Synopses & Reviews
Combining streamlined, nuts-and-bolts writing instruction with accessibility and visual appeal, The College Writer helps visual learners and less-prepared students master the writing process. The text features step-indexing and color-coding that allow students to thumb directly to a topic, and checklists and summary boxes that make it easy to refer back to previously covered material. In addition, thorough coverage of drafting, writing, revising, and proofreading includes sample paragraphs and visuals that walk students through the process of identifying a topic and writing a paper. The Second Edition offers 20 additional professional readings, new information on stylistic choices, and enhanced coverage of incorporating visual elements into the writing process. Market leading technology support--including The College Writer CD for students, online professional readings, and the WriteSpace online writing program--help make teaching and learning writing more dynamic.
Review
"I like the summary points at the end of each chapter, the ease with which information is presented, the presentation of points, and the topics covered. . . . [T]he text is written in a manner that students can grasp, and material tends to be presented in manageable portions and in a logical order."
Review
"Ultimately, a textbook MUST be something my students want to use and use willingly. If they find it difficult, disorganized or unfriendly in any way, the textbook will be useless to me. The text must augment and support my classroom discussions. The College Writer was very helpful to me. . . . I like the variety of the text and the way it presents the material. I need to have a text that covers instruction in both writing about literature and research. . . . I like most of it and, most importantly, find it reader friendly. My students utilized the text and were not intimidated by it. The material is easy to absorb and the layout of the information is pleasing. Most of the material appeals to all our students, both young and old and multicultural, as we have quite a range of ages and ethnicities represented in our classes."
Review
"Overall, students like the text, and they can find more of the information that they are looking for. After the course is over, students often respond that they want to keep the text because they think it will be useful in other classes--and they are right. Students find most of the essays engaging and interesting."
Synopsis
Combining streamlined, basic writing instruction with outstanding accessibility, THE COLLEGE WRITER is an all-in-one writing resource for students at any skill level. The clear visual format helps students grasp larger concepts by linking them to pertinent examples. Throughout the text, numerous student and professional writing samples highlight important features of academic writing, from voice to documentation, and offer students models for their own papers. This edition also features new Cross-Curricular Connections that explain how particular modes of writing or types of research relate to a specific discipline in the college curriculum, preparing students for success across the academic spectrum.
About the Author
Randall VanderMey (Ph.D. University of Iowa, M.F.A. Iowa Writers? Workshop, M.A. University of Pennsylvania) is an associate professor in the Department of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He also has taught composition, literature, and technical writing at Iowa State University, Dordt College, and the University of Iowa. He is a contributing editor and creative consultant for Write Source. VanderMey has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards for his teaching and poetry. He has published two books of poems, GROWING SOUL: A SONG CYCLE, GOD TALK, and CHARM SCHOOL: FIVE WOMEN OF THE ODYSSEY, as well as a commissioned biography, MERIZON: THE GREAT JOURNEY.Verne Meyer (Ph.D. University of Minnesota) has spent twenty-five years in the English classroom, first at the high school level and more recently at the college level. He has taught composition and theater at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. Meyer has received several awards recognizing his excellence as both a classroom teacher and a director of dramatic arts. He is considered an authority on writing across the curriculum and workplace writing, and often gives presentations as a featured speaker at educational conferences.John Van Rys (Ph.D. Dalhousie University, M.A./B.A. University of Western Ontario) has taught composition, business writing, and literature courses to college students for more than fifteen years, primarily at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. In the fall of 2005, Van Rys began teaching in the English Department at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, where he also is pursuing scholarly work in Canadian literature. For over a decade, he has worked on writing-across-the-curriculum theory and practice, on connections between workplace and academic writing, and on strategies for strengthening varied literacies in students (from reading to information to visual literacy). With Write Source Educational Publishing and Cengage Learning, he has coauthored writing handbooks for students from middle school to college. Van Rys also has coauthored an award-winning business-writing handbook for workplace professionals, WRITE FOR BUSINESS, with UpWrite Press.Patrick Sebranek (M.A. University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse) taught English, speech, and multimedia classes for sixteen years at Union Grove High School in Wisconsin. During that time, he served as the English department chair and worked on several district-wide projects, including a writing-across-the-curriculum program and a K-12 writing sequence. He has studied the works of James Moffett, Ken Macrorie, Linda Reif, Nancie Atwell, and many other contemporary educators dealing with writing and learning. Sebranek is an author and editorial director for the Write Source Educational Publishing House and works closely with teachers and educators on all new and revised handbooks and sourcebooks.
Table of Contents
Each chapter contains an Intro, an Overview, Guidelines, and Writing Checklist/Activities. I. A Rhetoric: College Student's Guide to Writing Reading, Thinking, Viewing, and Writing 1. Critical Thinking Through Reading, Viewing, and Writing The Writing Process 2. Beginning the Writing Process 3. Planning 4. Drafting 5. Revising 6. Editing and Proofreading 7. Submitting, Writing, and Creating Portfolios The College Essay 8. One Writer's Process II. A Reader: Strategies and Models Writing Across the Curriculum 9. Forms of College Writing Narrative, Descriptive, and Reflective Writing 10. Narration and Description "Mzee Owitti" by Jacqui Nyangi Owitti "That Morning on the Prairie" by James C. Schaap "A Hanging" by George Orwell "Sunday in the Park" by Bel Kaufman "Northing" by Annie Dillard 11. Description and Reflection "The Stream in the Ravine" by Nicole Suurdt "Call Me Crazy But I Have to Be Myself" by Mary Seymour "None of This Is Fair" by Richard Rodriguez "Who Shot Johnny?" by Debra Dickerson Analytical Writing 12. Cause and Effect "Adrenaline Junkies" by Sarah Hanley "The Legacy of Generation N" by Christy Haubegger "Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids" by Anna Quindlen 13. Comparison and Contrast "A Fear Born of Sorrow" by Anita Brinkman "Two Views of the River" by Mark Twain "Shrouded in Contradiction" by Gelareh Asayesh "Like Mexicans" by Gary Soto 14. Classification "Three Family Cancers" by Kim Brouwer "Four Ways to Talk About Literature" by John Van Rys "No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch" by Ann Hodgman 15. Process Writing "Wayward Cells" by Kerri Mertz "Downloading Photographs from the MC-150 Digital Camera" (from WFB) "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" by Verne Meyer "Campus Racism 101" by Nikki Giovonni 16. Definition "The Gullible Family" by Mary Beth Bruins "Understanding Dementia" by Sarah Anne Morelos "Deft or Daft" by David Schelhaas On Excellence by Cynthia Ozick Persuasive Writing 17. Strategies for Argumentation and Persuasion 18. Taking a Position "An Apology for Ms. Barbie D. Doll" by Rita Isakson "In Defense of the Animals" by Meg Greenfield "Apostles of Hatred Find It Easy to Spread Their Message" by Leonard Pitts Jr. "Pornography" by Margaret Atwood "Demystifying Multiculturalism" by Linda Chavez 19. Persuading Readers to Act "To Drill or Not to Drill" by Rebecca Pasok "Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time" by Paul Rogat Loeb "I Have a Dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "The Media's Image of Arabs" by Jack G. Shaheen 20. Proposing a Solution "Preparing for Agroterror" by Brian Ley "Uncle Sam and Aunt Samantha" by Anna Quindlen "The Media and the Ethics of Cloning" by Leigh Turner Report Writing 21. Observation Report "The Beach" by Laura Apol "Scab!" by Randall VanderMey "Communication Styles" by Deborah Tannen 22. Interview Report "The Dead Business" by Benjamin Meyer 23. Lab, Experiment, and Field Report "Working with Hydrochloric Acid" by Coby Williams "The Effects of Temperature and Inhibitors on the Fermentation Process for Ethanol" by Andrea Pizano Special Forms of Writing 24. Writing About Literature and the Arts "'Good Country People': Broken Body, Broken Soul," by Anya Terekhina "Brooding on 'The Darkling Thrush'" by David Koza "Sigur Ros Agaetis Byrjun" by Annie Moore "Wonder of Wonders: The Lord of the Rings" by Jennifer Berkompas 25. Taking Essay Tests 26. Writing for the Workplace 27. Writing and Designing for the Web 28. Preparing Oral Presentations III. Research and Writing Research and Writing 29. Getting Started: From Planning Research to Evaluating Sources 30. Conducting Primary and Library Research 31. Conducting Research on the Internet 32. Drafting a Paper with Documented Research Documentation and Format Styles 33. MLA Documentation Format 34. APA Documentation Format IV. Handbook Punctuation, Mechanics, Usage, and Grammar 35. Marking Punctuation 36. Checking Mechanics 37. Using the Right Word 38. Understanding Grammar Sentence Issues 39. Constructing Sentences 40. Avoiding Sentence Errors Addressing Multilingual/ESL Issues 41. Multilingual and ESL Guidelines