Raw Data from a Correlational StudyAnalyzing and Composing About College Writing 1 The Top Twenty: A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing 2 Expectations for College Writing 3 Oral and Multimedia Assignments student presentation 4 Design for College Writing The Writing Process 5 Writing Situations 6 Exploring Ideas 7 Planning and Drafting 8 Developing Paragraphs 9 Reviewing and Revising 10 Editing and Reflecting revised student draft student statement Critical Thinking and Argument 11 Critical Reading 12 Analyzing Arguments student analysis 13 Constructing Arguments student essay Research 14 Preparing for a Research Project 15 Doing Research 16 Evaluating Sources and Taking Notes 17 Integrating Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism 18 Writing a Research Project p ag es 161–213 p ag es 43 –111 p ag es 1– 42 p ag es 113 –160 QUICK ACCESS MENU Resources MLA Documentation 48 MLA Style for In-Text Citations 49 Explanatory and Bibliographic Notes 50 List of Works Cited 51 student essay, mla style APA, Chicago, and CSE Documentation 52 APA Style student essay, apa style 53 Chicago Style student essay, chicago style 54 CSE Style student proposal, cse style For Multilingual Writers 55 Writing in U.S. Academic Genres 56 Clauses and Sentences 57 Nouns and Noun Phrases 58 Verbs and Verb Phrases 59 Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases Writing in the Disciplines 60 Academic Work in Any Discipline 61 Writing for the Humanities student essay 62 Writing for the Social Sciences student report 63 Writing for the Natural and Applied Sciences student lab report 64 Writing for Business student documents p ag es 577 – 623 p ag es 477 – 545 p ag es 425 – 475 p ag es 547 – 576 Usage and Style Language 19 Writing to the World 20 Language That Builds Common Ground 21 Language Variety 22 Word Choice and Spelling 23 Glossary of Usage Sentence Style 24 Coordination, Subordination, and Emphasis 25 Consistency and Completeness 26 Parallelism 27 Shifts 28 Conciseness 29 Sentence Variety Sentence Grammar 30 Basic Grammar 31 Verbs 32 Subject-Verb Agreement 33 Pronouns 34 Adjectives and Adverbs 35 Modifier Placement 36 Comma Splices and Fused Sentences 37 Sentence Fragments Punctuation and Mechanics 38 Commas 39 Semicolons 40 End Punctuation 41 Apostrophes 42 Quotation Marks 43 Other Punctuation 44 Capital Letters 45 Abbreviations and Numbers 46 Italics 47 Hyphens p ag es 367 – 424 p ag es 253 –281 p ag es 215 –252 p ag es 283 – 365 Luns.EverywiEx4.1st page.110508.indd 1 11/12/08 5:45:54 PM This page intentionally left blank The EVERYDAY Writer With Exercises 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page i 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page ii this page left intentionally blank The EVERYDAY Writer With Exercises Fourth Edition BEDFORD / ST. MARTIN’S Boston ◆ New York Andrea A. Lunsford STANFORD UNIVERSITY A section for multilingual writers with Paul Kei Matsuda ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY Christine M. Tardy DEPAUL UNIVERSITY 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page iii For Bedford / St. Martin’s Senior Developmental Editor: Carolyn Lengel Senior Production Editor: Harold Chester Assistant Production Manager: Joe Ford Senior Marketing Manager: John Swanson Art Director: Lucy Krikorian Text Design: Anne Carter Copy Editor: Wendy Polhemus-Annibell Photo Research: Martha Friedman, Connie Gardner Cover Design: Donna Lee Dennison Cover Art and Illustrations: Eric Larsen Composition: Pre-Press PMG Printing and Binding: Quebecor World Taunton President: Joan E. Feinberg Editorial Director: Denise B. Wydra Editor in Chief: Karen S. Henry Director of Development: Erica T. Appel Director of Marketing: Karen R. Soeltz Director of Editing, Design, and Production: Marcia Cohen Assistant Director of Editing, Design, and Production: Elise S. Kaiser Managing Editor: Shuli Traub Library of Congress Control Number: 2009928112 Copyright © 2010 (APA update), 2009, 2005, 2001, 1997 by Bedford/St. Martin’s All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher. Manufactured in the United States of America. 5 4 3 2 1 0 f e d c b a For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000) ISBN-10: 0-312-66490-7; ISBN-13: 978-0-312-66490-9 Acknowledgments Acknowledgments and copyrights appear at the back of the book on pages 624 –625, which constitute an extension of the copyright page. 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page iv How to Use This Book The Everyday Writer provides a “short and sweet” writing reference you can use easily on your own — at work, in class, even on the run. Small enough to tuck into a backpack or briefcase, this text has been designed to help you find information quickly, efficiently, and easily. I hope that this book will prove to be an everyday reference — and that the follow- ing tips will lead you to any information you need. Ways into the book QUICK ACCESS MENU. Inside the front cover you’ll find a list of the book’s contents. Once you locate a general topic on the quick access menu, flip to the tabbed section of the book that contains information on the topic, and check the menu on the tabbed divider for the exact page. USER-FRIENDLY INDEX. The index lists everything covered in the book. You can look up a topic either by its formal name (ellipses, for example) or, if you’re not sure what the formal name is, by a familiar word you use to describe it (such as dots). BRIEF CONTENTS. Inside the back cover, a brief but detailed table of con- tents lists chapter titles and major headings. GUIDE TO THE TOP TWENTY. The first tabbed section provides guidelines for recognizing, understanding, and editing the most common errors in student writing today. This section includes brief explanations, hand- edited examples, and cross-references to other places in the book where you’ll find more detail. CLEAR ADVICE ON RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION. Easy-to-follow source maps walk you step-by-step through the processes of selecting, evaluating, using, and citing sources. Documentation models appear in two tabbed sections — gold for MLA style and white for APA, Chicago, and CSE styles — with the different documentation styles color-coded in these sections. REVISION SYMBOLS. If your instructor uses revision symbols to mark your drafts, you can consult the list of symbols at the back of the book and its cross-references to places in the book where you’ll find more help. GLOSSARY OF USAGE. Chapter 19 gives quick advice on commonly con- fused and misused words. v 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page v vi How to use this book Ways to navigate the pages GUIDES AT THE TOP OF EVERY PAGE. Headers tell you what chapter or subsection you’re in, the chapter number and section letter, the name of the tab, and the page number. “AT A GLANCE” BOXES. These boxes at the beginning of most chap- ters — and elsewhere in the book as well — help you check your drafts with a critical eye and revise or edit. BOXED TIPS THROUGHOUT THE BOOK. • Tips on academic language, concepts, and style. “Talking the Talk” and “Talking about Style” boxes help you make sense of how writing works in the academic world and help you make stylistic choices for various kinds of writing — in communities, jobs, and disciplines. • Tips for multilingual writers. Advice for multilingual writers appears in a separate tabbed section and in boxes throughout the book. You can also find a list of the topics covered, including language-specific tips, at the back of the book. • Tips for considering disabilities. These boxes, which also ap- pear throughout the book, help you make your work accessible to readers with disabilities. If you’re a writer with a disability, these boxes also point out resources and strategies you may want to use. • Tips on common assignments. Advice about dealing with the most common assignments in first-year writing — and in other disciplines — appears in boxed tips throughout the book. HAND-EDITED EXAMPLES. Many examples are hand-edited in blue, allowing you to see the error and its revision at a glance. Pointers and boldface type make examples easy to spot on the page. CROSS-REFERENCES TO THE WEB SITE. The Everyday Writer Web site expands the book’s coverage. The cross-references to the Web site point you to practical online resources — tutorials, interactive exer- cises, model papers, research and documentation help, and more. 5 4 3 2 1 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page vi 308 Grammar Adjectives and adverbs34b AT A GLANCE • Scrutinize each adjective and adverb. Consider synonyms for each word to see whether you have chosen the best word possible. • See if a more specific noun would eliminate the need for an adjective (mansion rather than enormous house, for instance). Do the same with verbs and adverbs. • Look for places where you might make your writing more specific or vivid by adding an adjective or adverb. • Check that adjectives modify only nouns and pronouns and that adverbs modify only verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. (34b) Check especially for proper use of good and well, bad and badly, real and really. (34b and c) • Make sure all comparisons are complete. (34c) Editing Adjectives and Adverbs Adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, and adverbs In everyday conversation, you will often hear (and perhaps use) adjec- tives in place of adverbs. For example, people often say go quick instead of go quickly. When you write in standard academic English, however, use adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. carefully. � You can feel the song’s meter if you listen careful. ^really � The audience was real disappointed by the show. ^ 34b Using Adjectives with Plural Nouns In Spanish, Russian, and many other languages, adjectives agree in number with the nouns they modify. In English, adjectives do not change number this way: the kittens are cute (not cutes). FOR MULTILINGUAL WRITERS bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For exercises, go to Exercise Central and click on Adjectives and Adverbs.D viiHow to use this book 1 2 3 4 5 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page vii Preface Today, perhaps more than ever before, everyone can be a writer — every day. From contributing entries to Wikipedia to blogging, texting, and posting to YouTube and Facebook, student writers are participating widely in what philosopher Kenneth Burke calls “the conversation of humankind.” As access to new writing spaces grows, so too do the po- tential audiences: many writers, for example, are in daily contact with people around the world, and their work goes out to millions. In such a time, writers need to think more carefully than ever about how to craft effective messages and how best to represent themselves to others. These ever-expanding opportunities for writers, as well as the chal- lenges that inevitably come with them, have inspired this edition of The Everyday Writer — from the focus on thinking carefully about audience and purposes for writing and on attending to the “look” of writing, to the emphasis on the ways writing works across disciplines, to the ques- tions that new genres and forms of writing raise about citing and docu- menting sources and about understanding and avoiding plagiarism. What remains constant is the focus on the “everydayness” of writing and on down-to-earth, practical advice for how to write well in a multi- tude of situations. What also remains constant is the focus on rhetorical concerns. In a time of such challenging possibilities, taking a rhetorical perspective is particularly important. Why? Because a rhetorical perspective rejects either/or, right/wrong, black/white approaches to writing in favor of asking what choices will be most appropriate, effective, and ethical in a given writing situation. A rhetorical perspective also means paying careful attention to the purposes we want to achieve and the audiences we want to address. Writers today need to maintain such a rhetorical perspective every single day, and The Everyday Writer, Fourth Edition, provides writers with the tools for doing so. A note about MLA style As you may know, the Modern Language Association publishes two different sets of guidelines: the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition (2003), for student writers; and the MLA Style Manual, Third Edition (2008), for scholars and professional writers. MLA has recommended that undergraduate writers continue to fol- low the guidelines outlined in the sixth edition of the MLA Handbook until the seventh edition is published in 2009. The Everyday Writer fol- lows that recommendation. However, if you wish to follow the MLA Style Manual’s guidelines, you can request free copies of Documenting Sources: Supplement for Lunsford viii 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page viii Handbooks (ISBN-10: 0-312-55455-9 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-55455-2). Students and instructors can also download a free .pdf file of this booklet at bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter. Highlights ATTENTION TO GOOD WRITING, NOT JUST TO SURFACE CORRECTNESS. The Everyday Writer helps students understand that effective texts follow conventions that always depend on their audience, situation, and discipline. HELP FOR THE MOST COMMON WRITING PROBLEMS. A new nationwide study that I conducted with Karen Lunsford — revisiting the original 1986 research that Bob Connors and I conducted on student writing — shows the problems U.S. college students are most likely to have in their writing today. This book’s first chapter presents a quick guide to troubleshooting the Top Twenty — with examples, explanations, and information on where to turn in the handbook for more detailed infor- mation. Additional findings from the study inform advice throughout the book. UP-TO-DATE ADVICE ON RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION. As best prac- tices for research continue to evolve, so does The Everyday Writer. In this edition, you’ll find integrated coverage of library and online research to help students find authoritative and credible information in any medium, plus advice on integrating sources, avoiding plagiarism, us- ing social bookmarking tools for research, and citing sources in MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE documentation styles. Visual source maps in all four documentation sections show students how to evaluate, use, and document print and online sources. COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF CRITICAL THINKING AND ARGUMENT. My work on Everything’s an Argument has strengthened my belief that argu- ment is integral to many kinds of writing, and I have expanded the cov- erage of critical thinking and argument in this edition and placed them in a separate tab to make the information even easier to find and use. Chapters 11–13 offer extensive advice on critical reading and analysis of both visual and verbal arguments, instruction on composing argu- ments, and two complete student essays. EXPANDED HELP FOR WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES. Along with strategies for understanding discipline-specific assignments, vocabulary, style, and use of evidence, this edition offers more student writing samples than ever before, including research projects in MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE styles, business documents, and sample writing from introductory humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences courses. ixPreface 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page ix New to this edition New advice based on Andrea Lunsford’s teaching and research UNIQUE COVERAGE OF LANGUAGE AND STYLE. Unique chapters on lan- guage help students think about language in context and about the con- sequences that language choices have on writers and readers. Boxed tips throughout the book help students communicate effectively across cultures — and use varieties of language both wisely and well. INTEGRATED EXERCISES. Exercises to help students practice writing, re- vising, thinking critically, and editing appear throughout the book. (An answer key appears in the Instructor’s Notes.) AN INVITING DESIGN. The Everyday Writer makes information easy to find and appealing to read. x Preface • New “Talking the Talk” boxes answer real questions students ask about academic concepts. • New “Common Assignments” boxes provide tips for succeeding with the kinds of writing projects and assignments that research shows students today are most likely to encounter in their classes. • A new chapter on expectations for college writing helps students grapple with academic work. Conventions TALKING THE TALK “Aren’t conventions really just rules with another name?” Not entirely. Conventions — agreed-on language practices of grammar, punctuation, and style — convey a kind of shorthand information from writer to read- er. In college writing, you will want to follow the conventions of standard academic English unless you have a good reason to do otherwise. But unlike hard-and-fast rules, conventions are flexible; a convention appro- priate for one time or situation may be inappropriate for another. You may even choose to ignore conventions to achieve a particular effect. (You might, for example, write a sentence fragment rather than a full sentence, such as the Not entirely at the beginning of this box.) As you become more experienced and confident in your writing, you will develop a sense of which conventions to apply in different writing situations. You are almost certain to get some form of analysis assignment during your first year of college. One common variety is the rhetorical analy- sis assignment, which essentially answers two big questions — What is the purpose of the text you are analyzing? How is that purpose achieved? — and focuses on how the text gets its meaning across. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS OF A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT • Identify the purpose or purposes of the text. If the text has multiple purposes, point out any conflicts. • Identify the primary audience for the text and any secondary au- diences, and explore how the text meets audience expectations or needs. • Examine the author’s stance or attitude toward the topic: is it favor- able, critical, suspicious, neutral, or mocking? Identify parts of the text where such attitudes are evident, and show how they work to appeal to the audience. • Explain how the text uses deliberate strategies (such as tone, word choice, sentence structure, design, special effects, choice of medium, choice of evidence, and so on) to achieve its purposes. COMMON ASSIGNMENTS Rhetorical Analysis 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page x xiPreface • New and expanded coverage of reviewing and revising clarifies the relationship between review and revision, with advice on how to offer useful comments on peers’ writing and how to benefit from com- ments from both peers and instructors. • A new section on reflecting on writing guides students in thinking back on their completed writing projects. A student reflective essay models the writing students are often asked to do for portfolio assessment. 9 Reviewing and Revising 82 a Reread 82 b Get responses from peers 84 c Consult instructor comments 88 d Revise 91 A student’s reflective statement Here is a shortened version of the cover letter that James Kung wrote to accompany his first-year writing portfolio. December 6, 2007 Dear Professor Ashdown: “Writing is difficult and takes a long time.” This simple yet powerful statement has been uttered so many times in our class that it has essentially become our motto. During this class, my persuasive writing skills have improved dramatically, thanks to many hours spent writing, revising, polishing, and thinking about my topic. The various drafts, revisions, and other materials in my portfolio show this improvement. 101Reflect Writ Process10b James Kung Student Writer Reflective Statements Research done for this book shows that one of the most common writ- ing assignments in college today is a reflective statement — in the form of a letter, a memo, or a home page — that explains and analyzes the contents of a portfolio. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS OF A REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT • Think carefully about the overall impression you want the portfolio to create, and make sure that the tone and style of your reflective statement set the stage for the entire portfolio. • Unless otherwise instructed, include in your cover letter a descrip- tion of what the portfolio contains and explain the purpose of each piece of writing you have chosen. • Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your writing, using spe- cific passages from assignments in your portfolio to provide evi- dence for each point you make. • Reflect on the most important things you have learned about writ- ing and about yourself as a writer. • Conclude with plans for ongoing improvement in your writing. COMMON ASSIGNMENTS 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xi • Integrated coverage of writing and media helps students understand that smarter rhetorical choices produce better writing, no matter what the genre or format. xii Preface • New coverage for multilingual writers clarifies U.S. academic writing for every student with a multilingual background. 493 Xiaoming Li, now a college English teacher, says that before she came to the United States as a graduate student, she had been a “good writer” in China — in both English and Chinese. Once in the United States, however, she struggled to grasp what her teachers expected of her col- lege writing. While she could easily use grammar books and dictionar- ies, her instructors’ unstated expectations seemed to call for her to write in a way that was new to her. Of course, writing for college presents many challenges; such writ- ing differs in many ways from high school writing as well as from per- sonal writing like text messaging or postings to social networking sites. If you grew up speaking and writing in other languages, however, the transition to producing effective college writing can be even more com- plicated. Not only will you have to learn new information and new ways of thinking and arguing, but you also have to do it in a language that may not come naturally to you — especially in unfamiliar rhetori- cal situations. U.S. academic writing The expectations for college writing are often taken for granted by in- structors. To complicate the matter further, there is no single “correct” style of communication in any country, including the United States. Ef- fective oral styles differ from effective written styles, and what is con- sidered good writing in one field of study is not necessarily appropriate in another. Even the variety of English often referred to as “standard” covers a wide range of styles (see Chapter 21). In spite of this wide vari- ation, several features are often associated with U.S. academic English: • conventional grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics • organization that links ideas explicitly 55a Writing in U.S. Academic Genres 55 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xii xiiiPreface • Advice from the new research study is in- tegrated throughout the text, giving stu- dents the benefit of the most up-to-date information available on how college writing works. A new Top Twenty based on new research • The 2006 Lunsford and Lunsford study’s results show an increasing emphasis on researched and documented writing in college — a major change from the kinds of assignments given in the past. The new Top Twenty reflects this change as well as students’ evolving use of technology (including spell checkers). allergy � The child suffered from a severe allegory to peanuts. ^ Allegory is a spell checker’s replacement for a misspelling of allergy. of � The panel discussed the ethical implications on the situation. ^ Wrong-word errors can involve using a word with the wrong shade of meaning, using a word with a completely wrong meaning, or using a wrong preposition or another wrong word in an idiom. Selecting a word from a thesaurus without knowing its meaning or allowing a spell checker to correct spelling automatically can lead to wrong-word errors, so use these tools with care. If you have trouble with preposi- tions and idioms, memorize the standard usage. (See Chapter 22 on word choice and spelling and Chapter 59 on prepositions and idioms.) Missing comma after an introductory element � Determined to get the job done, we worked all weekend. � Although the study was flawed, the results may still be useful. Readers usually need a small pause — signaled by a comma — between an introductory word, phrase, or clause and the main part of the sentence. Use a comma after every introductory element. When the introductory element is very short, you don‘t always need a comma, but including it is never wrong. (See 38a.) Incomplete or missing documentation (263).” � Satrapi says, “When we’re afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection.’’ The page number of the print source for this quotation must be included. � According to one source, James Joyce wrote two of the five best novels (Modern Library 100 Best). of all time. ^ The source mentioned should be indentified (this online source has no page numbers). Cite each source you refer to in the text, following the guidelines of the doc- umentation style you are using. (The preceding examples follow MLA style — see Chapters 48–51; for other styles, see Chapters 52–54.) Omitting documentation can result in charges of plagiarism (see Chapter 17). 3 2 5Incomplete or missing documentation Top Twenty3 ^ ^ ^ among U.S. college students today, listed here in order of frequency. A brief explanation and examples of each error are provided in the fol- lowing sections, and each error pattern is cross-referenced to other places in this book where you can find more detailed information and additional examples. 4 Top Twenty A quick guide1 D Wrong word precedence � Religious texts, for them, take prescience over other kinds of sources. ^ Prescience means “foresight,” and precedence means “priority.” 1 AT A GLANCE 1. Wrong word 2. Missing comma after an introductory element 3. Incomplete or missing documentation 4. Vague pronoun reference 5. Spelling (including homonyms) 6. Mechanical error with a quotation 7. Unnecessary comma 8. Unnecessary or missing capitalization 9. Missing word 10. Faulty sentence structure 11. Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element 12. Unnecessary shift in verb tense 13. Missing comma in a compound sentence 14. Unnecessary or missing apostrophe (including its/it’s) 15. Fused (run-on) sentence 16. Comma splice 17. Lack of pronoun-antecedent agreement 18. Poorly integrated quotation 19. Unnecessary or missing hyphen 20. Sentence fragment The Top Twenty bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For advice on learning from your own most common writing problems, go to Writing Resources and click on Taking a Writing Inventory. 1 2 4 3 SOURCE MAP: Using Sources Effectively How appropriate is the source for the argument you are making? Read carefully, and be sure you understand exactly how the material in the source relates to your point. (See Chapter 12.) Student Amanda Rinder, in doing research for a paper about Chicago architecture (see p. 469), discovered a major debate between the city’s preservationists and devel- opers, which she wanted to document. This Chicago Tribune article by architecture critic Paul Gapp provided the information she needed. How does each source contribute to your argument? Identifying the purpose of each source can help keep your research relevant and ensure that you fill in any gaps (and avoid repetition). Amanda used both para- phrases (highlighted) and quotations (underlined) from the Gapp article to present a clear overview of the issues of architectural preservation and to offer strong support for the preservation of the McCarthy Building. She used images, including this one of the McCarthy Building, as examples of the architectural style that preservationists wanted to save. She also did background research on Paul Gapp and learned, from his obituary in the New York Times, that he had won a Pulitzer Prize for his architecture criti- cism. She did not ultimately include information from the obituary in her paper, but it helped her be certain of Gapp’s credibility on her topic. Do your sources include fair representations of opposing views? Consider what else you need to include to present a complete picture of the argument. Amanda paraphrased Gapp’s balanced discussion of the pros and cons of protecting the McCarthy Building. She also found addi- tional sources on both sides of the issue. How convincing will your sources be to your audience? Make sure that the evidence you choose will seem credible and logical (13e–f). Amanda identified Gapp as “a Chicago Tribune architecture critic” to show him as an authority on her topic. Her other sources included books by architects and historians and other articles on architecture from major newspapers in Chicago and elsewhere. 4 3 2 1 Indeed, that sort of restoration was originally envisioned by real estate developers when the city–acting under its renewal powers–tentatively decided in 1983 to accept a bid of $12.6 million for the full block of land on which the McCarthy stands. The McCarthy and two other old buildings were to have been linked to a glass enclosed shopping arcade connecting Dearborn and State Streets. Late last summer, however, the city was notified of a change of mind by the development group consisting of the Levy Organization, JMB Realty and Metropolitan Structures. The group said it wanted to tear down the buildings and construct an office high-rise in their place. To make up for the McCarthy’s loss, the developers offered to contribute $2 million to the city for development of a “Theater Row” project in the North Loop, tied to existing theatrical venues. When the LPC said it might not oppose such a deal, it was attacked by the City Club of Chicago and restoration authority John Vinci, among others. “The developer’s offer is tantamount to a civic shakedown,” said Larry P. Horist, the City Club’s executive director. Vinci said the LPC’s vacillation “destroys its integrity.” Today, City Hall is trapped and squirming in the middle. If it stands fast in favor of the McCarthy, it risks queering the land sale in an important urban renewal area whose upgrading has already been plagued by political, legal, tax assessment and other problems. If it rescinds the McCarthy’s landmark status and allows demolition, the city will have gone on record as favoring the allure of the dollar over Chicago’s architectural heritage. (Moving the McCarthy to another site, which has also been suggested, would amount to the same kind of surrender and set a dangerous precedent). It’s a tough decision, and the politicians will be faulted in either case. Yet anyone who cares for the irreplaceable historical and cultural fabric of the city can hardly take anything but the long view: The McCarthy and most of Chicago’s other official architecture landmarks were in place long before any of today’s politicians and real estate developers (or you and I) were born. Is it too much to hope that they will continue to grace our ravaged but still great city long after all of us are gone? forgotten that the state building, designed by Helmut Jahn, was always intended to be the anchor of the redevelopment area. Municipal planners finally decided to spare seven historic buildings in the renewal district by making them landmarks, and the city council gave the designation to: — The McCarthy, designed in 1872 by John M. Van Osdel. — The Chicago Theater, 175 N. State St., a Rapp & Rapp-designed masterpiece built in 1921. — The Page Brothers Building, just north of the Chicago Theater, another Van Osdel building constructed in 1872 and notable chiefly for its full cast iron north facade–the only surviving example of its kind here. — The handsome Harris and Selwyn Theaters at 180 and 190 N. Dearborn St., built in 1922 on designs by H. Kenneth Franzheim and C. Howard Crane. — The Oliver Building at 159 N. Dearborn St., a good-looking Chicago- style office structure designed by Holabird & Roche in 1907. — The Delaware Building, 36 W. Randolph St., an 1872 structure by Wheelock and Thomas. Its Italianate style and corner location give it a strong resemblance to the McCarthy. When the Chicago Theater and Page Brothers buildings were almost destroyed by their previous owners a couple of years ago, it was a reminder that landmark designation is no guarantee of preservation. It can only delay demolition while potential ways of saving a building are explored. (The Chicago and the Page, rescued after lengthy litigation, are now well on the way to extended lives under new ownership and an ambitious restoration program). And so we consider the present McCarthy Building situation, which might be described as an impasse on its way to becoming a brouhaha. The city council gave the McCarthy landmark status because it is a rare and distinguished example of work by Van Osdel, who was Chicago’s first professional architect. Created in an Italianate style just a year after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the McCarthy’s carefully detailed masonry and iron facades reflect the same look Van Osdel selected when he designed the third Palmer House hotel a few years later. If the garish signs that degrade the McCarthy were simply removed, that alone would reveal the building as a stunningly appealing relic from Chicago’s 19th Century renaissance era. Replacing the little five-story building’s lost cornice and restoring its base would present no technical problems. MCCARTHY BUILDING PUTS LANDMARK LAW ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH DEVELOPERS [FINAL EDITION, C] Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) – Chicago, Ill. Author: Paul Gapp, Architecture critic Date: Apr 20, 1986 Section: ARTS Text Word Count: 1142 Document Text Chicago’s commitment to saving municipally designated landmarks is undergoing one of its most crucial tests. If a little gem of a structure called the McCarthy Building is torn down, the city’s landmarks protection ordinance will be devalued almost to the vanishing point. The McCarthy stands at the northeast corner of Dearborn and Washington Streets, just across from Daley Civic Center. Its dignified facades are defaced by so many ugly signs that most pedestrians see the building only as a rude smear on the streetscape. Yet the McCarthy’s esthetic and historical value is undeniable, which is why the city council gave the building landmark status in the first place. Now, however, a real estate development group wants to demolish the McCarthy to make room for an office tower. Because the building stands on municipally controlled urban renewal land, the city has both the leverage to save it and a reason for allowing its destruction. This landmark scenario is unprecedented and could hardly be stickier. The McCarthy and several other important old buildings first appeared threatened in the early 1970s when the city began drafting the North Loop urban renewal plan. In 1973, the private Landmarks Preservation Council (LPC) asked officials to spare such buildings, but the city brushed aside the plea. Under an early version of the North Loop urban renewal program announced in 1978, more than 50 buildings–including all nine movie houses then extant –were to be destroyed in a seven-block area. Among structures marked for demolition were seven–including the McCarthy –already listed on the federal National Register of Historic Places. Preservation officials in Washington warned that their destruction could mean a loss of federal renewal money, and City Hall began reshuffling its plans. The tangle of events that followed into the 1980s found the city repeatedly changing its mind about what should and should not be saved from destruction. While this was going on, demolition in the renewal area began with the Sherman House hotel, which fell to make way for the new State of Illinois Center. Most people have August 11, 1992 Paul Gapp, 64, Journalist, Dies; Architecture Critic W on Pulitzer By HERBERT M USCHAM P Paul Gapp, the Pulitzer Prizewinning architecture critic for The Chicago Tribune, died on July 30 at Northwest M emorial Hospital in Chicago. He was 64 years old and lived in Chicago.He died of lung cancer complicated by emphysema, his office said. M r. Gapp was born in Cleveland in 1928. He began his career in journalism with The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch after graduating from Ohio University in 1950. Six years later, he joined The Chicago Daily News, where he worked as a reporter, editorial writer and features editor. In 1972, M r. Gapp joined The Chicago Tribune as assistant city editor for urban affairs. He was appointed architecture critic in 1974 and won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1979. M r. Gapp’s interest in architecture grew out of his love for Chicago, which he once described as “the last of the great American cities, a city of great elegance and great charm.” His writings on architecture helped readers grasp the role of buildings in Chicago’s social and political life. 179178 3 4 2 1 Spell Checkers and Wrong-Word Errors TALKING THE TALK “Can I trust spell checkers to correct a word I’ve spelled wrong?” In a word, no. The spell checker may suggest bizarre substitutes for many proper names and specialized terms (even when you spell them cor- rectly) and for certain typographical errors, thus introducing wrong words into your paper if you accept its suggestions automatically. For example, a student who had typed fantic instead of frantic found that the spell checker’s first choice was to substitute fanatic — a replacement that made no sense. Wrong-word errors are the most common surface error in college writing today (see Chapter 1), and spell checkers are partly to blame. So be careful not to take a spell checker’s recommen- dation without paying careful attention to the replacement word. 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xiii A more visual approach to writing, research, and documentation • Ample photographs and illustrations show as well as tell students how to make better choices throughout the writing process. xiv Preface • Color-coded source maps in the Research tab, the MLA tab, and the APA, Chicago, and CSE tab make it easier than ever to see what’s needed to evaluate, use, and document sources well. SOURCE MAP: Works from Web sites, MLA style You may need to browse other parts of a site to find some elements, and some sites omit elements. Find as much information as you can. Author of the work. End with a period. If no author is given, begin with the title. Title of the work. Enclose the title and any subtitle in quotation marks. Title of the Web site. Underline the title. Where there is no clear title, use a label such as Home page. Date of publication or latest update. Give the most recent date. Name of the sponsoring organization. The sponsor’s name often appears at the bottom of the home page. Access information. Give the most recent date you accessed the work. Give the complete URL, enclosed in angle brackets. If the URL is very long and complicated, give the URL of the site’s search page instead. If the URL will not fit on one line, break it only after a slash, and do not add a hyphen. For a work from a Web site, use the following format: Last name, First name. “Title of work.” Title of Web site. Date of publication or latest update. Sponsoring organization. Date accessed . A citation for the work on p. 399 would look like this: AUTHOR TITLE OF WORK TITLE OF SITE Tønnesson, Øyvind. “Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate.” Nobelprize.org. PUBL. DATE SITE SPONSOR ACCESS DATE AND URL 1 Dec. 1999. Nobel Foundation. 5 Mar. 2008 . For more on using MLA style to cite Web documents, see pp. 392–402. (For guidelines and models for using APA style, see pp. 435–45; for Chicago style, see pp. 460–66; for CSE style, see pp. 482–85.) 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 • What do members of your audience already know about your topic? Do you need to provide background information or to define terms? • What sorts of information and evidence will your audience find most compelling — quotations from experts? personal experi- ences? photographs? diagrams or charts? • What kinds of appeals will be most effective in reaching this audience? • What response(s) do you want to evoke? As you think about your readers, consider how you want them to respond to both the words and the images you use. Be particularly aware that images will often evoke very strong responses in your audi- ence, so choose them with special care. What audience(s), for exam- ple, can you imagine for this image from an early Ramones performance? How do you think dif- ferent audiences would respond to this image? Analyze the purpose of your writing. • What is the primary purpose of the piece of writing — to explain? to persuade? to entertain? some other purpose? If you aren’t sure, think about what you want to accomplish, or talk with the person who gave you the assignment. Are there secondary purposes to keep in mind? • What purpose did the person who gave you the assignment want to achieve — to make sure you have understood something? to evaluate your thinking and writing abilities? to test your ability to think outside the box? • What are your own purposes in this piece of writing — to respond to a question? to learn about a topic? to communicate your ideas? to express feelings? How can you achieve these goals? • What, exactly, does the assignment ask you to do? Look for words such as analyze, classify, compare, define, describe, explain, prove, and survey. Remember that these words may differ in meaning from discipline to discipline. • What information do you need to gather to complete the task? • Should you limit –– or broaden –– the topic to make it more compelling to you and your audience? What problems does the assignment 5d 47Analyze your purpose Writ Process5d suggest? If you wish to redefine the assignment, check with the per- son who assigned it. • What are the specific requirements of the assignment? Analyze your position as a writer or speaker. Thinking about your own position as a writer and your attitudes to- ward your topic and your audience — your rhetorical stance — is impor- tant to making sure you communicate well. • What is your overall attitude toward the topic? How strong are your opinions? • What social, political, religious, personal, or other influences ac- count for your attitude? • What do you know about the topic? What questions do you have about it? • What interests you most and least about the topic? Why? • What seems important — or unimportant — about the topic? • What preconceptions, if any, do you have about it? • What do you expect to conclude about the topic? • How will you establish your credibility (ethos); that is, how will you show that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy? Images you choose to include in your writing can also help estab- lish your credibility. Remember, however, that images always have a point of view or perspective. The postcard seen here, for example, illus- trates two physical perspectives — a photograph of a highway bridge and a road map showing its location — as well as a time perspective — from 1927, when the bridge was new. Images also often reveal attitudes; this one, with its caption “America’s Greatest Highway Bridge,” sees the 5e 48 Writ Process Writing situations5e 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xiv xvPreface • Fresh, fun new visual “game plans” help students take a hands-on approach to planning and developing their writing. A complete list of game plan pages appears in a directory at the back of the book. • An updated design makes the look more student-friendly than ever. Careful citation shows your reader that you’ve done your homework. . . . It amounts to laying your intellectual cards on the table. — JACK LYNCH MMLLAA DDooccuummeennttaattiioonn All readers build worlds in their minds made of words and visuals. Think of a time when you were reading or looking at images and sud- denly realized that you were not absorbing information but just staring at a jumble of marks on a page or a screen. Only when you went back and concentrated on meaning were you really reading. Think critically about written texts. Reading critically means asking questions about what you are reading. A critical reader does not simply accept what the author says but ana- lyzes why the text is convincing (or not convincing). Writer Anatole Broyard once cautioned readers about the perils of “just walking through” a text. A good reader, he suggested, doesn’t just walk but “stomps around” in a text — highlighting passages, scribbling in the margins, jotting questions and comments. Preview and annotation The article “Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Mother- hood,” by Louise Story, appeared on pp. A1 and A18 of the New York Times on September 20, 2005. The first portion of the article appears on pp. 106–07, with a student’s preview notes and annotations. 11a Critical Reading 11 105 bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter To read the article in its entirety, go to Writing Resources and click on Argument Resources/Critical Reading.D Summary Here is how the same student summarized Louise Story’s article. A group of women at Ivy League schools told a reporter who surveyed and interviewed them that they planned to stop working or cut back on work when they had children. The reporter suggests that the women’s responses are evidence of a trend and of “changing attitudes.” 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xv A wide array of ancillaries NEW MEDIA RESOURCES CompClass with The Everyday Writer e-Book bedfordstmartins.com/compclass Online Student Center for The Everyday Writer (free book-specific resources and premium content, including The Everyday Writer e-Book) bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter Exercise Central 3.0 bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral Electronic Diagnostic Tests bedfordstmartins.com/lunsforddiagnostics Just-in-Time Teaching bedfordstmartins.com/justintime Exercise Central to Go for Handbooks by Andrea A. Lunsford CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-43114-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-43114-3 PRINT RESOURCES Instructor’s Notes, Andrea Lunsford, Alyssa O’Brien, and Lisa Dresdner (includes answer key for exercises in The Everyday Writer with Exercises) ISBN-10: 0-312-48861-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-48861-1 Exercises to Accompany THE EVERYDAY WRITER, Fourth Edition, Lex Runciman, Carolyn Lengel, and Kate Silverstein ISBN-10: 0-312-38653-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-38653-5 Answer Key to Exercises to Accompany THE EVERYDAY WRITER, Fourth Edition ISBN-10: 0-312-48858-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-48858-1 xvi Preface 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xvi xviiPreface OTHER COMPOSITION RESOURCES FROM BEDFORD/ST. MARTIN’S ix visual exercises CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-41562-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-41562-4 i-cite visualizing sources CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-44179-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-44179-1 i-claim visualizing argument CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-44015-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-44015-2 COURSE MANAGEMENT CONTENT Resources developed for The Everyday Writer are available for use in course management systems. 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xvii Acknowledgments I owe an ongoing debt of gratitude to Carolyn Lengel, my editor for this and two other books as well: her patience, fortitude, and sheer hard work, her astute judgment, her wellspring of good ideas, her meticu- lous attention to detail, and her great good humor are gifts that just keep on giving. I am also very fortunate to have had the advice and help of Fran Weinberg, who has made invaluable and ongoing contri- butions to this text; to Stephanie Butler, for her outstanding work on the ancillaries to this text, including the Instructor’s Notes; to Wendy Anni- bell for her meticulous copyediting; to Mara Weible for huge contribu- tions to our online handbook tutorials; to Sarah Ferguson for her work on the book’s new media components; to Anne Carter and Anna Palchik for their brilliant contributions to art and design; to Donna Dennison for cover art; to Eric Larsen for his imaginative illustrations; and to Harold Chester, project editor par excellence. Many thanks, also, to the unfailingly generous and supportive members of the Bedford/St. Martin’s team: Erica Appel, Kristin Bowen, Nick Carbone, Joan Feinberg, Jimmy Fleming, Joe Ford, Karen Henry, Nancy Perry, Katie Schooling, Karen Soeltz, John Swanson, Shuli Traub, Kim White, and Denise Wydra. I am especially indebted to Paul Kei Matsuda and Christine Tardy for their extraordinarily helpful additions to the Multilingual Writer sec- tions of this book; to Lisa Ede for her ongoing support and advice, par- ticularly about writing across the disciplines; to Lisa Dresdner at Norwalk Community College for her fine work on updating the Instructors’ Notes; and to Dànielle Nicole DeVoss at Michigan State Univer- sity for her help in making this a more visual book. I have also benefited greatly from the excellent advice of some very special colleagues: Colin Gifford Brooke, Syracuse University; Barbara Fister, Gustavus Adolphus College; Patrick Clauss, Butler University; Arnold Zwicky, Stanford University; Beverly Moss, Ohio State University; and Marilyn Moller. I owe special thanks to the group of student writers whose work appears in and enriches this book and its companion Web site: Michelle Abbott, Carina Abernathy, Milena Ateyea, Julie Baird, Jennifer Bernal, Valerie Bredin, Taurean Brown, Tessa Cabello, Ben Canning, Leah Clen- dening, David Craig, Kelly Darr, Allyson Goldberg, Tara Gupta, Joanna Hays, Dana Hornbeak, Ajani Husbands, Bory Kea, James Kung, Emily Lesk, Nastassia Lopez, Heather Mackintosh-Sims, Merlla McLaughlin, Jenny Ming, Laura Montgomery, Elva Negrete, Katie Paarlberg, Shan- nan Palma, Teal Pfeifer, Amrit K. Rao, Heather Ricker, Amanda Rinder, Dawn Rodney, Rudy Rubio, Melissa Schraeder, Bonnie Sillay, Jessica Thrower, and Dennis Tyler. Once again, I have been guided by a group of hard-working and meticulous reviewers, including Thomas Amorose, Seattle Pacific xviii Preface 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xviii xixPreface University; Heidi R. Anderson, University of Minnesota Duluth; Dominic Ashby, West Virginia University; Susan Bailor, Front Range Community College; Peggy Beck, Kent State University Stark; Judy Bennett, University of Louisiana at Monroe; Mona Diane Benton, Eastern Michigan University; Monica Bosson, City College of San Francisco; Domenic Bruni, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Jo Anne R. Bryant, Troy University; Jennifer Castillo, Eastern Michigan University; Christian M. Clark, Community College of Southern Nevada; Barbara Cole, The State University of New York at Buffalo; Teresa Cordova, California State University, Sacramento; Margaret Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State University; Cynthia Cox, Belmont University; Charles DiDomenico, Middlesex County College; Sid Dobrin, University of Florida; Doug Downs, Utah Valley State College; Lisa Dresdner, Norwalk Community College; Anne-Marie Drew, United States Naval Academy; Violet A. Dutcher, Eastern Mennonite University; Heidi Estrem, Boise State University; Diana Fernandez, Florida International University; Patricia Rowe Geenen, Alverno College; Holly Geil, Kent State University; Nathan Gorelick, State University of New York at Buf- falo; Andrew Green, University of Miami; Eric Gunnink, University of St. Francis; Kim Gunter, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Scot Hanson, Texas Christian University; Christopher S. Harris, Univer- sity of Louisiana at Monroe; Kimberly Harrison, Florida International University–Biscayne Bay; Anneliese Homan, State Fair Community College; Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson, Miami University of Ohio; Jon A. Leydens, Colorado School of Mines; Meredith A. Love-Steinmetz, Francis Marion University; Suzanne Blum Malley, Columbia College Chicago; Patricia Mandia, Kent State University Stark; Jessica Matthews, George Mason University; Cynthia Maxson, Rio Salado Col- lege; Kathy Mendt, Front Range Community College; Kerri Mitchell, Front Range Community College; Winifred Morgan, Edgewood Col- lege; Roxanne Munch, Joliet Junior College; Kim Murray, University of Southern Florida; Beverly A. Neiderman, Kent State University; Jerry L. Nelson, Lincoln University; Troy D. Nordman, Butler Community Col- lege; Shelley Harper Palmer, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College; Cherri Porter, American River College and Woodland Community Col- lege; Carolee Ritter, Southeast Community College; Deidre Farrington Schoolcraft, Pikes Peak Community College; Shawna Shapiro, Univer- sity of Washington; Mary Beth Simmons, Villanova University; Kim- berly Skeen, College of Southern Idaho; Wayne Stein, University of Central Oklahoma; Jane VanderVelde, University of Kansas; Megan Ward, Miami University of Ohio; Elizabeth Wardle, University of Day- ton; Peggy Woods, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Susan Dara Wright, William Paterson University; and Sarah L. Yoder, Texas Christian University. 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:54 PM Page xix For offering advice and perspectives from disciplines other than composition, I would like to extend particular thanks to the following reviewers: Carole Anderson, The Ohio State University; Robert Bulman, St. Mary’s College of California; Patrick J. Castle, United States Air Force Academy; Rosemary Cunningham, Agnes Scott College; Bridget Drinka, University of Texas at San Antonio; John Hnida, Peru State Col- lege; Kareem J. Johnson, Temple University; Steve Naragon, Manches- ter College; Tracy Ann Robinson, Oregon State University; and Timothy J. Shannon, Gettysburg College. Finally, and always, I continue to learn—from my students, who serve as the major inspiration for just about everything I do; from the very best sisters, nieces, and nephews anyone has ever had; and from my spectacular great-nieces, Audrey and Lila: this book is for all of you. –Andrea A. Lunsford xx Preface 00_LUN_66490_FM_(i-xx)_00_LUN_66490_FM_i-xx.qxd 11/30/11 1:55 PM Page xx A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. — OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES About College Writing A b o ut C o lleg e W riting About College Writing 1 The Top Twenty: A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing 3 2 Expectations for College Writing 12 a Meeting expectations 12 b Academic writing 13 c Academic reading 14 d Electronic communication in academic life 16 3 Oral and Multimedia Assignments 18 a Class discussions 19 b Effective presentations 19 STUDENT POWERPOINT PRESENTATION 24 c Online presentations 26 4 Design for College Writing 27 a Visual structure 27 b Appropriate formats 29 c Effective headings 32 d Effective visuals 33 e Sample documents 38 A b o ut C o lle g e W ri tin g 1– 42 The Top Twenty: A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing Surface errors — grammar, punctuation, word choice, and other small- scale matters — don’t always disturb readers. Whether your instructor marks an error in any particular assignment will depend on personal judgments about how serious and distracting it is and about what you should be focusing on in the draft. In addition, not all surface errors are consistently viewed as errors: some of the patterns identified in the re- search for this book are considered errors by some instructors but as stylistic options by others. Such differing opinions don’t mean that there is no such thing as correctness in writing — only that correctness always depends on some context, on whether the choices a writer makes seem appropriate to readers. Research for this book reveals a number of changes that have oc- curred in student writing over the past twenty-plus years. First, writing assignments in first-year composition classes now focus less on per- sonal narrative and much more on research essays and argument. As a result, students are now writing longer essays than they did twenty years ago and working much more often with sources, both print and nonprint. Thus it’s no surprise that students today are struggling with the conventions for using and citing sources, a problem that did not show up in most earlier studies of student writing. What else has changed? For starters, wrong-word errors are by far the most common errors among first-year student writers today. Twenty years ago, spelling errors were most common by a factor of more than three to one. The use of spell checkers has reduced the number of spelling errors in student writing — but spell checkers’ suggestions may also be responsible for some (or many) of the wrong words stu- dents are using. All writers want to be considered competent and careful. You know that your readers judge you by your control of the conventions you have agreed to use, even if the conventions change from time to time. To help you in producing writing that is conventionally correct, you should become familiar with the twenty most common error patterns 3 1 02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042)_02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042).qxd 11/30/11 2:04 PM Page 3 among U.S. college students today, listed here in order of frequency. A brief explanation and examples of each error are provided in the fol- lowing sections, and each error pattern is cross-referenced to other places in this book where you can find more detailed information and additional examples. 4 Top Twenty A quick guide1 D Wrong word precedence � Religious texts, for them, take prescience over other kinds of sources. ^ Prescience means “foresight,” and precedence means “priority.” 1 AT A GLANCE 1. Wrong word 2. Missing comma after an introductory element 3. Incomplete or missing documentation 4. Vague pronoun reference 5. Spelling (including homonyms) 6. Mechanical error with a quotation 7. Unnecessary comma 8. Unnecessary or missing capitalization 9. Missing word 10. Faulty sentence structure 11. Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element 12. Unnecessary shift in verb tense 13. Missing comma in a compound sentence 14. Unnecessary or missing apostrophe (including its/it’s) 15. Fused (run-on) sentence 16. Comma splice 17. Lack of pronoun-antecedent agreement 18. Poorly integrated quotation 19. Unnecessary or missing hyphen 20. Sentence fragment The Top Twenty bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For advice on learning from your own most common writing problems, go to Writing Resources and click on Taking a Writing Inventory. 02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042)_02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042).qxd 11/30/11 2:04 PM Page 4 allergy � The child suffered from a severe allegory to peanuts. ^ Allegory is a spell checker’s replacement for a misspelling of allergy. of � The panel discussed the ethical implications on the situation. ^ Wrong-word errors can involve using a word with the wrong shade of meaning, using a word with a completely wrong meaning, or using a wrong preposition or another wrong word in an idiom. Selecting a word from a thesaurus without knowing its meaning or allowing a spell checker to correct spelling automatically can lead to wrong-word errors, so use these tools with care. If you have trouble with preposi- tions and idioms, memorize the standard usage. (See Chapter 22 on word choice and spelling and Chapter 59 on prepositions and idioms.) Missing comma after an introductory element � Determined to get the job done, we worked all weekend. � Although the study was flawed, the results may still be useful. Readers usually need a small pause — signaled by a comma — between an introductory word, phrase, or clause and the main part of the sentence. Use a comma after every introductory element. When the introductory element is very short, you don‘t always need a comma, but including it is never wrong. (See 38a.) Incomplete or missing documentation � Satrapi says, “When we’re afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection.’’ The page number of the print source for this quotation must be included. � According to one source, James Joyce wrote two of the five best novels (Modern Library 100 Best). of all time. ^ The source mentioned should be indentified (this online source has no page numbers). Cite each source you refer to in the text, following the guidelines of the doc- umentation style you are using. (The preceding examples follow MLA style — see Chapters 48–51; for other styles, see Chapters 52–54.) Omitting documentation can result in charges of plagiarism (see Chapter 17). 3 2 5Incomplete or missing documentation Top Twenty3 ^ ^ ^ (263). 02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042)_02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042).qxd 11/30/11 2:04 PM Page 5 Vague pronoun reference POSSIBLE REFERENCE TO MORE THAN ONE WORD � Transmitting radio signals by satellite is a way of overcoming the the airwaves problem of scarce airwaves and limiting how they are used. In the original sentence, they could refer to the signals or to the airwaves. REFERENCE IMPLIED BUT NOT STATED a policy � The company prohibited smoking, which many employees resented. What does which refer to? The editing clarifies what employees resented. A pronoun should refer clearly to the word or words it replaces (called the antecedent) elsewhere in the sentence or in a previous sentence. If more than one word could be the antecedent, or if no specific an- tecedent is present, edit to make the meaning clear. (See Chapter 33.) Spelling (including homonyms) Reagan � Ronald Regan won the election in a landslide. Everywhere � Every where we went, we saw crowds of tourists. ^ The most common misspellings today are those that spell checkers cannot identify. The categories that spell checkers are most likely to miss include homonyms, compound words incorrectly spelled as sep- arate words, and proper nouns, particularly names. After you run the spell checker, proofread carefully for errors such as these — and be sure to run the spell checker to catch other kinds of spelling mistakes. (See 22e.) Mechanical error with a quotation � “I grew up the victim of a disconcerting confusion,”, Rodriguez says (249). The comma should be placed inside the quotation marks. Follow conventions when using quotation marks with commas (38h), colons (43d), and other punctuation (42f). Always use quotation marks 6 5 4 6 Top Twenty A quick guide6 ^ ^ ^ ^ 02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042)_02_LUN_66490_Pt01_(003-042).qxd 11/30/11 2:04 PM Page 6 in pairs, and follow the guidelines of your documentation style for block quotations (42b). Use quotation marks for titles of short works (42c), but use italics for titles of long works (46a). Unnecessary comma BEFORE CONJUNCTIONS IN COMPOUND CONSTRUCTIONS THAT ARE NOT COMPOUND SENTENCES � This conclusion applies to the United States, and to the rest of the world. No comma is needed before and because it is joining two phrases that modify the same verb, applies. WITH RESTRICTIVE ELEMENTS � Many parents, of gifted children, do not want them to skip a grade. No comma is needed to set off the restrictive phrase of gifted children, which is necessary to indicate which parents the sentence is talking about. Do not use commas to set off restrictive elements that are necessary to the meaning of the words they modify. Do not use a comma before a co- ordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) when the conjunc- tion does not join parts of a compound sentence. Do not use a comma before the first or after the last item in a series, between a subject and verb, between a verb and its object or complement, or between a prepo- sition and its object. (See 38j.) U

Analyzing and Composing

About College Writing 1 The Top Twenty: A Quick

Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing

2 Expectations for College Writing

3 Oral and Multimedia Assignments

student presentation 4 Design for College Writing

The Writing Process 5 Writing Situations 6 Exploring Ideas 7 Planning and Drafting 8 Developing Paragraphs 9 Reviewing and Revising 10 Editing and Reflecting revised student draft student statement

Critical Thinking and Argument 11 Critical Reading 12 Analyzing Arguments student analysis 13 Constructing Arguments student essay

Research 14 Preparing for a Research

Project 15 Doing Research 16 Evaluating Sources and

Taking Notes 17 Integrating Sources and

Avoiding Plagiarism

18 Writing a Research Project

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MLA Documentation 48 MLA Style for In-Text

Citations 49 Explanatory and Bibliographic

Notes 50 List of Works Cited 51 student essay, mla style

APA, Chicago, and CSE Documentation 52 APA Style student essay, apa style 53 Chicago Style student essay, chicago style 54 CSE Style student proposal, cse style

For Multilingual Writers 55 Writing in U.S. Academic

Genres 56 Clauses and Sentences 57 Nouns and Noun Phrases 58 Verbs and Verb Phrases 59 Prepositions and

Prepositional Phrases

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Discipline 61 Writing for the Humanities student essay 62 Writing for the Social Sciences student report 63 Writing for the Natural and

Applied Sciences student lab report 64 Writing for Business student documents

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25 Consistency and Completeness

26 Parallelism 27 Shifts 28 Conciseness 29 Sentence Variety

Sentence Grammar 30 Basic Grammar 31 Verbs 32 Subject-Verb Agreement 33 Pronouns 34 Adjectives and Adverbs 35 Modifier Placement 36 Comma Splices and Fused

Sentences 37 Sentence Fragments

Punctuation and Mechanics 38 Commas 39 Semicolons 40 End Punctuation 41 Apostrophes 42 Quotation Marks 43 Other Punctuation 44 Capital Letters 45 Abbreviations and Numbers 46 Italics 47 Hyphens

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The EVERYDAY

Writer With Exercises

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The EVERYDAY

Writer With Exercises

Fourth Edition

BEDFORD / ST. MARTIN’S Boston ◆ New York

Andrea A. Lunsford STANFORD UNIVERSITY

A section for multilingual writers with

Paul Kei Matsuda ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

Christine M. Tardy DEPAUL UNIVERSITY

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For Bedford / St. Martin’s

Senior Developmental Editor: Carolyn Lengel Senior Production Editor: Harold Chester Assistant Production Manager: Joe Ford Senior Marketing Manager: John Swanson Art Director: Lucy Krikorian Text Design: Anne Carter Copy Editor: Wendy Polhemus-Annibell Photo Research: Martha Friedman, Connie Gardner Cover Design: Donna Lee Dennison Cover Art and Illustrations: Eric Larsen Composition: Pre-Press PMG Printing and Binding: Quebecor World Taunton

President: Joan E. Feinberg Editorial Director: Denise B. Wydra Editor in Chief: Karen S. Henry Director of Development: Erica T. Appel Director of Marketing: Karen R. Soeltz Director of Editing, Design, and Production: Marcia Cohen Assistant Director of Editing, Design, and Production: Elise S. Kaiser Managing Editor: Shuli Traub

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009928112

Copyright © 2010 (APA update), 2009, 2005, 2001, 1997 by Bedford/St. Martin’s All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

5 4 3 2 1 0 f e d c b a

For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000)

ISBN-10: 0-312-66490-7; ISBN-13: 978-0-312-66490-9

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments and copyrights appear at the back of the book on pages 624 –625, which constitute an extension of the copyright page.

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How to Use This Book

The Everyday Writer provides a “short and sweet” writing reference you can use easily on your own — at work, in class, even on the run. Small enough to tuck into a backpack or briefcase, this text has been designed to help you find information quickly, efficiently, and easily. I hope that this book will prove to be an everyday reference — and that the follow- ing tips will lead you to any information you need.

Ways into the book

QUICK ACCESS MENU. Inside the front cover you’ll find a list of the book’s contents. Once you locate a general topic on the quick access menu, flip to the tabbed section of the book that contains information on the topic, and check the menu on the tabbed divider for the exact page.

USER-FRIENDLY INDEX. The index lists everything covered in the book. You can look up a topic either by its formal name (ellipses, for example) or, if you’re not sure what the formal name is, by a familiar word you use to describe it (such as dots).

BRIEF CONTENTS. Inside the back cover, a brief but detailed table of con- tents lists chapter titles and major headings.

GUIDE TO THE TOP TWENTY. The first tabbed section provides guidelines for recognizing, understanding, and editing the most common errors in student writing today. This section includes brief explanations, hand- edited examples, and cross-references to other places in the book where you’ll find more detail.

CLEAR ADVICE ON RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION. Easy-to-follow source maps walk you step-by-step through the processes of selecting, evaluating, using, and citing sources. Documentation models appear in two tabbed sections — gold for MLA style and white for APA, Chicago, and CSE styles — with the different documentation styles color-coded in these sections.

REVISION SYMBOLS. If your instructor uses revision symbols to mark your drafts, you can consult the list of symbols at the back of the book and its cross-references to places in the book where you’ll find more help.

GLOSSARY OF USAGE. Chapter 19 gives quick advice on commonly con- fused and misused words.

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vi How to use this book

Ways to navigate the pages

GUIDES AT THE TOP OF EVERY PAGE. Headers tell you what chapter or subsection you’re in, the chapter number and section letter, the name of the tab, and the page number.

“AT A GLANCE” BOXES. These boxes at the beginning of most chap- ters — and elsewhere in the book as well — help you check your drafts with a critical eye and revise or edit.

BOXED TIPS THROUGHOUT THE BOOK.

• Tips on academic language, concepts, and style. “Talking the Talk” and “Talking about Style” boxes help you make sense of how writing works in the academic world and help you make stylistic choices for various kinds of writing — in communities, jobs, and disciplines.

• Tips for multilingual writers. Advice for multilingual writers appears in a separate tabbed section and in boxes throughout the book. You can also find a list of the topics covered, including language-specific tips, at the back of the book.

• Tips for considering disabilities. These boxes, which also ap- pear throughout the book, help you make your work accessible to readers with disabilities. If you’re a writer with a disability, these boxes also point out resources and strategies you may want to use.

• Tips on common assignments. Advice about dealing with the most common assignments in first-year writing — and in other disciplines — appears in boxed tips throughout the book.

HAND-EDITED EXAMPLES. Many examples are hand-edited in blue, allowing you to see the error and its revision at a glance. Pointers and boldface type make examples easy to spot on the page.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO THE WEB SITE. The Everyday Writer Web site expands the book’s coverage. The cross-references to the Web site point you to practical online resources — tutorials, interactive exer- cises, model papers, research and documentation help, and more.

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308 Grammar Adjectives and adverbs34b

AT A GLANCE

• Scrutinize each adjective and adverb. Consider synonyms for each word to see whether you have chosen the best word possible.

• See if a more specific noun would eliminate the need for an adjective (mansion rather than enormous house, for instance). Do the same with verbs and adverbs.

• Look for places where you might make your writing more specific or vivid by adding an adjective or adverb.

• Check that adjectives modify only nouns and pronouns and that adverbs modify only verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. (34b) Check especially for proper use of good and well, bad and badly, real and really. (34b and c)

• Make sure all comparisons are complete. (34c)

Editing Adjectives and Adverbs

Adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, and adverbs

In everyday conversation, you will often hear (and perhaps use) adjec- tives in place of adverbs. For example, people often say go quick instead of go quickly. When you write in standard academic English, however, use adverbs to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

carefully. � You can feel the song’s meter if you listen careful.

^really � The audience was real disappointed by the show.

^

34b

Using Adjectives with Plural Nouns

In Spanish, Russian, and many other languages, adjectives agree in number with the nouns they modify. In English, adjectives do not change number this way: the kittens are cute (not cutes).

FOR MULTILINGUAL WRITERS

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For exercises, go to Exercise Central and click on Adjectives and Adverbs.D

viiHow to use this book

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Preface

Today, perhaps more than ever before, everyone can be a writer — every day. From contributing entries to Wikipedia to blogging, texting, and posting to YouTube and Facebook, student writers are participating widely in what philosopher Kenneth Burke calls “the conversation of humankind.” As access to new writing spaces grows, so too do the po- tential audiences: many writers, for example, are in daily contact with people around the world, and their work goes out to millions. In such a time, writers need to think more carefully than ever about how to craft effective messages and how best to represent themselves to others.

These ever-expanding opportunities for writers, as well as the chal- lenges that inevitably come with them, have inspired this edition of The Everyday Writer — from the focus on thinking carefully about audience and purposes for writing and on attending to the “look” of writing, to the emphasis on the ways writing works across disciplines, to the ques- tions that new genres and forms of writing raise about citing and docu- menting sources and about understanding and avoiding plagiarism. What remains constant is the focus on the “everydayness” of writing and on down-to-earth, practical advice for how to write well in a multi- tude of situations.

What also remains constant is the focus on rhetorical concerns. In a time of such challenging possibilities, taking a rhetorical perspective is particularly important. Why? Because a rhetorical perspective rejects either/or, right/wrong, black/white approaches to writing in favor of asking what choices will be most appropriate, effective, and ethical in a given writing situation. A rhetorical perspective also means paying careful attention to the purposes we want to achieve and the audiences we want to address. Writers today need to maintain such a rhetorical perspective every single day, and The Everyday Writer, Fourth Edition, provides writers with the tools for doing so.

A note about MLA style

As you may know, the Modern Language Association publishes two different sets of guidelines: the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition (2003), for student writers; and the MLA Style Manual, Third Edition (2008), for scholars and professional writers. MLA has recommended that undergraduate writers continue to fol- low the guidelines outlined in the sixth edition of the MLA Handbook until the seventh edition is published in 2009. The Everyday Writer fol- lows that recommendation.

However, if you wish to follow the MLA Style Manual’s guidelines, you can request free copies of Documenting Sources: Supplement for Lunsford

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Handbooks (ISBN-10: 0-312-55455-9 or ISBN-13: 978-0-312-55455-2). Students and instructors can also download a free .pdf file of this booklet at bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter.

Highlights

ATTENTION TO GOOD WRITING, NOT JUST TO SURFACE CORRECTNESS. The Everyday Writer helps students understand that effective texts follow conventions that always depend on their audience, situation, and discipline.

HELP FOR THE MOST COMMON WRITING PROBLEMS. A new nationwide study that I conducted with Karen Lunsford — revisiting the original 1986 research that Bob Connors and I conducted on student writing — shows the problems U.S. college students are most likely to have in their writing today. This book’s first chapter presents a quick guide to troubleshooting the Top Twenty — with examples, explanations, and information on where to turn in the handbook for more detailed infor- mation. Additional findings from the study inform advice throughout the book.

UP-TO-DATE ADVICE ON RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION. As best prac- tices for research continue to evolve, so does The Everyday Writer. In this edition, you’ll find integrated coverage of library and online research to help students find authoritative and credible information in any medium, plus advice on integrating sources, avoiding plagiarism, us- ing social bookmarking tools for research, and citing sources in MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE documentation styles. Visual source maps in all four documentation sections show students how to evaluate, use, and document print and online sources.

COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF CRITICAL THINKING AND ARGUMENT. My work on Everything’s an Argument has strengthened my belief that argu- ment is integral to many kinds of writing, and I have expanded the cov- erage of critical thinking and argument in this edition and placed them in a separate tab to make the information even easier to find and use. Chapters 11–13 offer extensive advice on critical reading and analysis of both visual and verbal arguments, instruction on composing argu- ments, and two complete student essays.

EXPANDED HELP FOR WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES. Along with strategies for understanding discipline-specific assignments, vocabulary, style, and use of evidence, this edition offers more student writing samples than ever before, including research projects in MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE styles, business documents, and sample writing from introductory humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences courses.

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New to this edition

New advice based on Andrea Lunsford’s teaching and research

UNIQUE COVERAGE OF LANGUAGE AND STYLE. Unique chapters on lan- guage help students think about language in context and about the con- sequences that language choices have on writers and readers. Boxed tips throughout the book help students communicate effectively across cultures — and use varieties of language both wisely and well.

INTEGRATED EXERCISES. Exercises to help students practice writing, re- vising, thinking critically, and editing appear throughout the book. (An answer key appears in the Instructor’s Notes.)

AN INVITING DESIGN. The Everyday Writer makes information easy to find and appealing to read.

x Preface

• New “Talking the Talk” boxes answer real questions students ask about academic concepts.

• New “Common Assignments” boxes provide tips for succeeding with the kinds of writing projects and assignments that research shows students today are most likely to encounter in their classes.

• A new chapter on expectations for college writing helps students grapple with academic work.

Conventions TALKING THE TALK

“Aren’t conventions really just rules with another name?” Not entirely. Conventions — agreed-on language practices of grammar, punctuation, and style — convey a kind of shorthand information from writer to read- er. In college writing, you will want to follow the conventions of standard academic English unless you have a good reason to do otherwise. But unlike hard-and-fast rules, conventions are flexible; a convention appro- priate for one time or situation may be inappropriate for another. You may even choose to ignore conventions to achieve a particular effect. (You might, for example, write a sentence fragment rather than a full sentence, such as the Not entirely at the beginning of this box.) As you become more experienced and confident in your writing, you will develop a sense of which conventions to apply in different writing situations.

You are almost certain to get some form of analysis assignment during your first year of college. One common variety is the rhetorical analy- sis assignment, which essentially answers two big questions — What is the purpose of the text you are analyzing? How is that purpose achieved? — and focuses on how the text gets its meaning across.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS OF A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT

• Identify the purpose or purposes of the text. If the text has multiple purposes, point out any conflicts.

• Identify the primary audience for the text and any secondary au- diences, and explore how the text meets audience expectations or needs.

• Examine the author’s stance or attitude toward the topic: is it favor- able, critical, suspicious, neutral, or mocking? Identify parts of the text where such attitudes are evident, and show how they work to appeal to the audience.

• Explain how the text uses deliberate strategies (such as tone, word choice, sentence structure, design, special effects, choice of medium, choice of evidence, and so on) to achieve its purposes.

COMMON ASSIGNMENTS

Rhetorical Analysis

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• New and expanded coverage of reviewing and revising clarifies the relationship between review and revision, with advice on how to offer useful comments on peers’ writing and how to benefit from com- ments from both peers and instructors.

• A new section on reflecting on writing guides students in thinking back on their completed writing projects. A student reflective essay models the writing students are often asked to do for portfolio assessment.

9 Reviewing and Revising 82 a Reread 82 b Get responses from peers 84 c Consult instructor comments 88 d Revise 91

A student’s reflective statement

Here is a shortened version of the cover letter that James Kung wrote to accompany his first-year writing portfolio.

December 6, 2007

Dear Professor Ashdown:

“Writing is difficult and takes a long time.” This simple yet powerful

statement has been uttered so many times in our class that it has

essentially become our motto. During this class, my persuasive writing

skills have improved dramatically, thanks to many hours spent writing,

revising, polishing, and thinking about my topic. The various drafts,

revisions, and other materials in my portfolio show this improvement.

101Reflect Writ Process10b

James Kung

Student Writer

Reflective Statements

Research done for this book shows that one of the most common writ- ing assignments in college today is a reflective statement — in the form of a letter, a memo, or a home page — that explains and analyzes the contents of a portfolio.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS OF A REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT

• Think carefully about the overall impression you want the portfolio to create, and make sure that the tone and style of your reflective statement set the stage for the entire portfolio.

• Unless otherwise instructed, include in your cover letter a descrip- tion of what the portfolio contains and explain the purpose of each piece of writing you have chosen.

• Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your writing, using spe- cific passages from assignments in your portfolio to provide evi- dence for each point you make.

• Reflect on the most important things you have learned about writ- ing and about yourself as a writer.

• Conclude with plans for ongoing improvement in your writing.

COMMON ASSIGNMENTS

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• Integrated coverage of writing and media helps students understand that smarter rhetorical choices produce better writing, no matter what the genre or format.

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• New coverage for multilingual writers clarifies U.S. academic writing for every student with a multilingual background.

493

Xiaoming Li, now a college English teacher, says that before she came to the United States as a graduate student, she had been a “good writer” in China — in both English and Chinese. Once in the United States, however, she struggled to grasp what her teachers expected of her col- lege writing. While she could easily use grammar books and dictionar- ies, her instructors’ unstated expectations seemed to call for her to write in a way that was new to her.

Of course, writing for college presents many challenges; such writ- ing differs in many ways from high school writing as well as from per- sonal writing like text messaging or postings to social networking sites. If you grew up speaking and writing in other languages, however, the transition to producing effective college writing can be even more com- plicated. Not only will you have to learn new information and new ways of thinking and arguing, but you also have to do it in a language that may not come naturally to you — especially in unfamiliar rhetori- cal situations.

U.S. academic writing

The expectations for college writing are often taken for granted by in- structors. To complicate the matter further, there is no single “correct” style of communication in any country, including the United States. Ef- fective oral styles differ from effective written styles, and what is con- sidered good writing in one field of study is not necessarily appropriate in another. Even the variety of English often referred to as “standard” covers a wide range of styles (see Chapter 21). In spite of this wide vari- ation, several features are often associated with U.S. academic English:

• conventional grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics • organization that links ideas explicitly

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Writing in U.S. Academic Genres 55

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• Advice from the new research study is in- tegrated throughout the text, giving stu- dents the benefit of the most up-to-date information available on how college writing works.

A new Top Twenty based on new research

• The 2006 Lunsford and Lunsford study’s results show an increasing emphasis on researched and documented writing in college — a major change from the kinds of assignments given in the past. The new Top Twenty reflects this change as well as students’ evolving use of technology (including spell checkers).

allergy � The child suffered from a severe allegory to peanuts.

^ Allegory is a spell checker’s replacement for a misspelling of allergy.

of � The panel discussed the ethical implications on the situation.

^ Wrong-word errors can involve using a word with the wrong shade of meaning, using a word with a completely wrong meaning, or using a wrong preposition or another wrong word in an idiom. Selecting a word from a thesaurus without knowing its meaning or allowing a spell checker to correct spelling automatically can lead to wrong-word errors, so use these tools with care. If you have trouble with preposi- tions and idioms, memorize the standard usage. (See Chapter 22 on word choice and spelling and Chapter 59 on prepositions and idioms.)

Missing comma after an introductory element

� Determined to get the job done, we worked all weekend. � Although the study was flawed, the results may still be useful.

Readers usually need a small pause — signaled by a comma — between an introductory word, phrase, or clause and the main part of the sentence. Use a comma after every introductory element. When the introductory element is very short, you don‘t always need a comma, but including it is never wrong. (See 38a.)

Incomplete or missing documentation (263).”

� Satrapi says, “When we’re afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection.’’

The page number of the print source for this quotation must be included.

� According to one source, James Joyce wrote two of the five best novels (Modern Library 100 Best).

of all time. ^

The source mentioned should be indentified (this online source has no page numbers).

Cite each source you refer to in the text, following the guidelines of the doc- umentation style you are using. (The preceding examples follow MLA style — see Chapters 48–51; for other styles, see Chapters 52–54.) Omitting documentation can result in charges of plagiarism (see Chapter 17).

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5Incomplete or missing documentation Top Twenty3

^ ^

^

among U.S. college students today, listed here in order of frequency. A brief explanation and examples of each error are provided in the fol- lowing sections, and each error pattern is cross-referenced to other places in this book where you can find more detailed information and additional examples.

4 Top Twenty A quick guide1

D

Wrong word precedence

� Religious texts, for them, take prescience over other kinds of sources.

^ Prescience means “foresight,” and precedence means “priority.”

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AT A GLANCE

1. Wrong word

2. Missing comma after an introductory element

3. Incomplete or missing documentation

4. Vague pronoun reference

5. Spelling (including homonyms)

6. Mechanical error with a quotation

7. Unnecessary comma

8. Unnecessary or missing capitalization

9. Missing word

10. Faulty sentence structure

11. Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element

12. Unnecessary shift in verb tense

13. Missing comma in a compound sentence

14. Unnecessary or missing apostrophe (including its/it’s)

15. Fused (run-on) sentence

16. Comma splice

17. Lack of pronoun-antecedent agreement

18. Poorly integrated quotation

19. Unnecessary or missing hyphen

20. Sentence fragment

The Top Twenty

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For advice on learning from your own most common writing problems, go to Writing Resources and click on Taking a Writing Inventory.

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SOURCE MAP: Using Sources Effectively

How appropriate is the source for the argument you are making? Read carefully, and be sure you understand exactly how the material in the source relates to your point. (See Chapter 12.) Student Amanda Rinder, in doing research for a paper about Chicago architecture (see p. 469), discovered a major debate between the city’s preservationists and devel- opers, which she wanted to document. This Chicago Tribune article by architecture critic Paul Gapp provided the information she needed.

How does each source contribute to your argument? Identifying the purpose of each source can help keep your research relevant and ensure that you fill in any gaps (and avoid repetition). Amanda used both para- phrases (highlighted) and quotations (underlined) from the Gapp article to present a clear overview of the issues of architectural preservation and to offer strong support for the preservation of the McCarthy Building. She used images, including this one of the McCarthy Building, as examples of the architectural style that preservationists wanted to save. She also did background research on Paul Gapp and learned, from his obituary in the New York Times, that he had won a Pulitzer Prize for his architecture criti- cism. She did not ultimately include information from the obituary in her paper, but it helped her be certain of Gapp’s credibility on her topic.

Do your sources include fair representations of opposing views? Consider what else you need to include to present a complete picture of the argument. Amanda paraphrased Gapp’s balanced discussion of the pros and cons of protecting the McCarthy Building. She also found addi- tional sources on both sides of the issue.

How convincing will your sources be to your audience? Make sure that the evidence you choose will seem credible and logical (13e–f). Amanda identified Gapp as “a Chicago Tribune architecture critic” to show him as an authority on her topic. Her other sources included books by architects and historians and other articles on architecture from major newspapers in Chicago and elsewhere.

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Indeed, that sort of restoration was originally envisioned by real estate developers when

the city–acting under its renewal powers–tentatively decided in 1983 to accept a bid of

$12.6 million for the full block of land on which the McCarthy stands. The McCarthy

and two other old buildings were to have been linked to a glass enclosed shopping arcade

connecting Dearborn and State Streets.

Late last summer, however, the city was notified of a change of mind by the development

group consisting of the Levy Organization, JMB Realty and Metropolitan Structures. The

group said it wanted to tear down the buildings and construct an office high-rise in their

place.

To make up for the McCarthy’s loss, the developers offered to contribute $2 million to

the city for development of a “Theater Row” project in the North Loop, tied to existing

theatrical venues.

When the LPC said it might not oppose such a deal, it was attacked by the City Club of

Chicago and restoration authority John Vinci, among others. “The developer’s offer is

tantamount to a civic shakedown,” said Larry P. Horist, the City Club’s executive

director. Vinci said the LPC’s vacillation “destroys its integrity.”

Today, City Hall is trapped and squirming in the middle.

If it stands fast in favor of the McCarthy, it risks queering the land sale in an important

urban renewal area whose upgrading has already been plagued by political, legal, tax

assessment and other problems.

If it rescinds the McCarthy’s landmark status and allows demolition, the city will have

gone on record as favoring the allure of the dollar over Chicago’s architectural heritage.

(Moving the McCarthy to another site, which has also been suggested, would amount to

the same kind of surrender and set a dangerous precedent).

It’s a tough decision, and the politicians will be faulted in either case. Yet anyone who

cares for the irreplaceable historical and cultural fabric of the city can hardly take

anything but the long view:

The McCarthy and most of Chicago’s other official architecture landmarks were in place

long before any of today’s politicians and real estate developers (or you and I) were born.

Is it too much to hope that they will continue to grace our ravaged but still great city long

after all of us are gone?

forgotten that the state building, designed by Helmut Jahn, was always intended to be the

anchor of the redevelopment area.

Municipal planners finally decided to spare seven historic buildings in the renewal district

by making them landmarks, and the city council gave the designation to:

— The McCarthy, designed in 1872 by John M. Van Osdel.

— The Chicago Theater, 175 N. State St., a Rapp & Rapp-designed masterpiece built in

1921.

— The Page Brothers Building, just north of the Chicago Theater, another Van Osdel

building constructed in 1872 and notable chiefly for its full cast iron north facade–the

only surviving example of its kind here.

— The handsome Harris and Selwyn Theaters at 180 and 190 N. Dearborn St., built in

1922 on designs by H. Kenneth Franzheim and C. Howard Crane.

— The Oliver Building at 159 N. Dearborn St., a good-looking Chicago- style office

structure designed by Holabird & Roche in 1907.

— The Delaware Building, 36 W. Randolph St., an 1872 structure by Wheelock and

Thomas. Its Italianate style and corner location give it a strong resemblance to the

McCarthy.

When the Chicago Theater and Page Brothers buildings were almost destroyed by their

previous owners a couple of years ago, it was a reminder that landmark designation is no

guarantee of preservation. It can only delay demolition while potential ways of saving a

building are explored. (The Chicago and the Page, rescued after lengthy litigation, are

now well on the way to extended lives under new ownership and an ambitious restoration

program).

And so we consider the present McCarthy Building situation, which might be described

as an impasse on its way to becoming a brouhaha.

The city council gave the McCarthy landmark status because it is a rare and distinguished

example of work by Van Osdel, who was Chicago’s first professional architect. Created in

an Italianate style just a year after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the McCarthy’s

carefully detailed masonry and iron facades reflect the same look Van Osdel selected

when he designed the third Palmer House hotel a few years later.

If the garish signs that degrade the McCarthy were simply removed, that alone would

reveal the building as a stunningly appealing relic from Chicago’s 19th Century

renaissance era. Replacing the little five-story building’s lost cornice and restoring its

base would present no technical problems.

MCCARTHY BUILDING PUTS LANDMARK LAW

ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH DEVELOPERS

[FINAL EDITION, C]

Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) – Chicago, Ill.

Author: Paul Gapp, Architecture critic

Date: Apr 20, 1986

Section: ARTS

Text Word Count: 1142

Document Text

Chicago’s commitment to saving municipally designated landmarks is undergoing one of

its most crucial tests. If a little gem of a structure called the McCarthy Building is torn

down, the city’s landmarks protection ordinance will be devalued almost to the vanishing

point.

The McCarthy stands at the northeast corner of Dearborn and Washington Streets, just

across from Daley Civic Center. Its dignified facades are defaced by so many ugly signs

that most pedestrians see the building only as a rude smear on the streetscape. Yet the

McCarthy’s esthetic and historical value is undeniable, which is why the city council

gave the building landmark status in the first place.

Now, however, a real estate development group wants to demolish the McCarthy to make

room for an office tower. Because the building stands on municipally controlled urban

renewal land, the city has both the leverage to save it and a reason for allowing its

destruction. This landmark scenario is unprecedented and could hardly be stickier.

The McCarthy and several other important old buildings first appeared threatened in the

early 1970s when the city began drafting the North Loop urban renewal plan. In 1973,

the private Landmarks Preservation Council (LPC) asked officials to spare such

buildings, but the city brushed aside the plea.

Under an early version of the North Loop urban renewal program announced in 1978,

more than 50 buildings–including all nine movie houses then extant –were to be

destroyed in a seven-block area.

Among structures marked for demolition were seven–including the McCarthy –already

listed on the federal National Register of Historic Places. Preservation officials in

Washington warned that their destruction could mean a loss of federal renewal money,

and City Hall began reshuffling its plans.

The tangle of events that followed into the 1980s found the city repeatedly changing its

mind about what should and should not be saved from destruction.

While this was going on, demolition in the renewal area began with the Sherman House

hotel, which fell to make way for the new State of Illinois Center. Most people have

August 11, 1992

Paul Gapp, 64, Journalist, Dies;

Architecture Critic W on Pulitzer

By HERBERT M USCHAM

P

Paul Gapp, the Pulitzer Prizewinning architecture critic for The Chicago Tribune, died on

July 30 at Northwest M emorial Hospital in Chicago. He was 64 years old and lived in

Chicago.He died of lung cancer complicated by emphysema, his office said.

M r. Gapp was born in Cleveland in 1928. He began his career in journalism with The

Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch after graduating from Ohio University in 1950. Six years

later, he joined The Chicago Daily News, where he worked as a reporter, editorial writer

and features editor. In 1972, M r. Gapp joined The Chicago Tribune as assistant city

editor for urban affairs. He was appointed architecture critic in 1974 and won the Pulitzer

Prize for criticism in 1979.

M r. Gapp’s interest in architecture grew out of his love for Chicago, which he once

described as “the last of the great American cities, a city of great elegance and great

charm.” His writings on architecture helped readers grasp the role of buildings in

Chicago’s social and political life.

179178

3

4

2

1

Spell Checkers and Wrong-Word Errors TALKING THE TALK

“Can I trust spell checkers to correct a word I’ve spelled wrong?” In a word, no. The spell checker may suggest bizarre substitutes for many proper names and specialized terms (even when you spell them cor- rectly) and for certain typographical errors, thus introducing wrong words into your paper if you accept its suggestions automatically. For example, a student who had typed fantic instead of frantic found that the spell checker’s first choice was to substitute fanatic — a replacement that made no sense. Wrong-word errors are the most common surface error in college writing today (see Chapter 1), and spell checkers are partly to blame. So be careful not to take a spell checker’s recommen- dation without paying careful attention to the replacement word.

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A more visual approach to writing, research, and documentation

• Ample photographs and illustrations show as well as tell students how to make better choices throughout the writing process.

xiv Preface

• Color-coded source maps in the Research tab, the MLA tab, and the APA, Chicago, and CSE tab make it easier than ever to see what’s needed to evaluate, use, and document sources well.

SOURCE MAP: Works from Web sites, MLA style

You may need to browse other parts of a site to find some elements, and some sites omit elements. Find as much information as you can.

Author of the work. End with a period. If no author is given, begin with the title.

Title of the work. Enclose the title and any subtitle in quotation marks.

Title of the Web site. Underline the title. Where there is no clear title, use a label such as Home page.

Date of publication or latest update. Give the most recent date.

Name of the sponsoring organization. The sponsor’s name often appears at the bottom of the home page.

Access information. Give the most recent date you accessed the work. Give the complete URL, enclosed in angle brackets. If the URL is very long and complicated, give the URL of the site’s search page instead. If the URL will not fit on one line, break it only after a slash, and do not add a hyphen.

For a work from a Web site, use the following format:

Last name, First name. “Title of work.” Title of Web site. Date of publication or latest

update. Sponsoring organization. Date accessed <Web address>.

A citation for the work on p. 399 would look like this:

AUTHOR TITLE OF WORK TITLE OF SITE

Tønnesson, Øyvind. “Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate.” Nobelprize.org.

PUBL. DATE SITE SPONSOR ACCESS DATE AND URL

1 Dec. 1999. Nobel Foundation. 5 Mar. 2008 <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/

peace/articles/gandhi/index.html>.

For more on using MLA style to cite Web documents, see pp. 392–402. (For guidelines and models for using APA style, see pp. 435–45; for Chicago style, see pp. 460–66; for CSE style, see pp. 482–85.)

6

5

4

3

2

1

1

2

3

4

5

6

• What do members of your audience already know about your topic? Do you need to provide background information or to define terms?

• What sorts of information and evidence will your audience find most compelling — quotations from experts? personal experi- ences? photographs? diagrams or charts?

• What kinds of appeals will be most effective in reaching this audience? • What response(s) do you want to evoke?

As you think about your readers, consider how you want them to respond to both the words and the images you use. Be particularly aware that images will often evoke very strong responses in your audi- ence, so choose them with special care. What audience(s), for exam- ple, can you imagine for this image from an early Ramones performance? How do you think dif- ferent audiences would respond to this image?

Analyze the purpose of your writing.

• What is the primary purpose of the piece of writing — to explain? to persuade? to entertain? some other purpose? If you aren’t sure, think about what you want to accomplish, or talk with the person who gave you the assignment. Are there secondary purposes to keep in mind?

• What purpose did the person who gave you the assignment want to achieve — to make sure you have understood something? to evaluate your thinking and writing abilities? to test your ability to think outside the box?

• What are your own purposes in this piece of writing — to respond to a question? to learn about a topic? to communicate your ideas? to express feelings? How can you achieve these goals?

• What, exactly, does the assignment ask you to do? Look for words such as analyze, classify, compare, define, describe, explain, prove, and survey. Remember that these words may differ in meaning from discipline to discipline.

• What information do you need to gather to complete the task? • Should you limit –– or broaden –– the topic to make it more compelling

to you and your audience? What problems does the assignment

5d

47Analyze your purpose Writ Process5d

suggest? If you wish to redefine the assignment, check with the per- son who assigned it.

• What are the specific requirements of the assignment?

Analyze your position as a writer or speaker.

Thinking about your own position as a writer and your attitudes to- ward your topic and your audience — your rhetorical stance — is impor- tant to making sure you communicate well.

• What is your overall attitude toward the topic? How strong are your opinions?

• What social, political, religious, personal, or other influences ac- count for your attitude?

• What do you know about the topic? What questions do you have about it?

• What interests you most and least about the topic? Why? • What seems important — or unimportant — about the topic? • What preconceptions, if any, do you have about it? • What do you expect to conclude about the topic? • How will you establish your credibility (ethos); that is, how will you

show that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy?

Images you choose to include in your writing can also help estab- lish your credibility. Remember, however, that images always have a point of view or perspective. The postcard seen here, for example, illus- trates two physical perspectives — a photograph of a highway bridge and a road map showing its location — as well as a time perspective — from 1927, when the bridge was new. Images also often reveal attitudes; this one, with its caption “America’s Greatest Highway Bridge,” sees the

5e

48 Writ Process Writing situations5e

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xvPreface

• Fresh, fun new visual “game plans” help students take a hands-on approach to planning and developing their writing. A complete list of game plan pages appears in a directory at the back of the book.

• An updated design makes the look more student-friendly than ever.

Careful citation shows your reader that you’ve done your homework. . . . It amounts to

laying your intellectual cards on the table.

— JACK LYNCH

MMLLAA DDooccuummeennttaattiioonn

All readers build worlds in their minds made of words and visuals. Think of a time when you were reading or looking at images and sud- denly realized that you were not absorbing information but just staring at a jumble of marks on a page or a screen. Only when you went back and concentrated on meaning were you really reading.

Think critically about written texts.

Reading critically means asking questions about what you are reading. A critical reader does not simply accept what the author says but ana- lyzes why the text is convincing (or not convincing). Writer Anatole Broyard once cautioned readers about the perils of “just walking through” a text. A good reader, he suggested, doesn’t just walk but “stomps around” in a text — highlighting passages, scribbling in the margins, jotting questions and comments.

Preview and annotation

The article “Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Mother- hood,” by Louise Story, appeared on pp. A1 and A18 of the New York Times on September 20, 2005. The first portion of the article appears on pp. 106–07, with a student’s preview notes and annotations.

11a

Critical Reading 11

105

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter To read the article in its entirety, go to Writing Resources and click on Argument Resources/Critical Reading.D

Summary

Here is how the same student summarized Louise Story’s article.

A group of women at Ivy League schools told a reporter who surveyed and interviewed them that they planned to stop working or cut back on work when they had children. The reporter suggests that the women’s responses are evidence of a trend and of “changing attitudes.”

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A wide array of ancillaries

NEW MEDIA RESOURCES

CompClass with The Everyday Writer e-Book bedfordstmartins.com/compclass

Online Student Center for The Everyday Writer (free book-specific resources and premium content, including The Everyday Writer e-Book) bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter

Exercise Central 3.0 bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral

Electronic Diagnostic Tests bedfordstmartins.com/lunsforddiagnostics

Just-in-Time Teaching bedfordstmartins.com/justintime

Exercise Central to Go for Handbooks by Andrea A. Lunsford CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-43114-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-43114-3

PRINT RESOURCES

Instructor’s Notes, Andrea Lunsford, Alyssa O’Brien, and Lisa Dresdner (includes answer key for exercises in The Everyday Writer with Exercises) ISBN-10: 0-312-48861-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-48861-1

Exercises to Accompany THE EVERYDAY WRITER, Fourth Edition, Lex Runciman, Carolyn Lengel, and Kate Silverstein ISBN-10: 0-312-38653-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-38653-5

Answer Key to Exercises to Accompany THE EVERYDAY WRITER, Fourth Edition ISBN-10: 0-312-48858-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-48858-1

xvi Preface

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xviiPreface

OTHER COMPOSITION RESOURCES FROM BEDFORD/ST. MARTIN’S

ix visual exercises CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-41562-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-41562-4

i-cite visualizing sources CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-44179-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-44179-1

i-claim visualizing argument CD-ROM ISBN-10: 0-312-44015-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-44015-2

COURSE MANAGEMENT CONTENT

Resources developed for The Everyday Writer are available for use in course management systems.

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Acknowledgments

I owe an ongoing debt of gratitude to Carolyn Lengel, my editor for this and two other books as well: her patience, fortitude, and sheer hard work, her astute judgment, her wellspring of good ideas, her meticu- lous attention to detail, and her great good humor are gifts that just keep on giving. I am also very fortunate to have had the advice and help of Fran Weinberg, who has made invaluable and ongoing contri- butions to this text; to Stephanie Butler, for her outstanding work on the ancillaries to this text, including the Instructor’s Notes; to Wendy Anni- bell for her meticulous copyediting; to Mara Weible for huge contribu- tions to our online handbook tutorials; to Sarah Ferguson for her work on the book’s new media components; to Anne Carter and Anna Palchik for their brilliant contributions to art and design; to Donna Dennison for cover art; to Eric Larsen for his imaginative illustrations; and to Harold Chester, project editor par excellence.

Many thanks, also, to the unfailingly generous and supportive members of the Bedford/St. Martin’s team: Erica Appel, Kristin Bowen, Nick Carbone, Joan Feinberg, Jimmy Fleming, Joe Ford, Karen Henry, Nancy Perry, Katie Schooling, Karen Soeltz, John Swanson, Shuli Traub, Kim White, and Denise Wydra.

I am especially indebted to Paul Kei Matsuda and Christine Tardy for their extraordinarily helpful additions to the Multilingual Writer sec- tions of this book; to Lisa Ede for her ongoing support and advice, par- ticularly about writing across the disciplines; to Lisa Dresdner at Norwalk Community College for her fine work on updating the Instructors’ Notes; and to Dànielle Nicole DeVoss at Michigan State Univer- sity for her help in making this a more visual book. I have also benefited greatly from the excellent advice of some very special colleagues: Colin Gifford Brooke, Syracuse University; Barbara Fister, Gustavus Adolphus College; Patrick Clauss, Butler University; Arnold Zwicky, Stanford University; Beverly Moss, Ohio State University; and Marilyn Moller.

I owe special thanks to the group of student writers whose work appears in and enriches this book and its companion Web site: Michelle Abbott, Carina Abernathy, Milena Ateyea, Julie Baird, Jennifer Bernal, Valerie Bredin, Taurean Brown, Tessa Cabello, Ben Canning, Leah Clen- dening, David Craig, Kelly Darr, Allyson Goldberg, Tara Gupta, Joanna Hays, Dana Hornbeak, Ajani Husbands, Bory Kea, James Kung, Emily Lesk, Nastassia Lopez, Heather Mackintosh-Sims, Merlla McLaughlin, Jenny Ming, Laura Montgomery, Elva Negrete, Katie Paarlberg, Shan- nan Palma, Teal Pfeifer, Amrit K. Rao, Heather Ricker, Amanda Rinder, Dawn Rodney, Rudy Rubio, Melissa Schraeder, Bonnie Sillay, Jessica Thrower, and Dennis Tyler.

Once again, I have been guided by a group of hard-working and meticulous reviewers, including Thomas Amorose, Seattle Pacific

xviii Preface

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xixPreface

University; Heidi R. Anderson, University of Minnesota Duluth; Dominic Ashby, West Virginia University; Susan Bailor, Front Range Community College; Peggy Beck, Kent State University Stark; Judy Bennett, University of Louisiana at Monroe; Mona Diane Benton, Eastern Michigan University; Monica Bosson, City College of San Francisco; Domenic Bruni, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; Jo Anne R. Bryant, Troy University; Jennifer Castillo, Eastern Michigan University; Christian M. Clark, Community College of Southern Nevada; Barbara Cole, The State University of New York at Buffalo; Teresa Cordova, California State University, Sacramento; Margaret Cotter-Lynch, Southeastern Oklahoma State University; Cynthia Cox, Belmont University; Charles DiDomenico, Middlesex County College; Sid Dobrin, University of Florida; Doug Downs, Utah Valley State College; Lisa Dresdner, Norwalk Community College; Anne-Marie Drew, United States Naval Academy; Violet A. Dutcher, Eastern Mennonite University; Heidi Estrem, Boise State University; Diana Fernandez, Florida International University; Patricia Rowe Geenen, Alverno College; Holly Geil, Kent State University; Nathan Gorelick, State University of New York at Buf- falo; Andrew Green, University of Miami; Eric Gunnink, University of St. Francis; Kim Gunter, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Scot Hanson, Texas Christian University; Christopher S. Harris, Univer- sity of Louisiana at Monroe; Kimberly Harrison, Florida International University–Biscayne Bay; Anneliese Homan, State Fair Community College; Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson, Miami University of Ohio; Jon A. Leydens, Colorado School of Mines; Meredith A. Love-Steinmetz, Francis Marion University; Suzanne Blum Malley, Columbia College Chicago; Patricia Mandia, Kent State University Stark; Jessica Matthews, George Mason University; Cynthia Maxson, Rio Salado Col- lege; Kathy Mendt, Front Range Community College; Kerri Mitchell, Front Range Community College; Winifred Morgan, Edgewood Col- lege; Roxanne Munch, Joliet Junior College; Kim Murray, University of Southern Florida; Beverly A. Neiderman, Kent State University; Jerry L. Nelson, Lincoln University; Troy D. Nordman, Butler Community Col- lege; Shelley Harper Palmer, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College; Cherri Porter, American River College and Woodland Community Col- lege; Carolee Ritter, Southeast Community College; Deidre Farrington Schoolcraft, Pikes Peak Community College; Shawna Shapiro, Univer- sity of Washington; Mary Beth Simmons, Villanova University; Kim- berly Skeen, College of Southern Idaho; Wayne Stein, University of Central Oklahoma; Jane VanderVelde, University of Kansas; Megan Ward, Miami University of Ohio; Elizabeth Wardle, University of Day- ton; Peggy Woods, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Susan Dara Wright, William Paterson University; and Sarah L. Yoder, Texas Christian University.

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For offering advice and perspectives from disciplines other than composition, I would like to extend particular thanks to the following reviewers: Carole Anderson, The Ohio State University; Robert Bulman, St. Mary’s College of California; Patrick J. Castle, United States Air Force Academy; Rosemary Cunningham, Agnes Scott College; Bridget Drinka, University of Texas at San Antonio; John Hnida, Peru State Col- lege; Kareem J. Johnson, Temple University; Steve Naragon, Manches- ter College; Tracy Ann Robinson, Oregon State University; and Timothy J. Shannon, Gettysburg College.

Finally, and always, I continue to learn—from my students, who serve as the major inspiration for just about everything I do; from the very best sisters, nieces, and nephews anyone has ever had; and from my spectacular great-nieces, Audrey and Lila: this book is for all of you.

–Andrea A. Lunsford

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A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

— OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

About College Writing

A b

o ut C

o lleg

e W riting

 

 

About College Writing

1 The Top Twenty: A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing 3

2 Expectations for College Writing 12 a Meeting expectations 12 b Academic writing 13 c Academic reading 14 d Electronic communication in academic life 16

3 Oral and Multimedia Assignments 18 a Class discussions 19 b Effective presentations 19 STUDENT POWERPOINT PRESENTATION 24 c Online presentations 26

4 Design for College Writing 27 a Visual structure 27 b Appropriate formats 29 c Effective headings 32 d Effective visuals 33 e Sample documents 38

A b

o ut

C o

lle g

e W

ri tin

g 1–

42

 

 

The Top Twenty: A Quick Guide to Troubleshooting Your Writing

Surface errors — grammar, punctuation, word choice, and other small- scale matters — don’t always disturb readers. Whether your instructor marks an error in any particular assignment will depend on personal judgments about how serious and distracting it is and about what you should be focusing on in the draft. In addition, not all surface errors are consistently viewed as errors: some of the patterns identified in the re- search for this book are considered errors by some instructors but as stylistic options by others. Such differing opinions don’t mean that there is no such thing as correctness in writing — only that correctness always depends on some context, on whether the choices a writer makes seem appropriate to readers.

Research for this book reveals a number of changes that have oc- curred in student writing over the past twenty-plus years. First, writing assignments in first-year composition classes now focus less on per- sonal narrative and much more on research essays and argument. As a result, students are now writing longer essays than they did twenty years ago and working much more often with sources, both print and nonprint. Thus it’s no surprise that students today are struggling with the conventions for using and citing sources, a problem that did not show up in most earlier studies of student writing.

What else has changed? For starters, wrong-word errors are by far the most common errors among first-year student writers today. Twenty years ago, spelling errors were most common by a factor of more than three to one. The use of spell checkers has reduced the number of spelling errors in student writing — but spell checkers’ suggestions may also be responsible for some (or many) of the wrong words stu- dents are using.

All writers want to be considered competent and careful. You know that your readers judge you by your control of the conventions you have agreed to use, even if the conventions change from time to time. To help you in producing writing that is conventionally correct, you should become familiar with the twenty most common error patterns

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among U.S. college students today, listed here in order of frequency. A brief explanation and examples of each error are provided in the fol- lowing sections, and each error pattern is cross-referenced to other places in this book where you can find more detailed information and additional examples.

4 Top Twenty A quick guide1

D

Wrong word precedence

� Religious texts, for them, take prescience over other kinds of sources.

^ Prescience means “foresight,” and precedence means “priority.”

1

AT A GLANCE

1. Wrong word

2. Missing comma after an introductory element

3. Incomplete or missing documentation

4. Vague pronoun reference

5. Spelling (including homonyms)

6. Mechanical error with a quotation

7. Unnecessary comma

8. Unnecessary or missing capitalization

9. Missing word

10. Faulty sentence structure

11. Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element

12. Unnecessary shift in verb tense

13. Missing comma in a compound sentence

14. Unnecessary or missing apostrophe (including its/it’s)

15. Fused (run-on) sentence

16. Comma splice

17. Lack of pronoun-antecedent agreement

18. Poorly integrated quotation

19. Unnecessary or missing hyphen

20. Sentence fragment

The Top Twenty

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For advice on learning from your own most common writing problems, go to Writing Resources and click on Taking a Writing Inventory.

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allergy � The child suffered from a severe allegory to peanuts.

^ Allegory is a spell checker’s replacement for a misspelling of allergy.

of � The panel discussed the ethical implications on the situation.

^ Wrong-word errors can involve using a word with the wrong shade of meaning, using a word with a completely wrong meaning, or using a wrong preposition or another wrong word in an idiom. Selecting a word from a thesaurus without knowing its meaning or allowing a spell checker to correct spelling automatically can lead to wrong-word errors, so use these tools with care. If you have trouble with preposi- tions and idioms, memorize the standard usage. (See Chapter 22 on word choice and spelling and Chapter 59 on prepositions and idioms.)

Missing comma after an introductory element

� Determined to get the job done, we worked all weekend. � Although the study was flawed, the results may still be useful.

Readers usually need a small pause — signaled by a comma — between an introductory word, phrase, or clause and the main part of the sentence. Use a comma after every introductory element. When the introductory element is very short, you don‘t always need a comma, but including it is never wrong. (See 38a.)

Incomplete or missing documentation

� Satrapi says, “When we’re afraid, we lose all sense of analysis and reflection.’’

The page number of the print source for this quotation must be included.

� According to one source, James Joyce wrote two of the five best novels (Modern Library 100 Best).

of all time. ^

The source mentioned should be indentified (this online source has no page numbers).

Cite each source you refer to in the text, following the guidelines of the doc- umentation style you are using. (The preceding examples follow MLA style — see Chapters 48–51; for other styles, see Chapters 52–54.) Omitting documentation can result in charges of plagiarism (see Chapter 17).

3

2

5Incomplete or missing documentation Top Twenty3

^ ^

^ (263).

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Vague pronoun reference

POSSIBLE REFERENCE TO MORE THAN ONE WORD

� Transmitting radio signals by satellite is a way of overcoming the

the airwaves problem of scarce airwaves and limiting how they are used.

In the original sentence, they could refer to the signals or to the airwaves.

REFERENCE IMPLIED BUT NOT STATED a policy

� The company prohibited smoking, which many employees resented.

What does which refer to? The editing clarifies what employees resented.

A pronoun should refer clearly to the word or words it replaces (called the antecedent) elsewhere in the sentence or in a previous sentence. If more than one word could be the antecedent, or if no specific an- tecedent is present, edit to make the meaning clear. (See Chapter 33.)

Spelling (including homonyms)

Reagan � Ronald Regan won the election in a landslide.

Everywhere � Every where we went, we saw crowds of tourists.

^ The most common misspellings today are those that spell checkers cannot identify. The categories that spell checkers are most likely to miss include homonyms, compound words incorrectly spelled as sep- arate words, and proper nouns, particularly names. After you run the spell checker, proofread carefully for errors such as these — and be sure to run the spell checker to catch other kinds of spelling mistakes. (See 22e.)

Mechanical error with a quotation

� “I grew up the victim of a disconcerting confusion,”, Rodriguez says (249). The comma should be placed inside the quotation marks.

Follow conventions when using quotation marks with commas (38h), colons (43d), and other punctuation (42f). Always use quotation marks

6

5

4

6 Top Twenty A quick guide6

^

^

^

^

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in pairs, and follow the guidelines of your documentation style for block quotations (42b). Use quotation marks for titles of short works (42c), but use italics for titles of long works (46a).

Unnecessary comma

BEFORE CONJUNCTIONS IN COMPOUND CONSTRUCTIONS THAT ARE NOT COMPOUND SENTENCES

� This conclusion applies to the United States, and to the rest of the world.

No comma is needed before and because it is joining two phrases that modify the same verb, applies.

WITH RESTRICTIVE ELEMENTS

� Many parents, of gifted children, do not want them to skip a grade.

No comma is needed to set off the restrictive phrase of gifted children, which is necessary to indicate which parents the sentence is talking about.

Do not use commas to set off restrictive elements that are necessary to the meaning of the words they modify. Do not use a comma before a co- ordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) when the conjunc- tion does not join parts of a compound sentence. Do not use a comma before the first or after the last item in a series, between a subject and verb, between a verb and its object or complement, or between a prepo- sition and its object. (See 38j.)

Unnecessary or missing capitalization

traditional medicines ephedra � Some Traditional Chinese Medicines containing Ephedra remain legal.

^ ^ ^ Capitalize proper nouns and proper adjectives, the first words of sen- tences, and important words in titles, along with certain words indicat- ing directions and family relationships. Do not capitalize most other words. When in doubt, check a dictionary. (See Chapter 44.)

Missing word against

� The site foreman discriminated women and promoted men with less experience.

9

8

7

7Missing word Top Twenty9

^

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Proofread carefully for omitted words, including prepositions (59a), parts of two-part verbs (58b), and correlative conjunctions (30h). Be par- ticularly careful not to omit words from quotations.

Faulty sentence structure

High � The information which high school athletes are presented with

^ they mainly includes information on what credits needed to graduate,

^colleges to try and thinking about the college which athletes are trying to play for,

^how to and apply.

^ A sentence that starts out with one kind of structure and then changes to another kind can confuse readers. Make sure that each sentence con- tains a subject and a verb (30b), that subjects and predicates make sense together (25b), and that comparisons have clear meanings (25e). When you join elements (such as subjects or verb phrases) with a coordinating conjunction, make sure that the elements have parallel structures (see Chapter 26).

Missing comma with a nonrestrictive element

� Marina, who was the president of the club, was first to speak. The clause who was the president of the club does not affect the basic meaning of the sentence: Marina was first to speak.

A nonrestrictive element gives information not essential to the basic meaning of the sentence. Use commas to set off a nonrestrictive ele- ment (38c).

Unnecessary shift in verb tense slipped fell

� Priya was watching the great blue heron. Then she slips and falls into ^ ^

the swamp.

12

11

10

8 Top Twenty A quick guide12

^ ^

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Verbs that shift from one tense to another with no clear reason can con- fuse readers (27a).

Missing comma in a compound sentence

� Meredith waited for Samir, and her sister grew impatient. Without the comma, a reader may think at first that Meredith waited for both Samir and her sister.

A compound sentence consists of two or more parts that could each stand alone as a sentence. When the parts are joined by a coordinating conjunction, use a comma before the conjunction to indicate a pause be- tween the two thoughts (38b).

Unnecessary or missing apostrophe (including its/it’s)

child’s � Overambitious parents can be very harmful to a childs well-being.

its It’s � The car is lying on it’s side in the ditch. Its a white 2004 Passat.

^ ^ To make a noun possessive, add either an apostrophe and an -s (Ed’s book) or an apostrophe alone (the boys’ gym). Do not use an apostro- phe in the possessive pronouns ours, yours, and hers. Use its to mean belonging to it; use it’s only when you mean it is or it has. (See Chapter 41.)

Fused (run-on) sentence but

� Klee’s paintings seem simple, they are very sophisticated. Although she

� She doubted the value of meditation, she decided to try it once. ^ ^

A fused sentence (also called a run-on) joins clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence with no punctuation or words to link them. Fused sentences must either be divided into separate sentences or joined by adding words or punctuation. (See Chapter 36.)

14

15

13

9Fused (run-on) sentence Top Twenty15

^

^

^

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Comma splice for

� I was strongly attracted to her, she was beautiful and funny.

that � We hated the meat loaf, the cafeteria served it every Friday.

^ A comma splice occurs when only a comma separates clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence. To correct a comma splice, you can in- sert a semicolon or period, connect the clauses with a word such as and or because, or restructure the sentence. (See Chapter 36.)

Lack of pronoun-antecedent agreement All students uniforms.

� Every student must provide their own uniform.

its � Each of the puppies thrived in their new home.

^ Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in gender (male or female) and in number (singular or plural). Many indefinite pronouns, such as everyone and each, are always singular. When a singular antecedent can refer to a man or a woman, either rewrite the sentence to make the an- tecedent plural or to eliminate the pronoun, or use his or her, he or she, and so on. When antecedents are joined by or or nor, the pronoun must agree with the closer antecedent. A collective noun such as team can be either singular or plural, depending on whether the members are seen as a group or as individuals. (See 33f.)

Poorly integrated quotation showed how color affects taste:

� A 1970s study of what makes food appetizing “Once it became apparent ^

that the steak was actually blue and the fries were green, some people

became ill” (Schlosser 565).

According to Lars Eighner, � “Dumpster diving has serious drawbacks as a way of life” (Eighner 383).

^ Finding edible food is especially tricky.

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17

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10 Top Twenty A quick guide18

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Quotations should fit smoothly into the surrounding sentence structure. They should be linked clearly to the writing around them (usually with a signal phrase) rather than dropped abruptly into the writing. (See 17b.)

Unnecessary or missing hyphen

� This paper looks at fictional and real life examples.

A compound adjective modifying a noun that follows it requires a hyphen.

� The buyers want to fix-up the house and resell it.

A two-word verb should not be hyphenated.

A compound adjective that appears before a noun needs a hyphen. However, be careful not to hypenate two-word verbs or word groups that serve as subject complements. (See Chapter 47.)

Sentence fragment

NO SUBJECT

� Marie Antoinette spent huge sums of money on herself and her favorites.

Her extravagance And helped bring on the French Revolution.

NO COMPLETE VERB

� The old aluminum boat sitting on its trailer.

BEGINNING WITH A SUBORDINATING WORD

� We returned to the drugstore., Where we waited for our buddies. A sentence fragment is part of a sentence that is written as if it were a complete sentence. Reading your draft out loud, backwards, sen- tence by sentence, will help you spot sentence fragments. (See Chapter 37.)

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11Sentence fragment Top Twenty20

^

^

^

^

was

where

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For practice identifying and correcting these writing problems, click on The Top Twenty. For additional exercises, click on Exercises.D

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A generation ago, many college students counted on holding one job throughout their careers and expected college to prepare them for that single job. Today’s students, however, are likely to hold a number of po- sitions — and each new position will call for new learning. That’s why looking at your college years as simply a step you have to take on the way toward your first job is a big mistake. College must do much more than simply prepare you for that first work experience, and you may need to adjust your expectations of what college should do for you in order to understand what your instructors will expect from you.

Meeting expectations

Your instructors — and your future colleagues and supervisors — will ex- pect you to demonstrate your ability to think critically, to consider ethical issues, to identify as well as solve problems, to research effectively, and to work productively with people of widely different backgrounds. In each of these endeavors, writing will be of crucial importance, since writing is closely tied to thinking, to collaboration, and to communication.

But if you are like most students, you may not have written any- thing much longer than five pages before coming to college. Perhaps you have done only minimal research. Your college classes will demand much more from you as a writer; meeting these demands will help pre- pare you for all the writing you will need to do in the future.

2a

Expectations for College Writing2

Conventions TALKING THE TALK

“Aren’t conventions really just rules with another name?” Not entirely. Conventions — agreed-on language practices of grammar, punctuation, and style — convey a kind of shorthand information from writer to reader. In college writing, you will want to follow the conventions of standard academic English unless you have a good reason to do otherwise. But un- like hard-and-fast rules, conventions are flexible; a convention appropri- ate for one time or situation may be inappropriate for another. You may even choose to ignore conventions to achieve a particular effect. (You might, for example, write a sentence fragment rather than a full sentence, such as the Not entirely at the beginning of this box.) As you become more experienced and confident in your writing, you will develop a sense of which conventions to apply in different writing situations.

12

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Academic writing

You can begin the process of learning by considering what your instructors expect you to be able to do. Of course, expecta- tions about academic writing vary consid- erably from field to field (see Chapters 60–64), but becoming familiar with wide- spread conventions will prepare you well for most academic situations.

Establishing authority

In the United States, most college instructors expect student writers to begin to establish their own authority — to become constructive critics who can analyze and interpret the work of others. But what does estab- lishing authority mean in practice?

• Assume that your opinions count (as long as they are informed rather than tossed out with little thought) and that your audience expects you to present them in a well-reasoned manner.

• Show your familiarity with the ideas and works of others, both from the assigned course reading and from good points your in- structor and classmates have made.

Being direct and clear

Your instructors will most often expect you to get to the point quickly and to be direct throughout an essay or other project. Re- search for this book confirms that readers depend on writers to or- ganize and present their material — using sections, paragraphs, sentences, arguments, details, and source citations — in ways that aid understanding. Good academic writing prepares readers for what is coming next, provides definitions, and includes topic sen- tences. (See 19f for a description of the organization that instructors often prefer in student essays.) To achieve directness in your writing, try the following strategies:

• State your main point early and clearly. • Avoid overqualifying your statements. Instead of writing I think the

facts reveal, come right out and say The facts reveal. • Avoid digressions. If you use an anecdote or example from personal

experience, be sure it relates directly to the point you are making. • Use appropriate evidence, such as examples and concrete details,

to support each point.

2b

13Academic writing Expectations 2b

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Academic reading

Your instructors expect you to be an active reader — to offer informed opinions on what readings say. Stating your opinion doesn’t require you to

2c

• Make transitions from point to point obvious and clear. The first sentence of a new paragraph should reach back to the para- graph before and then look forward to what is to come (see Chapter 8).

• Follow logical organizational patterns (see Chapter 8). • Design and format the project appropriately for the audience and

purpose you have in mind (see Chapter 4). • If your essay or project is longer than four or five pages, you may

also want to use brief summary statements between sections, but avoid unnecessary repetition.

EXERCISE 2.1: THINKING CRITICALLY

How do you define good college writing? List the characteristics you come up with. Then list what you think your instructors’ expectations are for good college writing, and note how they may differ from yours. What might account for the dif- ferences — and the similarities — in the two lists? Do you need to alter your ideas about good college writing to meet your instructors’ expectations? Why, or why not?

14 Expectations Expectations for college writing2c

AT A GLANCE

• Consider your purpose and audience carefully, making sure that your topic is appropriate to both. (Chapter 5)

• State your claim or thesis explicitly, and support it with examples, sta- tistics, anecdotes, and authorities of various kinds. (Chapter 7)

• Carefully document all of your sources. (Chapters 48–54)

• Make explicit links between ideas. (Chapter 8)

• Consistently use the appropriate level of formality. (Chapter 22)

• Use conventional formats for academic genres. (Chapters 3–4 and 60–63)

• Use conventional grammar, spelling, punctuation, and mechanics. (Chapters 30–47)

• Use an easy-to-read type size and typeface, conventional margins, and double spacing. (Chapter 4)

U.S. Academic Style

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15Academic reading Expectations 2c

be negative or combative, just engaged with the class and the text. The following strate- gies will help you read actively:

• Note the name of the author and the date and place of publication; these items can give you clues to the writer’s purpose and intended audience.

• Understand the overall content of a piece well enough to summarize it.

• Formulate critical questions about the text, and bring these questions up in class.

• Understand each sentence, and make direct connections between sentences and paragraphs. Keep track of repeated themes or images, and figure out how they contribute to the entire piece.

• Note the author’s attitude toward and assumptions about the topic. Then you can speculate on how the attitude and assumptions may have affected the author’s thinking.

• Distinguish between the author’s stance and the author’s reporting on the stances of others. Watch for key phrases an author uses to signal an opposing argument: while some have argued that, in the past, and so on.

• Go beyond content to notice organizational patterns, use of sources, and choice of words.

• Consider annotating your readings, especially if they are very im- portant. Make notes in the margins that record your questions, challenges, or counter-examples to the text.

EXERCISE 2.2

One of the best ways to improve your writing process is to analyze it from time to time in a writing log. Answer the following questions about your writing:

• How do you typically go about preparing for a writing assignment?

• When and where do your best ideas often come to you?

• Where do you usually write? Are you usually alone and in a quiet place, or is there music, conversation, or other sound in the background?

• What materials do you use? What do you find most and least helpful about your materials?

• What audience do most assignments ask you to address? How much thought do you typically give to your audience?

• What strategies do you typically use to explore a topic?

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• How do you usually write a first draft? Do you finish in one sitting, or do you prefer to work in sections?

• How do you typically revise, and what do you pay most attention to as you revise?

• If you get stuck while writing, what do you usually do to get moving again?

• What is most effective about your writing and your writing process?

• What about your writing and your writing process worries you? What specific steps can you take to address these worries?

• What is your favorite part of your writing process — and why?

You can also use the log to jot down your thoughts about a writing project while you are working on it and after you have completed it. Studying your notes on your writ- ing process will help you identify patterns of strength and weakness in your writing and allow you to see how your writing process changes over time and for different writing assignments or situations.

Electronic communication in academic life

Your instructors will probably expect you to communicate both in and out of class using a variety of media. You may be asked to post your work to course management systems, lists, blogs, and wikis, and you may respond to the work of others on such sites. In addi- tion, you will probably write email and text messages to your instructors and other stu- dents. Many people communicate electroni- cally so quickly and so often that their writing tends to be very informal or to take shortcuts. As always, remember to consider your audience and your situ- ation: you can write informally in a quick text message to a classmate, but when contacting your instructor, you should stick to the conventions of formal academic English unless invited to do otherwise.

Email

• Use a subject line that states your purpose accurately and clearly. • Take care not to offend or irritate your reader. Tone is difficult to

convey in online messages: what you intend as a joke may come across as an insult. Avoid writing messages in ALL CAPS.

• Be pertinent. Instructors generally expect short and to-the-point messages.

2d

16 Expectations Expectations for college writing2d

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17Electronic communication in academic life Expectations 2d

• Use a more formal tone along with a formal greeting and closing when posting a message to an instructor (Dear Ms. Aulie rather than Hi).

• Except in very informal situations, use the conventions of academic English. Proofread email messages just as you would other writing.

• Consider your email messages permanent and always findable, even if you delete them. Many people have been embarrassed (or worse, prosecuted) because of email trails.

• Conclude your message with your name and email address. • Make sure that the username on the email account you use for con-

tacting instructors and other authority figures does not present a poor impression. If your username is Party2Nite, consider chang- ing it, or use your school email account for academic and profes- sional communication.

Lists and discussion forums

Discussion forums are used in many college courses as a way for stu- dents to communicate with one another and the instructor about the course. Academic lists and forums are an extension of class discussions; remember to treat all participants with respect.

• Avoid unnecessary criticism of spelling or other errors. If a message is unclear, ask politely for a clarification. If you disagree with an as- sertion of fact, offer what you believe to be the correct information, but don’t insult the writer.

• If you think you’ve been insulted (flamed), give the writer the ben- efit of the doubt. Replying with patience establishes your credibil- ity and helps you seem mature and fair.

• Reply off-list to the sender of a message if the whole group does not need to read your reply.

• Keep in mind that many discussion forums and listservs are archived and that more people than you think may be reading your messages. Your postings create an impression of you, so make it a good one.

Web logs (blogs) and social networking spaces

Blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook allow users to say almost anything about themselves and to comment freely on the postings of others. Such online spaces can also be useful for academic discussion or for posting writing for others’ comments.

• These sites may feel private, but most aren’t — don’t post anything you don’t want everyone (including instructors and potential em- ployers) to see.

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18 Media Oral and multimedia assignments3

• To comment, follow the same conventions you would for com- menting on a discussion-list posting. It’s wise to become familiar with the conversation before you add a comment of your own and to avoid commenting on entries that are several days old.

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For more information on effective electronic communication, go to Writing Resources and click on Online Writing.D

AT A GLANCE

• How effectively do you contribute to class discussions? (3a)

• How does your presentation fulfill your purpose, including the goals of the assignment? (3b)

• How do the introduction and conclusion hold the audience’s atten- tion? (3b)

• Is your organizational structure crystal clear? How do you guide listeners? Are your transitions and signpost language explicit? Do you effectively repeat key words or ideas? (3b)

• Have you practiced your presentation and gotten response to it? (3b)

• Have you marked the text you are using for pauses and emphasis? (3b)

• Have you prepared all necessary visuals, including presentation slides and other multimedia? Are they large enough to be seen? Would other visuals be helpful? (3b)

Preparing for Presentations

EXERCISE 2.3

Choose several email messages you have sent recently — at least one of which is more formal than the others. Take a critical look at the messages you have chosen, noting differences and similarities and thinking about how easily readers could fol- low them. Bring your findings to class for discussion.

When the Gallup Poll reports on what U.S. citizens say they fear most, the findings are always the same: public speaking is apparently more frightening to us than almost anything else, even scarier than an attack from outer space. This chapter aims to allay any such fears you may have by offering guidelines that can help you prepare and deliver suc- cessful presentations.

Oral and Multimedia Assignments3

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Class discussions

The contributions you make to class discussions are mini-presentations. Make sure your contribu- tions are effective by following these guidelines:

• Be prepared. • Listen purposefully, following the flow of

conversation and perhaps taking notes. • Make sure your comments are relevant. Ask

a key question, take the conversation in a new direction, or summa- rize or analyze what others have said.

• Be specific in your comments: The passage in the middle of page 42 backs up what you’re saying is more useful than I agree.

3a

19Effective presentations 3b

Speaking Up in Class

Speaking up in class is viewed as inappropriate or even rude in some cultures. In the United States, however, doing so is expected and encour- aged. Some instructors even assign credit for such class participation.

FOR MULTILINGUAL WRITERS

Effective presentations

More and more students report that formal presentations are becoming part of their work both in and out of class. As you begin to plan for such a presentation, you should consider a number of issues.

Considering your task, purpose, and audience

Think about how much time you have to prepare; where the presenta- tion will take place; how long the presentation should run; whether you will use written-out text or note cards; whether visual aids, handouts, or other accompanying materials are necessary; and what equipment you will need. If you are making a group presentation, you will need time to divide duties and to practice with your classmates.

As with any writing assignment, consider the purpose of your presen tation. Are you to lead a discussion? teach a lesson? give a report? engage a group in an activity? Also consider your audience. What do they know about your topic, what opinions do they already hold about it, and what do they need to know to follow your presentation and perhaps accept your point of view?

3b

Media

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20 Media Oral and multimedia assignments3b

Making your introduction and conclusion memorable

Listeners tend to remember beginnings and endings most readily, so try to make these sections memorable. Consider, for example, using a star- tling statement, opinion, or question; a vivid anecdote; or a powerful quotation.

Using explicit structure and signpost language

Organize your presentation clearly and carefully, and give an overview of the main points at the outset. (You may want to recall these points to- ward the end of the talk.) Then, throughout your presentation, call atten- tion to a new point by pausing before it and by using signpost language as an explicit transition: The second crisis point in the breakup of the Soviet Union occurred shortly after the first is more explicit than Another thing went wrong. (For a list of transitions, see 8e.) Repeated key words and ideas work as signposts, too.

Turning writing into a script for presentation

If you will be using a full script in your presentation, double- or triple- space it, and use fairly large print so that it will be easy for you to see. Try to end each page with the end of a sentence so that you won’t have to pause while you turn a page. You may prefer to work from a detailed topic outline or from note cards. In any case, be sure to mark the places where you want to pause and to highlight the words you want to empha- size. To help listeners follow you, shorten long, complicated sentences, and use action verbs and concrete nouns.

The first example that follows is from an essay that the writer ex- pects the audience to read. The second example contains the same in- formation, but its writer plans to deliver it orally. Note how this second version uses explicit structure, signpost language, and repetition to make it easy to follow by ear. Note also how the student writer has rewritten complex sentences, marked his text for emphasis and pauses, and asked questions to involve the audience.

Accessible Presentations

Do all you can to make your presentations accessible. • Do not rely on color or visuals alone to get across information — some

individuals may be unable to pick up such cues.

• If you use video, provide captions to explain any sounds that won’t be audible to some audience members.

CONSIDERING DISABILITIES

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TEXT FROM A WRITTEN ESSAY

The Simpson family has occasionally been described as a “nuclear” family,

which obviously has a double meaning: first, the family consists of two parents

and three children, and, second, Homer works at a nuclear power plant with very

relaxed safety codes. The overused label dysfunctional, when applied to the

Simpsons, suddenly takes on new meaning. Every episode seems to include a scene

in which son Bart is being choked by his father; the baby is being neglected; or

Homer, transfixed by the television screen, is sitting in a drunken stupor. The

comedy in these scenes comes from the exaggeration of commonplace household

events (although some talk shows and news programs would have us believe that

these exaggerations are not confined to the madcap world of cartoons).

TEXT REVISED FOR ORAL PRESENTATION

What does it mean to pick an overused label and to describe the Simpsons

as a nuclear family? Clearly, a double meaning is at work. First, the Simpsons fit

the dictionary meaning–a family unit consisting of two parents and some

children. The second meaning, however, packs more of a punch. You see, Homer

works at a nuclear power plant [pause here] with VERY relaxed safety codes!

Besides nuclear, another overused family label describes the Simpsons. Did

everyone guess the label is dysfunctional? And like nuclear, when it comes to the

Simpsons, dysfunctional takes on a whole new meaning.

Remember the scenes when Bart is choked by his father?

How about the many times the baby is neglected?

Or the classic view–Homer, transfixed by the TV screen, sitting in a drunken

stupor!

My point here is that the comedy in these scenes often comes from double

meanings–and from a lot of exaggeration of everyday household events.

Speaking from notes

Here are tips for speaking from notes rather than from a full script:

• In general, use one note card for each point in your presentation. • Number the cards in case they get scrambled. • On each card, start with the major point you want to make, in large

bold text. Include subpoints in a bulleted list below, printed large enough for you to see easily.

• Include signpost language on each note, and use it to guide your listeners.

21Effective presentations Media3b

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22 Media Oral and multimedia assignments3b

• Use color or brackets to mark material that you can skip if you run out of time.

The following note card for an introduction reminds the speaker to emphasize her title and her three points. She has highlighted signpost language and the card’s number.

Integrating visuals

Visual information displayed on PowerPoint slides, posters, or other media during an oral presentation can add interest, clarify points, keep the speaker on track, and help members of the audience who learn bet- ter by listening and looking. For any visual information you display, re- member to follow basic design principles (see Chapter 4), avoiding clutter and making information as legible as possible. In addition, be sure that all the information you show is clear, well organized, and rele- vant to your presentation. The following tips will ensure that your vi- suals work for rather than against your presentation.

DISPLAYING WRITTEN INFORMATION

• Ensure that your audience can read any written information you display with your presentation. Choose background and type col- ors that contrast well for easy reading. A poster heading should be at least 2 inches high; for text on a PowerPoint slide, use 44- to 50- point type for headings, and 30- to 34-point type for subheads.

• Use bulleted lists, not paragraphs, to guide your audience through your main points. Less is more when it comes to displaying writing.

USING POWERPOINT SLIDES

• Don’t put too much information on one slide. Use no more than five bullet points (or no more than fifty words) — and don’t sim- ply read the bullet points. Instead, say something that will enhance the material on the slide.

Title: The Rise of the Graphic Novel Graphic novels are everywhere — but where do they come from?

• from “funnies” in early American newspapers • from comics, esp. great-adventure comic books • from focus on images and visuals throughout

society

[1]

Finally, Second, First,

NOTE CARD FOR AN ORAL PRESENTATION

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23Effective presentations Media3b

• Use light backgrounds in a darkened room, and dark backgrounds in a lighted one.

• If you include audio or video clips, make sure they are audible.

GIVING POSTER PRESENTATIONS

• Include important text and at least one striking image, table, or figure. • Near the bottom of the poster, ask a provocative question that hints

at your conclusion. • Include your name and other identifying or contact information.

USING HANDOUTS

• Use handouts for text too extensive to be presented during your talk. • Unless you want the audience to look at handouts while you are

speaking, distribute them at the end of your presentation.

Practicing your presentation

Prepare a draft of your presentation far enough in advance to allow for several run-throughs. Some speakers record their rehearsals and then re- vise based on the taped performance. Others practice in front of a mirror or in front of colleagues or friends, who can comment on content and style.

Make sure you will be heard clearly. If you are soft-spoken, concen- trate on projecting your voice; if your voice tends to rise when you’re in the spotlight, practice lowering the pitch. If you speak rapidly, practice slowing down. It’s usually best to avoid sarcasm in favor of a tone that conveys interest in your topic and listeners.

Timing your run-throughs will tell you whether you need to cut (or expand) material to make the presentation an appropriate length.

Making your presentation

To calm your nerves and get off to a good start, know your material thoroughly and use the following strategies to good advantage before, during, and after your presentation:

• Visualize your presentation with the aim of feeling comfortable during it.

• Consider doing some deep-breathing exercises before the presenta- tion, and concentrate on relaxing; avoid too much caffeine.

• Pause before you begin, concentrating on your opening lines. • If possible, stand up. Most speakers make a stronger impression

standing rather than sitting. • Face your audience at all times, and make eye contact as much as

possible.

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24 Media Oral and multimedia assignments3b

• Allow time for the audience to respond and ask questions. • Thank your audience at the end of your presentation.

SLIDES AND SCRIPT FROM A STUDENT’S POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

Following is a portion of a PowerPoint presentation prepared by student Jennifer Bernal in response to an assignment to analyze a graphic novel. The excerpts from her script show highlights that cue slides or re- mind her what to point out. Note that she cites each source on the slides; her list of sources appears on her final slide, not shown here.

[slide 1] Hello, I’m Jennifer Bernal. And I’ve been thinking about the voice

of the child narrator in the graphic novel Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, an

auto biographical narrative of a young girl’s coming of age in Iran during the

Islamic revolution. My research questions seemed fitting for a child: what? how?

why? What is the “child’s voice“? How is it achieved? Why is it effective? The

child’s voice in this book is characterized by internal conflict: the character

sometimes sounds like a child and sometimes like an adult. She truly is a child on

the threshold of adulthood. I’m going to show how Satrapi expresses the duality of

this child’s voice, not only through content but also through her visual style.

Student Writer

Jennifer Bernal

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25Effective presentations Media3b

[slide 2] The main character, Marjane, faces a constant conflict between childhood

and adulthood. But the struggle takes place not only between the child and the

adults in her society but also between the child and the adult within Marjane herself.

For example, Marjane is exposed to many ideas and experiences as she tries to

understand the world around her. Here [first image] we see her suprising an adult by

discussing Marx. But we also see her being a kid. Sometimes, like all children, she is

unthinkingly cruel: here [second image] we see her upsetting another little girl with

the horrifying (and, as it turns out, incorrect) “truth” about her father’s absence.

[slide 3] In her review of Persepolis for the Village Voice, Joy Press says that

“Satrapi’s supernaive style . . . persuasively communicates confusion and horror

through the eyes of a precocious preteen.” It seems to me that this simple visual

style is achieved through repetition and filtering. Let’s take a look at this.

[point to slide] First, there’s repetition of elements. We often see the same

images being used over and over. Sometimes [point to first image] the repetition

suggests the sameness imposed by the repressive government. At other times

similar images are repeated throughout the book for emphasis. For example

[point to examples], on several occasions we see her raising her finger and

speaking directly to the reader to make an emphatic point. The repetition

throughout Persepolis makes it look and feel more like a children’s book. . . .

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26 Media Oral and multimedia assignments3c

EXERCISE 3.1

Attend a lecture or presentation on your campus, and analyze its effectiveness. How does the speaker capture and hold your interest? What signpost language and other guides to listening can you detect? How well are visuals integrated into the presen- tation? How do the speaker’s tone of voice, dress, and eye contact affect your understanding and appreciation (or lack of it)? What is most memorable about the presentation, and why? Bring your analysis to class, and report your findings.

Online presentations

You may have the opportunity to make a presentation online by speak- ing into a camera that captures your presentation and relays it, via the Internet, to viewers anywhere in the world. Most strategies for online presentations are the same as for other multimedia presentations, but keep these special considerations in mind:

• Practice extensively, since viewers and listeners expect online pre- sentations to be polished and accurately timed. Be especially cer- tain that you can immediately access everything you need online.

3c

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For other examples of effective presentations, click on Student Writing Models.D

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27Visual structure Design4a

• Speak clearly and enunciate your words carefully; it is often diffi- cult to hear what people are saying online.

• Remember to look into the camera. This allows your audience eye contact with you, whether you can see them or not.

• Assume that your microphone is always live, so don’t say anything that you don’t want your audience to hear.

EXERCISE 3.2: THINKING CRITICALLY

Study the text of an oral or multimedia presentation you’ve prepared or given. Using the advice in this chapter, see how well your presentation appeals to your audience. Look in particular at how well you catch and hold their attention. How effective is your use of signpost language or other structures that help guide your listeners? How helpful are the visuals (PowerPoint slides, posters) in conveying your message? What would you do to improve this presentation?

Design for College Writing 4 Because visual and design elements such as headings, lists, fonts, images, and graphics can help us get and keep a reader’s attention, they bring a whole new dimension to writing — what some refer to as visual rhetoric. This chapter will help you design your documents and use visual elements effectively.

Visual structure

Effective writers consider the visual structure of any text they create and guide readers by making design decisions that are easy on the eyes and easy to understand.

Print and electronic options

One of your first document design decisions will be choosing between print delivery and electronic delivery. In general, print documents are easily portable and relatively fast to produce. In addition, the tools for producing print texts are highly developed and stable. Electronic docu- ments, on the other hand, can include sound, animation, and video; up- dates are easy to make; distribution is fast and efficient; and feedback can be swift. In many writing situations, the assignment will tell you whether to create a print or electronic text. Whether you are working to produce a document to be read in print or on a screen, however, you should rely on some basic design principles.

4a

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28 Design Design for college writing4a

Design principles

Most design experts begin with several very simple principles that guide the design of all texts. These principles are illustrated in the documents shown on pp. 28–30. (For more on the design of nonprint documents, see Chapter 3.)

• Contrast. The contrast in a design attracts and guides readers around the document. You may achieve contrast through color, icons, boldface or large type, white space (areas without type or graphics), and so on. Begin with a focal point — the dominant vi- sual or words on the page or screen — and structure the flow of all your other information from this point.

• Proximity. Whether they are text or visuals, parts of a document that are topically related should be physically close (proximate to one another).

• Repetition. Readers are guided in large part by the repetition of key words or design elements. You can take advantage of this principle by using color, type style, and other visual elements consistently throughout the document.

• Alignment. This principle refers to how visuals and text on a page are lined up, both horizontally and vertically. The headline, title, or banner on a document, for example, should be carefully aligned horizontally so that the reader’s eye is drawn easily along one line from left to right. Vertical alignment is equally important. In gen- eral, you can choose to align things with the left side, the right side,

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site uses contrasting colors effectively by placing white type against a dark blue background and dark type against lighter-colored backgrounds. The site also demonstrates proximity, placing each image above its label and supporting text.

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29Appropriate formats Design4b

or the center of a page or screen. If you begin with left alignment, stick with it. The result will be a cleaner and more organized look.

• Overall impression. Aim for a design that creates the appropriate overall impression or mood for your document. For an academic essay, you will probably make conservative choices that strike a se- rious scholarly note. In a newsletter for a campus group, you might choose bright colors and arresting images.

Appropriate formats

Because writers have so many design possibilities to choose from, it’s important to spend some time thinking about the most appropriate for- mat for a document. Although the following basic formatting guidelines often apply, remember that print documents, Web pages, multi media presentations, videos, and other genres all have their own formatting conventions.

Margins and white space

The margins and other areas of white space in a print or electronic document guide readers around the page. Since the eye takes in only so

4b

The U.S. Postal Service site repeats the red and blue horizontals from the home page, shown here, on many other screens. The site also makes the content’s alignment clear by placing information in boxes under three major headings.

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30 Design Design for college writing4b

much data in one movement, very long lines can be hard to read. Set margins so that the average line includes about twelve words (or sixty- five characters). Use white space around graphics, headings, or lists to make them stand out.

Color

Your use of color should relate to the purpose(s) of your document and its intended audience. As you design documents, keep in mind that some colors (red, for example) can evoke powerful responses, so take care that the colors you use match the message you want to send and the mood you want to create. Here are some other tips for using color:

A BROCHURE USING WHITE SPACE EFFECTIVELY

The inviting white space on the cover of this brochure sets off the title dramatically. On interior pages, white space sets off the images, marks section breaks, and frames the text for a clean, readable look.

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Paper

The quality of the paper and the readability of the type affect the overall look and feel of print documents. Although inexpensive paper is fine for your earlier drafts, use 8 0 3 110 good-quality white paper for your final drafts. For résumés, you may wish to use parchment or cream-colored pa- per. For brochures and posters, colored paper may be most appropriate. Try to use the best-quality printer available to you for your final product.

Pagination

Your instructor may ask you to follow a particular format (see Chapters 48–54 for format preferences in well-known documentation styles); if

1— 2

31Appropriate formats Design4b

Color for Contrast

CONSIDERING DISABILITIES

Remember that not everyone will see color as you do. Some individu- als don’t perceive color at all. When putting colors next to one another, then, try to use those that reside on opposite sides of the color spectrum, such as purple and yellow, in order to achieve high contrast. Doing so will allow readers to see the contrast between, if not the nuances of, colors.

Certain color combinations clash and are hard to read.

Other combinations are easier on the eyes.

• Use color to draw attention to elements you want to emphasize: headings and subheadings, bullets, text boxes, parts of charts or graphs, and other visuals.

• Be consistent in your use of color; use the same color for all main headings, for example.

• For most documents, keep the number of colors fairly small; too many colors can create a jumbled or confused look. In addition, avoid colors that clash or that are hard on the eyes (certain shades of yellow, for example). Check to make sure that all color visuals and text are legible.

• Remember that when colors are printed or projected, they may not look the same as they do on your computer screen.

• Look for examples of effective use of color. Find color combinations that you think look especially good — and then try them out.

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not, beginning with the first page of text, place your last name and the page number in the upper-right-hand corner of the page.

Type

Computers allow writers to choose among a great variety of type sizes and typefaces, or fonts. For most college writing to be printed or read on a screen, 10- to 12-point type sizes are best. A serif font (as used in the main text of this book) is generally easier to read than a sans serif font. And although unusual fonts might seem attractive at first glance, readers may find such fonts distracting and hard to read over long stretches of material.

Remember that typefaces help you create the tone of a document, so consider your audience and purpose when selecting type.

Different fonts convey different feelings. Different fonts convey different feelings. DIFFERENT FONTS CONVEY DIFFERENT FEELINGS. Different fonts convey different feelings.

Most important, be consistent in the size and style of type you choose. Unless you are striving for some special effect, shifting sizes and fonts can give an appearance of disorderliness.

Spacing

Final drafts for most print documents in college should be double- spaced, with the first line of paragraphs indented one-half inch or five spaces. Other documents, however, may call for different spacing. Letters, memos, lab reports, and Web texts, for example, are usually single-spaced, with no paragraph indentation; instead, single-spaced documents usually add extra space between paragraphs to make the text easier to read. Other kinds of documents, such as flyers and newsletters, may call for multiple columns of text. Consult a style guide (such as the MLA Handbook), or ask your instructor about appro- priate spacing.

Effective headings

In longer documents, headings call attention to the organization of the text and thus aid comprehension. Some kinds of reports have standard headings (like Abstract or Summary), which readers expect (and writers therefore should provide). If you use headings, you need to decide on type size and style, wording, and placement.

4c

32 Design Design for college writing4c

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33Effective visuals Design4d

Type size and style

This book uses multiple levels of headings distinguished by different type sizes and fonts as well as by color. In a college paper, you will usually dis- tinguish levels of headings using only type — for example, all capitals for the first-level headings, capitals and lowercase boldface for the second level, capitals and lowercase italics for the third level, and so on.

FIRST-LEVEL HEADING Second-Level Heading

Third-Level Heading

On page 32, “4c Effective headings” is a first-level head; “Type size and style” above is a second-level head.

Consistent headings

Look for the most succinct and informative way to word your headings. Most often, state the topic in a single word, usually a noun (Toxicity); in a phrase, usually a noun phrase (Levels of Toxicity) or a gerund phrase (Measuring Toxicity); in a question that will be answered in the text (How Can Toxicity Be Measured?); or in an imperative that tells readers what steps to take (Measure the Toxicity). Whichever structure you choose, make sure you use it consistently for all headings of the same level. Remember also to position each level of heading consistently through- out your paper.

Effective visuals

Creating a visual design is more likely than ever before to be part of your process of planning for a completed writing project. Visuals can help make a point more vividly and succinctly than words alone. In some cases, visuals may even be your primary text.

Selecting visuals

Consider carefully what you want visuals to do for your writing before making your selections. What will your audience want or need you to show? Try to choose visuals that will enhance your credibility, allow you to make your points more emphatically, and clarify your overall text. (See the following table for advice on which visuals are best for particular situations.)

Effective visuals can come from many sources — your own draw- ings or photographs, charts or graphs you create on a computer, or

4d

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34 Design Design for college writing4d

materials created by others. If you are using a visual from another source, be sure to give appropriate credit and to get permission before using any visual that will be posted online or otherwise available to the public.

Other Hispanic 7.3%

Central or South American 14.3%

Cuban 4.0%

Puerto Rican 11.0%

Mexican 63.4%

1.7

18-19

2.0

Men

Age

1.5

20-21

1.6

1.2

22-24

1.3

1.0

25-29

1.2

0.5

30-34

0.7

1.0

35+

1.7

Women

(continued)

TABLE 10: Commuter Rail Schedule: Reading/ Haverhill Line, Boston 2004

Train 223 Train 227 Train 231

North Station 3:00 PM 4:36 PM 5:15 PM Reading 3:38 PM 4:54 PM 5:42 PM Haverhill 4:04 PM 5:31 PM 6:21 PM

Red, White, and Everywhere

Recognizing the message

Early images of Americana

Pioneering advertising strategies

Coke and American identity

Less than 5.0 5.0 to 9.9 10.0 to 14.9 15.0 to 19.9 20.0 or more

U.S. Average = 11.5 percent

Percent of all residents

UT 7.08

ID 7.4

MT 1.8

WY 6.1

KS 5.6

NE 4.6

SD 1.2

ND 1.2 MN

1.9

IA 2.2

MO 1.67

AR 2.1

AL 1.0

VA 3.9

WV 0.6

ME 0.7

SC 1.4

TN 1.2 KY 0.9

VT 0.9 NH 1.6

LA 2.7HI

8.1

AK 4.0

NM 40.7

CA 31.6

NV 16.3

AZ 22.7

TX 30.2

OK 4.1

MS 0.9

IL 10.5

PA 2.7

NY 14.6

OH 1.6

CT 8.5 IN 2.6

WI 2.7

CO 14.9

OR 6.4

WA 6.5

MA 6.3 RI 6.9

NJ 12.6 DE 3.7 MD 3.9

DC 7.4

FL 15.5

GA 3.9

NC 2.3

MI 2.8

Type of Visual When to Use It

Pie Chart Use pie charts to compare parts to the whole.

Bar Graph Use bar graphs and line graphs to compare one element with another, to compare elements over time, or to show correlations and frequency.

Table Use tables to draw attention to detailed numerical information.

Diagram Use diagrams to illustrate textual information or to point out details of objects or places described.

Map Use maps to show geographical locations and to emphasize spatial relationships.

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35Effective visuals Design4d

Identifying visuals in your writing

Position visuals alongside or after the text that refers to them. Number your visuals (number tables separately from other visuals), and give them informative titles. In some instances, you may need to provide captions to give readers additional data such as source information.

Figure 1. College Enrollment for Men and Women by Age, 2007 (in millions)

Table 1. Word Choice by Race: Seesaw and Teeter-totter, Chicago, 1986

Analyzing and altering visuals

Technical tools available to writers and designers today make it rela- tively easy to manipulate visuals. For example, the image below on the far left was circulated widely via email as a National Geographic Photo of the Year. Instead, the photograph was a collage that a digital artist had made of two separate pictures — the photo in the middle, from National Geographic, and the photo on the right, from the U.S. Air Force Web site.

Type of Visual When to Use It

Cartoon Use cartoons to illustrate a point dramatically or comically.

Photo Use photographs or illustrations to show particular people, places, objects, and situations described in the text or to help readers find or understand types of content.

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36 Design Design for college writing4d

Combining photos can sometimes be an appropriate choice.

This composite photo conveys the setting more effectively than the individual images.

As you would with any source material, carefully assess any visu- als you find for effectiveness, appropriateness, and validity. Here are additional tips for evaluating visuals:

• Check the context in which the visual appears. Is it part of an offi- cial government, school, or library site?

• If the visual is a photograph, are the date, time, place, and setting shown or explained? Is the information about the photo believable?

• If the visual is a chart, graph, or diagram, are the numbers and la- bels explained? Are the sources of the data given? Will the visual representation help readers make sense of the information, or could it mislead them? (See 12f.)

• Is biographical and contact information for the designer, artist, or photographer given?

At times, you may make certain changes to visuals that you use, such as cropping an image to show the most important detail or digitally bright- ening a dark image. Here, for example, are separate photos of a mountain- top cabin and a composite that digitally combines the originals into a single panoramic image to convey the setting more accurately. As long as the photograph is identified as a composite, the alteration is ethical.

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37Effective visuals Design4d

EXERCISE 4.1: THINKING CRITICALLY

Examine a piece of writing you have done recently — an essay, a report, or a term project. First, look at the layout of the text: How visually appealing is it? Is the text easy to read? Do you use subheadings, color, or type size and font in ways that help convey your message? Do you include visuals in this piece of writing? Why, or why not? Consider how visuals (or additional visuals) could be helpful in presenting the information in the most memorable and readable way, and note any other changes that would enhance how your intended audience will perceive this piece of writing.

AT A GLANCE

• Use visual elements for a specific purpose in your text — to illustrate something, to help prove a point, or to guide readers, for example.

• Tell the audience explicitly what the visual demonstrates, especially if it presents complex information. Do not assume readers will “read” the visual the way you do; your commentary on it is important.

• Number and title all visuals. Number and label tables and figures separately.

• Refer to each visual before it appears.

• Follow established conventions for documenting visual sources, and ask permission for use if your work will become available to the public. (17c and e)

• Get responses to your visuals in an early draft. If readers can’t follow them or are distracted by them, revise accordingly.

• If you crop, brighten, or otherwise alter visuals to include them in your writing, be sure to do so ethically. (4d)

Using Visuals Effectively

To ensure that alterations to images are ethical, follow these guidelines:

• Do not attempt to mislead readers. Show things as accurately as possible.

• Tell your audience what changes you have made. • Include all relevant information about the visual, including the

source.

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For more on effective design, go to Writing Resources and click on Design Tutorials.D

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38 Design Design for college writing4e

Sample documents

A group of annotated documents collected from college students and others follow; these samples should help you create similar docu- ments of your own. (For examples of academic essays, see Chapters 13 and 51–54.)

4e

bedfordstmartins.com/everydaywriter For more sample documents, click on Student Writing Models.D

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39Sample documents Design4e

FIRST PAGE OF A REPORT (ON THE WEB)

Action-group sponsor clearly identified

Logo in distinctive font

Color used only in headings, visuals, and links

Structure of overall report clearly presented

Informative section heading appears in large type

Sources clearly cited in text

Visual suggests extent of problem

Double spacing between paragraphs

Pull-quote emphasizes possible solution

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40 Design Design for college writing4e

NEWSLETTER

Organization logo uses distinctive visual

Sponsoring organization identified

Question used as attention-getting title

Italics signal overview of problem

Text wraps around appropriate visual

Double spacing between sections of text

Bullets call out important statistics

Visuals indicate what’s coming up inside the newsletter

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41Sample documents Design4e

FLYER

Light background with starkly contrasting visual gets attention

Central image draws attention and alludes to well-known film, The Usual Suspects

Typefaces and sizes used consistently to differentiate sections of the flyer

Related information grouped together for easy reading

Web site address featured prominently for further information

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42 Design Design for college writing4e

HOME PAGE

Eye-catching graphic makes attractive background

Menu shows portfolio pieces

Link to résumé clarifies site’s purpose

Clear, simple text introduces student and her work

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There may be people who like various aspects of the writing process. For some, it may be the excitement of facing a blank page.

(Hate them!) For others, it could be a sense of getting a sentence just right. (Jerks!) There may be those who like the revision

process, who can go over what they’ve produced with a cold eye and a keen ear and feel a satisfaction in making it better. (Liars!)

— RACHEL TOOR

The Writing Process

T he W

riting P

ro cess

 

 

The Writing Process

5 Writing Situations 45 a Write to connect 45 b Understand rhetorical situations 46 c Consider your topic and audience 46 d Analyze the purpose of your writing 50 e Analyze your position as a writer or speaker 50 f Consider other elements of the writing context 51 g A sample writing situation 54

6 Exploring Ideas 56 a Try brainstorming 56 b Try freewriting or looping 56 c Try drawing or making word pictures 57 d Try clustering 58 e Ask questions 59 f Browse sources 60 g Collaborate 60

7 Planning and Drafting 61 a Narrow your topic 62 b Craft a working thesis 62 c Gather information to support your thesis 65 d Organize information 65 e Make a plan 68 f Write out a draft 72

8 Developing Paragraphs 73 a Focus on a main idea 73 b Provide details 75 c Use effective methods of development 77 d Consider paragraph length 84 e Make paragraphs flow 84 f Work on opening and closing paragraphs 87

9 Reviewing and Revising 89 a Reread 90 b Get responses from peers 91 c Consult instructor comments 96 d Revise 99

10 Editing and Reflecting 102 a Edit 103 REVISED STUDENT DRAFT (EXCERPT) 106 b Reflect 108 STUDENT REFLECTIVE STATEMENT 110

T he

W ri

tin g

P ro

ce ss

43 –

11 1

 

 

What do a magazine article on stem-cell research, a blog about home- schooling, an email to an Internet service provider about spam filtering, and an engineering report on a proposed dam site all have in common? To succeed, the writers of all four must analyze a complex situation and respond to it effectively.

Write to connect.

If it is true that “no man [or woman!] is an island,” then it is equally true that no piece of writing is an island, isolated and alone. Instead, writing is connected to a web of other writings as a writer extends, responds to, or challenges what others say. This has always been the case, but now that messages can circle the globe in seconds, it’s especially important to remember this principle: all writing exists within a rich and broad context in which every writer says or writes something to others for a purpose. As a writer today, you need to remember several key points:

• Writing can use a wide range of tools — from pencils to software and video — to convey messages.

• Writing is visual as well as verbal; design elements are key to the success of many documents.

• Writing is often collaborative — from planning to designing and producing the final product.

• Writing increasingly involves global communication and includes multiple languages and cultures.

• Writing has the potential to reach massive audiences in a very, very short time.

• Writing today is increasingly public; once on the Web, it can take on a life of its own. As a result, writers need to consider their own — and others’ — privacy.

5a

Writing Situations 5

45

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Understand rhetorical situations.

A rhetorical situation is one that a writer analyzes, looking at it from all possible points of view and considering each ele- ment of the situation carefully. Of the many possible elements in a rhetorical situation, the most important include the topic and purpose; the audience being addressed; the speaker or writer; and the context, including time and space limita- tions, the medium and genre, tone and style, and level of language. Careful choices about all these elements are nec- essary for effective communication to take place.

It can be helpful to think of the rhetorical situation in visual terms. Imagine this triangular representation of the rhetorical situation as

dynamic, with all the angles interacting with one other and with the context. In addition to the key elements of audience, writer, and topic, we’ve introduced three additional terms that are very helpful in think- ing through a rhetorical situation: ethos, pathos, and logos. Some 2,500 years ago, Aristotle identified these terms as basic appeals any speaker or writer could use. Ethos refers to the credibility of the writer or speaker; pathos to appeals to the heart — the emotions and values of the audience; and logos to appeals to reason or logic.

EXERCISE 5.1

Think back to a recent writing assignment. What helped you finally decide to write? Once you had decided to write, what exactly did you do to get going? In a paragraph or two, describe your situation, and answer these questions. Then compare your description with those of two or three classmates.

Consider your topic and audience.

Your topic

When the topic is left open, many writers put off getting started because they can’t decide what to do. Experienced writers say that the best way to choose a topic is literally to let it choose you. Look to the topics that compel, puzzle, confuse, or pose a problem for you: these are likely to engage your interest and hence produce your best writing.

5c

5b

46 Writ Process Writing situations5c

Writer (Ethos)

Audience (Pathos)

Topic (Logos)

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