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Praised for its accessible approach to teaching disciplinary writing, the first edition of An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing was embraced by instructors and students at two-year and four-year schools alike.
With its flexible, transferable frameworks and unique Insiders video interviews with scholars and peers, the text enables students -- and their instructors -- to adapt to a variety of writing situations in different disciplinary discourse communities.In the second edition, the authors build on that proven pedagogy with additional support for the writing process, critical reading, and reflection, to give students even more help with academic writing, no matter the discipline. Featuring two books in one, an innovative rhetoric for academic writing (available as its own book) and a thematic reader with readings from the disciplines, An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing is based on the best practices of a first-year composition program that has trained hundreds of teachers who have instructed thousands of students. Also new to the second edition: a Launchpad with a complete e-book, in addition to modules about writing in applied fields.
Preface for Instructors
PART ONE A Guide to College and College Writing
1 Inside Colleges and Universities
What Is Higher Education?
How Do Colleges and Universities Differ from One Another?
¦ Inside Work: Choosing a College
What Is the Purpose of College?
¦ Inside Work: Writing about Your School’s Mission
¦ Inside Work: Writing about College
¦ Inside Work: Writing about Resources at Your Institution
What Are Academic Disciplines?
How Many Different Academic Disciplines Are There?
¦ Inside Work: Understanding Disciplinarity
Why Do Academics Write?
¦ Inside Work: Thinking about What Academics Write
Insider’s View: Sam Stout, Gena Lambrecht, Alexandria Woods, Students
How Does Writing in College Compare with Writing in Other Contexts?
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
¦ Inside Work: Understanding the Goals of Your Writing Course
How Do Writers Learn to Write in New Contexts?
¦ Inside Work: Learning about Writing in Other Contexts
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Profile a Writer
Insider Example: Student Profile of a Business Professional
Rubbal Kumar, First Draft of Interview QuestionsRubbal Kumar, Literacy Profile – Benu BadhanTip Sheet: Inside Colleges and Universities
2 Writing Process and Reflection
What Is a Writing Process?
1) Develop a Writing Project through Multiple Drafts
¦ Inside Work: Reflecting on Your Drafting Process
2) Develop flexible writing process strategies.
¦ Inside Work: Reflecting on Flexibility
3) Learn to give and to act on productive feedback to works in progress.
Insider Example: Rough Draft of Student Jack Stegner’s Literacy Narrative with Peer Review Feedback from student Nichelle Oquendo
4) Use composing processes and tools as a means to discover and reconsider ideas.
Insider’s View: Jonathan Morris and Jody Baumgartner, Political Science
Insider’s View: Patrick Bahls, Mathematics
¦ Inside Work: Talk about Technology with a Partner
5) Reflect on the development of composing practices and how those practices influence your work.
¦ Inside Work: Reflecting on Your Thought Processes
What Is Reflective Writing?
What Is Literacy?
What Is a Literacy Narrative?
Characteristics of a Literacy Narrative
Main Idea
Scenes
Sensory Details
"I" Point of View
Aimee C. Mapes, Two Vowels Together: On the Wonderfully Insufferable Experiences of Literacy
¦ Inside Work: Drafting a Scene for a Literacy Narrative
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Composing a Literacy Narrative
Insider Example: Student Literacy Narrative
Michaela Bieda, My Journey to Writing Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing Rhetorically
3 Reading and Writing Rhetorically
Understanding Rhetorical Context
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
¦ Inside Work: Identifying Rhetorical Context
Understanding Genres
Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
Reading Rhetorically
Reading Visuals Rhetorically
¦ Inside Work: Reading Rhetorically
Writing Rhetorically
¦ Inside Work: Analyzing Rhetorical Context
Writing a Rhetorical Analysis
George H. W. Bush, Letter to Saddam Hussein Insider Example: Student Rhetorical Analysis
Sofia Lopez, The Multiple Audiences of George H. W. Bush’s Letter to Saddam Hussein
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing Rhetorically
4 Developing Arguments
Understanding Proofs and Appeals
¦ Inside Work: Writing about Arguments
Making Claims
Thesis versus Hypothesis
Developing Reasons
¦ Inside Work: Constructing Thesis Statements
Supporting Reasons with Evidence
Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
Insider’s View: Michelle Richter, Criminal Justice
¦ Inside Work: Analyzing Audience Expectations
Understanding Assumptions
¦ Inside Work: Considering Assumptions and Audience
Anticipating Counterarguments
Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
¦ Inside Work: Dealing with Counterarguments
Analyzing Arguments
Insider Example: Professional Analysis of an Advertisement
Jack Solomon, from Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising Insider Example: Student Analysis of an Advertisement 00
Timothy Holtzhauser, Rhetoric of a 1943 War Bonds Ad
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Composing a Rhetorical Analysis of an Advertisement
Tip Sheet: Developing Arguments
5 Academic Research
Conducting Research
Developing a Research Question
¦ Inside Work: Writing a Research Question
Insider’s View: Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan Morris, Political Science
Choosing Primary and Secondary Sources
Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
¦ Inside Work: Collecting Primary Evidence
¦ Inside Work: Using Primary and Secondary Sources
Searching for Sources
¦ Inside Work: Generating Search Terms
¦ Inside Work: Generating Sources from an Academic Database
Evaluating Sources
Insider’s View: Jonathan Morris, Political Science
¦ Inside Work: Evaluating Sources
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting from Sources
¦ Inside Work: Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting from Sources
Avoiding Plagiarism
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
¦ Inside Work: Understanding Plagiarism
Understanding Documentation Systems
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Writing an Annotated Bibliography
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Developing a Supported Argument on a Controversial Issue
Insider Example: Student Argument on a Controversial Issue
Jack Gomperts, English 101 Essay on Hydration in Athletes Tip Sheet: Academic Research
PART TWO Inside Academic Writing
6 Reading and Writing in Academic Disciplines
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
Analyzing Genres and Identifying Conventions of Academic Writing
Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
Adapting to Different Rhetorical Contexts: An Academic Writer at Work
Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
¦ Inside Work: Reflecting on a Discipline
Using Rhetorical Context to Analyze Academic Writing
Mike Brotherton, from Hubble Space Telescope Spies Galaxy/Black Hole Evolution in Action Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
¦ Inside Work: Reflecting on Rhetorical Context
Using Structure, Language, and Reference to Analyze Genre Conventions
Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
M. S. Brotherton, Wil van Breugel, S. A. Stanford, R. J. Smith, B. J. Boyle, Lance Miller, T. Shanks, S. M. Croom, and Alexei V. Filippenko, from A Spectacular Poststarburst Quasar
¦ Inside Work: Reflecting on an Academic Article
Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Genre Analysis of an Academic Article
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Comparative Genre Analysis
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Comparing Scholarly and Popular Articles
Translating Scholarly Writing for Different Rhetorical Contexts
Insider Example: Student Translation of a Scholarly Article
Jonathan Nastasi, Life May Be Possible on Other Planets
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Translating a Scholarly Article for a Public Audience
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing in Academic Disciplines
7 Reading and Writing in the Humanities
Introduction to the Humanities
Insider’s View: John McCurdy, History
Texts and Meaning
¦ Inside Work: Thinking about Texts
Observation and Interpretation
¦ Inside Work: Observing and Asking Questions
Research in the Humanities
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
¦ Inside Work: Observing and Interpreting Images
The Role of Theory in the Humanities
Close Reading in the Humanities
Insider Example: Professional Close Reading
Dale Jacobs, More Than Words: Comics as a Means of Teaching Multiple Literacies
Strategies for Close Reading and Observation
Kate Chopin, from The Story of an Hour
¦ Inside Work: Annotating a Text
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour
¦ Inside Work: Preparing a Content / Form-Response Grid
Responding to the Interpretations of Others
Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
Conventions of Writing in the Humanities
Insider’s View: Shelley Garrigan, Spanish Language and Literature
Structural Conventions
Developing Research Questions and Thesis Statements
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
¦ Inside Work: Developing Why, What, and How Questions
Developing Effective Thesis Statements
¦ Inside Work: Drafting Thesis Statements
Five-Paragraph Essays and Other Thesis-Driven Templates
Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
Other Structural Conventions in the Humanities
Language Conventions in the Humanities
Reference Conventions in the Humanities
Documentation
¦ Inside Work: Analyzing Scholarly Writing in the Humanities
Genres of Writing in the Humanities
Insider’s View: Shelley Garrigan, Spanish Language and Literature
Textual Interpretation
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Interpreting a Text
Insider Example: Student Interpretation of a Text
Sarah Ray, Till Death Do Us Part: An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an Hour"
Artistic Texts
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Creating an Artistic Text
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing in the Humanities
8 Reading and Writing in the Social Sciences
Introduction to the Social Sciences
Insider’s View: Kevin Rathunde, Social Sciences
¦ Inside Work: Observing Behavior
Research in the Social Sciences
The Role of Theory
Insider Example: Exploring Social Science Theory
Kalervo Oberg, from Cultural Shock: Adjustments to New Cultural Environments
¦ Inside Work: Tracing a Theory’s Development
Research Questions and Hypotheses
¦ Inside Work: Developing Hypotheses
Methods
Insider’s View: Kevin Rathunde, Social Sciences
Insider’s View: Jonathan Morris, Political Science
¦ Inside Work: Considering Research Methods
The IRB Process and Use of Human Subjects
Conventions of Writing in the Social Sciences
Insider’s View: Aya Matsuda, Linguistics
Structural Conventions and IMRAD Format
Other Structural Conventions
¦ Inside Work: Observing Structural Conventions
Language Conventions
¦ Inside Work: Observing Language Features
Reference Conventions
¦ Inside Work: Observing Reference Features
Genres of Writing in the Social Sciences
Insider’s View: Aya Matsuda, Linguistics
The Literature Review
Insider Example: An Embedded Literature Review
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeremy Hunter, from Happiness in Everyday Life: The Uses of Experience Sampling
Writing a Literature Review
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Literature Review
Insider Example: Student Literature Review
William O’Brien, Effects of Sleep Deprivation: A Literature Review
Theory Response Essay
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Theory Response
Insider Example: Student Theory Response Paper
Matt Kapadia, Evaluation of the Attribution TheoryTip Sheet: Reading and Writing in the Social Sciences
9 Reading and Writing in the Natural Sciences
Introduction to the Natural Sciences
Insider’s View: Sian Proctor, Geology
Research in the Natural Sciences
Insider’s View: Paige Geiger, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
¦ Inside Work: Considering a Natural Science Topic
Observation and Description in the Natural Sciences
¦ Inside Work: Thinking about Systematic Observation in the Sciences
Moving from Description to Speculation
¦ Inside Work: Practicing Description and Speculation
¦ Inside Work: Developing Research Questions and a Hypothesis
Designing a Research Study in the Natural Sciences
Insider’s View: Michelle LaRue, Conservation Biology
Insider’s View: Patrick Bahls, Mathematics
¦ Inside Work: Freewriting about an Experiment
Conventions of Writing in the Natural Sciences
Insider’s View: Michelle LaRue, Conservation Biology
Objectivity
¦ Inside Work: Looking for Conventions of Objectivity
Replicability
Recency
Insider’s View: Patrick Bahls, Mathematics
¦ Inside Work: Looking for Conventions of Replicability and Recency
Cooperation and Collaboration
Genres of Writing in the Natural Sciences
An Observation Logbook
Insider’s View: Paige Geiger, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Keeping an Observation Logbook
Insider Example: Student Observation Logbook
Kedric Lemon, Comparing the Efficiency of Various Batteries Being Used over Time
Research Proposal
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Developing a Research Proposal
Insider Example: Research Proposal
Gary Ritchison, Hunting Behavior, Territory Quality, and Individual Quality of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius)
Lab Report
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Composing a Lab Report
Insider Example: Student Lab Report
Kedric Lemon, Which Type of Battery Is the Most Effective When Energy Is Drawn Rapidly? Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing in the Natural Sciences
10 Reading and Writing in the Applied Fields
Introduction to the Applied Fields
What Are Applied Fields?
¦ Inside Work: Defining and Solving Problems
¦ Inside Work: Considering Additional Applied Fields
Rhetoric and the Applied Fields
Insider’s View: Michelle Richter, Criminal Justice
Genres in Selected Applied Fields
Health Fields
Insider’s View: Janna Dieckmann, Nursing
Insider Example: Professional Research Report
Margaret Shandor Miles, Diane Holditch-Davis, Suzanne Thoyre, and Linda Beeber, Rural African-American Mothers Parenting Prematurely Born Infants: An Ecological Systems Perspective Insider Example: Discharge Instructions
First Hospital, Discharge Instructions for Heart Attack
¦ Inside Work: Nurse for a Day
Education
Insider Example: Student Lesson Plan
Myra Moses, Lesson Plan Insider Example: Student IEP
Myra Moses, IEP
¦ Inside Work: Teacher for a Day
Business
Insider Example: Student Memorandum
James Blackwell, Investigative Report on Hazen and Sawyer Insider Example: Student Business Plan
Daniel Chase Mills, The Electricity Monitor Company
¦ Inside Work: CFO for a Day
Criminal Justice and Law
Insider’s View: Michelle Richter, Criminal Justice
Insider Example: Professional Legal Brief
University of Texas at Austin, et al., Brief for Respondents Insider Example: E-Mail Correspondence from Attorney
Joseph E. Miller Jr., Sample E-Mail
¦ Inside Work: Lawyer for a Day
¦ WRITING PROJECT: Discovering Genres of Writing in an Applied Field
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing in the Applied Fields
PART THREE Entering Academic Conversations: Readings and Case Studies
11 Love, Marriage, and Family
Andrew Cherlin, How American Family Life Is Different
"Both pictures, contradictory as they may be, are part of the way that Americans live their family lives. Together they spin the American merry-go-round of intimate partnerships."
Susan Krauss Whitbourne, The Myth of the Helicopter Parent
"[T]he findings lead to a new understanding of parent-child support in the years of emerging adulthood."
Brian Powell, Catherine Bolzendahl, Claudia Geist, and Lala Carr Steelman, Changing Counts, Counting Change: Toward a More Inclusive Definition of Family
"The United States includes a rich diversity of families whether or not they are officially recognized as such. In fact, ‘the family,’ although still invoked far too often in public and scholarly venues, is an increasingly untenable and obsolete concept."
Susan Saulny, In Strangers’ Glances at Family, Tensions Linger
"Many mixed-race youths say they feel wider acceptance than past generations, particularly on college campuses and in pop culture. . . . [W]hen they are alone, the family strives to be colorblind. But what they face outside their home is another story."
Academic Case Study: Perspectives on Love
Humanities
Warren E. Milteer Jr., The Strategies of Forbidden Love: Family across Racial Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century North Carolina
Despite legal and social disapproval of the time, "free women of mixed ancestry and white men developed relationships that mimicked legally sanctioned marriages."
Social Sciences
Marissa A. Harrison and Jennifer C. Shortall, Women and Men in Love: Who Really Feels It and Says It First?
"[W]omen may not be the greater ‘fools for love’ that society assumes."
Natural Sciences
Donatella Marazziti and Domenico Canale, Hormonal Changes When Falling in Love
"[T]o fall in love provokes transient hormonal changes, some of which seem to be specific to each sex."
Applied Fields
Cara O. Peters, Jane B. Thomas, and Richard Morris, Looking for Love on Craigslist: An Examination of Gender Differences in Self-Marketing Online
"The results illustrate that language is an imprecise form in how people read and understand the written and spoken word."
¦ Writing Project: Contributing to a Scholarly Conversation
¦ Writing Project: Writing a Comparative Analysis of Research Methodologies
12 Crime, Punishment, and Justice
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Inside a Psychopath’s Brain: The Sentencing Debate
" ‘Neuroscience and neuroimaging is going to change the whole philosophy about how we punish and how we decide who to incapacitate and how we decide how to deal with people.’ "
Sophia Kerby, The Top 10 Most Startling Facts about People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States: A Look at the Racial Disparities Inherent in Our Nation’s Criminal-Justice System
"[I]t is imperative that criminal-justice reform evolves as the civil rights issue of the 21st century."
Inimai M. Chettier, The Many Causes of America’s Decline in Crime
"It turns out that increased incarceration had a much more limited effect on crime than popularly thought."
Abigail Pesta (reporting), I Survived Prison: What Really Happens behind Bars
"I’m about to become a prisoner in a massive penitentiary, and I feel an overwhelming sense of dread. I’m surrounded by people who have been here before, who know the system, who know how to work the guards. But I know nothing."
Academic Case Study: Capital Punishment
Humanities
Dwight Conquergood, Lethal Theatre: Performance, Punishment, and the Death Penalty
"The death penalty cannot be understood simply as a matter of public debate or an aspect of criminology, part from what it is pre-eminently: performance."
Social Sciences
Benedikt Till and Peter Vitouch, Capital Punishment in Films: The Impact of Death Penalty Portrayals on Viewers’ Mood and Attitude toward Capital Punishment
"[T]hese films certainly deteriorate the viewer’s mood, and have the potential to influence their social values and beliefs."
Natural Sciences
Teresa A. Zimmers, Jonathan Sheldon, David A. Lubarsky, Francisco López-Muñoz, Linda Waterman, Richard Weisman, and Leonidas G. Koniaris, Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?
"We sought to determine whether the current drug regimen results in death in the manner intended."
Applied Fields
Joshua Marquis, The Myth of Innocence
"Popular culture…has created an entire alternate universe that posits a legal system that regularly hurls doe-eyed innocents onto death row through the malevolent machinations of corrupt cops and district attorneys..."
¦ Writing Project: Writing a Brief Annotated Bibliography
¦ Writing Project: Composing an Evaluative Rhetorical Analysis
13 Food, Sustainability, and Class
Gustavo Arellano, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Became More American Than Apple Pie
"Food is a natural conduit of change, evolution, and innovation. Wishing for a foodstuff to remain static, uncorrupted by outside influence — especially in these United States — is as ludicrous an idea as barring new immigrants from entering the country."
Patrick J. Kiger, How Cooking Has Changed Us
"Cooking, some scientists believe, played a crucial role in the evolution, survival, and ascent of early humans, helping to transform them from a ragged, miniscule fringe of struggling hunter-gatherers into the animal that dominates the planet."
Ruhlman, No Food Is Healthy. Not Even Kale.
"Our food is not healthy; we will be healthy if we eat nutritious food. Words matter. And those that we apply to food matter more than ever."
Michael Pollan, Why Cook?
"Cooking has the power to transform more than plants and animals: It transforms us, too, from mere consumers into producers."
Academic Case Study: Genetically Modified Food
Humanities
Daniel Gregorowius, Petra Lindemann-Matthies, and Markus Huppenbauer, Ethical Discourse on the Use of Genetically Modified Crops: A Review of Academic Publications in the Fields of Ecology and Environmental Ethics
The study surveys more than three decades of "the moral reasoning on the use of GM crops expressed in academic publications."
Social Sciences
Charles Noussair, Stéphane Robin, and Bernard Ruffieux, Do Consumers Really Refuse to Buy Genetically Modified Food?
Are consumers truly hesitant to buy foods that have been modified genetically? Or, do they often express opinions on GMO foods that are not reflected in their purchasing decisions?
Natural Sciences
Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc, Maternal and Fetal Exposure to Pesticides Associated to Genetically Modified Foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada
The goal of this study is to help "develop procedures to avoid environmentally induced disease in susceptible populations such as pregnant women and their fetuses."
Applied Fields
Sherry Seethaler and Marcia Linn, Genetically Modified Food in Perspective: An Inquiry-Based Curriculum to Help Middle School Students Make Sense of Tradeoffs
How do middle school students learn about the controversial scientific issue of genetically modified foods?
¦ Writing Project: Writing a Persuasive Narrative
¦ Writing Project: Translating a Scholarly Work for a Popular Audience
14 Writing
Stephen King, Reading to Write
"Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones."
Isabel Allende, Writing as an Act of Hope
"In the process of writing the anecdotes of the past, and recalling the emotions and pains of my fate, and telling part of the history of my country, I found that life became more comprehensible and the world more tolerable."
Jimmy Baca, Coming Into Language
"The language of poetry was the magic that could liberate me from myself, transform me into another person, transport me to places far away."
Nicholas Carr, Is Google Making Us Stupid?
"My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes id: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski."
Academic Case Study: The Scholarship of Writing
Humanities
David Bartholomae, Writing with Teachers: A Conversation with Peter Elbow; Peter Elbow, Being a Writer vs. Being an Academic: A Conflict in Goals
This scholarly conversation explores "two ways of being in the world of texts" and how instructors and students might navigate the potential conflicts between them.
Social Sciences
Martin E.P. Seligman, Tracey A. Steen, Nansook Park, and Christopher Peterson, Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions
Drawing on existing research in the field of positive psychology, the authors the impact that regular, prescribed writing can have on a person’s overall outlook.
Natural Sciences
Elizabeth Gray, Lisa Emerson, and Bruce MacKay, Meeting the Demands of the Workplace: Science Students and Written Skills
With employers consistently ranking "oral and written communication skills as or more highly than any technical or quantitative skill," are science graduates adequately prepared for these demands?
Applied Fields
Gavin Fairbairn and Alex Carson, Writing about Nursing Research: A Storytelling Approach
The authors propose that a storytelling approach to reporting research results in resources that can be read and understood by "the maximum possible number of people, whether they are nurses, policy makers, or col-leagues in other healthcare professions."
Appendix: Introduction to Documentation Styles
Index
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