The Curious Writer Concise Edition, Books a la Carte Plus NEW MyCompLab with eText -- Access Card Package

by Ballenger, Bruce

• ISBN13: 9780205875030
• ISBN10: 0205875033
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Package
• Copyright: 2013-07-09
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

This Concise abbreviation of The Curious Writer offers an inquiry-driven approach, a focus on the connections between personal and academic writing, and a personal voice that engages and motivates students.

The Curious Writer emphasizes inquiry as both a method of discovery and learning and a driving force behind the writing process. The book operates on the principle that writers who begin with questions, rather than answers, achieve better results in their work. It treats research, revision, and critical reading skills (of both texts and visuals) as organic components of every writing process. Each of the eight writing assignment chapters offers integrated coverage of these three key activities and also provides special attention digital tools for invention and research. Offering a unique, entertaining, and personal author voice, The Curious Writer is sure to grab students’ interest and motivate them to write.

In just ten chapters, the Concise Edition encourages students to use writing as a tool of discovery while composing and revising their own reviews, proposals, and critical, personal, argumentative and research essays.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

 

Chapter 1 Writing as Inquiry

    Motives for Writing

    Beliefs About Writing and Writing Development

    Exercise 1.1 This I Believem(and This I Don’t) One Student’s Response

    Bernice’s Journal

    Inquiring into the Details Journals

        Unlearning Unhelpful Beliefs

        The Beliefs of This Book

    Habits of Mind

        Starting with Questions, Not Answers 

        Suspending Judgment

        Being Willing to Write Badly

        Searching for Surprise

    Exercise 1.2 A Roomful of Details

    One Student’s Response

        Bernice’s Journal

    Writing Situations and Rhetorical Choices

    A First Reflection on Your Writing Process

        A Case Study

    Inquiring into the Details Organizing Your Computer Files

        Thinking About Your Process

    Inquiring into the Details Portfolios

    Exercise 1.3 L iteracy Narrative Collage

    Exercise 1.4 What Is Your Process?

        Problem Solving in Your Writing Process

    The Nature of the Writing Process

        The Writing Process As Recursive and Flexible

        A System for Using Writing to Think

    Inquiring into the Details Invention Strategies

    Exercise 1.5 T wo Kinds of Thinking

        A Writing Process That Harnesses Two Currents of Thought

        A Writing Process Driven by Questions

    Questioning, Generating, and Judging: A Strategy for Inquiry

    Exercise 1.6 A Mini Inquiry Project: Cell Phone Culture

    Exercise 1.7 S cenes of Writing

    Using What You Have Learned 

 

Chapter 2 Reading as Inquiry

    Purposes for Academic Reading

    Exercise 2.1 Using the Four Purposes for Academic Reading

    Beliefs About Reading

    Exercise 2.2 A Reader’s Memoir

        One Common Belief That Is an Obstacle

    Reading Situations and Rhetorical Choices

        Four Frames for Reading

        Reading Scenarios

    Inquiring into the Details Reading Perspectives

    Exercise 2.3 R eading a Life

    A Process for Reading to Write

        Questions for the Process of Reading to Write

        Having a Dialogue with What You Read

    Inquiring into the Details Reading the Visual

    Exercise 2.4 Double-Entry Journaling with a Visual Text

        Techniques for Keeping a Double-Entry Journal

    Exercise 2.5 R eading Creatively, Reading Critically

    READING Bruce Ballenger, “The Importance of Writing Badly”

    One Student’s Response

        Briana’s Journal

    Wrestling with Academic Discourse: Reading from the Outside In

    Exercise 2.6 Reading Reality TV 

        Features of Academic Discourse

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 3 Writing a Personal Essay

    Writing About Experience and Observations

    Motives for Writing a Personal Essay

    The Personal Essay and Academic Writing

    Features of the Form

    Readings

        Personal Essay 1 Laura Zazulak, “Every Morning for Five Years”

        Inquiring into the Essay

        Personal Essay 2 Judith Ortiz Cofer, “One More Lesson”

        Inquiring into the Essay

    The Writing Process

        Inquiry Project: Writing a Personal Essay

        Writing Beyond the Classroom Essaying “This I Believe”

        What Are You Going to Write About?

        Opening Up

        Narrowing Down

        Trying Out

        Writing the Sketch

        Student Sketch Amanda Stewart, “Earning a Sense of Place”

        Moving from Sketch to Draft

        Developing

        Drafting

        Workshopping

        Revising

        *Student Essay Seth Marlin, “Smoke of Empire”

        Evaluating the Essay

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 4 Writing a Review

    Writing That Evaluates

    Motives for Writing a Review

    The Review and Academic Writing

    Seeing the Form Choosing the Best Picture

    Features of the Form

    Readings

        *Review 1 Roger Ebert, “A Christmas Story”

        Inquiring into the Essay

        Review 2 Seth Schiesel, “Grand Theft Auto Takes on New York”

        Inquiring into the Essay

    The Writing Process

        Inquiry Project: Writing a Review Essay

        What Are You Going to Write About?

        Opening Up

        Narrowing Down

        Trying Out

        Thinking About Criteria

        Writing the Sketch

        *Student Sketch Laura Burns, “Recipe for a Great Film: Unlikeable People, Poor Choices, and Little Redemption”

        Moving from Sketch to Draft

        Developing

        Drafting

        Workshopping

        Revising

        *Student Essay Laura Burns, “How to Not Feel Good and Feel Good About It”

        Evaluating the Essay

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 5 Writing a Proposal

    Writing About Problems and Solutions

        Problems of Consequence

        Problems of Manageable Scale

    Motives for Writing a Proposal

    The Proposal and Academic Writing

    Inquiring into the Details Writing a Research Proposal

    Features of the Form

    Readings

        *Proposal 1 Buzz Bissinger, “Why College Football Should Be Banned”

        Inquiring into the Essay

        Proposal 2 “Green Dining”

        Inquiring into the Essay

        Seeing the Form A Problem in Pictures

    The Writing Process

        Inquiry Project: Writing a Proposal

        What Are You Going to Write About?

        Opening Up

        Narrowing Down

        Trying Out

        Writing the Sketch

        *Student Sketch Jenna Appleman, “Loving and Hating Reality TV”

        Moving from Sketch to Draft

        Developing

        Inquiring into the Details Design Tips for Basic Web Pages

        Drafting

        Workshopping

        Revising

        *Student Essay Jenna Appleman, “Avoidable Accidents: How to Make Reality TV Safer”

        Evaluating the Essay

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 6 Writing an Argument

    Writing to Persuade People

    What Is Argument?

    Two Sides to Every Argument?

    The Machinery of Argument: Claims, Reasons, and Evidence

        Claims: What You Want People to Believe

        Reasons: The “Because. . .” Behind the Claim

        Evidence: Proof of the Point

    Seeing the Form The “Imagetext” as Argument

    Credibility, Emotion, and Logic

    Analyzing Argument

    Exercise 6.1 A rgument as Therapy

    One Student’s Response Rebecca’s Journal

    Inquiring into the Details Common Logical Fallacies

    Motives for Writing an Argument

    Writing Beyond the Classroom Public Argument in a Digital Age

    The Argument and Academic Writing

    Features of the Form

    Readings

        *Argument 1 Edward Tufte, “PowerPoint Is Evil”

        Inquiring into the Essay

        Argument 2 Loye Young, “Is Humiliation an Ethically Appropriate Response to Plagiarism?”

        Inquiring into the Essay

    The Writing Process

        Inquiry Project: Writing an Argument

        What Are You Going to Write About?

        Opening Up

        One Student’s Response

        Narrowing Down

        Trying Out

        Writing the Sketch

        *Student Sketch Rebecca Thompson, “Twitter a Profound Thought?”

        Moving from Sketch to Draft

        Developing

        Drafting

        Inquiring into the Details What Evidence Can Do

        Workshopping

        Revising

        Inquiring into the Details Toulmin: A Method for Analyzing an Argument

        *Student Essay Rebecca Thompson, “Social Networking Social Good?”

        Evaluating the Essay

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 7 Writing a Critical Essay

    Writing About Literature

    Motives for Writing a Critical Essay

    The Critical Essay and Academic Writing

    Features of the Form

    Readings

        Short Story Leslie Marmon Silko, “Lullaby”

        Inquiring into the Story

        One Student’s Response Noel’s Journal

        Inquiring into the Details Why Literary Theory Is Not a Sleep Aid

        *Film Criticism James Parker, “Our Zombies, Ourselves”

        Inquiring into the Essay

        Seeing the Form Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine by Gustave Coubet

    The Writing Process

        Inquiry Project: Writing a Critical Essay

        What Are You Going to Write About?

        Opening Up

        Inquiring into the Details Common Literary Devices

        Narrowing Down

        Writing the Sketch

        Student Sketch Julie Bird, “What Is the Role of Nature in ‘Lullaby’?”

        Moving from Sketch to Draft

        Developing

        Drafting

        Workshopping

        Revising

        Polishing

        Student Essay Julie Bird, “Nature as Being: Landscape in Silko’s ‘Lullaby’ ”

        Evaluating the Essay

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 8 Research Techniques

    Methods of Collecting

    Research in the Electronic Age

        Research Routines

        Power Searching Using

        Google

        Power Searching in the Library

    Developing Working Knowledge

        A Strategy for Developing Working Knowledge

    Developing Focused Knowledge

        A Strategy for Developing Focused Knowledge

    Evaluating Library Sources

    Inquiring into the Details The Working Bibliography

    Advanced Internet Research Techniques

        Go Beyond Google

    Evaluating Web Sources

        An Evaluation Process for Web Sources

    Research with Living Sources: Interviews, Surveys, and Fieldwork

        Interviews

        Surveys

    Inquiring into the Details Types of Survey Questions

        Conducting a Survey

        Using Survey Results in Your Writing

        Fieldwork: Research on What You See and Hear

    Writing in the Middle: Note-Taking Techniques

        Double-Entry Journal

        Research Log

    One Student’s Response

        Claude’s Research Log

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 9 Using and Citing Sources

    Controlling Information

    Using Sources

        Summarizing

        Paraphrasing

        Quoting

    Citing Sources

        Avoiding Plagiarism

    Exercise 9.1 The Accidental Plagiarist

    MLA Documentation Guidelines

    Inquiring into the Details The Common Knowledge Exception

        Citing Sources

    Inquiring into the Details Citations That Go with the Flow

        Format

        Preparing the Works Cited Page

    APA Documentation Guidelines
        How the Essay Should Look

        Citing Sources in Your Essay

        Preparing the References List

    Using What You Have Learned

 

Chapter 10 Revision Strategies

    Why Revise?

    Divorcing the Draft

    Strategies for Divorcing the Draft

    Five Categories of Revision

    Problems with Purpose

        Revision Strategy 10.1: The Motive Statement

        Revision Strategy 10.2: What Do

        You Want to Know About What You Learned?

    One Student’s Response

        Julia’s Draft

        Revision Strategy 10.3: Finding the Focusing Question

        Revision Strategy 10.4: What’s the Relationship?

    Problems with Meaning

        Where Does Meaning Come From?

        Methods for Discovering Your Thesis

        Revision Strategy 10.5: Find the “Instructive Line”

        Revision Strategy 10.6: Looping Toward a Thesis

        Revision Strategy 10.7: Reclaiming Your Topic

        Revision Strategy 10.8: Believing and Doubting

        Methods for Refining Your Thesis

        Revision Strategy 10.9: Questions as Knives

        Revision Strategy 10.10: Qualifying Your Claim

    Problems with Information

        Revision Strategy 10.11: Explode a Moment

        Revision Strategy 10.12: Beyond Examples

        Revision Strategy 10.13: Research

        Revision Strategy 10.14: Backing Up Your Assumptions

    Problems with Structure

        Formal Academic Structures

        Revision Strategy 10.15: Beginnings, Middles, Ends, and the Work They Do

        Revision Strategy 10.16: Reorganizing Around Thesis and Support

        Revision Strategy 10.17: Multiple Leads

        Revision Strategy 10.18: The Frankenstein Draft

    Problems with Clarity and Style

        Solving Problems of Clarity

        Revision Strategy 10.19: The Three Most Important Sentences

        Revision Strategy 10.20: Untangling Paragraphs

        Revision Strategy 10.21: Cutting Clutter

        Inquiring into the Details Transition Flags
        Revision Strategy 10.22: The Actor and the Action Next Door
        Improving Style
        Revision Strategy 10.23: Actors and Actions
        Revision Strategy 10.24: Smoothing the Choppiness
        Revision Strategy 10.25: Fresh Ways to Say Things
    Using What You Have Learned

Credits
Index

 

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