Mike Bunn’s Writing Spaces chapter “How to Read Like a Writer” introduces students to the concept that texts are the product of writers’ choices and can be studied as models for students’ own writing; its inclusion of questions students can apply to texts they read helps students learn how to read rhetorically

The emphasis on content-based readings that resemble literary analysis is a product of instructors’ own familiarity with literary analysis, as those teaching writing are often former English majors who tend to be more well-versed in literary critiques (in which the emphasis is on what is written in a fictional text) than in rhetorical analysis (in which the emphasis is on the choices the writer made in attempting to achieve a particular purpose and how those choices influence the ways various audiences respond to the text).

As teachers understandably grew fearful about losing their jobs because of low test scores, they devoted class time to preparing students for the tests rather than developing practices that would have helped students improve as readers and writers. Standardized tests often rely on multiple-choice responses that neither allow for complexity of thought nor invite students to draw connections between the text under consideration and their own experiences.