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.

This title is a comprehensive volume that focuses on genre study through inquiry-based learning with an emphasis on reading comprehension and the craft of writing. In exploring genre study, Fountas and Pinnell advocate a way of thinking and learning where students are actively engaged in the thinking process.

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.

This fascinating exploration of children's inquiry -- what it is, how it develops, and how it contributes to children's learning -- will help teacher educators and elementary teachers to understand, appreciate, and foster children's inquiry in classrooms. In this volume. Lindfors introduces a theoretical framework for understanding children's inquiry language -- not as linguistic forms (questions), but as communication acts in which the child brings another into the act of sense-making.

GENRE: AN INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY, THEORY, RESEARCH, AND PEDAGOGY provides a critical overview of the rich body of scholarship that has informed a “genre turn” in Rhetoric and Composition, including a range of interdisciplinary perspectives from rhetorical theory, applied linguistics, sociology, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and literary theory.

Understanding Narrative Inquiry: The Crafting and Analysis of Stories as Research is a comprehensive, thought-provoking introduction to narrative inquiry in the social and human sciences that guides readers through the entire narrative inquiry process—from locating narrative inquiry in the interdisciplinary context, through the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings, to narrative research design, data collection (excavating stories), data analysis and interpretation, and theorizing narrative meaning. Six extracts from exemplary studies, together with questions for discussion, are provided to show how to put theory into practice. Rich in stories from author Jeong-Hee Kim’s own research endeavors and incorporating chapter-opening vignettes that illustrate a graduate student's research dilemma, the book not only accompanies readers through the complex process of narrative inquiry with ample examples, but also helps raise their consciousness about what it means to be a qualitative researcher and a narrative inquirer in particular.

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.

Offers advice to teachers on how to conduct writing workshops, providing a rationale for writing workshops, looking at what they have in common across grade levels, and discussing the tone of workshop teaching, getting started with independent writing time, curriculum, focus lessons, assessment and evaluation, and other topics.

McGregor presents a collection of ideas about how to launch genres, how to introduce your students to the personalities of each, and how to build a curiosity and appreciation for what each genre has to offer. Her lessons use everyday objects, works of art, music, and anchor charts to help readers get acquainted with seven commonly taught genres and to discover what makes them unique.

Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education offers detailed guidance to scholars at all stages-experienced and new academics, graduate students, and undergraduates-regarding how to write about learning and teaching in higher education. It evokes established practices, recommends new ones, and challenges readers to expand notions of scholarship by describing reasons for publishing across a range of genres, from the traditional empirical research article to modes such as stories and social media that are newly recognized in scholarly arenas. The book provides practical guidance for scholars in writing each genre-and in getting them published. To illustrate how choices about writing play out in practice, we share throughout the book our own experiences as well as reflections from a range of scholars, including both highly experienced, widely published experts and newcomers to writing about learning and teaching in higher education. The diversity of voices we include is intended to complement the variety of genres we discuss, enacting as well as arguing for an embrace of multiplicity in writing about learning and teaching in higher education.