The Writer's Way / Edition 8

by Jack Rawlins, Stephen Metzger

Overview

Recognizing that people learn best by doing and writers learn best when inspired by compelling reasons to write this process-centered paperback rhetoric with readings provides strong examples and immediate personal rewards. With frank advice offered in a supportive, encouraging tone, this text leads students through the writing process, from pre-writing to polishing the final draft.

Students will appreciate the focus on personal motivation and detailed help on overcoming writers' most common problems. The text's flexible organization permits a variety of teaching emphases, from invention, arrangement, and style to modes of writing.

• The book illustrates all its principles with student essays 52 complete essays, plus many excerpts providing achievable models for student writers as well as realistic opportunities for editing.
• A Writer's Workshop at the end of many chapters shows student writing in progress and discusses practical writing issues.
• A section on academic writing provides general advice along with discussion of various types of academic writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780495911449
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jack P. Rawlins (Ph.D., Yale University) is Professor of English at the California State University in Chico, where he has taught courses in composition, language education, linguistics, and literature. Writing in the areas of composition pedagogy, Victorian literature, science fiction, and university governance, he has been published by the University of California Press, the Southern Illinois University Press, College English, Studies in English Literature, and Newsweek.


Stephen Metzger has written five guide books (for Avalon Travel Publishing and Globe Pequot Press) and has published articles and essays in a wide range of publications, including skiing, travel, in-flight, and health-and-fitness magazines, as well as the Sunday supplements of several major metropolitan newspapers. He has published poetry and fiction in national and international journals, won awards for his playwriting, and written (and performed in) stage adaptations of stories from James Joyce s DUBLINERS and chapters from ULYSSES. He also a writes a regular food column for a northern California newspaper. He teaches composition and creative writing in the English department at California State University, Chico, and has taught newswriting, magazine writing, and travel writing for the university s journalism department.

Table of Contents

Prologue. Part I: INTRODUCTION TO WRITING. 1. Learning to Write. 2. What Makes Writing Effective? 3. Writing in School: An Introduction. Part II: PLANNING AND DRAFTING. 4. Choosing Topics and Getting Started. 5. Thesis, Purpose, and Audience. 6. Style and Tone. 7. Organization: Mapping, Outlining, and Abstracting. Part III: REVISING AND EDITING. 8. The Spirit of Revising. 9. Beginning, Ending, and Titling. 10. Peer Feedback. 11. Editing. Part IV: FORMS OF WRITING: THREE KEY GENRES. 12. Personal Writing. 13. Writing to Inform. 14. Writing an Argument, Stage 1: Thinking Critically. 15. Writing an Argument, Stage 2: Selling the Case. Part V: ACADEMIC WRITING. 16. Research. 17. Using Sources. 18. The Academic Research Paper. Part VI: A COLLECTION OF GOOD WRITING.

Editorial Reviews

"The best book I've found for teaching authentic writing processes and developing independent writers."

"It provides excellent coverage of the main issues and concerns for students in their learning to write. It does so in a clear and personable way. It's a user-friendly text not cluttered by a lot of graphics and inserts or excessive content like so many comp texts."

From the Publisher