iv PrefAce for Instructorsrecursive nature of these skills and the centrality of the writing process.
We punctuate every chapter with short readings and activities that prompt
students to practice what we teach.
Specifically, Chapter 1 is an overview of academic writing as a process
motivated by inquiry and introduces academic habits of mind. Chapter 2
encourages students to practice writerly reading — the rhetorical analysis of
other writers’ decisions — to learn appropriate strategies for their own writing.
While Chapters 2 through 5 address essentials of getting started on writing,
from how to mark a text to forming questions and developing a working thesis,
we recognize that this process is rarely linear, and that it benefits from conver-
sation with invested readers. Chapters 6 and 7 help students develop and sup-
port their theses by providing strategies for finding and working with sources,
for example, showing students how they can use summary, paraphrase, and
synthesis to serve their purposes as writers. Chapters 8 and 9 again link writerly
reading with readerly writing — this time with writing that reflects rhetorical
appeals (including visual appeals) and strategies of structure and development.
Chapter 10 presents revision in the context of peer groups. The responses
of classmates can help students determine when they might need to read
additional material to shape more effective research questions, or when they
might need more evidence to support an argument. Our supporting mate-
rials for peer workshops foster productive group interaction at every stage
of the peer review process. Finally, in Chapter 11, we provide students with
strategies for conducting original research that build upon earlier chapters
about using personal experience or writing a researched argument.
Although the process of developing an academic argument can be unruly,
the structured step-by-step pedagogy in the rhetoric text should support stu-
dents during each stage of the process. Most readings are followed by “Read-
ing as a Writer” questions that send students back into the reading to respond
to the rhetorical moves writers make. “Steps to” boxes summarize the major
points about each stage of thinking, reading, and writing, offering quick refer-
ences that bring key information into focus for review. “Practice Sequences”
ask students to try out and build on the strategies we have explained or dem-
onstrated. We also provide templates, formulas, and worksheets that students
may use to organize information as they read and write.
Your students should feel further supported and encouraged by the
abundance of student writing (annotated to highlight the rhetorical moves
students make) that we use as examples in the rhetoric text, side by side
with the examples of professional writing we include.■ What’s New in the Third Edition?
Among many smaller revisions, we made the following additions in
response to numerous comments by instructors:• New treatment of composing a rhetorical analysis, with advice on
writing one’s way into academic conversations, appears in Chapter 2.
• An alternative variety of thesis statement, the hypothesis-testing
model, is introduced in Chapter 5.00_GRE_6169_BRF_FM_i_xxvi.indd 4 5/5/15 11:15 AM