The first composition text to present in-depth primary and secondary research methods, disciplinary readings and writing instruction to facilitate authentic investigations. Composing Inquiry is a reader/rhetoric that takes seriously the call to engage undergraduates in intellectual work. All of the readings included here serve to illustrate methods of research and investigation used in various academic disciplines, and all inspire similar projects that can be done by undergraduate students as they learn to work on their writing. Unlike traditional readers, Composing Inquiry also includes chapters meant to help students understand methods of inquiry commonly used by scholars to collect data or test theories. These method chapters can be used in conjunction with the readings or independently, depending on the program/course goals or the preferences of individual teachers.

In the age of Buzzfeeds, hashtags, and Tweets, students are increasingly favoring conversational writing and regarding academic writing as less pertinent in their personal lives, education, and future careers. Writing and Literature: Composition as Inquiry, Learning, Thinking and Communication connects students with works and exercises and promotes student learning that is kairotic and constructive. Dr. Tanya Long Bennett, professor of English at the University of North Georgia, poses questions that encourage active rather than passive learning. Furthering ideas presented in Contribute a Verse: A Guide to First-Year Composition as a complimentary companion, Writing and Literature builds a new conversation covering various genres of literature and writing. Students learn the various writing styles appropriate for analyzing, addressing, and critiquing these genres including poetry, novels, dramas, and research writing. The text and its pairing of helpful visual aids throughout emphasizes the importance of critical reading and analysis in producing a successful composition. Writing and Literature is a refreshing textbook that links learning, literature, and life.

Author Thomas McCann invites readers to rethink their approach to teaching writing by capitalizing on students’ instinctive desire to talk. Drawing on extensive classroom research, he shows teachers how to craft class discussions that build students’ skills of analysis, problem-solving, and argumentation as a means of improving student writing. McCann demonstrates how authentic discussions immerse learners in practices that become important when they write. Chapters feature portraits of teachers at work, including transcripts that reveal patterns of talk across a set of lessons. Interviews with the teachers and samples of student writing afford readers a deeper understanding of process. Students also report on how classroom discussions supported their effort to produce persuasive, argument-driven essays. Book Features: A focus on “the thinking behind the practice,” as opposed to a collection of lesson ideas. Connections to important elements from the Common Core State Standards, especially arguments writing. Examples of students at work with examples of the writing that emerges from their discussions. Portraits of skilled teachers as they promote inquiry and sequence and facilitate discussions. Appendices with problem-based scenarios, interview questions for students and teachers, samples of debatable cases in the news, and more. “In this important book, Tom McCann has given us not only the admonition to change, but the details about what effective change must be and what it looks like, evidence that it works effectively, and details about how to bring it to pass.” —From the Foreword by George Hillocks, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Department of English, University of Chicago. “For a professional book to have an impact on the field, it needs to address a perceived need. Writing arguments for Common Core performance assessments is a HUGE need right now that this book helps address.” —Carol Jago, associate director, California Reading and Literature Project, UCLA.

Explains academic writing as a clear, step-by-step process that one can use in any college course.

Demystifies academic reading and writing, step by step. From Inquiry to Academic Writing helps students understand academic culture and its ways of reading, thinking, and writing. With a practical and now widely proven step-by-step approach, the text demystifies cross-curricular thinking and writing. An extensive thematic reader brings students into interdisciplinary debates that not only bear on their college careers but also reflect larger cultural issues that they will encounter outside the academy. The fourth edition provides extensive coverage of academic habits and skills (reflection, summarization, synthesis, and visual analysis) and features more than 40% new readings grouped by interdisciplinary themes.--Publisher website.

Around the Texts of Writing Center Work reveals the conceptual frameworks found in and created by ordinary writing center documents. The values and beliefs underlying course syllabi, policy statements, website copy and comments, assessment plans, promotional flyers, and annual reports critically inform writing center practices, including the vital undertaking of tutor education. In each chapter, author R. Mark Hall focuses on a particular document. He examines its origins, its use by writing center instructors and tutors, and its engagement with enduring disciplinary challenges in the field of composition, such as tutoring and program assessment. He then analyzes each document in the contexts of the conceptual framework at the heart of its creation and everyday application: activity theory, communities of practice, discourse analysis, reflective practice, and inquiry-based learning. Around the Texts of Writing Center Work approaches the analysis of writing center documents with an inquiry stance—a call for curiosity and skepticism toward existing and proposed conceptual frameworks—in the hope that the theoretically conscious evaluation and revision of commonplace documents will lead to greater efficacy and more abundant research by writing center administrators and students.

Composing Research, Communicating Results: Writing the Communication Research Paper provides communication students with the knowledge and necessary tools to compose a variety of course-required papers that are scholarly, accessible, and well-written. The first work of its kind to take students from brainstorming to outlining to sentence and paragraph construction to paper presentation, drawing on student-written examples Easy-to-understand explanations of passive voice, point of view, commonly accepted citation styles, and more, with current and relatable student-written examples Covers common writing assignments in communication and related courses, including the literature review, application paper, and empirical research paper Four pedagogical features enhance comprehension and support learning: “Write Away” quick exercises, integratable “Building Blocks” assignments, “Engaging Ethics” tips, and “Student Spotlight” examples

In a climate of increasing emphasis on testing, measurable outcomes, competition and efficiency, the real lives of children and their teachers are often neglected or are too messy and intricate to legislate and quantify. As such, curricula are designed without including the very people that compose the identities of schools. Here Clandinin takes issue with this tendency, bringing together a collection of narratives from seven writers who spent a year in an urban school, exploring the experiences and contributions of children, families, teachers and administrators. These stories show us an alternative way of attending to what counts in schools, shifting away from the school as a business model towards an idea of schools as places to engage citizenship and to attend to the wholeness of people’s lives. Articulating the complex ethical dilemmas and issues that face people and schools every day, this fascinating study puts school life under the microscope raises new questions about who and what education is for.

Writing is one of the few skills that cuts across all professions, disciplines, and situations. One cannot get through school without writing essays; one cannot keep in touch with relatives without writing letters; one cannot succeed in the business world without writing reports and memos; and one cannot win an election without writing a persuasive speech. Writing is not a skill reserved for novelists and journalists, but an indispensable tool for success in every endeavor. This book encourages readers to see writing as a method of learning about challenging subjects and issues. Central to this book is the Inquiry Contract, which provides a unique, easy-to-follow structure showing readers how to use writing to learn and enabling them to develop their own inquiry and research programs. With a focus on inquiry and genre, the book shows readers different kinds of writing that they can produce in a variety of professional and academic settings. Inquiry and Genre encourages readers to write in a variety of genres, covering not only the theme and essay but also public genres like editorial columns, letters, and brochures. Through the Inquiry Contract's sequence of five writing projects, each one leading to the next, this book guides readers to develop their ideas and knowledge and produce thorough, complete documents. Instructors of writing, writers, professionals in any field, and anyone interested in improving their basic writing skills.

Guiding students through the research process and helping them build the skills they need for effective research, Academic Research and Writing: Inquiry and Argument in College presents a highly accessible look at the complex issues that typically come up in reading and constructing research projects. Academic Research and Writing: Inquiry and Argument in College shows students that research is important beyond the classroom and is a necessary component in any career. Beginning with coverage of skills and techniques, this comprehensive text then moves into specific kinds of academic research tasks, showing the generic features and constraints of academic writing. The main issues necessary for understanding how to read and construct research projects are discussed, including plagiarism, copyright and patents, conventions used by different discourse communities, and how writers use sources in different ways. The result is that students are drawn into the thinking process involved in research.