In-text citation

When you give credit to others, your work is strengthened!

The author states, “One of the most stabbing things in this war is seeing the lines of empty motor ambulances going up to bring down the wrecks who at this moment are sound and fit”

Figure 7.2  Some Sample Signal Verbs

Effective paraphrasing

paraphrase

Never quote a paragraph when a sentence will do; never quote a sentence when a phrase will do; never quote a phrase when a word will do.

Finally, if you cannot reword the information yourself and retain its meaning, you should quote it.

A quotation is made up of exact words from the source, and you must be careful to let your reader know that these words were not originally yours.

intermediate conclusion

main conclusion

antithesis

relevant

If you wish to assert a claim, you must then also support it, and this support must be relevant, logical, and sufficient.

conclusion indicators

premise indicator

declarative sentence

Littering is harmful.

counterarguments

warrant

What do you want me to do or think? Why should I do or think that? How do I know that what you say is true? Why should I accept the reasons that support your claim? What about this other idea, fact, or consideration? How should you present your argument?

Implicit arguments

Explicit arguments

Facts

arguable

conclusion

premises

topic sentence

thesis

be prepared for your college professors to have a much broader view of argument than a mere fight over a controversial topic or two

What if we think of argument as an opportunity to connect with the points of view of others rather than defeating those points of view

writing must have the following qualities: It has to defend a position in a debate between two or more opposing sides, it must be on a controversial topic, and the goal of such writing must be to prove the correctness of one point of view over another.

academic argument

rhetorical argument

Kairos

logical appeal

pathetic appeal

ethical appeal

rhetorical situation

logos

pathos

ethos

Rhetorical Triangle

rhetorical analysis

rhetoric

Wikipedia

Title Introduction (which give context, background, and introduces the writer’s main idea) Topic sentences of body paragraphs Conclusion (which often completes or clarifies the writer’s thesis or solution) Bold or italicized terms

What ideas/passages did you find most/least interesting? What did you learn from the reading that you did not know before? Did the author succeed in changing your view on the topic?  Why or why not? What elements of the text did you connect with the most? What problems do you have with the text?

As you read, stop occasionally to answer these questions on paper or in your head. Use them to identify sections you may need to reread, read more carefully, or ask your instructor about later. Even when a text does not have built-in comprehension features, you can actively monitor your own comprehension.

You can sometimes determine the meaning of a word by looking within the word (at its root, prefix, or suffix) or around the word (at the clues given in the sentence or paragraph in which the word appears). If you are unable to determine the meaning of word in context, you may look up the definition.

What is Hrabowski’s view on the purpose of college?   Perhaps, your professor is preparing you to write an argument essay and would like students to see how other authors have crafted their arguments.  In that case, a good question might be, How does Hrabowski introduce other people’s views on this topic and how can that help me in my own writing?

It refers to analyzing and understanding the overall composition of the writing as well as how the writing has achieved its effect on the audience.

Maintain a controlling purpose for research and writing that emerges from a clearly-defined research question. 5) Locate, evaluate, and integrate appropriate sources accurately and fairly through paraphrase and direct quotation. 6) Critically engage sources through interpretation, analysis, and/or critique in service of developing and supporting logical, well-defined claims.

you will not only improve your comprehension of college-level texts, but also improve your writing by learning about the choices other writers have make to communicate their ideas.

Throughout the chapter, you will find links to samples, examples, and materials you may use.

annotate

it helps to focus on the operations–on action words like “reflect,” “analyze,” and “compose.

you will be more likely to transfer your learning and find similarities across assignments that help you to be more prepared and more confident.

As a successful college reader, you will need to adjust your use of reading strategies depending on the difficulty of the text and your purpose for reading it.

metacognition is an awareness of your own learning, thinking, and comprehension

Be a responsible researcher.

Have conversations with your sources.

At the same time, be open to a variety of perspectives.

Consider your intentions.

In this course, you’ll be working with a variety of sources. Sources come in many forms. Many sources are text based– articles, interviews, and the like–while others rely on visual communication (photos, graphics, etc.).

However, spending time working through difficult texts will actually help you process and understand those texts when you have the right set of tools—questions that help you analyze and take that text apart, for example, will help you make the time you spend on your homework more meaningful and useful!

it’s perfectly normal to feel stuck or confused from time to time.

empowered

And the “bad” news? Well, sometimes you might come across assignments that aren’t so clear-cut

We’ll present detailed assignments with what we believe to be clear and detailed instructions

Well: we have some good news and some “bad” news:

It may be a bummer that we can’t teach you the “rules” of “good” writing.

Russell basically points out that if you’re good at one kind of sport (say football), you have certain “ball-handling” skills that likely make you so good at that sport. But if you were to try to apply those same skills to a game of ping-pong or golf, you’re not likely to be as successful, right?

Many students have told us that learning to be more intentional and savvy researchers has changed the way they retrieve and process information in their classes and when they’re doing their own, personal, research.

So how will this course benefit you? We think it will help you in all of your classes and in many other facets of your life: personal and professional, as well as academic.

metacognitive (self-aware) and active learner, a great place to start is to break down these objectives and reconsider them in your own language.

start to think about what these objectives actually mean to you so you know what to expect and so you’re prepared to be actively involved in the different activities in the course.

 Learning Objectives for College Composition

Structure, grammar, and mechanics

Multimodality

Genre

Academic writing conventions

Argument

Rhetoric

Information literacy

The writing process

The reading process

In this course, you will thus learn to form questions and to use those questions to drive your research, your writing, and ultimately, what you contribute to the conversations taking place among people currently doing research around the areas you’re interested in.

Critical Inquiry thus begins with questions, it examines, engages, and evaluates others’ responses to those questions, and it results in the writer putting forward a provisional but informed response to his/her/their original research questions.

The shortest possible answer to those questions: critical inquiry.

n a nutshell, you are here to learn how to use the writing process to create knowledge and perspective that is useful to you and others.   

In a sense, it is less accurate to say that nobody majors in College Composition and more accurate to say that everyone does.

The second (and more important) reason that you are here has to do with what makes writing such an energy-consuming task in the first place:

But for those of you math types—who see numbers as truth and the words that surround them as fluffy stuff—it can be a bit tougher to see how the ability to write well is necessary for you to succeed in your courses.

“Hey, I have some College Composition work I need done. Do you know anybody who does a good job and won’t overcharge me?”

But with writing, there is no clear path–no prescription telling you exactly what to say or how to say it. Instead, you have to wrestle with the material, and you have to push yourself to think thoughts that nobody has ever thought before.