From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide

Chapter 1: Starting with Inquiry: Habits of Mind of Academic Writers

What Is Academic Writing?

What Are the Analytical Habits of Mind of Academic Writers?

Academic Writers Make Inquiries

Academic Writers Seek and Value Complexity

Academic Writers See Writing as a Conversation

Practice and Reading: Joining an Academic Conversation

Academic Writers Understand That Writing Is a Process

Academic Writers Reflect

Academic Writers Make Arguments

Practice and Readings: Writing a Literacy Narrative

UNICEF, Arguments for and Against Lowering the Voting Age

Ta-Nehisi Coates, From Between the World and Me

Fei-Fei Li, From The Worlds I See

Chapter 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

Rose Horowitch, The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books

Practice And Reading: Rhetorical Analysis

Carrie M. Santo-Thomas, The Atlantic Did Me Dirty

Writing as a Reader: Composing a Rhetorical Analysis

Jack Schneider and Michael Fuerstein, Thinking Civically

An Annotated Student Rhetorical Analysis

Practice and Reading: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis

Sherry Turkle, The Flight from Conversation

Chapter 3: From Writing Summaries and Paraphrases to Writing Yourself Into Academic Conversations

Summaries, Paraphrases, and Quotations

Writing a Paraphrase

Writing a Summary

Clive Thompson, On the New Literacy

Writing Yourself into Academic Conversations

Practice And Reading: Writing Yourself into an Academic Conversation

Tom Standage, History Retweets Itself

Chapter 4: From Identifying Claims to Analyzing Arguments

Identifying Types of Claims

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

Analyzing Arguments

Practice and Reading: Analyzing an Argument

Ingrid Robeyns, Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth

Recognizing Logical Fallacies

Practice and Readings: Analyzing and Comparing Arguments

Adam Grant, No You Don’t Get an A for Effort

Daniel Pink, Why Not Get Rid of Grades? When the Goal Is an A, Real Learning Gets Lost

Chapter 5: From Identifying Issues to Forming Questions

Identifying Issues

Identifying Issues in an Essay

Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation

Formulating Issue-Based Questions

Practice and Reading: Defining and Discussing a Debatable Issue

Ronald E. Purser, Mindful Schools

Chapter 6: From Formulating to Developing a Thesis

Working Versus Definitive Theses

Developing a Working Thesis: Four Models

Establishing a Context for a Thesis

Kris Gutiérrez, Teaching Toward Possibility: Building Cultural Supports for Robust Learning

An Annotated Student Essay: Stating and Supporting a Thesis

Chapter 7: From Finding to Evaluating Sources

Identifying Sources

Searching for Sources

Evaluating Library Sources

Evaluating Internet, Social Media, and AI Sources

Writing an Annotated Bibliography

Chapter 8: From Synthesis to Researched Argument

Writing a Synthesis

Paul Rogat Loeb, Making Our Lives Count

Anne Colby and Thomas Ehrlich, with Elizabeth Beaumont and Jason Stephens, Undergraduate Education and the Development of Moral and Civic Responsibility

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Be Tenacious on Behalf of Life on Earth

Avoiding Plagiarism

Integrating Sources into Your Writing

Using Quotations

An Annotated Student Researched Argument: Synthesizing Sources

Chapter 9: From Ethos and Pathos to Logos: Appealing to Your Readers

Connecting with Readers: A Sample Argument

James W. Loewen, The Land of Opportunity

Chapter 10: From Analyzing Visuals to Using Them in Writing

Analyzing Visual Advertisements

Analyzing Infographics

Using Visual Rhetoric: Photographs, Maps, Tables, and Graphs

Matthew P. Rabbitt, Madeline Reed-Jones, Laura J. Hales, Michael P. Burke, Household Food Security in the United States in 2023

Chapter 11: From Introductions to Conclusions: Drafting an Essay

Drafting Introductions

Developing Paragraphs

Elizabeth Martínez, From Reinventing “America”: Call for a New National Identity

Drafting Conclusions

Analyzing Strategies for Writing: From Introduction to Conclusions

Barbara Ehrenreich, Cultural Baggage

Chapter 12: From Revising to Editing: Working with Peer Groups

Revising versus Editing

The Peer Editing Process

Peer Groups in Action: A Sample Session

An Annotated Student Draft

Working with Early Drafts

Working with Later Drafts

Working with Final Drafts

Further Suggestions for Peer Editing Groups

Chapter 13: Other Methods of Inquiry: Interviews And Focus Groups

Why Do Original Research?

Getting Started: Writing an Idea Sheet

Writing a Proposal

An Annotated Student Proposal

Interviewing

Using Focus Groups

PART 2: ENTERING THE CONVERSATION OF IDEAS

Chapter 14: Education: What Does it Mean to be Educated? What is the Future Of Education, and How Might This Affect Every Part of Our Lives?

Alfie Kohn, Why Can’t Everyone Get A’s?

Joshua Rothman, What Does It Really Mean to Learn?

Laura Dumin, The Funneling Down of Language

Ida Harris, Code-Switching Is Not Trying to Fit in to White Culture, It’s Surviving It

Mónica Guzmán: Changing Minds

Chapter 15: Sociology: How Does Studying Human Social Behaviors Help Us Understand Ourselves and the World?

Robin DiAngelo, The Perception of Race

Tressie McMillan Cottom, The Hustle Economy

Matthew Desmond, America Is in a Disgraced Class of Its Own

bell hooks, Understanding Patriarchy

Afshan Jafar, The Lasting Impact of a First Impression

Chapter 16: Psychology: How Does Our Rapidly Changing Technology-Saturated Environment Affect The Way We Think, Feel, And Behave?

Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Griffin Riggs and Terry David Church, Beyond Juul, The New Face of Underage Nicotine Addiction

Max Fisher, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World

Johann Hari, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again

Kimberly Quinn, Fitting In’ versus ‘Belonging’ on College Campuses

Chapter 17: Sustainability: How Does Our Decisions Affect Our Environment?

Andrew J. Hoffman, The Full Scope

Robert Gifford, The Dragons of Inaction: Psychological Barriers That Limit Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry

Alison J. Head, How College Students Respond to Climate Change in Troubled Times

Sophia Chen, How Much Energy Will AI Really Consume? The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown

Paul Hond, How Do We Change the Way We Eat?

Chapter 18: Artificial Intelligence: How Can We Effectively Navigate the Risks and Opportunities of Generative AI?

Erin Peterson, College in the Age of AI

Kevin Roose, Resist Machine Drift

Susan Schneider, The Problem of AI Consciousness

Ted Chiang, Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art

Adriene Williams, Milagros Miceli, and Timnit Gebru, The Exploited Labor Behind Artificial Intelligence