1. Writing About Writing A College Reader 4th Edition
2. Writing About Writing A College Reader Pdf
3. Writing About Writing A College Reader Online

As I look back over this year, I’m amazed at the list of reading and writing strategies students have practiced. Here it is:

Writing Process:

• Drafting strategies: idea-generating drafts, architectural outlines, reverse outlining, slideshow/Pecha Kucha drafting
• Revision strategies (global)
• Editing strategies (local)
• Proofreading strategies
• Remediation strategies
• Introduction strategies
• Conclusion strategies / more conclusion strategies
• Paragraph coherence via transitions tags, conjunctions, subordinating words, pointing words, and keyword repetition
• Thesis-first and thesis-last organization patterns

Elizabeth and Doug, along with several of their colleagues, have been furthering the conversation on writing-about-writing pedagogy on their Bedford Bits blog, Write On: Notes on Teaching Writing about Writing. Visit the blog to contribute to the discussion and get some useful tips for teaching with Writing about Writing: A College Reader. In writing a response you may assume the reader has already read the text. Thus, do NOT summarize the contents of the text at length. Instead, take a systematic, analytical approach to the text.

Reading Process:

• Pre-reading strategies
• Annotation: gisting, asking questions, paraphrasing, “talking back”
• Reading faster with more understanding
• Connection-making: Text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world
• Strategies for coping with difficult or ambiguous texts
• Concept mapping
• Synthesis tables/diagrams
• What I Like/What I Don’t Like note taking strategy
• Reading for voices, concepts, examples, claims, evidence, naysayers, and implications
• How to play the Believing Game and the Doubting Game to think critically about sources

Integrating Ideas with Others’

Writing About Writing A College Reader 4th Edition

• Using the ideas of other writers:
  • Making claims about others’ ideas
  • Using the ideas of other writers as support
  • Using the ideas of other writers to open up new lines of inquiries via new concepts or questions
  • Entering into conversation with other writers
• TRIAC paragraph structure
• Barclays paragraph structure
• How to choose among summary, paraphrase, direct quotation
• Forwarding
• Countering
• Connecting ideas with other ideas via transitions, coordinating conjunctions, subordinating words or complex/compound sentences
• MLA Citation practices

Peer Review/Critiquing Own Work and Others’

• Applying defined criteria to peers’ drafts
• Focus on global concerns throughout most of the process
• Address local concerns near the end of the process
• Recognizing successful moments in a text
• Diagnosing problematic passages
• Providing specific suggestions for improving problematic passages
• Offering suggestions for connections with other texts or examples
• Playing Devil’s Advocate or offering another viewpoint

Writing About Writing A College Reader Pdf

Writing About Writing A College Reader Online

Recognition of and Control Over Sentence-Level Errors

• Recognizing main/independent clauses
• Recognizing subordinate/dependent clauses
• Using compound and complex sentence structures
• Subordinating clauses for emphasis
• Compound subject-verb agreement

• Short quote formatting
• Long quote formatting
• Ellipses
• Brackets
• In-text citation
• Parenthetical citation
• Works Cited

Hook—The first line, lines, or paragraph of an essay meant to grab the reader’s attention

For most people, a night out at the movies includes sitting through the coming attractions. We watch these short bursts of scenes that scare us, intrigue us, make us laugh, and sometimes nearly bring us to tears. No matter the preview, though, if it looks good, we want to go see the movie. An effective “hook” in an essay works the same way. You want to grab your reader right away and compel them to continue reading.

Some common strategies for creating a hook include:

• Anecdote:

  My hands shook and beads of sweat rolled down my face. I double-checked the directions before assembling my tools and turning up the heat. Making lasagna shouldn’t have been this stressful, but in my grandmother’s kitchen, the stakes were a little higher.

• Direct quote:

  “Be open and use the world around you.” Toni Morrison gives this advice about the craft of writing, but I find that it applies to most areas of my life.

• General statement or truth:

  Every child, no matter how sheltered or well-adjusted, will experience fear. Whether they are scared of the monster under the bed or the neighbor’s barking dog, children experience fear as a normal and healthy part of childhood.

• History:

  On Wednesday, August 28, 1963, thousands traveled to Washington D.C. by road, rail, and air. There were demonstrators of all races, creeds, and genders. Unafraid of the intimidation and violence they faced, they demonstrated for the rights of all. Known as The Great March on Washington, this day marked an important turning point in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

• Metaphor:

  Stretched out in a sunbeam, my cat may seem timid, but really, she’s a lion. She will stealthily stalk her prey, attack without mercy, and leave a trail of blood and guts in her wake. Afterward, as she grooms her luxurious mane, she shows no remorse.

• Scene or illustration:

  Shadows stretch across the pavement as jack-o-lanterns flicker in windows. Little trick-or-treaters scamper from porch to porch, filling their bags with various forms of sugar. It is the day dentists dread most: Halloween.

• Sensory description:

  The stale smell of cigarettes engulfed me as I stepped into the dim, silent apartment. The heat had been turned off, so I could see my breath fog in front of me as I carefully stepped over the old pizza boxes, overturned cups, and random pieces of paper strewn across the floor.

• Startling statistic or statement:

  Teenage drivers crash their cars at nearly ten times the rate of older drivers.

Learn more about writing 'Introductions' by reviewing this handout.