendy Bishop’s Life Writing class at Florida State University, and it was the first class I had ever taken where we English majors actually practiced what we preached; which is to say, we actually put ourselves through the various elements of process writing.

• 13.2.11: Reinventing Invention- Discovery and Investment in Writing

  Invention can be understood as a process of discovery (Conley 317) and creation (Welch 169).* This can mean that you will discover something new about an existing idea or create a new way of looking at something. That seems pretty straightforward on the surface. Writers invent texts the way engineers invent new gadgets. But invention in the rhetorical sense is about a lot more than just coming up with ideas.

• 13.2.12: So You’ve Got a Writing Assignment. Now What?

  Learning to interpret writing assignment expectations also helps encourage productive dialogue between you and your fellow classmates and between you and your instructor. You’ll be able to discuss the assignment critically with your peers, ask them specific questions about information you don’t know, or compare approaches to essays. You’ll also be able to answer your classmates’ questions confidently.

• 13.2.13: Taking Flight- Connecting Inner and Outer Realities during Invention

  Instead of writing being driven either by individual identity or by outside criteria, both of these facets of identity are interwoven, and used in conjunction with one another, these influences act as the two wings that can help get a writing project off the ground. The sense of personal identity and having one’s own goals when writing

• 13.2.14: The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer

  This is the first time that I remember a student confessing aloud (to me) that she did not like writing, and I remember struggling for an appropriate response—not because I couldn’t fathom how she had the gall to admit this to me, a writing teacher, but because I couldn’t understand why admitting to not liking writing worried her. In the next class, I asked my students if they liked writing

• 13.2.15: What Is "Academic" Writing?

  As a new college student, you may have a lot of anxiety and questions about the writing you’ll do in college.* That word “academic,” especially, may turn your stomach or turn your nose. However, with this first year composition class, you begin one of the only classes in your entire college career where you will focus on learning to write. Given the importance of writing as a communication skill, I urge you to consider this class as a gift and make the most of it.

• 13.2.16: Why Visit Your Campus Writing Center?

  There is something about the experience of speaking with someone one-on-one—the facial expressions, enunciations, gestures—that makes us feel alive and energized.* Who we talk with can matter more than the topic itself, but either way most people love a good conversation. Among strangers traveling through an airport or waiting in a doctor’s office, words seem to gather like stones in a pool.

• 13.2.17: Wikipedia Is Good for You!?

  You may not realize it, but creating knowledge is one reason you are asked to do research-based writing1 in college.* And a popular resource you may already use can help you with this task—though perhaps not in the way you might initially think. Wikipedia, the free wiki “encyclopedia,”2 can provide information to assist you with and model some of the activities frequently characteristic of college-level research-based writing.