Writing in Academic Contexts

The Norton Field Guide to Writing with readings and handbook

F I F T H E D I T I O N

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Richard Bullock WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY

Maureen Daly Goggin ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

Francine Weinberg

The Norton

Field Guide to Writing

with readings and handbook

B W. W. NORTON & COMPANY

New York • London

F I F T H E D I T I O N

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W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and abroad. By mid-century, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program — trade books and college texts — were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the company to its employees, and today — with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number of trade, college, and professional titles published each year — W. W. Norton & Company stands as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.

Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Editor: Sarah Touborg Project Editor: Christine D’Antonio Associate Editor: Claire Wallace Assistant Editor: Madeline Rombes Manuscript Editor: Jude Grant Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi Production Manager: Liz Marotta Media Editors: Erica Wnek, Samantha Held Media Project Editor: Cooper Wilhelm Media Assistant Editor: Ava Bramson

Ebook Production Manager: Danielle Lehman Marketing Manager, Composition: Lib Triplett Design Director: Hope Miller Goodell Book Designer: Anna Palchik Photo Editor: Catherine Abelman Photo Research: Dena Digilio Betz Permissions Manager: Megan Schindel Permissions Clearing: Bethany Salminen Composition: Graphic World Manufacturing: LSC Communications,

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Permission to use copyrighted material is included in the Acknowledgments section of this book, which begins on page A-1.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bullock, Richard H. (Richard Harvey) author. | Goggin, Maureen Daly, author. | Weinberg, Francine, author. Title: The Norton Field Guide to writing with readings and handbook / Richard

Bullock, Wright State University, Maureen Daly Goggin, Arizona State University, Francine Weinberg. Description: Fifth edition. | New York ; London : W. W. Norton & Company,

[2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018007983 | ISBN 9780393655803 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: English language—Rhetoric—Handbooks, manuals, etc. |

English language—Grammar—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Report writing—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | College readers. Classification: LCC PE1408 .B883825 2019 | DDC 808/.042—dc23 LC record available at

https://lccn.loc.gov/2018007983

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110 wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle St., London W1D 3BS

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Cover design by Pete Garceau Cover art: (seagull) nadyaillyustrator/iStock/Getty Images Plus; (waves) artvea/ Digital Vision/Getty Images Plus. Back cover image: (phone) breakstock/Shutterstock

 

 

Preface

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The Norton Field Guide to Writing began as an attempt to offer the kind of writing guides found in the best rhetorics in a format as user-friendly as the best handbooks, and on top of that, to be as brief as could be. We wanted to create a handy guide to help college students with all their written work. Just as there are field guides for bird watchers, for gardeners, and for accountants, this would be one for writers. In its first four editions, the book has obviously touched a chord with many writing instructors, and it remains the best-selling college rhetoric — a success that leaves us humbled and grateful. Student success is now on everyone’s mind. As teachers, we want our students to succeed, and first-year writing courses offer one of the best opportunities to help them develop the skills and habits of mind they need to succeed, whatever their goals may be. Suc- cess, though, doesn’t end with first-year writing; students need to transfer their knowledge and skills to other courses and other writing tasks. To that end, we’ve added new chapters on reading and writing across fields of study and new guidance on writing literature reviews. We’ve also added “Taking Stock” questions to each Genre chapter to help students develop their metacognitive abilities by reflecting on their work.

The Norton Field Guide still aims to offer both the guidance new teach- ers and first-year writers need and the flexibility many experienced teachers want. In our own teaching we’ve seen how well explicit guides to writing work for students and novice teachers. But too often, writing textbooks provide far more information than students need or instruc- tors can assign and as a result are bigger and more expensive than they should be. So we’ve tried to provide enough structure without too much detail — to give the information college writers need to know while resist- ing the temptation to tell them everything there is to know.

Most of all, we’ve tried to make the book easy to use, with menus, directories, a glossary / index, and color-coded links to help students find what they’re looking for. The links are also the way we keep the book brief: chapters are short, but the links send students to pages elsewhere in the book if they need more detail.

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What’s in the Book

The Norton Field Guide covers 14 genres often assigned in college. Much of the book is in the form of guidelines, designed to help students consider the choices they have as writers. The book is organized into ten parts:

1. ACADEMIC LITERACIES. Chapters 1–4 focus on writing and reading in academic contexts, summarizing and responding, and developing aca- demic habits of mind.

2. rhetorical situations. Chapters 5–9 focus on purpose, audience, genre, stance, and media and design. In addition, almost every chapter includes tips to help students focus on their rhetorical situations.

3. genres. Chapters 10–23 cover 14 genres, 4 of them — literacy narrative, textual analysis, report, and argument — treated in greater detail.

4. fields. Chapters 24–26 cover the key features of major fields of study and give guidance on reading and writing in each of those fields.

5. processes. Chapters 27–34 offer advice for generating ideas and text, drafting, revising and rewriting, editing, proofreading, compiling a portfolio, collaborating with others, and writing as inquiry.

6. strategies. Chapters 35–46 cover ways of developing and organiz- ing text — writing effective beginnings and endings, titles and thesis statements, comparing, describing, taking essay exams, and so on.

7. research / documentation. Chapters 47–55 offer advice on how to do academic research; work with sources; quote, paraphrase, and summa- rize source materials; and document sources using MLA and APA styles. Chapter 54 presents the “official MLA style” introduced in 2016.

8. media / design. Chapters 56–60 give guidance on choosing the appro- priate print, digital, or spoken medium; designing text; using images and sound; giving spoken presentations; and writing online.

9. readings. Chapters 61–70 provide readings in 10 genres, plus one chap- ter of readings that mix genres. Discussion questions are color-coded to refer students to relevant details elsewhere in the book.

10. handbook. At the end of the book is a handbook to help students edit what they write, organized around the intuitive categories of sentences, language, and punctuation to make it easy to use.

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What’s Online for Students

Ebooks. All versions of The Norton Field Guide are available as ebooks and include all the readings and images found in the print books. Highlighted links are active in the ebook so students can quickly navigate to more detail as needed. The ebook is accessible from any computer, tablet, or mobile device and lets students highlight, annotate, or even listen to the text.

InQuizitive for Writers. With InQuizitive, students learn to edit sentences and practice working with sources to become better writers and research- ers. InQuizitive is adaptive: students receive additional practice on the areas where they need more help. Links to The Little Seagull Handbook and explanatory feedback give students advice, right when they need it. And it’s formative: by wagering points, students think about what they know and don’t know. Visit inquizitive.wwnorton.com.

Norton/write. Just a click away with no passcode required, find a library of model student papers; more than 1,000 online exercises and quizzes; research and plagiarism tutorials; documentation guidelines for MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE styles; MLA citation drills — and more. All MLA materials reflect 2016 style. Access the site at wwnorton.com/write.

What’s Available for Instructors

A Guide to Teaching with The Norton Field Guides. Written by Richard Bullock and several other teachers, this is a comprehensive guide to teach- ing first-year writing, from developing a syllabus to facilitating group work, teaching multimodal writing to assessing student writing. Free of charge.

Coursepacks are available for free and in a variety of formats, including Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, Canvas, and Angel — and work within your existing learning management system, so there’s no new system to learn, and access is free and easy. The Field Guide Coursepack includes model student papers; reading comprehension quizzes; reading strategy exercises; quizzes and exercises on grammar and research; documentation guidelines; and author biographies. Coursepacks are ready to use, right from the start — but are also easy to customize, using the system you already know and understand. Access the Coursepack at wwnorton.com/instructors.

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PowerPoints. Ready-made PowerPoints feature genre organization flow- charts and documentation maps from the book to help you show examples during class. Download the PowerPoints at wwnorton.com/instructors.

Worksheets available in Word and PDF can be edited, downloaded, and printed with guidance on editing paragraphs, responding to a draft, and more. Download the worksheets at wwnorton.com/instructors.

Highlights

It’s easy to use. Menus, directories, and a glossary / index make it easy for students to find what they’re looking for. Color-coded templates and documentation maps even make MLA and APA documentation easy.

It has just enough detail, with short chapters that include color-coded links sending students to more detail if they need more.

It’s uniquely flexible for teachers. Short chapters can be assigned in any order — and color-coded links help draw from other chapters as need be.

A user-friendly handbook, with an intuitive organization around sen- tences, language, and punctuation to make it easy for students to find what they need. And we go easy on the grammatical terminology, with links to the glossary for students who need detailed definitions.

What’s New

A new part on fields of study with 3 new chapters on reading and writing in the disciplines (Part 4):

• A new chapter on the fields of study surveys the distinctions among the major discipline areas and includes an overview of why a general education matters. (Chapter 24)

• A new chapter on reading across fields of study includes short examples drawn from a variety of courses and genres, along with tips, techniques, and key terms specific to each. (Chapter 25)

• A new chapter on writing in academic fields includes summaries of the key features of writing in the major disciplines, along with descriptions and short examples of typical writing assignments in each. (Chapter 26)

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New advice on detecting “false news” and unreliable sources, including how to read sources with a critical eye and how to use the elements of a rhetorical situation to determine whether or not a potential source is genuine and reputable. (Chapter 49)

A new section on reviews of scholarly literature with advice on how to develop, organize, and write a literature review. This section also includes an overview of the key features of the genre, as well as a new student example. (Chapter 15)

New “Taking Stock of Your Work” questions: each Genre chapter now ends with a series of questions to help students develop their metacogni- tive abilities by thinking about their writing processes and products.

New guidelines for peer review with detailed advice on how to read and respond to peers’ drafts. (Chapter 32)

Expanded coverage of synthesizing ideas: a new sample essay that shows students how to synthesize multiple sources. (Chapter 50)

New advice on arguing with a hostile audience, including how to use Rogerian argument techniques to engage with audiences who may not share students’ perspectives or values. (Chapter 38)

12 new readings in the rhetoric: new essays in nearly every genre, includ- ing a literacy narrative on working in an auto repair shop, a report on pop- corn, a rhetorical analysis of a speech by former president Barack Obama, a profile of the modern-day plastic straw, and many more. In addition, there is a new APA research paper on the benefits of nurseries in women’s prisons.

21 new readings in the anthology: at least one new essay in every genre, including an illustrated literacy narrative, a text analysis about Disney princesses, a profile of a plastic cooler, a proposal for a playground, and many more.

Ways of Teaching with The Norton Field Guide to Writing

The Norton Field Guide is designed to give you both support and flex- ibility. It has clear assignment sequences if you want them, or you can create your own. If, for example, you assign a position paper, there’s a full chapter. If you want students to use sources, add the appropriate

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research chapters. If you want them to submit a topic proposal, add that chapter.

If you’re a new teacher, the Genre chapters offer explicit assignment sequences — and the color-coded links will remind you of detail you may want to bring in. The instructor’s manual offers advice on creating a syl- labus, responding to writing, and more.

If you focus on genres, there are complete chapters on all the genres

college students are often assigned. Color-coded links will help you bring in details about research or other writing strategies as you wish.

If you organize your course thematically, a Thematic Guide will lead you to readings on 23 themes. Chapter 29 on generating ideas can help get students thinking about a theme. You can also assign them to do research on the theme, starting with Chapter 48 on finding sources, or perhaps with Chapter 27 on writing as inquiry. If they then write in a particular genre, there will be a chapter to guide them.

If you want students to do research, there are 9 chapters on the research process, including guidelines and sample papers for MLA and APA styles.

If you focus on modes, you’ll find chapters on using narration, descrip- tion, and so on as strategies for many writing purposes, and links that lead students through the process of writing an essay organized around a particular mode.

If you teach a stretch, ALP, IRW, or dual credit course, the academic literacies chapters offer explicit guidelines to help students write and read in academic contexts, summarize and respond to what they read, and develop academic habits of mind that will help them succeed in college.

If you teach online, the book is available as an ebook — and a companion Coursepack includes exercises, quizzes, video tutorials, and more.

Acknowledgments

As we’ve traveled around the country and met many of the students, teachers, and WPAs who are using The Norton Field Guide, we’ve been grati- fied to hear that so many find it helpful, to the point that some students

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tell us that they aren’t going to sell it back to the bookstore when the term ends — the highest form of praise. As much as we like the positive response, though, we are especially grateful when we receive suggestions for ways the book might be improved. In this fifth edition, as we did in the fourth edition, we have tried to respond to the many good suggestions we’ve gotten from students, colleagues, reviewers, and editors. Thank you all, both for your kind words and for your good suggestions. Some people need to be singled out for thanks, especially Marilyn Moller, the guiding editorial spirit of the Field Guide through all five editions. When we presented Marilyn with the idea for this book, she encouraged us and helped us conceptualize it — and then taught us how to write a text- book. The quality of the Field Guide is due in large part to her knowledge of the field of composition, her formidable editing and writing skills, her sometimes uncanny ability to see the future of the teaching of writing — and her equally formidable, if not uncanny, stamina. Editor Sarah Touborg guided us through this new edition with good humor and better advice. Just as developmental editor John Elliott did with the third and fourth editions, Sarah shepherded this fifth edition through revisions and additions with a careful hand and a clear eye for appropriate content and language. Her painstaking editing shows throughout the book, and we’re grateful for her ability to make us appear to be better writers than we are. Many others have contributed, too. Thanks to project editor Christine D’Antonio for her energy, patience, and great skill in coordinating the tightly scheduled production process for the book. Claire Wallace brought her astute eye and keen judgment to all of the readings, while Maddy Rombes managed the extensive reviewing process and took great care of the man- uscript at every stage. The Norton Field Guide is more than just a print book, and we thank Erica Wnek, Samantha Held, Kim Yi, Ava Bramson, and Cooper Wilhelm for creating and producing the superb ebook and instruc- tors’ site. Anna Palchik designed the award-winning, user-friendly, and attractive interior, Pete Garceau created the beautiful new cover design, and Debra Morton Hoyt and Tiani Kennedy further enhanced the design and coordinated it all, inside and out. Liz Marotta transformed a scribbled- over manuscript into a finished product with extraordinary speed and pre- cision, while Jude Grant copyedited. Megan Schindel and Bethany Salminen cleared text permissions, coping efficiently with ongoing changes, and

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Catherine Abelman cleared permission for the images found by Dena Digilio Betz. Steve Dunn, Lib Triplett, Elizabeth Pieslor, and Doug Day helped us all keep our eyes on the market. Thanks to all, and to Roby Harrington, Drake McFeely, and Julia Reidhead for supporting this project in the first place. Rich has many, many people at Wright State University to thank for their support and assistance. Jane Blakelock taught Rich most of what he knows about electronic text and writing on and for the web and assembled an impressive list of useful links for the book’s website. Adrienne Cassel (now at Sinclair Community College) and Catherine Crowley read and com- mented on many drafts. Peggy Lindsey (now at Georgia Southern University) shared her students’ work and the idea of using charts to show how various genres might be organized. Brady Allen, Debbie Bertsch (now at Columbus State Community College), Vicki Burke, Melissa Carrion, Jimmy Chesire, Carol Cornett, Mary Doyle, Byron Crews, Deborah Crusan, Sally DeThomas, Stephanie Dickey, Scott Geisel, Karen Hayes, Chuck Holmes, Beth Klaisner (now at Colorado State University), Nancy Mack, Marty Maner, Cynthia Marshall, Sarah McGinley, Kristie McKiernan, Michelle Metzner, Kristie Rowe, Bobby Rubin, Cathy Sayer, David Seitz, Caroline Simmons, Tracy Smith, Rick Strader, Mary Van Loveren, and A. J. Williams responded to drafts, submitted good models of student writing, contributed to the instruc- tor’s manual, tested the Field Guide in their classes, provided support, and shared with Rich some of their best teaching ideas. Henry Limouze and then Carol Loranger, chairs of the English Department, gave him room to work on this project with patience and good humor. Sandy Trimboli, Becky Traxler, and Lynn Morgan, the secretaries to the writing programs, kept him anchored. And he thanks especially the more than 300 graduate teaching assistants and 10,000 first-year students who class-tested various editions of the Field Guide and whose experiences helped — and continue to help — to shape it. At Arizona State, Maureen wants to acknowledge the unwavering sup- port of Neal A. Lester, Vice President of Humanities and Arts and former chair of the English Department, and the assistance of Jason Diller, her former graduate research assistant, and Judy Holiday, her former graduate men- tee, for their reading suggestions. She thanks her colleagues, all exemplary teachers and mentors, for creating a supportive intellectual environment, especially Patricia Boyd, Peter Goggin, Mark Hannah, Kathleen Lamp, Elenore

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Long, Paul Matsuda, Keith Miller, Ersula Ore, Alice Robison, Shirley Rose, and Doris Warriner. Thanks also go to ASU instructors and first-year students who have used the Field Guide and have offered good suggestions. Finally, Maureen wants to pay tribute to her students, who are themselves among her best teachers. Thanks to the teachers across the country who reviewed the fourth edition of the Field Guide and helped shape this fifth edition: Elizabeth Acosta, El Paso Community College; Thomas Barber, City College of New York; Keri Behre, Marylhurst University; David Bell, University of North Georgia; Dean Blumberg, Horry–Georgetown Technical College; Abdallah Boumarate, Valencia College; Tabitha Bozeman, Gadsden State Commu- nity College; Laurie E. Buchanan, Clark State Community College; Ashley Buzzard, Midlands Technical College; Emma Carlton, University of New Orleans; Danielle Carr, City College of New York; Toni I. Carter, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana; Carla Chwat, University of North Georgia; Marie Coffey, Northeast Lakeview College; Stephanie Conner, College of Coastal Georgia; Robert Derr, Danville Community College; Cheryl Divine, Columbia College; Amber Duncan, Northwest Vista College; Gloria Estrada, El Paso Community College; Kevin Ferns, Woodland Community College; Dianne Flickinger, Cowley County Community College; Michael Flood, Horry–Georgetown Technical College; Dan Fuller, Hinds Community College–Utica; Robert Galin, University of New Mexico–Gallup; Jennifer P. Gray, College of Coastal Georgia; Julie Groesch, San Jacinto College; Elizabeth Hair, Trident Technical College; Mark Hankerson, Albany State University; Pamela Hardman, Cuyahoga Community College; Michael Hedges, Horry–Georgetown Technical College; Michael Hill, Henry Ford College; Lorraine M. Howland, New Hampshire Technical Institute, Con- cord’s Community College; Alyssa Johnson, Horry–Georgetown Technical College; Luke Johnson, Mesabi Range College; Elaine M. Jolayemi, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana; George Kanieski, Cuyahoga Community College; Elizabeth Kuehne, Wayland Baptist University; Matt Laferty, Cuyahoga Community College; Robin Latham, Nash Community College; Adam Lee, Concordia University Irvine; Bronwen Llewellyn, Daytona State College; Chelsea Lonsdale, Henry Ford College; Jeffery D. Mack, Albany State University; Devona Mallory, Albany State University; Katheryn McCoskey, Butler Community College; Jenny McHenry, Tallahassee Com-

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munity College; James McWard, Johnson County Community College; Eileen E. Medeiros, Johnson & Wales University; Kristina Meehan, Spar- tanburg Community College; Cathryn Meyer, Tallahassee Community Col- lege; Josephine Mills, Arapahoe Community College; James Minor, South Piedmont Community College; Erin O’Keefe, Allen Community College– Burlingame; Jeff Owens, Lassen Community College; Anthony Guy Patricia, Concord University; Brenda Reid, Tallahassee Community College; Emily Riser, Mississippi Delta Community College; Emily Rosenblatt, City College of New York; Kent Ross, Northeastern Junior College; Jessica Schreyer, University of Dubuque; Sunita Sharma, Mississippi Delta Community Col- lege; Taten Sheridan, Kodiak College; Ann Spurlock, Mississippi State Uni- versity; Derrick Stewart, Midlands Technical College; Pamela Stovall, University of New Mexico–Gallup; James D. Suderman, Northwest Florida State College; Harun K. Thomas, Daytona State College; Alison Van Nyhuis, Fayetteville State University; Anna Voisard; City College of New York; Elisabeth von Uhl, City College of New York; Ellen Wayland-Smith, Uni- versity of Southern California; James Williams, Soka University; Michael Williams, Horry–Georgetown Technical College; Mark W. Wilson, South- western Oregon Community College; and Michelle Zollars, Patrick Henry Community College. Thanks also to those instructors who reviewed the Field Guide resources, helping us improve them for the fifth edition: Jessica Adams, Clark State Community College; Megan Anderson, Limestone College; Jamee Atkinson, Texas State Technical College; David Bach, Northwest Vista College; Ryan Baechle, University of Toledo; Aaron Barrell, Everett Community College; Soky Barrenechea, Penn State Abington; Lauren Baugus, Pensacola State College; Kristina Baumli, University of the Arts; Kay Berry, Dixie High School; Marie Bischoff, Sierra Community College; Matt Bloom, Hawkeye Community College; Allison Brady, Toccoa Falls College; Hannah Bingham Brunner, Oklahoma Christian University; Sybil Canon, Northwest MS Com- munity College; Marie Coffey, Northeast Lakeview College; Susan Cowart, Texas State Technical College; Kennette Crockett, Harold Washington College; Anthony D’Ariea, Regis College; Mary Rutledge-Davis, North Lake College; Courtney Doi, Alamance Community College; Zona Douthit, Roger Williams University; Amber Duncan, Northwest Vista College; Michelle Ellwood, Keuka College; Michael Esquivel, Tarrant County College; Julie

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