From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide

Preface for Instructors 

Brief Contents 

How This Book Supports WPA Outcomes for First-Year Composition

1 Starting with Inquiry: Habits of Mind of Academic Writers

What Is Academic Writing? 

What Are the Habits of Mind of Academic Writers? 

Academic Writers Make Inquiries 

       Steps to Inquiry 

       A Practice Sequence: Inquiry Activities 

Academic Writers Seek and Value Complexity 

       *Moves to Model in Academic Writing

       Steps to Seeking and Valuing Complexity 

       A Practice Sequence: Seeking and Valuing Complexity 

Academic Writers See Writing as a Conversation 

       *Moves to Model in Academic Conversations

       Steps to Joining an Academic Conversation 

       A Practice Sequence: Joining an Academic Conversation 

Academic Writers Understand That Writing Is a Process       

       Collect Information and Material 

         Steps to Collecting Information and Material 

Draft, and Draft Again 

         Steps to Drafting 

Revise Significantly 

         Steps to Revising 

Academic Writers Reflect

         Steps to Reflection 

         A Practice Sequence: Reflection Activities 

Becoming Academic: Three Narratives 

       Ta-Nehisi Coates, from Between the World and Me 

       Richard Rodriguez, Scholarship Boy 

       *Tara Westover, from Educated 

       A Practice Sequence: Composing a Literacy Narrative

2 From Reading as a Writer to Writing as a Reader 

Reading as an Act of Composing: Annotating 

Reading as a Writer: Analyzing a Text Rhetorically 

E. D. Hirsch Jr., Preface to Cultural Literacy 

       Identify the Situation 

       Identify the Writer''s Purpose 

       Identify the Writer''s Claims 

            *Moves to Model for Making a Claim 

       *Identify the Writer''s Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

       Identify the Writer''s Audience 

            Steps to Analyzing a Text Rhetorically 

            A Practice Sequence: Analyzing a Text Rhetorically 

*Nick Hanauer, Education Isn''t Enough 

       Writing as a Reader: Composing a Rhetorical Analysis 

David Tyack, Whither History Textbooks? 

       An Annotated Student Rhetorical Analysis 

Quentin Collie, A Rhetorical Analysis of "Whither History Textbooks?" (Student Writing) 

       Writing a Rhetorical Analysis 

Sherry Turkle, The Flight from Conversation 

       A Practice Sequence: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis

3 From Writing Summaries and Paraphrases to Writing Yourself into Academic Conversations 

Summaries, Paraphrases, and Quotations 

Writing a Paraphrase 

       Steps to Writing a Paraphrase 

       A Practice Sequence: Writing a Paraphrase 

Writing a Summary 

Clive Thompson, On the New Literacy 

       Describe the Key Claims of the Text 

       Select Examples to Illustrate the Author''s Argument 

       Present the Gist of the Author''s Argument 

       Contextualize What You Summarize 

            Steps to Writing a Summary 

            *Moves to Model for Summarizing

            A Practice Sequence: Writing a Summary 

Writing Yourself into Academic Conversations 

       Steps to Writing Yourself into an Academic Conversation 

       A Practice Sequence: Writing Yourself into an Academic Conversation 

Tom Standage, History Retweets Itself 

4 From Identifying Claims to Analyzing Arguments 

Identifying Types of Claims 

Dana Radcliffe, Dashed Hopes: Why Aren''t Social Media Delivering Democracy? 

       Identify Claims of Fact 

       Identify Claims of Value 

       Identify Claims of Policy 

            Steps to Identifying Claims 

            A Practice Sequence: Identifying Claims 

Analyzing Arguments 

       Analyze the Reasons Used to Support a Claim 

       Identify Concessions 

       Identify Counterarguments 

            *Moves to Model for Analyzing Arguments

An Annotated Student Argument 

Marques Camp, The End of The World May Be Nigh, and It''s the Kindle''s Fault (Student Writing) 

       Steps to Analyzing an Argument 

       A Practice Sequence: Analyzing an Argument 

Susan D. Blum, The United States of (Non)Reading: The End of Civilization or a New Era? 

       Recognizing Logical Fallacies

       Analyzing and Comparing Arguments 

Stuart Rojstaczer, Grade Inflation Gone Wild 

Phil Primack, Doesn''t Anybody Get a C Anymore?        

       A Practice Sequence: Analyzing and Comparing Arguments

5 From Identifying Issues to Forming Questions 

Identifying Issues       

       Draw on Your Personal Experience 

       Identify What Is Open to Dispute 

       Resist Binary Thinking 

       Build on and Extend the Ideas of Others 

       Read to Discover a Writer''s Frame 

       Consider the Constraints of the Situation 

            Steps to Identifying Issues 

       Identifying Issues in an Essay 

Anna Quindlen, Doing Nothing Is Something 

       A Practice Sequence: Identifying Issues 

Formulating Issue-Based Questions       

       Refine Your Topic 

       Explain Your Interest in the Topic 

       Identify an Issue 

            *Moves to Model for Identifying an Issue

       Formulate Your Topic as a Question 

       Acknowledge Your Audience 

            Steps to Formulating an Issue-Based Question 

            A Practice Sequence: Formulating an Issue-Based Question