Why colleges shower their students with a's rhetorical analysis

andrea lunsford stanford university

michal brody sonoma state university

lisa ede oregon state university

beverly j. moss the ohio state university

carole clark papper hofstra university

keith walters portland state university

B W. W. NORTON AND COMPANY

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Everyone’s an Author W I T H R E A D I N G S

 second edition

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author. | Papper, Carole Clark, author. | Walters, Keith, 1952- author.

Title: Everyone’s an author with readings / Andrea Lunsford ; Michal Brody ; Lisa Ede ; Beverly J. Moss ; Carole

Clark Papper ; Keith Walters.

Description: Second Edition. | New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017] | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015044578 | ISBN 9780393265293 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: English language--Rhetoric. | Report writing. | Authorship. | College readers.

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For our students, authors all.

%

Preface

s everyone an author? In the first edition of this book, we answered that question with an emphatic “yes!” and hoped teachers and students would agree. We’re happy to say they did, embracing what is now even more obvious than it was during the years we

spent drafting that first edition: that writers today have important things to say and want—indeed demand—to be heard, and that anyone with access to a computer can publish their writing, can in fact become an author. So we are thrilled that our book has found a large and enthusiastic audience.

As we began work on the second edition, we went back to our title, which has come to have many levels of meaning for us. Two key words: “author” and “everyone.” Certainly “author” informs our book through- out, from the Introduction that shows students the many ways they are already authors to the final chapter that offers advice on ways of pub- lishing their writing. Indeed, every chapter in the book assumes that students are capable of creating and producing knowledge and of shar- ing that knowledge with others, of being authors. And we know that this focus has struck a chord with teachers and students across the country; in fact, we now meet students who talk comfortably about their role as authors, something we surely didn’t see a decade or even five years ago.

And then we thought about the other key word in our title: “every- one.” And like good rhetoricians, we thought about the primary audi- ence for this book: our students. Have we reached every one of them? When they read what we say or imply about college students, will they see themselves, their friends, their communities? Will our book inter- est them? Will the examples and readings we’ve chosen inspire them to write? Have we, in other words, written a book for everyone? We went on to ask ourselves just who this “everyone” is: as it turns out, it’s a very

[ v ]

[ vi ] P R E FAC E

expansive group, including students in community and two-year colleges, in historically black colleges and universities, in Hispanic-serving and Trib- al colleges, in dual enrollment classes, on regional campuses of large state universities, in private liberal arts schools, in research one universities. Students from many different communities, from all socioeconomic back- grounds, with a wide range of abilities and ableness. In short, anyone who has something to say—and that’s EVERYONE.

But let’s back up for a moment and ask another question: what led us to pursue this goal of inviting every student to take on the responsibility of authorship? When we began teaching (we won’t even say how many years ago that was), our students wrote traditional academic essays by hand—or sometimes typed them on typewriters. But that was then. Those were the days when writing was something students were assigned, rather than something they did every single day and night. When “text” was a noun, not a verb. When tweets were sounds birds made. When blogs didn’t even exist. The writing scene has changed radically. Now students write, text, tweet, and post to everything from Facebook to Blackboard to Instagram at home, in the library, on the bus, while walking down the street. Writing is ubiquitous—they barely even notice it.

What students are learning to write has changed as well. Instead of “es- says,” students today engage a range of genres: position papers, analyses of all kinds, reports, narratives—and more. In addition, they work across me- dia, embedding images and even audio and video in what they write. They do research, not just for assigned “research papers” but for pretty much ev- erything they write. And they write and research not just to report or ana- lyze but to join conversations. With the click of a mouse they can respond to a Washington Post blog, publishing their views alongside those of the Post writer. They can create posters for the We Are the 99% Facebook page, post a review of a novel on Amazon, contribute to a wiki, submit a poem or story to their college literary magazine, assemble a digital portfolio to use in apply- ing for jobs or internships. The work of these students speaks clearly to a sea change in literacy and to a major premise of this book: if you have access to a computer, you can publish what you write. Today, everyone can be an author.

We began to get a hint of this shift nearly a decade ago. In a 2009 ar- ticle in Seed magazine, researchers Denis Pelli and Charles Bigelow argue that while “nearly universal literacy is a defining characteristic of today’s modern civilization, nearly universal authorship will shape tomorrow’s.”1

1. Denis G. Pelli and Charles Bigelow, “A Writing Revolution,” Seedmagazine.com, 20 Oct. 2009,

Web, 3 Jan. 2012.

http://www.Seedmagazine.com
[ vii ]

They go on to offer a graph of the history of “authorship” from 1400 pro- jected through 2013, noting that while we’ve seen steep rises in authorship before (especially around 1500 and 1800), the current rise is more precipi- tous by far.

Tracking another shift, rhetorician Deborah Brandt suggests that now that a majority of Americans make their living in the so-called informa- tion economy, where writing is part of what they do during their workday, it could be said that “writing is . . . eclipsing reading as the literate skill of consequence.”2 Pelli and Bigelow put this shift more starkly, saying, “As readers, we consume. As authors, we create.”

Today’s authors are certainly creators, in the broadest sense. Protestors are using Twitter to organize and demonstrate on behalf of pressing social and political issues around the world. Fans create websites for those who follow certain bands, TV shows, sports teams. As this book goes to press, U.S. presidential candidates are using Facebook and Twitter to broadcast their messages, raise money, and mobilize voters.

Clearly, we are experiencing a major transition in what it means to be a writer. Such a massive shift brings challenges as well as opportunities. Many worry, for example, about the dangers the internet poses to our pri- vacy. As authors, we also understand that being a productive author brings

2. Deborah Brandt, “Writing at Work,” Hunter College, New York, 12 Nov. 2011, Lecture.

Time

100%

1%

0.01%

0.0001%

0.000001%

10,000,000,000

100,000,000

1,000,000

10,000

100

1 1400 1600 1800 2000 2005 2010 2013

Authors per year (as % of world pop.)

Authors per year

BY CENTURY BY YEAR

Blog authors

Facebook authors

Twitter authors

Book authors

Number of authors who published in each year for various media since 1400 by century (left) and by year (right). Source: Denis G. Pelli and Charles Bigelow, “A Writing Revolution,” Seed- magazine.com, 20 Oct. 2009, Web, 3 Jan. 2012.

http://www.Seedmagazine.com
http://www.Seedmagazine.com
[ viii ] P R E FAC E

certain responsibilities: working fairly and generously with others, taking seriously the challenges of writing with authority, standing behind the texts we create, being scrupulous about where we get information and how we use it, and using available technologies in wise and productive ways.

This book aims to guide student writers as they take on the responsi- bilities, challenges, and joys of authorship. As teachers who have been ac- tive participants in the literacy revolution brought on by changes in modes and technologies of communication, we’ve been learning with our students how best to engage such changes. As scholars, we have read widely in what many refer to as the “new literacies”; as researchers, we have studied the changing scene of writing with excitement. Our goal in writing this text- book has been to take some of the best ideas animating the field of rheto- ric and writing and make them accessible to and usable by students and teachers—and to invite everyone to become authors.

As Beverly Moss put it in a recent presentation, one challenge in writ- ing any composition textbook is to find a balance between meeting stu- dents where they are and where they come from—and yet at the same time challenging them to move out of their comfort zones: to embrace the unfa- miliar, to see themselves as meaning makers and see writing in whatever medium as an opportunity to create, to inform, to entertain, to move, to connect with others—including those who are not like them, who maybe do not speak the same language or hail from the same communities. With each page that we write, we try to achieve that balance. Every one of our students has important things to say, and we aim to help them do just that.

Highlights

• On the genres college students need to write: arguments, analyses, nar- ratives, reports, reviews—a new chapter on proposals—and new guid- ance in visual analysis, literacy narratives, profiles, and literature reviews. Chapter 10 gives students help “Choosing Genres” when the choice is theirs.

• On the need for rhetoric. From Chapter 1 on “Thinking Rhetorically” to Chapter 5 on “Writing and Rhetoric as a Field of Study” to the many prompts throughout the book that help students think about their own rhetorical situations and choices, this book makes them aware of the importance of rhetoric.

[ ix ]Preface

• On academic writing. We’ve tried to demystify academic writing—and to show students how to enter academic conversations. Chapter 4 offers advice on “Meeting the Demands of Academic Writing,” and we’ve add- ed new guidance on writing visual analyses, literature reviews, literacy narratives, and other common college assignments.

• On argument. Chapter 11 covers “Arguing a Position,” Chapter 17 covers “Analyzing and Constructing Arguments” (with new coverage of Clas- sical, Toulmin, Rogerian, and Invitational approaches), and Chapter 18 offers “Strategies for Supporting an Argument.”

• On reading. Chapter 3 offers guidelines on “Reading Rhetorically”: to read not only with careful attention but also with careful i ntention— to listen, engage, and then respond. And it offers strategies for reading texts of all kinds—written in words or images, on-screen or off-.

• On research. The challenge today’s students face is not gathering data, but making sense of massive amounts of information and using it ef- fectively in support of their own arguments. Chapters 19–28 cover all stages of research, from finding and evaluating sources to citing and documenting them. Chapter 20, on “Finding Sources,” has been reorga- nized to combine print and online sources in a way that better aligns with how students today search for information, and new examples guide students through annotating, summarizing, and synthesizing the sources they find.

• On writing in multiple modes. Chapter 34 provides practical advice on writing illustrated essays, blogs, wikis, audio and video essays, and posters, and Chapter 35 covers oral presentations—both new to this edi- tion. The companion Tumblr site provides a regularly updated source of multimodal readings.

• On social media. We’ve tried to bridge the gap between the writing stu- dents do on social media sites and the writing they do in college. We reject the notion that Google is making us stupid; in fact, we find that student writers are adept at crafting messages that will reach their in- tended audiences because they do so every day on Facebook and other such sites. Chapter 30 shows how the rhetorical strategies they use in- stinctively in social media are used in academic writing—and also how social media is now used in academia.

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• On style. We pay attention to style, with guidelines that will help stu- dents think carefully and creatively about the stylistic choices open to them. Chapter 29 defines style as a matter of appropriateness, and Chapter 31 covers “How to Write Good Sentences.”

• On social justice. Minimum wages, affordable housing, Black Lives Mat- ter: many of the examples in this book demonstrate how people from various walks of life use writing in ways that strive to help create “a more perfect union,” a society that is more just and equitable for all its members. We don’t always agree on how to go about reaching those goals, and that’s why rhetoric and civic discourse matter.

• Many new examples about topics students will relate to. From a descrip- tion of how Steph Curry shoots a basketball and a rhetorical analysis of what makes Pharrell’s “Happy” so catchy to a blog post from a student NASCAR driver and a visual analysis of the New Yorker’s Bert and Er- nie cover, we hope that all students will find examples and images that will make them smile—and inspire them to read and write.

• An anthology of 32 readings—and more readings posted weekly on Tumblr. Marginal links refer readers from the rhetoric to examples in the readings—and vice versa. You can center your course on either the rhetoric or the readings, and the links will help you draw from the other part as need be.

• Menus, directories, documentation templates, and a glossary / index make the book easy to use—and to understand.

Everyone’s an Author is available in two versions, with and without an an- thology of readings. Readings are arranged alphabetically by author, with menus indexing the readings by genre and theme. And the book is formatted as two books in one, rhetoric in front and readings in the back. You can there- fore center your course on either the rhetoric or the readings, since links in the margins will help you draw from the other part as you wish to.

What’s Online

As an ebook. Both versions of Everyone’s an Author are available as ebooks and include all the readings and images found in the print books. At a fraction of the price of the print books, the ebooks allow students to access the entire book, search, highlight, bookmark, take and share notes with

[ xi ]Preface

ease, and click on online examples—and can be viewed and synched on all computers and mobile devices.

Everyonesanauthor.tumblr.com adds essays, videos, audio clips, speeches, infographics, and more. Searchable by genres, themes, and chapters in the book, the site is updated with new readings weekly. Each item is introduced with a brief contextual note and followed by questions that prompt students to analyze, reflect on, and respond to the text. A “comments” button lets students post comments and share texts with others. The site also includes clusters of texts, conversations on topics being widely discussed. Find a chapter-by- chapter menu of the online examples in this book by clicking “Links from the Book.” See you and your students at everyonesanauthor.tumblr.com!

Norton/write. Find a library of model student papers; more than 1,000 online exercises and quizzes; research and plagiarism tutorials; documentation guidelines for MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE styles; MLA citation drills, and more—all just a click away. Free and open, no password required. Access the site at wwnorton.com/write.

Coursepacks are available for free and in a variety of formats, including Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, Canvas, and Angel. Coursepacks work within your existing learning management system, so there’s no new system to learn, and access is free and easy. The Everyone’s an Author coursepack includes the “Think Beyond Words” exercises that prompt students to analyze interesting online examples of multimodal writing; the “Reflect” exercises found throughout the book; model student papers; quizzes and exercises on grammar and research; documentation guidelines; revision worksheets, and more. Coursepacks are ready to use, right from the start—but are also easy to customize, using the system you already know and understand. Download the coursepack at wwnorton.com/instructors.

Author videos. Andrea Lunsford, Lisa Ede, Beverly Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters answer questions they’re often asked by other instructors: about fostering collaboration, teaching multimodal writing, taking advantage of the writing center, teaching classes that include both L1 and L2 students, and more. View the videos at wwnorton.com/instructors.

Go to wwnorton.com/instructors to find all of the resources described here. Select “Composition,” and then choose Everyone’s an Author 2e to get started.

http://www.Everyonesanauthor.tumblr.com
http://www.Everyonesanauthor.tumblr.com
http://www.wwnorton.com/write
http://www.wwnorton.com/instructors
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[ xii ] P R E FAC E

The Guide to Teaching Everyone’s an Author

Available in a tabbed three-ring binder that will also hold your own class notes, this guide offers practical advice and activities from Lisa Ede for teach- ing all the chapters and readings in the book, including a new chapter by Michal Brody on how to use the companion Tumblr site with your students. In addition, it offers detailed advice from Richard Bullock, Andrea Lunsford, Maureen Daly Goggin, and others about teaching writing more generally: how to create a syllabus, respond to student writing, help students whose primary language isn’t English, and more. Order a print copy or access the online version at wwnorton.com/instructors.

Acknowledgments

We are profoundly grateful to the many people who have helped bring Ev- eryone’s an Author into existence. Indeed, this text provides a perfect ex- ample of what an eighteenth-century German encyclopedia meant when it defined book as “the work of many hands.” Certainly this one is the work of many hands, and among those hands none have been more instrumental than those of Marilyn Moller: the breadth of her vision is matched by her meticulous attention to detail, keen sense of style and design, and ability to get more work done than anyone we have ever known. Throughout the process of composing this text, she has set the bar high for us, and we’ve tried hard to reach it. And our deep gratitude goes to Tenyia Lee, whose as- tute judgment and analytical eye have guided us through this edition. A big thank you as well to Marian Johnson for making time to read and respond to many of the chapters in the first edition—and especially for stepping in at the eleventh hour of this second edition to make it happen! Thanks also to John Elliott, whose careful and graceful line editing helped shape the first edition.

We are similarly grateful to many others who contributed their talents to this book, especially Carole Desnoes and Jane Searle, for all they did to produce this book in record time (no small undertaking). Thanks as well to Elizabeth Trammell for her work clearing the many text permissions and to Ted Szczepanski and Elyse Rieder for their work finding and clearing per- missions for the many images. Last but certainly not least, we thank Claire Wallace for undertaking countless tasks large and small with energy and unprecedented efficiency.

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[ xiii ]Preface

The design of this book is something we are particularly proud of, and for that we offer very special thanks to several amazing designers. Stephen Doyle created the spectacular cover that embodies a key message of our book: that we live in a world made of words and images. Carin Berger cre- ated the illuminated alphabet, also made of text, that opens every chap- ter. JoAnne Metsch did the lovely interior design. And Debra Morton-Hoyt, Rubina Yeh, Michael Wood, and Tiani Kennedy oversaw the whole thing as well as adding their own elegant—and whimsical!—touches inside and out. Best thanks to all of them.

Everyone’s an Author is more than just a print book, and we thank Erica Wnek, Kim Yi, Mateus Teixeira, Ava Bramson, and Cooper Wilhelm for creating and producing the superb ebook and instructors’ site. And we again want to thank Cliff Landesman for his work in creating the fantastic Tumblr site.

Special thanks to the fabled Norton Travelers, who have worked so hard to introduce teachers across the country to what Everyone’s an Author can offer them. And a big thank you to Megan Zwilling, Maureen Connelly, Lib Triplett, and Doug Day for helping us keep our eye on our audience: teachers and students at colleges where rhetorics of this kind are assigned. Finally, we are grateful to Roby Harrington, Julia Reidhead, and Steve Dunn, who have given their unwavering support to this project for more than a decade now. We are fortunate indeed to have had the talent and hard work of this distinguished Norton team.

An astute and extremely helpful group of reviewers has helped us more than we can say: we have depended on their good pedagogical sense and advice in revising every chapter of this book. Special thanks to Stevens Ami- don, Indiana University-Purdue Fort Wayne; Georgana Atkins, University of Mississippi; Kristen Belcher, University of Colorado, Denver; Samantha Bell, Johnson County Community College; Dawn Bergeron, St. Johns River State College; Cassandra Bishop, Southern Illinois University; Erin Breaux, South Louisiana Community College; Ellie Bunting, Edison State College; Maggie Callahan, Louisiana State University; Laura Chartier, University of Alaska, Anchorage; Tera Joy Cole, Idaho State University; Anne-Marie Deitering, Oregon State University; Debra Dew, Valparaiso University; Robyn DeWall, Idaho State University; Patrick Dolan Jr., University of Iowa; Maryam El- Shall, Jamestown Community College; Lindsay Ferrara, Fairfield University; Maureen Fitzpatrick, Johnson County Community College; Kitty Flowers, University of Indianapolis; Robin Gallaher, Northwest Missouri State Uni- versity; Tara Hembrough, Southern Illinois University; Samuel Head, Idaho

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State University; Emma Howes, Coastal Carolina University; Joyce Inman, University of Southern Mississippi; Michelle S. Lee, Daytona State College; Sonja Lynch, Wartburg College; Chelsea Murdock, University of Kansas; Jessie Nixon, University of Alaska, Anchorage; Thomas Reynolds, North- western State University; Matthew Schmeer, Johnson County Community College; John Sherrill, Purdue University; Mary Lourdes Silva, Ithaca College; Marc Simoes, California State University, Long Beach; Susan Smith, Geor- gia Southern University; Tracie Smith, University of Indianapolis; Paulette Swartzfager, Rochester Institute of Technology; Jason Tham, St. Cloud State University; Tom Thompson, The Citadel; Verne Underwood, Rogue Com- munity College; Jennifer Vala, Georgia State University; Emily Ward, Idaho State University; and Lauren Woolbright, Clemson University.

We’d also like to thank those reviewers who helped us to shape the first edition: Edward Baldwin, College of Southern Nevada; Michelle Bal- lif, University of Georgia; Larry Beason, University of South Alabama, Mo- bile; Kevin Boyle, College of Southern Nevada; Elizabeth Brockman, Central Michigan University; Stephen Brown, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Vicki Byard, Northeastern Illinois University; Beth Daniell, Kennesaw State Uni- versity; Nancy DeJoy, Michigan State University; Ronda Dively, Southern Il- linois University, Carbondale; Douglas Downs, Montana State University; Suellynn Duffey, University of Missouri, St. Louis; Anne Dvorak, Longview Community College; Patricia Ericsson, Washington State University; Frank Farmer, University of Kansas; Casie Fedukovich, North Carolina State Uni- versity; Lauren Fitzgerald, Yeshiva University; Diana Grumbles, South- ern Methodist University; Ann Guess, Alvin Community College; Michael Harker, Georgia State University; Charlotte Hogg, Texas Christian Univer- sity; Melissa Ianetta, University of Delaware; Jordynn Jack, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Sara Jameson, Oregon State University; David A. Jolliffe, University of Arkansas; Ann Jurecic, Rutgers University; Connie Kendall, University of Cincinnati; William Lalicker, West Chester Univer- sity; Phillip Marzluf, Kansas State University; Richard Matzen, Woodbury University; Moriah McCracken, The University of Texas, Pan American; Mary Pat McQueeney, Johnson County Community College; Clyde Money- hun, Boise State University; Whitney Myers, Texas Wesleyan University; Carroll Ferguson Nardone, Sam Houston State University; Rolf Norgaard, University of Colorado, Boulder; Katherine Durham Oldmixon, Huston-Til- lotson University; Matthew Oliver, Old Dominion University; Gary Olson, Idaho State University; Paula Patch, Elon University; Scott Payne, University of Central Arkansas; Mary Jo Reiff, University of Kansas; Albert Rouzie, Ohio

[ xv ]Preface

University; Alison Russell, Xavier University; Kathleen J. Ryan, University of Montana; Emily Robins Sharpe, Penn State University; Eddie Singleton, The Ohio State University; Allison Smith, Middle Tennessee State Univer- sity; Deborah Coxwell Teague, Florida State University; Rex Veeder, St. Cloud State University; Matthew Wiles, University of Louisville; and Mary Wright, Christopher Newport University.

Collectively, we have taught for over 150 years: that’s a lot of classes, a lot of students—and we are grateful for every single one of them. We owe some of the best moments of our lives to them—and in our most challeng- ing moments, they have inspired us to carry on. In Everyone’s an Author, we are particularly grateful to the student writers whose work adds so much to this text: Ade Adegboyega, Rutgers University; Crystal Aymelek, Portland State University; Amanda Baker, The Ohio State University; Carrie Barker, Kirkwood Community College; Ryan Joy, Portland State University; Julia Landauer, Stanford University; Larry Lehna, University of Michigan, Dear- born; Melanie Luken, The Ohio State University; Mitchell Oliver, Georgia State University; David Pasini, The Ohio State University; Walter Przyby- lowski, Rutgers University; Melissa Rubin, Hofstra University; Anya Schulz, University of California, Berkeley; Katryn Sheppard, Portland State Univer- sity; Katherine Spriggs, Stanford University; Shuqiao Song, Stanford Uni- versity; Saurabh Vaish, Hofstra University; and Kameron Wiles, Ball State University.

Each of us also has special debts of gratitude. Andrea Lunsford thanks her students and colleagues at the Bread Loaf Graduate School of English and in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford, along with her sis- ters Ellen Ashdown and Liz Middleton, editor and friend Carolyn Lengel, friends and life supporters Shirley Brice Heath, Betty Bailey, Cheryl Glenn, and Jackie Royster; and especially—and forever—her grandnieces Audrey and Lila Ashdown, who are already budding authors.

Michal Brody would like to thank her two wonderful families in Cali- fornia and Yucatan who so graciously support (and endure) her crazy and restless transnational life. Her conversations—both the actual and the imagined—with each and all of those loved ones provide the constant im- petus to reach for both the texture and depth of experience and the clarity with which to express it. She also thanks her students in both countries, who remind her every day that we are all teachers, all learners.

Lisa Ede thanks her husband, Greg Pfarr, for his support, for his commit- ment to his own art, and for their year-round vegetable garden. Thanks as well to her siblings, who have stuck together through thick and thin: Leni

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Ede Smith, Andrew Ede, Sara Ede Rowkamp, Jeffrey Ede, Michele Ede Smith, Laurie Ede Drake, Robert Ede, and Julie Ede Campbell. She also thanks her colleagues in the Oregon State School of Writing, Literature, and Film for their encouragement and support. Special thanks go to the school’s director, Anita Helle, and to their amazing administrative staff: Ann Leen, Aurora Terhune, and Felicia Phillips.

Beverly Moss thanks her parents, Harry and Sarah Moss, for their love, encouragement, and confidence in her when her own wavered. In addition, she thanks her Ohio State and Bread Loaf students, who inspire her and teach her so much about teaching. She also wants to express gratitude to her colleagues in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy at Ohio State for their incredible support. Finally, she thanks two of her own former English teach- ers, Dorothy Bratton and Jackie Royster, for the way they modeled excellence inside and outside the classroom.

Carole Clark Papper would like to thank her husband, Bob, and wonder- ful children—Dana, Matt, Zack, and Kate—without whose loving support little would happen and nothing would matter. In addition, she is grateful to the Hofstra University Writing Center faculty and tutors, whose dedica- tion and commitment to students always inspire.

Keith Walters thanks his partner of thirty years, Jonathan Tamez, for sharing a love of life, language, travel, flowers, and beauty. He is also grate- ful to his students in Tunisia, South Carolina, Texas, and Oregon, who have challenged him to find ways of talking about what good writing is and how to do it.

Finally, we thank those who have taught us—who first helped us learn to hold a pencil and print our names, who inspired a love of language and of reading and writing, who encouraged us to take chances in writing our lives as best we could, who prodded and pushed when we needed it, and who most of all set brilliant examples for us to follow. One person who taught almost all of us—about rhetoric, about writing, and about life—was Edward P. J. Corbett. We remember him with love and with gratitude

—Andrea Lunsford, Michal Brody, Lisa Ede, Beverly Moss, Carole Clark Papper, Keith Walters

[ xvii ]

c o n t e n t s

Preface v

Introduction: Is Everyone an Author? xxix

part i The Need for Rhetoric and Writing 1

1 Thinking Rhetorically  5 First, Listen 8

Hear What Others Are Saying—and Think about Why 9

What Do You Think—and Why? 10

Do Your Homework 11

Give Credit 12

Be Imaginative 13

Put In Your Oar 15

2 Rhetorical Situations  18 Genre 20

Audience 21

Purpose 22

Stance 23

Context 23

Medium and Design 24

3 Reading Rhetorically 25 To Understand and Engage 27

Across Media 33

Across Genres 38

Across Academic Disciplines 38

CO N T E N T S[ xviii ]

4 Meeting the Demands of Academic Writing 40 So Just What Is Academic Writing? 41

Joining U.S. Academic Conversations 41

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 44

Use standard edited English / Use clear patterns of organization /

Mark logical relationships between ideas / State claims explicitly

and provide appropriate support / Present your ideas as a response to others /

Express ideas clearly and directly / Be aware of how genres and conventions

vary across disciplines / Document sources using appropriate citation style

5 Writing and Rhetoric as a Field of Study 53 What Will You Learn by Studying Writing and Rhetoric? 54

What Jobs Will Studying Rhetoric Prepare You For? 56

6 Writing and Rhetoric in the Workplace 58 Consider Your Rhetorical Situation 60

Be Professional 61

Job Letters 61

Résumés 66

References 70

Writing Samples 70

Job Interviews 71

Writing on the Job 72

part ii Writing Processes 75

7 Managing the Writing Process 79

A ROADMAP 81

Approach Your Writing Pragmatically 88

8 The Need for Collaboration / “Here Comes Everybody!” 90 What Collaboration Means for Authors—and Audiences 92

What Collaboration Means for You as a Student 93

Collaboration at Work 94

Some Tips for Collaborating Effectively 96

9 Taking Advantage of the Writing Center 98 What Writing Centers Offer 98

Contents [ xix ]

Preparing for a Tutoring Session 100

Making the Most of a Tutoring Session 100

What If English Is Not Your Primary Language? 101

Visiting an Online Writing Center 102

What about Becoming a Writing Tutor? 103

part iii Genres of Writing 105

10 Choosing Genres 109 What You Need to Know about Genres of Writing 110

Deciding Which Genres to Use 112

11 Arguing a Position / “This Is Where I Stand” 116

Across Academic Disciplines / Media / Cultures and Communities / Genres

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 120

An explicit position / A response to what others have said or done /

Appropriate background information / An indication of why the topic

matters / Good reasons and evidence / Attention to more than one point

of view / An authoritative tone / An appeal to readers’ values

A ROADMAP 138

READINGS

russel honoré, Work Is a Blessing 136 rex huppke, In the Minimum Wage Debate, Both Sides Make Valid Points 146 katherine spriggs, On Buying Local 150

12 Writing a Narrative / “Here’s What Happened” 159

Across Academic Disciplines / Media / Cultures and Communities / Genres

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 164

A clearly identified event / A clearly described setting /

Vivid, descriptive details / A consistent point of view / A clear point

LITERACY NARRATIVES 179

A well-told story / A firsthand account /

An indication of the narrative’s significance

A ROADMAP 185

CO N T E N T S[ xx ]

READINGS

jan brideau, Lydia’s Story 175 melanie luken, Literacy: A Lineage 180 michael lewis, Liar’s Poker 190 larry lehna, The Look 196

13 Writing Analytically / “Let’s Take a Closer Look” 201

Across Academic Disciplines / Media / Cultures and Communities / Genres

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 206

A question that prompts a closer look / Some description of the subject /

Evidence drawn from close examination of the subject /

Insight gained from your analysis / Clear, precise language

VISUAL ANALYSIS 225

A description of the visual / Some contextual information /

Attention to any words / Close analysis of the message /

Insight into what the visual “says” / Precise language

A ROADMAP 231

READINGS

eamonn forde, Why Pharrell’s “Happy” Has Grabbed the Nation 221 somini sengupta, Why Is Everyone Focused on Zuckerberg’s Hoodie? 228 libby hill, Calvin and Hobbes: The Voice of the Lonely Child 240 melissa rubin, Advertisements R Us 246

14 Reporting Information / “Just the Facts, Ma’am” 252

Across Academic Disciplines / Media / Cultures and Communities / Genres

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 257

A topic carefully focused for a specific audience / Definitions of key terms /

Trustworthy information / Appropriate organization and design /

A confident, informative tone

PROFILES 270

A firsthand account / Detailed information about the subject /

An interesting angle

A ROADMAP 280

READINGS

wikipedia, Same-Sex Marriage 267 bill laitner, Heart and Sole: Detroiter Walks 21 Miles to Work 273

Contents [ xxi ]

barry estabrook, Selling the Farm 287 ryan joy, The Right to Preach on a College Campus 293

15 Writing a Review / “Two Thumbs Up” 297

Across Academic Disciplines / Media / Cultures and Communities / Genres

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 302

Relevant information about the subject / Criteria for the evaluation /

A well-supported evaluation / Attention to the audience’s needs and

expectations / An authoritative tone / Awareness of the ethics of reviewing

LITERATURE REVIEWS 317

A survey of relevant research on a carefully focused topic /

An objective summary of the literature / An evaluation of the literature /

An appropriate organization / Careful, accurate documentation

A ROADMAP 325

READINGS

tim alamenciak, Monopoly: The Scandal behind the Game 314 crystal aymelek, The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Memory 319 a. o. scott, Ode to Joy (and Sadness, and Anger) 331 anya schultz, Serial: A Captivating New Podcast 336

16 Making a Proposal / “Here’s What I Recommend” 340

Across Academic Disciplines / Media / Cultures and Communities / Genres

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 343

A precise description of the problem / A clear and compelling solution /

Evidence that your solution will address the problem / Acknowledgment of

other possible solutions / A statement of what your proposal will accomplish

PROJECT PROPOSALS 356

An indication of your topic and focus / An explanation of why

you’re interested in the topic / A plan / A schedule

A ROADMAP 361

READINGS

ras baraka, A New Start for Newark Schools 352 david pasini, The Economic Impact of Investing in Sports Franchises 357 sheryl sandberg / adam grant, Speaking While Female 366 mitchell oliver, Let’s Start an Education Revolution 370

CO N T E N T S[ xxii ]

part iv The Centrality of Argument 373

17 Analyzing and Constructing Arguments 379 Where’s the Argument Coming From? 381

What’s the Claim? 383

What’s at Stake? 387

Means of Persuasion: Emotional, Ethical, and Logical Appeals 389

What about Other Perspectives? 402

Ways of Structuring Arguments 405

Classical / Toulmin / Rogerian / Invitational

Matters of Style 416

18 Strategies for Supporting an Argument 419 Analogy 419

Cause / Effect 421

Classification 423

Comparison / Contrast 425

Definition 428

Description 430

Examples 432

Humor 434

Narration 436

Problem / Solution 437

Reiteration 439

part v Research 443

19 Starting Your Research / Joining the Conversation 445 Find a Topic That Fascinates You 446

Consider Your Rhetorical Situation 447

Narrow Your Topic 448

Do Some Background Research 450

Articulate a Question Your Research Will Answer 450

Plot Out a Working Thesis 452

Establish a Schedule 453

Contents [ xxiii ]

20 Finding Sources / Online, at the Library, in the Field 455 Starting with Wikipedia—or Facebook 456

What Kind of Sources Do You Need? 457

Determining If a Source Is Scholarly 459

Types of Sources—And Where to Find Them 462

Research Sites: On the Internet, in the Library 465

Running Searches 472

Conducting Field Research 475

21 Keeping Track / Managing Information Overload 485 Keep Track of Your Sources 485

Take Notes 487

Maintain a Working Bibliography 488

22 Evaluating Sources 491 Is the Source Worth Your Attention? 493

Reading Sources with a Critical Eye 497

23 Annotating a Bibliography 500

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES 500

Complete bibliographic information / A brief summary or description of

each work / Evaluative comments / Some indication of how each source will

inform your research / A consistent and concise presentation

saurabh vaish, Renewable and Sustainable Energy in Rural India 502

24 Synthesizing Ideas / Moving from What Your Sources Say to What You Say 505 Synthesizing the Ideas in Your Sources 506

Moving from What Your Sources Say to What You Say 508

Entering the Conversation You’ve Been Researching 510

25 Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing 512 Deciding Whether to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize 513

Quoting 514

Paraphrasing 518

Summarizing 520

Incorporating Source Material 522

Incorporating Visual and Audio Sources 524

CO N T E N T S[ xxiv ]

26 Giving Credit, Avoiding Plagiarism 527 Know What You Must Acknowledge 528

Fair Use and the Internet 529

Avoiding Plagiarism 530

Documenting Sources 534

27 MLA Style  535 A Directory to MLA Style 535

In-Text Documentation 538

Notes 544

List of Works Cited 544

Formatting a Research Essay 571

walter przybylowski, Holding Up the Hollywood Stagecoach 574

28 APA Style  591 A Directory to APA Style 591

In-Text Documentation 594

Notes 598

Reference List 599

Formatting a Research Essay 617

katryn sheppard, A Study of One Child’s Word Productions 620

part vi Style 637

29 What’s Your Style? 641 Appropriateness and Correctness 642

Level of Formality 645

Stance 646

Thinking about Your Own Style 649

30 Tweets to Reports / On Social Media and Academic Writing 652 Participating in Conversations 653

Sharing Information 656

Representing Yourself in Your Writing 657

Establishing an Appropriate Tone 659

Connecting to Audiences 660

Contents [ xxv ]

Providing Context 662

Organizing What You Write 663

Using Images 664

Citing Sources 665

31 How to Write Good Sentences 668 Four Common Sentence Patterns 669

Ways of Emphasizing the Main Idea in a Sentence 675

Opening Sentences 678

Closing Sentences 681

Varying Your Sentences 683

32 Checking for Common Mistakes 687 Articles 688

Commas 690

Comma Splices, Fused Sentences 700

Prepositions 702

Pronouns 704

Sentence Fragments 712

Shifts 716

Subject-Verb Agreement 720

Verbs 728

part vii Design and Delivery 739

33 Designing What You Write 743 Thinking Rhetorically about Design 744

Choosing Fonts 746

Adding Headings 746

Using Color 747

Using Visuals 749

Putting It All Together 757

Getting Response to Your Design 759

34 Writing in Multiple Modes 762 Defining Multimodal Writing 762

Considering Your Rhetorical Situation 764

Illustrated Essays 765

CO N T E N T S[ xxvi ]

Blogs 767

Wikis 770

Audio Essays 772

Video Essays 774

Posters 776

Managing a Multimodal Project 778

35 Making Presentations 780 halle edwards, The Rise of Female Heroes in Shoujo Manga 782

A ROADMAP 788

36 Assembling a Portfolio 793 What to Include in a Writing Portfolio 794

Collecting Your Work 795

Reflecting on Your Writing 796

Organizing a Portfolio 799

37 Publishing Your Writing 802 carrie barker, But Two Negatives Equal a Positive 809

Readings 815

donald l. barlett / james b. steele, Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear 817 dennis baron, Should Everybody Write? 840 lynda barry, The Sanctuary of School 856 alison bechdel, Compulsory Reading 862 mark bittman et al., How a National Food Policy Could Save Lives 868 michelle cacho-negrete, Tell Me Something 876 dana canedy, The Talk: After Ferguson . . . 884 nicholas carr, World and Screen 889 david crystal, 2b or Not 2b? 899 mark dawidziak, The Walking Dead Opens in Lively Fashion 908 junot díaz, The Money 912 barbara ehrenreich, Serving in Florida 917 david h. freedman, How Junk Food Can End Obesity 931 larry gordon, Wikipedia Pops Up in Bibliographies 952

Contents [ xxvii ]

gerald graff, Hidden Intellectualism 957 andy hinds, I’m Considering Becoming a Sports Fan— How Do I Pick a Team? 963

bell hooks, Touching the Earth 968 ryan kohls, Clean Sweep 976 tim kreider, The “Busy Trap” 982 john maeda, On Meaningful Observation 987 emily martin, The Egg and the Sperm 991 tressie mcmillan cottom, The Logic of Stupid Poor People 1011 judith newman, To Siri, with Love 1017 the onion, Nation Shudders at Large Block of Uninterrupted Text 1025 steven pinker, Mind over Mass Media 1029 mike rose, Blue-Collar Brilliance 1033 james sanborn, Weight Loss at Any Cost 1043 eric schlosser, Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good 1051 brent staples, Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s 1065 neil degrasse tyson, Cosmic Perspective 1069 jose antonio vargas, My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant 1078 alice walker, Oppressed Hair Puts a Ceiling on the Brain 1088

Credits 1093

About the Authors 1102

About the Alphabet 1104

Submitting Papers 1107

Author / Title Index 1109

Glossary / Index 1119

MLA and APA Directories 1148

[ xxix ]

i n t r o d u c t i o n

Is Everyone an Author?

e’ve chosen a provocative title for this book, so it’s fair to ask if we’ve gotten it right, if everyone is an au- thor. Let’s take just a few examples that can help to make the point:

• A student creates a Facebook page, which immediately finds a large audience of other interested students.

• A visitor to the United States sends an email to a few friends and family members in Slovakia—and they begin forwarding it. The message circles the globe in a day.

• A professor assigns students in her class to work together to write a number of entries for Wikipedia, and they are surprised to find how quickly their entries are revised by others.

• An airline executive writes a letter of apology for unconscionable delays in service and publishes the letter in newspapers, where mil- lions will read it.

• A small group of high school students who are keen on cooking post their recipe for Crazy Candy Cookies on their Cook’s Corner blog and are overwhelmed with the number of responses to their invention.

• Five women nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress pre- pare acceptance speeches: one of them will deliver the speech live before an international audience.

I N T RO D U C T I O N[ xxx ]

• You get your next assignment in your college writing class and set out to do the research necessary to complete it. When you’re finished, you turn in your twelve-page argument to your instructor and classmates for their responses—and you also post it on your webpage under “What I’m Writing Now.”

All of these examples represent important messages written by people who probably do not consider themselves authors. Yet they illustrate what we mean when we say that today “everyone’s an author.” Once upon a time, the ability to compose a message that reached wide and varied audiences was restricted to a small group; now, however, this opportunity is available to anyone with access to the internet.

The word author has a long history, but it is most associated with the rise of print and the ability of a writer to claim what he or she has writ- ten as property. The first copyright act, in the early eighteenth century, ruled that authors held the primary rights to their work. And while any- one could potentially be a writer, an author was someone whose work had been published. That rough definition worked pretty well until recently, when traditional copyright laws began to show the strain of their 300-year history, most notably with the simple and easy file sharing that the inter- net makes possible.

In fact, the web has blurred the distinction between writers and au- thors, offering anyone with access to a computer the opportunity to publish what they write. Whether or not you own a computer, if you have access to one (at school, at a library), you can publish what you write and thus make what you say available to readers around the world.

Think for a minute about the impact of blogs, which first appeared in 1997. When this book was first published, there were more than 156 million public blogs, and as this new edition goes to press, there are more than 250 million blogs on Tumblr and Wordpress alone. Add to blogs the rise of Face- book, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and other social networking sites for even more evidence to support our claim: today, everyone’s an author. Moreover, twenty-first-century authors just don’t fit the image of the Romantic writer, alone in a garret, struggling to bring forth something unique. Rather, to- day’s authors are part of a huge, often global, conversation; they build on what others have thought and written, they create mash-ups and remixes, and they practice teamwork at almost every turn. They are authoring for the digital age.

[ xxxi ]Is Everyone an Author?

Redefining Writing

If the definition of author has changed in recent years, so has our under- standing of the definition, nature, and scope of writing.

Writing, for example, now includes much more than words, as images and graphics take on an important part of the job of conveying meaning. In addition, writing can now include sound, video, and other media. Perhaps more important, writing now often contains many voices, as information from the web is incorporated into the texts we write with increasing ease. Finally, as we noted above, writing today is almost always part of a larger conversation. Rather than rising mysteriously from the depths of a writer’s original thoughts, a stereotype made popular during the Romantic period, writing almost always responds to some other written piece or to other ideas. If “no man [or woman] is an island, entire of itself,” then the same holds true for writing.

Writing now is also often highly collaborative. You work with a team to produce an illustrated report, the basis of which is used by members of the team to make a key presentation to management; you and a classmate carry out an experiment, argue over and write up the results together, and pres- ent your findings to the class; a business class project calls on you and others in your group to divide up the work along lines of expertise and then to pool your efforts in meeting the assignment. In all of these cases, writing is also performative—it performs an action or, in the words of many students we have talked with, it “makes something happen in the world.”

Perhaps most notable, this expanded sense of writing challenges us to think very carefully about what our writing is for and whom it can and might reach. Email provides a good case in point. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Tamim Ansary, a writer who was born in Afghani- stan, found himself stunned by the number of people calling for bombing Afghanistan “back to the Stone Age.” He sent an email to a few friends ex- pressing his horror at the events, his condemnation of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, and his hope that those in the United States would not act on the basis of gross stereotyping. The few dozen friends to whom Ansary wrote hit their forward buttons. Within days, the letter had circled the globe more than once, and Ansary’s words were published by the Africa News Ser- vice, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Evening Standard in London, the San Francisco Chronicle and many other papers in the United States, as well as on many websites.

I N T RO D U C T I O N[ xxxii ]

Authors whose messages can be instantly transported around the world need to consider those who will receive those messages. As the exam- ple of Tamim Ansary shows, no longer can writers assume that they write only to a specified audience or that they can easily control the dissemina- tion of their messages. We now live not only in a city, a state, and a country but in a global community as well—and we write, intentionally or not, to speakers of many languages, to members of many cultures, to believers of many creeds.

Everyone’s a Researcher

Since all writing responds to the ideas and words of others, it usually draws on some kind of research. Think for a moment of how often you carry out research. We’re guessing that a little reflection will turn up lots of exam- ples: you may find yourself digging up information on the pricing of new cars, searching Craigslist or the want ads for a good job, comparing two new smartphones, looking up statistics on a favorite sports figure, or searching for a recipe for tabbouleh. All of these everyday activities involve research. In addition, many of your most important life decisions involve research— what colleges to apply to, what jobs to pursue, where to live, and more. Once you begin to think about research in this broad way—as a form of inquiry related to important decisions—you’ll probably find that research is some- thing you do almost every day. Moreover, you’ll see the ways in which the research you do adds to your credibility—giving you the authority that goes along with being an author.

But research today is very different from the research of only a few de- cades ago. Take the example of the concordance, an alphabetized listing of every instance of all topics and words in a work. Before the computer age, concordances were done by hand: the first full concordance to the works of Shakespeare took decades of eye-straining, painstaking research, counting, and sorting. Some scholars spent years, even whole careers, developing con- cordances that then served as major resources for other scholars. As soon as Shakespeare’s plays and poems were in digital form—voilà!—a concordance could be produced automatically and accessed by writers with the click of a mouse.

To take a more recent example, first-year college students just twenty years ago had no access to the internet. Just think of how easy it is now to check temperatures around the world, track a news story, or keep up to the

[ xxxiii ]Is Everyone an Author?

minute on stock prices. These are items that you can Google, but you may also have many expensive subscription databases available to you through your school’s library. It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that the world is literally at your fingertips.

What has not changed is the need to carry out research with great care, to read all sources with a critical eye, and to evaluate sources before depend- ing on them for an important decision or using them in your own work. What also has not changed is the sheer thrill research can bring: while much research work can seem plodding and even repetitious, the excitement of discovering materials you didn’t know existed, of analyzing information in a new way, or of tracing a question through one particular historical period brings its own reward. Moreover, your research adds to what philosopher Kenneth Burke calls “the conversation of humankind,” as you build on what others have done and begin to make significant contributions of your own to the world’s accumulated knowledge.

Everyone’s a Student

More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman writer Quintilian set out a plan for ed- ucation, beginning with birth and ending only with old age and death. Sur- prisingly enough, Quintilian’s recommendation for a lifelong education has never been more relevant than it is in the twenty-first century, as knowledge is increasing and changing so fast that most people must continue to be ac- tive learners long after they graduate from college. This explosion of knowl- edge also puts great demands on communication. As a result, one of your big- gest challenges will be learning how to learn and how to communicate what you have learned across wider distances, to larger and increasingly diverse sets of audiences, and using an expanding range of media and genres.

When did you first decide to attend college, and what paths did you take to achieve that goal? Chances are greater today than at any time in our past that you may have taken time off to work before beginning college, or that you returned to college for new training when your job changed, or that you are attending college while working part-time or even full-time. These char- acteristics of college students are not new, but they are increasingly impor- tant, indicating that the path to college is not as straightforward as it was once thought to be. In addition, college is now clearly a part of a process of lifetime learning: you are likely to hold a number of positions—and each new position will call for new learning.

I N T RO D U C T I O N[ xxxiv ]

Citizens today need more years of education and more advanced skills than ever before: even entry-level jobs now call for a college diploma. But what you’ll need isn’t just a college education. Instead, you’ll need an educa- tion that puts you in a position to take responsibility for your own learning and to take a direct, hands-on approach to that learning. Most of us learn best by doing what we’re trying to learn rather than just being told about it. What does this change mean in practice? First, it means you will be doing much more writing, speaking, and researching than ever before. You may, for instance, conduct research on an economic trend and then use that re- search to create a theory capable of accounting for the trend; you may join a research group in an electrical engineering class that designs, tests, and implements a new system; you may be a member of a writing class that works to build a website for the local fire department, writes brochures for a nonprofit agency, or makes presentations before municipal boards. In each case, you will be doing what you are studying, whether it is economics, en- gineering, or writing.

Without a doubt, the challenges and opportunities for students today are immense. The chapters that follow try to keep these challenges and op- portunities in the foreground, offering you concrete ways to think about yourself as a writer—and yes, as an author; to think carefully about the rhetorical situations you face and about the many and varied audiences for your work; and to expand your writing repertoire to include new genres, new media, and new ways of producing and communicating knowledge.