Writing Analytically

by Rosenwasser, David; Stephen, Jill

• ISBN13: 9781413010121
• ISBN10: 1413010121
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-06
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

The popular, brief rhetoric that treats writing as thinking, WRITING ANALYTICALLY offers a sequence of specific prompts that teach students across the curriculum how the process of analysis and synthesis is a vehicle for original and well-developed ideas.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
CHAPTER 1 Seeing Better: The Analytical Habit of Mind	1	(40)
Section 1: Seeing the Details	2	(9)
Noticing (and the Deadening Effect of Habit)	2	(1)
Tracing Impressions Back to Causes	3	(1)
What We Do When We Describe Things	4	(1)
Evaluative and Abstract versus Concrete Words	4	(1)
Showing versus Telling	5	(4)
A Note on Matching Sentence Shapes to Subjects	9	(1)
Writing the Self as an Introduction to Analysis	10	(1)
Section 2: Opening Things Up: Negative Capability, Paraphrase X 3, Free-Writing, and Counterproductive Habits of Mind	11	(13)
Negative Capability: Locating an Area of Uncertainty	12	(1)
Paraphrase x 3: Opening Up the Meaning of Words	13	(1)
The Importance of Exploratory Writing	14	(1)
Freewriting: How to Do It and What It's Good For	15	(2)
Counterproductive Habits of Mind	17	(7)
Section 3: The Basic Analytical Strategies: From Observations to Ideas	24	(10)
The Dogfish Problem: Premature Leaps to Thesis	24	(1)
What It Means to Have an Idea	24	(2)
Moving from Idea to Thesis Statement: What a Good Thesis Looks Like	26	(3)
Notice and Focus (Ranking)	29	(1)
Prompts: Interesting and Strange	30	(2)
Pushing Observations to Conclusions: Asking So What?	32	(1)
Narrow Your Scope by Doing 10 on 1	33	(1)
Section 4: How to Mark Up a Draft	34	(7)
Doing 10 on 1: An Example from Student Writing	34	(1)
How to Analyze a Freewrite for Ideas: An Example	35	(6)
CHAPTER 2 What Is Analysis and How Does It Work?	41	(36)
A. Five Analtical Moves	42	(19)
Move 1: Suspend Judgment	42	(1)
Move 2: Define Significant Parts and How They're Related	43	(1)
Move 3: Look for Patterns of Repetition and Contrast and for Anomaly (the Method)	44	(13)
Move 4: Make the Implicit Explicit	57	(3)
Move 5: Keep Reformulating Questions and Explanations	60	(1)
B. Some Common Charges Against Analysis	61	(8)
Charge 1: "Analysis Kills Enjoyment"	62	(1)
Charge 2: "Analysis Finds Meanings that Are Not There"	62	(3)
Charge 3: "Some Subjects Weren't Meant to Be Analyzed"	65	(4)
C. Rhetorical Analysis	69	(8)
Rhetorical Analysis of a Place: A Brief Example	70	(1)
Rhetorical Analysis of an Advertisement: An Example	71	(6)
CHAPTER 3 Puttinq Analysis to Work: Three Extended Examples	77	(32)
A. Extended Example 1: Moving from Description to Interpretation	77	(11)
Differentiating Analysis from Summary	78	(3)
Differentiating Analysis from Expressive Writing	81	(1)
The Limits on Interpretation	82	(1)
Multiple Meanings and Interpretive Contexts	82	(1)
Author's Intention as an Interpretive Context	83	(2)
The Fortune Cookie School of Interpretation	85	(1)
The "Anything Goes" School of Interpretation	86	(1)
Seems to Be about X but Could Also Be (Is "Really") about Y	86	(2)
B. Extended Example 2: Selecting an Interpretive Context	88	(5)
Looking for Patterns of Repetition and Contrast: An Example	89	(1)
Pushing Observations to Conclusions: Selecting an Interpretive Context	90	(1)
Making an Interpretation Plausible	91	(1)
Arriving at an Interpretive Conclusion: Making Choices	92	(1)
C. Extended Example 3: Analyzing an Argument by Reformulating Binaries and Uncovering Assumptions	93	(16)
Thinking With and About Binaries	94	(3)
Uncovering Assumptions (Reasoning Back to Premises)	97	(12)
CHAPTER 4 Reading: How to Do It and What to Do with It	109	(28)
A. How to Read: Words Matter	110	(10)
Becoming Conversant versus Reading for the Gist	110	(1)
A Frame for Reading Critically: The Pitch, the Complaint, and the Moment	111	(2)
Passage-Based Focused Freewriting	113	(3)
Paraphrase x 3	116	(1)
Summary	117	(1)
Strategies for Making Summaries More Analytical	118	(2)
B. What to Do with the Reading: Avoiding the Matching Exercise	120	(17)
Applying a Reading as a Lens	121	(2)
Comparing and Contrasting One Reading with Another	123	(3)
Reading and Writing Definitions	126	(2)
Reading, Binary Thinking, and Avoiding Agree/Disagree	128	(1)
Using a Reading as a Model	129	(2)
Ways to Mark What a Reading Does (Rather than Says)	131	(1)
Uncovering the Assumptions in a Reading	132	(1)
Reading With and Against the Grain	133	(4)
CHAPTER 5 Linking Evidence and Claims: 10 on 1 versus 1 on 10	137	(26)
A. Linking Evidence and Claims	137	(6)
The Function of Evidence	137	(1)
The Fallacy that Facts Can Speak for Themselves	138	(1)
Supporting Unsubstantiated Claims: Providing Evidence	139	(1)
Distinguishing Evidence from Claims	140	(1)
Giving Evidence a Point: Making Details Speak	141	(2)
B. Developing a Thesis Is More Than Repeating an Idea ("1 on 10")	143	(5)
What's Wrong with Five-Paragraph Form?	144	(2)
What Five-Paragraph Form Looks Like	146	(2)
C. Building a Paper by Analyzing Evidence in Depth: "10 on 1"	148	(15)
What the "1" Is	149	(1)
What the "10" Are	149	(1)
Pan, Track, and Zoom: The Film Analogy	150	(3)
Demonstrating the Representativeness of Your Example	153	(1)
10 on 1 and Disciplinary Conventions	154	(1)
Converting a 1-on-10 Paper into a 10-on-1 Paper: An Extended Example	155	(5)
A Template for Organizing Papers Using 10 on 1	160	(3)
CHAPTER 6 Making a Thesis Evolve	163	(34)
What's Wrong with a Static Thesis?	164	(1)
A. Evolving a Thesis	165	(6)
The Reciprocal Relationship Between Working Thesis and Evidence: The Thesis as a Camera Lens	165	(2)
A First Note on the Shape of Thesis Statements	167	(1)
Procedure for Making the Thesis Evolve Through Successive Complications: The Example of Educating Rita	168	(3)
B. Using the Evolving Thesis to Organize the Final Draft	171	(8)
The Evolving Thesis and Common Thought Patterns: Deduction and Induction	173	(2)
The Evolving Thesis as Hypothesis and Conclusion in the Natural and Social Sciences	175	(2)
The Evolving Thesis and Introductory and Concluding Paragraphs	177	(2)
C. Evolving a Thesis in an Exploratory Draft: Las Meninas	179	(5)
Description to Analysis: The Exploratory Draft	181	(1)
Interpretive Leaps and Complicating Evidence	182	(1)
Revising the Exploratory Draft	182	(1)
Testing the Adequacy of the Thesis	183	(1)
How the Next Draft Might Go	183	(1)
D. The Evolving Thesis in a Final Draft	184	(13)
Recap of the Evolving Thesis in Good Bye Lenin! Before and After the Fall	189	(8)
CHAPTER 7 Recognizing and Fixing Weak Thesis Statements	197	(22)
A. Five Kinds of Weak Theses and How to Fix Them	197	(8)
Weak Thesis Type 1: The Thesis Makes No Claim	198	(1)
Weak Thesis Type 2: The Thesis Is Obviously True or Is a Statement of Fact	198	(1)
Weak Thesis Type 3: The Thesis Restates Conventional Wisdom	199	(2)
Weak Thesis Type 4: The Thesis Offers Personal Conviction as the Basis for the Claim	201	(3)
Weak Thesis Type 5: The Thesis Makes an Overly Broad Claim	204	(1)
B. How to Rephrase Thesis Statements: Specify and Subordinate	205	(3)
Another Note on the Phrasing of Thesis Statements: Questions	207	(1)
C. Working with Categorical Thinking	208	(4)
Two Ways to Improve the Logic of Your Thesis Statements	209	(2)
Close Reading versus Debate-Style Argument	211	(1)
D. Common Logical Errors in Constructing a Thesis	212	(7)
CHAPTER 8 Introductions and Conclusions	219	(22)
A. Introductions and Conclusions as Social Sites	219	(1)
B. The Function of Introductions	220	(3)
Putting an Issue or Question in Context	221	(1)
Using Procedural Openings	221	(2)
C. How Much to Introduce Up Front	223	(3)
Typical Problems that Are Symptoms of Doing Too Much	223	(3)
D. Opening Gambits: Five Good Ways to Begin	226	(3)
Gambit 1: Challenge a Commonly Held View	226	(1)
Gambit 2: Begin with a Definition	226	(1)
Gambit 3: Offer a Working Hypothesis	227	(1)
Gambit 4: Lead with Your Second-Best Example	227	(1)
Gambit 5: Exemplify the Topic with a Narrative	227	(2)
E. The Function of Conclusions	229	(4)
Ways of Concluding	232	(1)
Three Strategies for Writing Effective Conclusions	232	(1)
F. Solving Typical Problems in Conclusions	233	(2)
Redundancy	233	(1)
Raising a Totally New Point	234	(1)
Overstatement	234	(1)
Anticlimax	234	(1)
G. Scientific Format: Introductions and Conclusions	235	(6)
Introductions of Reports in the Sciences	235	(2)
Discussion Sections of Reports in the Sciences	237	(4)
CHAPTER 9 Organization: Forms and Formats	241	(16)
A. The Two Functions of Formats: Product and Process	242	(3)
Using Formats Heuristically: An Example	242	(1)
Formats in the Natural and Social Sciences	243	(2)
B. The Psychology of Form	245	(12)
How to Locate Concessions and Refutations	247	(2)
Organizing Comparisons and Contrasts	249	(1)
Climactic Order	249	(1)
How Thesis Shapes Predict the Shape of the Paper	250	(1)
The Shaping Force of Transitions	251	(2)
The Virtues of Paragraphing	253	(4)
CHAPTER 10 Style: Choosing Words	257	(18)
A. Not Just Icing on the Cake	258	(2)
B. Tone	260	(3)
Levels of Style: Who's Writing to Whom, and Why Does It Matter?	261	(2)
C. The Person Question	263	(2)
The First-Person Pronoun "I": Pro and Con	263	(1)
The Second-Person Pronoun "You" and the Imperative Mood	264	(1)
D. Shades of Meaning: Choosing the Best Word	265	(10)
What's Bad about "Good" and "Bad" (and Other Broad, Judgmental Terms)	267	(1)
Concrete and Abstract Diction	267	(2)
Latinate Diction	269	(1)
Using and Avoiding Jargon	270	(2)
The Politics of Language	272	(3)
CHAPTER 11 Style: Shaping Sentences (and Cutting the Fat)	275	(20)
A. How to Recognize the Four Basic Sentence Shapes	276	(2)
The Simple Sentence	276	(1)
The Compound Sentence	277	(1)
The Complex Sentence	277	(1)
The Compound-Complex Sentence	278	(1)
B. Coordination, Subordination, and Emphasis	278	(5)
Coordination	278	(1)
Reversing the Order of Coordinate Clauses	279	(1)
Subordination	280	(1)
Reversing Main and Subordinate Clauses	280	(1)
Parallel Structure	281	(2)
C. Periodic and Cumulative Sentences: Adding Shapes to the Main Clause	283	(3)
The Periodic Sentence: Snapping Shut	283	(2)
The Cumulative Sentence: Starting Fast	285	(1)
D. Cutting the Fat	286	(9)
Expletive Constructions	287	(1)
Static (Intransitive) versus Active (Transitive) Verbs: "To Be" or "Not to Be"	287	(2)
Active and Passive Voices: Doing and Being Done To	289	(3)
Experiment!	292	(3)
CHAPTER 12 Writing the Researched Paper	295	(28)
A. What to Do with Secondary Sources	296	(4)
"Source Anxiety" and What to Do about It	296	(1)
The Conversation Analogy	297	(1)
Ways to Use a Source as a Point of Departure	298	(2)
B. Six Strategies for Analyzing Sources	300	(9)
Strategy 1: Make Your Sources Speak	300	(1)
Strategy 2: Use Your Sources to Ask Questions, Not Just to Provide Answers	301	(2)
Strategy 3: Put Your Sources into Conversation with One Another	303	(3)
Strategy 4: Find Your Own Role in the Conversation	306	(1)
Strategy 5: Supply Ongoing Analysis of Sources (Don't Wait Until the End)	307	(1)
Strategy 6: Attend Carefully to the Language of Your Sources by Quoting or Paraphrasing Them	307	(2)
C. Making the Research Paper More Analytical: A Sample Essay	309	(3)
D. Strategies for Writing and Revising Research Papers	312	(11)
An Analytical Research Paper: A Good Example	315	(8)
CHAPTER 13 Finding and Citing Sources	323	(26)
A. Getting Started	323	(3)
A Few Rules of Thumb for Getting Started	325	(1)
B. Electronic Research: Finding Quality on the Web	326	(9)
Understanding Domain Names	327	(1)
Print Corollaries	327	(1)
Web Classics	328	(1)
Asking the Right Questions	328	(1)
For Subscribers Only	329	(1)
Bibliographic Research	330	(1)
Tuning in to Your Environment	331	(1)
A Foolproof Recipe for Great Research-Every Time	332	(2)
Citation Guides on the Web	334	(1)
A Librarian's Guidelines to Successful Research	334	(1)
C. Plagiarism and the Logic of Citation	335	(8)
Why Does Plagiarism Matter?	335	(1)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Plagiarism	336	(2)
How to Cite Sources	338	(2)
How to Integrate Quotations into Your Paper	340	(3)
D. How to Prepare an Abstract	343	(6)
CHAPTER 14 Nine Basic Writing Errors and How to Fix Them	349	(26)
A. Why Correctness Matters	350	(1)
B. The Concept of Basic Writing Errors (BWEs)	351	(18)
What Punctuation Marks Say: A "Quick-Hit" Guide	351	(2)
Nine Basic Writing Errors and How to Fix Them	353	(16)
C. Glossary of Grammatical Terms	369	(6)
Appendix Answer Ivey (with Discussion)	375
Test Yourself Sections	375	(7)
Grammar and Style Quiz	382
Credits	C-1
Index	I-1