Writing about Writing

* Part One. Exploring Threshold Concepts of Writing through Inquiry
 
* Chapter 1. Investigating Writing: Threshold Concepts and Transfer
Why Study Writing?
Threshold Concepts of Writing
Transfer: Applying Learning to New Writing Situations
 
Major Writing Assignments: Writing about Threshold Concepts
Assignment Option 1: Challenging and Exploring Your Conceptions about Writing
* Assignment Option 2: What Is Writing and How Does It Work in the World? A Collage and Artist’s Statement
 
 
* Chapter 2. Readers, Writers, and Texts: Understanding Genre and Rhetorical Reading
Reading and Writing for Conversational Inquiry
Genres and How Writers and Readers Depend on Them
Rhetorical Reading: The Reader’s Role in Conversational Inquiry
 
* Major Writing Assignment: Genre Analysis
 
 
* Chapter 3. Participating in Conversational Inquiry about Writing
Walking into the Party
Formulating a Research Question
Seeking Answers by Gathering Data
Telling Your Story: Sharing Your Research
 
Major Writing Assignments: Participating in Conversational Inquiry
* Assignment Option 1: Entering the Burkean Parlor: Exploring a Conversation about Writing
* Assignment Option 2: Developing a Research Question
 
 
Part Two. Joining Conversations about Writing
         
Chapter 4. Composing
Threshold Concept: Writing Is a Process and All Writers Have More to Learn
Anne Lamott, Shitty First Drafts
Sondra Perl, The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers
Carol Berkenkotter, Decisions and Revisions: The Planning Strategies of a Publishing
Writer, and Donald M. Murray, Response of a Laboratory Rat—or, Being Protocoled
Nancy Sommers, Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers
Mike Rose, Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer’s Block
* Michael-John DePalma and Kara Poe Alexander, A Bag Full of Snakes: Negotiating the Challenges of Multimodal Composition
* Jaydelle Celestine, Did I Create the Process? Or Did the Process Create Me?
Richard Straub, Responding—Really Responding—to Other Students’ Writing
 
Major Writing Assignments: Writing about Processes
Assignment Option 1: Autoethnography
Assignment Option 2: Portrait of a Writer
* Assignment Option 3: Illustrating Writers’ Processes
 
 
Chapter 5. Literacies
Threshold Concept: Writing Is Impacted by Identities and Prior Experiences
Deborah Brandt, Sponsors of Literacy
Sandra Cisneros, Only Daughter
Victor Villanueva, Excerpt from Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color
Arturo Tejada Jr., Esther Gutierrez, Brisa Galindo, DeShonna Wallace, and Sonia Castaneda, Challenging Our Labels: Rejecting the Language of Remediation
Joseph M. Williams, The Phenomenology of Error
* Vershawn Ashanti Young, Should Writers Use They Own English?
Barbara Mellix, From Outside, In
* Julie Wan, Chinks in My Armor: Reclaiming One’s Voice
 
Major Writing Assignments: Writing about Literacies
Assignment Option 1: Literacy Narrative
Assignment Option 2: Group Analysis of Literacy History
Assignment Option 3: Linguistic Observation and Analysis
 
Chapter 6. Rhetoric
Threshold Concept: “Good” Writing Is Contextual
Doug Downs, Rhetoric: Making Sense of Human Interaction and Meaning-Making
Keith Grant-Davie, Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents
James E. Porter, Intertextuality and the Discourse Community
Christina Haas and Linda Flower, Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning
Margaret Kantz, Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively
Donald M. Murray, All Writing Is Autobiography
* Julia Arbutus, The Value of Rhetorical Analysis Outside Academia
 
Major Writing Assignments: Writing about Rhetoric
Assignment Option 1: Rhetorical Analysis of a Previous Writing Experience
* Assignment Option 2: Navigating Sources That Disagree
Assignment Option 3: Rhetorical Reading Analysis: Reconstructing a Text’s Context, Exigence, Motivations and Aims
 
Chapter 7. Communities
Threshold Concept: People Collaborate to Get Things Done with Writing
James Paul Gee, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction
Tony Mirabelli, Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers
* John Swales, Reflections on the Concept of Discourse Community
Ann M. Johns, Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and Diversity
Perri Klass, Learning the Language
Lucille P. McCarthy, A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing across the Curriculum
Sean Branick, Coaches Can Read, Too: An Ethnographic Study of a Football Coaching Discourse Community
Elizabeth Wardle, Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces
* Arielle Feldman, Galaxy-Wide Writing Strategies Used by Official Star Wars Bloggers
 
Major Writing Assignments: Writing about Discourse Communities
Assignment Option 1: Discourse Community Ethnography
Assignment Option 2: Reflection on Gaining Authority in New Discourse Communities
*Assignment Option 3: Writing That Makes a Difference in a Community