How well can you decode the signs that permeate our daily lives? All of us, consciously or not, constantly engage in the acts of reading and interpreting the signs in the world around us. But how do we sharpen these skills, deepen our awareness of meaning in a complex world, and ultimately reach our full potential as university writers? This book answers the needs of students of composition, culture studies, and literature, providing a process-orientated guide to analyzing anything.
Instructors at hundreds of colleges and universities have turned to How to Write Anything for clear, focused writing advice that gives students just what they need, when they need it. And students love it—because John Ruszkiewicz’s tone makes writing in any genre approachable, with a flexible, rhetorical framework for a range of common academic and real-world genres, and a reference with extra support for writing, research, design, style, and grammar. The new edition is accompanied and enhanced by LaunchPad for How to Write Anything, an online course space of pre-built units featuring the full e-text, multimodal readings, and adaptive LearningCurve activities to help students hone their understanding of reading and writing. The new edition also gives students more support for writing portfolios, more help working with the concept of genre, and more emphasis on critical reading and writing—all essential to academic success. And you’ll find more teaching ideas and syllabi from the community of teachers led by coauthor Jay Dolmage. The result is everything you need to teach composition in a flexible and highly visual guide and reference.
TEACH YOUR STUDENTS TO READ WITH PRECISION AND INSIGHT The world we are preparing our students to succeed in is one bound together by words and phrases. Our students learn their literature, history, math, science, or art via a firm foundation of strong reading skills. When we teach students to read with precision, rigor, and insight, we are truly handing over the key to the kingdom. Of all the subjects we teach reading is first among equals. Grounded in advice from effective classrooms nationwide, enhanced with more than 40 video clips, Reading Reconsidered takes you into the trenches with actionable guidance from real-life educators and instructional champions. The authors address the anxiety-inducing world of Common Core State Standards, distilling from those standards four key ideas that help hone teaching practices both generally and in preparation for assessments. This 'Core of the Core' comprises the first half of the book and instructs educators on how to teach students to: read harder texts, 'closely read' texts rigorously and intentionally, read nonfiction more effectively, and write more effectively in direct response to texts. The second half of Reading Reconsidered reinforces these principles, coupling them with the 'fundamentals' of reading instruction—a host of techniques and subject specific tools to reconsider how teachers approach such essential topics as vocabulary, interactive reading, and student autonomy. Reading Reconsidered breaks an overly broad issue into clear, easy-to-implement approaches. Filled with practical tools, including: 44 video clips of exemplar teachers demonstrating the techniques and principles in their classrooms (note: for online access of this content, please visit my.teachlikeachampion.com) Recommended book lists Downloadable tips and templates on key topics like reading nonfiction, vocabulary instruction, and literary terms and definitions. Reading Reconsidered provides the framework necessary for teachers to ensure that students forge futures as lifelong readers.
In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart – to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’ Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail; to be inspired by Emily Brontë ’ s structural nuance and Charles Dickens’ s deceptively simple narrative techniques. Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading.
In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor’s degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they’re born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question posed by Academically Adrift: are undergraduates really learning anything once they get there? For a large proportion of students, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s answer to that question is a definitive no. Their extensive research draws on survey responses, transcript data, and, for the first time, the state-of-the-art Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and then again at the end of their second year. According to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at twenty-four institutions, 45 percent of these students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills—including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing—during their first two years of college. As troubling as their findings are, Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise—instead, they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or working and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list. Academically Adrift holds sobering lessons for students, faculty, administrators, policy makers, and parents—all of whom are implicated in promoting or at least ignoring contemporary campus culture. Higher education faces crises on a number of fronts, but Arum and Roksa’s report that colleges are failing at their most basic mission will demand the attention of us all.
Review of 1st Edition The book's title is absolutely accurate in describing how the authors give the most practical and clear advice on all of the problematic aspects of reading for meaning, developing analytic and coherent thinking and writing in coursework. This book will be invaluable for any student and it would be sad if most are too busy writing essays and undertaking examinations to read it. Nursing Times Review of this edition I felt this was a real back to basics text in parts that went over some rules of thumb that even I'd forgotten about. I felt also that part 3 entered the domain of some of the more technical arguments when discussing thought processes. The sub-heading 'Criticizing others is not a blood sport' resonated oh so true. A thoroughly worthwhile and enjoyable text. John Carson, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University. This guide is a must for all students who find writing essays difficult. It will enable them to develop essential skills in reading, writing and reasoning. The authors are both very experienced in helping students to develop proficiency in these areas. Written in plain language, the book encourages the development of key skills in reading and evaluating texts, in the use of a clear and effective writing style and in cogent argument. The practical advice, examples and exercises are invaluable for all students who would like to become better readers, writers and reasoners.
How to Write Anything supports students wherever they are in their writing process. Designed to be clear and simple, the Guide lays out focused advice for writing common academic and real-world genres, while the Reference covers the range of writing skills that students needs as they work across genres and disciplines. Genre-based readings — including narratives, reports, arguments, evaluations, proposals and rhetorical, causal, and literary analyses — are sure to engage students and inspire ideas. The result is everything you need to teach composition in a flexible, highly visual guide, reference and reader. This new edition gives students more support for academic writing, more help choosing and working with genres, and more emphasis on multimodal composing. Read the preface. Order E-Library for How to Write Anything, Second Edition packaged with: How to Write Anything, Second Edition [paperback] using ISBN-13 978-1-4576-2265-6 How to Write Anything, Second Edition [spiral bound] using ISBN-13 978-1-4576-2283-0 How to Write Anything with Readings, Second Edition [paperback] using ISBN-13 978-1-4576-2264-9
Close reading is the most essential skill that literature students continue to develop across the full length of their studies. This book is the ideal guide to the practice, providing a methodology that can be used for poetry, novels, drama, and beyond. Using classic works of literature, such as Hamlet and The Great Gatsby as case studies, David Greenham presents a unique, contextual approach to close reading, while addressing key questions such as: What is close reading? What is the importance of the relationships between words? How can close reading enhance reading pleasure? Is there a method of close reading that works for all literary genres? How can close reading unlock complexity? How does the practice of close reading relate to other theoretical and critical approaches? Close Reading: The Basics is formulated to bring together reading pleasure and analytic techniques that will engage the student of literature and enhance their reading experience.
Expert writing advice from the editor of the Boston Globe best-seller, The Writer's Home Companion Dissertation writers need strong, practical advice, as well as someone to assure them that their struggles aren't unique. Joan Bolker, midwife to more than one hundred dissertations and co-founder of the Harvard Writing Center, offers invaluable suggestions for the graduate-student writer. Using positive reinforcement, she begins by reminding thesis writers that being able to devote themselves to a project that truly interests them can be a pleasurable adventure. She encourages them to pay close attention to their writing method in order to discover their individual work strategies that promote productivity; to stop feeling fearful that they may disappoint their advisors or family members; and to tailor their theses to their own writing style and personality needs. Using field-tested strategies she assists the student through the entire thesis-writing process, offering advice on choosing a topic and an advisor, on disciplining one's self to work at least fifteen minutes each day; setting short-term deadlines, on revising and defing the thesis, and on life and publication after the dissertation. Bolker makes writing the dissertation an enjoyable challenge.
