Listed below are a few general books on writing pedagogy--there are many more in the catalog. This section also includes works that consider writing and pedagogy from a more philosophical perspective, sometimes without obvious practical application.
Agents of Integration by
The question of how students transfer knowledge is an important one, as it addresses the larger issue of the educational experience. In Agents of Integration: Understanding Transfer as a Rhetorical Act, Rebecca S. Nowacek explores, through a series of case studies, the issue of transfer by asking what in an educational setting engages students to become "agents of integration"-- individuals actively working to perceive, as well as to convey effectively to others, the connections they make. While many studies of transfer are longitudinal, with data collected over several years, Nowacek's is synchronous, a rich cross-section of the writing and classroom discussions produced by a team-taught learning community--three professors and eighteen students enrolled in a one-semester general education interdisciplinary humanities seminar that consisted of three linked courses in history, literature, and religious studies. With extensive field notes, carefully selected student and teacher self-reports in the form of interviews and focus groups, and thorough examinations of recorded classroom discussions, student papers with professor comments, and student notebooks, Nowacek presents a nuanced and engaging analysis that outlines how transfer is not simply a cognitive act but a rhetorical one that involves both seeing connections and presenting them to the instructors who are institutionally positioned to recognize and value them. Considering the challenges facing instructors teaching for transfer and the transfer of writing-related knowledge, Nowacek develops and outlines a new theoretical framework and methodological model of transfer and illustrates the practical implications through case studies and other classroom examples. She proposes transfer is best understood as an act of recontextualization, and she builds on this premise throughout the book by drawing from previous work in cognitive psychology, activity theory, and rhetorical genre theory, as well as her own analyses of student work. This focused examination complements existing longitudinal studies and will help readers better understand not only the opportunities and challenges confronting students as they work to become agents of integration but also the challenges facing instructors as they seek to support that student work.
Assembling Composition by
I. In Theory -- 1. Assembling Composition: An Introduction / Kathleen Blake Yancey and Stephen J. McElroy -- 2. Big-Data Assemblies: Composing's Nonhuman Ecology / Alex Reid -- 3. They Eat Horses, Don't They? / Jeff Rice -- 4. Beyond the Object to the Making of the Object: Understanding the Process of Multimodal Composition as Assemblage / James Kalmbach.
II. In the Classroom/On Campus -- 5. Assemblage Composing, Reconsidered / Michael J. Michaud -- 6. Copy, Combine, Transform: Assemblage in First-Year Composition / Stephen J. McElroy and Travis Maynard -- 7. ePortfolio Artifacts as Graduate Student Multimodal Identity Assemblages / Kristine L. Blair.
III. In the World -- 8. To Gather, Assemble, and Display: Composition as [Re]Collection / Jody Shipka -- 9. Assemblages of Asbury Park: The Persistent Legacy of the Large-Letter Postcard / Stephen J. McElroy -- 10. Multimodal Assemblage, Compositions, and Composing: The Corresponding Cases of Emigrant Cemetery Tombstones and ''A Line for Wendy" / Kathleen Blake Yancey -- 11. An Ethics of Assemblage: Creative Repetition and the "Electric Pow Wow" / Kristin L. Arola and Adam Arola -- 12. Conclusion: Reterritorialization / Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber.
The Changing of Knowledge in Composition by
Lance Massey and Richard Gebhardt offer in this collection many signs that composition again faces a moment of precariousness, even as it did in the 1980s--the years of the great divorce from literary studies. The contours of writing in the university again are rapidly changing, making the objects of scholarship in composition again unstable. Composition is poised to move not from modern to postmodern but from process to postprocess, from a service-oriented "field" to a research-driven "discipline." Some would say we are already there. Momentum is building to replace "composition" and the pedagogical imperative long implied in that term with a "writing studies" model devoted to the study of composition as a fundamental tool of, and force within, all areas of human activity. Appropriately, contributors here use Stephen M. North's 1987 book The Making of Knowledge in Composition to frame and background their discussion, as they look at both the present state of the field and its potential futures. As in North's volume, The Changing of Knowledge in Composition describes a body of research and pedagogy brimming with conflicting claims, methodologies, and politics, and with little consensus regarding the proper subjects and modes of inquiry. The deep ambivalence within the field itself is evident in this collection. Contributors here envision composition both as retaining its commitment to broad-based, generalized writing instruction and as heading toward content-based vertical writing programs in departments and programs of writing studies. They both challenge and affirm composition's pedagogical heritage. And they sound both sanguine and pessimistic notes about composition's future.
Cross-Talk in Comp Theory by
Contains a thoughtful set of essays on the process of writing and teaching about writing from a variety of perspectives and contexts. This is the 3rd edition of this book; the library owns the 2nd edition (published in 2003) as well. The 3rd includes not only additional chapters but deletions as well.
Effective Learning and Teaching of Writing by
Effective Learning and Teaching of Writing is a handbook on research on the effective teaching and learning of writing. It is a reference for researchers and educators in the domain of written composition in education. Effective Learning and Teaching of Writing covers all age ranges and school settings and it deals with various aspects of writing and text types. Research methodology varies from experimental studies to reflective classroom practitioners' research. This new volume in the series Studies in Writing brings together researchers from all kinds of disciplines involved in writing research and countries in their endeavour to improve the teaching of written composition. It is the result of co-operation of researchers all over the world and shows that in spite of the differences in educational regions over the world, research in writing shares similar problems, and tries to find answers, and generate new questions. The body of knowledge in this volume will inspire researchers and teachers to improve research and practice.
Engaging Ideas by
Learn to design interest-provoking writing and critical thinking activities and incorporate them into your courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate, with Engaging Ideas, a practical nuts-and-bolts guide for teachers from any discipline. Integrating critical thinking with writing-across-the-curriculum approaches, the book shows how teachers from any discipline can incorporate these activities into their courses. This edition features new material dealing with genre and discourse community theory, quantitative/scientific literacy, blended and online learning, and other current issues.
Exploring Composition Studies by
Kelly Ritter and Paul Kei Matsuda have created an essential introduction to the field of composition studies for graduate students and instructors new to the study of writing. The book offers a careful exploration of this diverse field, focusing specifically on scholarship of writing and composing. Within this territory, the authors draw the boundaries broadly, to include allied sites of research such as professional and technical writing, writing across the curriculum programs, writing centers, and writing program administration. Importantly, they represent composition as a dynamic, eclectic field, influenced by factors both within the academy and without. The editors and their sixteen seasoned contributors have created a comprehensive and thoughtful exploration of composition studies as it stands in the early twenty-first century. Given the rapid growth of this field and the evolution of it research and pedagogical agendas over even the last ten years, this multi-vocal introduction is long overdue.
A New Writing Classroom by
In A New Writing Classroom, Patrick Sullivan provides a new generation of teachers a means and a rationale to reconceive their approach to teaching writing, calling into question the discipline's dependence on argument. Including secondary writing teachers within his purview, Sullivan advocates a more diverse, exploratory, and flexible approach to writing activities in grades six through thirteen. A New Writing Classroom encourages teachers to pay more attention to research in learning theory, transfer of learning, international models for nurturing excellence in the classroom, and recent work in listening to teach students the sort of dialogic stance that leads to higher-order thinking and more sophisticated communication. The conventional argumentative essay is often a simplistic form of argument, widely believed to be the most appropriate type of writing in English classes, but other kinds of writing may be more valuable to students and offer more important kinds of cognitive challenges. Focusing on listening and dispositions or "habits of mind” as central elements of this new composition pedagogy, A New Writing Classroom draws not just on composition studies but also on cognitive psychology, philosophy, learning theory, literature, and history, making an exciting and significant contribution to the field.nbsp;
Refiguring Prose Style by
For about two decades, say Johnson and Pace, the discussion of how to address prose style in teaching college writing has been stuck, with style standing in as a proxy for other stakes in the theory wars. The traditional argument is evidently still quite persuasive to some--that teaching style is mostly a matter of teaching generic conventions through repetition and practice. Such a position usually presumes the traditional view of composition as essentially a service course, one without content of its own. On the other side, the shortcomings of this argument have been much discussed--that it neglects invention, revision, context, meaning, even truth; that it is not congruent with research; that it ignores 100 years of scholarship establishing composition's intellectual territory beyond "service." The discussion is stuck there, and all sides have been giving it a rest in recent scholarship. Yet style remains of vital practical interest to the field, because everyone has to teach it one way or another. A consequence of the impasse is that a theory of style itself has not been well articulated. Johnson and Pace suggest that moving the field toward a better consensus will require establishing style as a clearer subject of inquiry. Accordingly, this collection takes up a comprehensive study of the subject. Part I explores the recent history of composition studies, the ways it has figured and all but effaced the whole question of prose style. Part II takes to heart Elbow's suggestion that composition and literature, particularly as conceptualized in the context of creative writing courses, have something to learn from each other. Part III sketches practical classroom procedures for heightening students' abilities to engage style, and part IV explores new theoretical frameworks for defining this vital and much neglected territory. The hope of the essays here--focusing as they do on historical, aesthetic, practical, and theoretical issues--is to awaken composition studies to the possibilities of style, and, in turn, to rejuvenate a great many classrooms.
Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs by
From scholars working in a variety of institutional and geographic contexts and with a wide range of student populations, Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs offers perspectives on how writing programs can support or hinder students' transitions to college. The contributors present individual and program case studies, student surveys, a wealth of institutional retention data, and critical policy analysis. Rates of student retention in higher education are a widely acknowledged problem: although approximately 66 percent of high school graduates begin college, of those who attend public four-year institutions, only about 80 percent return the following year, with 58 percent graduating within six years. At public two-year institutions, only 60 percent of students return, and fewer than a third graduate within three years. Less commonly known is the crucial effect of writing courses on these statistics. First-year writing is a course that virtually all students have to take; thus, writing programs are well-positioned to contribute to larger institutional conversations regarding retention and persistence and should offer themselves as much-needed sites for advocacy, research, and curricular innovation. Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs is a timely resource for writing program administrators as well as for new writing teachers, advisors, administrators, and state boards of education. Contributors: Matthew Bridgewater, ?Cristine Busser, Beth Buyserie, Polina Chemishanova, ?Michael Day, ?Bruce Feinstein, ?Patricia Freitag Ericsson, ?Nathan Garrett, ?Joanne Baird Giordano, ?Tawanda Gipson, ?Sarah E. Harris, Mark Hartlaub, ?Holly Hassel, ?Jennifer Heinert, ?Ashley J. Holmes, ?Rita Malenczyk, ?Christopher P. Parker, ?Cassandra Phillips, ?Anna Plemons, ?Pegeen Reichert Powell, ?Marc Scott, Robin Snead, ?Sarah Elizabeth Snyder, ?Sara Webb-Sunderhaus, ?Susan Wolff Murphy
Teaching Composition by
Addressing the concerns of both first-year and veteran writing instructors, this collection includes 30 professional readings on composition and rhetoric written by leaders in the field, accompanied by helpful introductions and activities for the classroom. The new edition offers up-to-date advice on helping students avoid plagiarism, improving online instruction, blogging, and more.
Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition by
Best known for his books We Have Never Been Modern, Laboratory Life, and Science in Action, Bruno Latour has inspired scholarship across many disciplines. In the past few years, the fields of rhetoric and composition have witnessed an explosion of interest in Latour's work. Editors Paul Lynch and Nathaniel Rivers have assembled leading and emerging scholars in order to focus the debate on what Latour means for the study of persuasion and written communication. Essays in this volume discern, rearticulate, and occasionally critique rhetoric and composition's growing interest in Latour. These contributions include work on topics such as agency, argument, rhetorical history, pedagogy, and technology, among others. Contributors explain key terms, identify implications of Latour's work for rhetoric and composition, and explore how his theories might inform writing pedagogies and be used to build research methodologies. Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition shows how Latour's groundbreaking theories on technology, agency, and networks might be taken up, enriched, and extended to challenge scholars in rhetorical studies (both English and communications), composition, and writing studies to rethink some of the field's most basic assumptions. It is set to become the standard introduction that will appeal not only to those scholars already interested in Latour but also those approaching Latour for the first time.
Who Speaks for Writing by
Who Speaks for Writing confronts a range of current debates about stewardship in writing studies in the 21st century. In recent years, writing studies has become more and more institutionalized in departments, programs, and majors. Specializations within the discipline have proliferated as have moments of collaboration. These circumstances make an exploration and understanding of the stakes in this burgeoning field important. The authors represent a broad range of expertise and specialization in the field, and they seek to answer questions not only about the current ownership of writing studies but also about the theoretical and practical applications of this ownership. Their chapters offer new directions for composition theorists, teachers, and administrators for the 21st century.
Writing as a Learning Activity by
Writing as a learning activity offers an account of the potentials of writing as a powerful tool for facilitating learning and making it more profound and productive in a variety of disciplines and collaborative contexts at different school levels.
Writing Theory and Critical Theory by
Writing Theory and Critical Theory discusses the growing body of work linking composition studies and literary studies. Enlisting the strategies of deconstruction, hermeneutics, postmodernism, feminism, neo-Marxism, neopragmatism, psychoanalysis, reader-response criticism, and cultural studies, the twenty-seven contributors investigate the resources that critical theory can bring to an examination of discourse. Composition teachers, critical theorists, and writing program administrators will find this collection a provocative and insightful overview of the field of composition studies.
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