Kara Taczak Volume 4 Chapter Description This essay explores the importance of transfer in first year writing. Transfer is the ability to take writing knowledge and practices from one context and use it to repurpose or reframe it in a new/different writing context. To help students better understand how to effectively transfer, this essay examines […]
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Jeremy Levine Volume 4 Chapter Description Grades are an (often) unmentioned but all-powerful force in the writing classroom. We know that grades mean a great deal to students, motivating many of their decisions in the classroom.* But because grading is uncomfortable and inexact work, we rarely discuss it openly in class — a silence that
What Are We Being Graded On? Read More »
Brad Jacobson, Madelyn Pawlowski, & Christine M. Tardy Volume 4 Chapter Description When approaching new genres, students often wonder what kind of information to include and how. Rhetorical moves analysis, a type of genre analysis, offers a useful, practical approach for students to understand how writers achieve their goals in a genre through various writing
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Melanie Gagich Volume 3 Chapter Description This chapter introduces multimodal composing and offers five strategies for creating a multimodal text. The essay begins with a brief review of key terms associated with multimodal composing and provides definitions and examples of the five modes of communication. The first section of the essay also introduces students to
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Corrine E. Hinton Volume 1 Chapter Description Interpreting writing assignments can be a challenge for anyone. For first-year college students, however, it can be an overwhelming struggle as students learn to adjust to new academic pressures and expectations. What is my instructor evaluating? Do I need an argument? How do I structure my response? Questions
So You’ve Got a Writing Assignment. Now What? Read More »
Lennie L. Irvin Volume 1 Chapter Description This chapter explores the task of writing in college. It details common myths about academic writing and the importance of developing a “writer’s sense” within the writing situation. It identifies features of the complex “literacy task” college writing assignments require and decodes elements of the academic writing situation
What is Academic Writing? Read More »
Catherine Ramsdell Volume 2 Chapter Description This chapter focuses on the importance of storytelling to successful personal and professional communication in the 21st century. Because narration transcends experience, and because stories “can be found anywhere from a movie theatre to a corporate boardroom, everyone should know how to tell a good story.” While the chapter
Storytelling, Narration, and the “Who I Am” Story Read More »
Catherine Savini Volume 2 Chapter Description How can we help students become invested in their writing? How can we help students write interesting papers that we look forward to reading? Students can learn to write interesting papers that develop complex ideas if they begin by “looking for trouble.” This chapter provides students with a step-by-step
Looking for Trouble: Finding Your Way into a Writing Assignment Read More »
Gitanjali Dasbender Volume 2 Chapter Description This chapter works to define critical thinking for first year writers, explaining a process that helps them think, read, and write critically. With a focus on Annie Dillard’s essay, “Living like Weasels,” you can show students how they can learn to read carefully for ideas, to identify and analyze
Critical Thinking in College Writing: From the Personal to the Academic Read More »
