From Inquiry to Academic Writing A Practical Guide, 3rd edition

54 CHAPTER 2 | FRom REAding As A WRiTER To WRiTing As A REAdER

Steps to Writing Yourself into an Academic Conversation

•    Retrace the conversation, including the relevance of the topic and

situation, for readers by briefly discussing an author’s key claims

and ideas. This discussion can be as brief as a sentence or two and

include a quotation for each author you cite.

•    Respond to the ideas of others by helping readers understand the con-

text in which another’s claims make sense. “I get this if I see it this way.”

•    Discuss possible implications by putting problems aside and

asking, “Do their claims make sense?”

•    Introduce conflicting points of view and raise possible criticisms

to indicate something the authors whose ideas you discuss may

have overlooked.

•    Formulate your own claim to assert what you think.

•    Ensure that your own purpose as a writer is clear to readers.

A Practice sequence: Writing yourself into an Academic Conversation

■^1 Now that you have done a rhetorical analysis of Sherry Turkle’s

“The Flight from Conversation,” follow the steps to writing your-

self into the conversation and write a short one-page argument.

You should retrace the conversation, explain Turkle’s argument in

ways that demonstrate you understand her argument and under-

lying assumptions, and formulate your own position with a clear

sense of purpose.

■^2 An option for group work:

• As a group, discuss Turkle’s argument, listing reasons why it makes
  sense and reasons that members of the group take issue with it.


• In turn, formulate your own point of view on the argument.


• Each individual in the class should write an argument that follows
  the steps above in “Writing Yourself into an Academic Conversation.”

■^3 As an alternative, work individually or in groups to develop an

argument in which you enter the conversation with E.  D. Hirsch

and Eugene Provenzo. Retrace the conversation, discuss the claims

they make, explain why their ideas are worth taking seriously, iden-

tify what they may have ignored, and formulate your own claim.

You may, for example, affirm others for raising important issues, but

assert that they have not given those issues the thought or emphasis that

they deserve. Or you may raise a related issue that has been ignored entirely.

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