Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students

by David Starkey

Overview

This is a book for real students, people with full and active lives. Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students covers the basics of the introductory college writing course in a concise, student-friendly format. Each chapter concentrates on a crucial element of composing an academic essay and is capable of being read in a single sitting. The book also includes numerous “timesaver tips,” along with warnings about frequent student errors—all designed to help students make the most of one of their most limited and precious resources: time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2901554812492
Publisher:	Broadview Press
Publication date:	06/15/2015
Edition description:	Brief
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

David Starkey is Professor of English at Santa Barbara City College, where he currently is Director of both Composition and Creative Writing. He is editor of Teaching Writing Creatively and Genre By Example: Writing What We Teach and author of Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief, one of the best-selling introductory creative-writing textbooks in North America.

Table of Contents

Preface for Instructors: Busy, Busy, Busy

Introduction for Students: Strategies for Succeeding as a College Writer

Part One: Ready, Set…

CHAPTER 1. Academic Writing: An Overview

• Why Write?
  Writing as Inquiry and Process
  High-School vs. University English
  What Do Professors Really Want?
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 2. Academic Reading

• Effective Reading Habits
  Annotation
  Double-Entry Journal
  Analysis
  Summary
  Reverse Outline
  Paraphrase
  Quotations
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 3. Ideas into Text

• Getting Started
  Lightning Research
  Invention
  The Three Appeals
  Discussion
  Sooner Rather than Later
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 4. Arguments and Organization

• Thesis Statements
  Outlines
  Considering Other Perspectives
  Topic Sentences
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 5. Researching Your Topic

• The CARS Checklist
  Library Databases
  Books
  Internet Sources
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

Part Two: Go

CHAPTER 6. Introduction: Hooking Your Reader

• Opening Sentences
  Topic Overview
  Ending with Your Thesis
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 7. Body Paragraphs: And I Ought to Keep Reading Because?

• Paragraph Structure
  Transitions
  Expert Opinions and Concrete Evidence
  Quotations
  Interviews and Surveys
  Narrative and Description
  Multimodal Moves
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 8. Conclusion: Wait…Don’t Stop

• Conclusion Dos and Don’ts
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

Part Three: Go Again

CHAPTER 9. Taking Another Look

• Revision
  Editing
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

CHAPTER 10. Handing It Over

• Design and Presentation
  Proofreading
  Titles
  Caroline’s Revision
  Knowing When to Stop
• Questions and Suggestions FOR You
  Questions and Suggestions FROM You

APPENDIX I: Genres of Academic Writing

• Analyzing a Text
  Arguing a Position
  Proposing a Solution
  Making an Evaluation

APPENDIX II: A Brief Guide to Documentation

• Citing Your Sources
  Sample Citations

Permissions Acknowledgements
Index

Editorial Reviews

Academic Writing Now is easily among the most approachable, comprehensive, and well-organized instructional writing compendiums I’ve seen. Everything a teacher could want from such a guide, including sample essays, in-text tips, visual aids, skill-building activities, and intriguing subject matter, is here. But the most distinctive accomplishment is Starkey’s refreshing tone; he strikes a unique balance between authoritative delivery and conversational empathy. Writing students need a text that understands their familiarities, expectations, and even trepidations while encouraging scholarly excellence. Academic Writing Now manages all of this wonderfully.

Jordan Blum Gwynedd Mercy University

David Starkey’s Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students is a great resource for first-year writing students and faculty who want to move swiftly through essential concepts in order to get down to the brass tacks of the academic essay. Starkey not only invites student readers through conversation, efficiency, and practical wisdom, but also targets key areas that writing instructors repeatedly discuss in hopes that students will internalize writing as a process and begin to reflect upon their writing in a metacognitive way.

Calley Hornbuckle Columbia College

David Starkey delivers clear, ordered advice in a voice so familiar and colloquial that anyone’s anxiety about this often rigid, academic subject will start to calm. He moves seamlessly between examples ranging from everyday experience to the highest levels of great writing, and what I like best is that underneath it all he encourages students to keep creativity and poetic insight alive even as they tackle the challenge of writing rigorous, scholarly papers.

Richard Guzman North Central College

David Starkey delivers clear, ordered advice in a voice so familiar and colloquial that anyone’s anxiety about this often rigid, academic subject will start to calm. He moves seamlessly between examples ranging from everyday experience to the highest levels of great writing, and what I like best is that underneath it all he encourages students to keep creativity and poetic insight alive even as they tackle the challenge of writing rigorous, scholarly papers.” — Richard Guzman, North Central College

“David Starkey’s Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students is a great resource for first-year writing students and faculty who want to move swiftly through essential concepts in order to get down to the brass tacks of the academic essay. Starkey not only invites student readers through conversation, efficiency, and practical wisdom, but he also targets key areas that writing instructors repeatedly discuss in hopes that students will internalize writing as a process and begin to reflect upon their writing in a metacognitive way.” — Calley Hornbuckle, Columbia College

“Academic Writing Now is easily among the most approachable, comprehensive, and well-organized instructional writing compendiums I’ve ever seen. Everything a teacher could want from such a guide, including sample essays, in-text tips, visual aids, skill-building activities, and intriguing subject matter, is here. But the most distinctive accomplishment here is Starkey’s refreshing tone; he strikes a unique balance between authoritative delivery and conversational empathy. Writing students need a text that understands their familiarities, expectations, and even trepidations while encouraging scholarly excellence. Academic Writing Now manages all of this wonderfully.” — Jordan Blum, Gwynedd Mercy University

“My students praised (openly and in class!) David Starkey’s book, Academic Writing Now. His friendly tone and straightforward manner toward academic writing made a subject that most of my students found daunting and impenetrable (at first) accessible and engaging. Chapters were informative, complete, yet digestible—they read the book and used it throughout their writing and research. It’s an affordable and useful resource that I recommend to any teacher of first-year college writing.” — Todd Aldridge, Auburn University

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