The Norton Field Guide To Writing

The Norton Field Guide to Writing

The Basic Information:

 Author: Richard Bullock  Year: 2008; second edition with 2009 MLA updates forthcoming December 2009  Publisher: Norton  Other formats available: with handbook, with readings, with handbook and readings  Price (2nd edition): $43.75; $50.00; $62.50; $68.75

Structure:

 Part 1: Rhetorical Situations  Part 2: Genres  Part 3: Processes  Part 4: Strategies  Part 5: Doing Research  Part 6: Media/Design  Part 7: Readings  Part 8: Handbook

Overview:

 Writing Process: Part 3 of the book is all about “Processes” and includes chapters on collaborating, generating ideas and text, drafting, assessing your own writing, getting response and revising, editing and proofreading, and compiling a portfolio. Each section includes helpful color-coded tips for thinking about audience, thesis, evidence, etc.

Presented by Melissa Bone and Beth Mohon, 11/18/2009 English 602  Genres: Part 2 focuses on genres, including sections on writing a literacy narrative, analyzing a text, reporting information, arguing a position, abstracts, annotated bibliographies, evaluations, lab reports, literary analyses, memoirs, profiles, reflections, review of scholarly literature and resumes and application letters. Each section contains an explanation of key features of the genre, a guide to writing in the genre, and 1-3 sample readings. There is definitely a heavy focus on humanities genres.  Visual literacy: The section on “Media/Design” includes several pages on using visuals such as photographs and various types of charts. There are also a few paragraphs on using fonts, headings, white space, lists, etc. In addition, the book is very clean, colorful, and reader-friendly.

102 outcomes:

 Rhetorical Knowledge: Chapters 1-5 specifically focus on rhetorical purpose. These chapters give students guidelines for how to position themselves in relation to the audience and how to determine what genre might be most appropriate for their topic in relation to the audience. Individual chapters also include short discussions of student's rhetorical strategies in relation to their topic. The book is also designed specifically to engage students with genre concerns. Chapters 6-20 outline the concerns of fifteen different genres that students might encounter. The readings in the back of the book are also arranged into sections based on which genre they fall into. Chapters 42-50 give students advice on researching and include guidelines for MLA and APA. Though MLA is treated in slightly more detail, it appears that an effort has been made to balance the two. Some discussion of tone is given in chapter 4, though it is limited.

 Critical Thinking and Reading: Part 4 of the book, Strategies, explains to students many different tactics that they might use to respond to outside sources. These include: defining, describing, explaining, and comparing. This section should aid students in both summarizing and contextualizing sources. Additional support is given in the chapter 46, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing. The book doesn't discuss multiple points of view in detail, but chapter 44 advises students to "consult sources with a variety of viewpoints" (401). Though the book supports this outcome, instructors will have to remember to intentionally reinforce the point.

Presented by Melissa Bone and Beth Mohon, 11/18/2009 English 602  Processes: The book consistently supports students in developing their own research questions and gives guidelines for how they might do this if they're stuck. The research section of the book discussed above also gives students a guide for how to go about researching. Chapter 42, Developing a Research Plan, gives students tips for how they can succeed in researching without giving them a prescription. Among the topics that other textbooks might not discuss are time management and keeping track of your sources. Chapter 43, Finding Sources, helps students identify sources, and chapter 44, Evaluating Sources, helps them to evaluate those sources. While the book begins with the idea of a thesis before it ever gets to research, it does backtrack to discuss synthesizing ideas in Chapter 45 and how a thesis can be drawn out of research.

 Conventions: The book gives some explanation of the purposes of documentation but focuses much more on the format. Formatting instructions are given for MLA and APA. Other citation styles are discussed but only briefly. In general, the book does an excellent job addressing audience and purpose and touches on this issue in relation to citation styles in chapter 48; however, the discussion is limited. The book focuses strongly in the Research and Strategies chapters on integrating sources into one’s own analysis. In chapter 45, Synthesizing Ideas, the book further discusses what an academic conversation is and how sources interact with each other, though this is much less of a focus.

 Paul-Elder model of critical thinking: The book follows the Paul-Elder model fairly well. The book always has a purpose in mind behind its instruction in relation to the effectiveness of a particular genre for the audience. It also encourages students to choose their own topics and settle some questions that matter to them. Students are further asked to examine and reexamine their assumptions and points of view in Chapter 4, Stance, and throughout the book in regards to their tone. The book explains how general concepts and ideas form academic conversations, and the Research/Documentation section supports the idea that persuasion is based on strong data, information, and evidence. The section Reading for Patterns/Connections explains to students how they can form inferences and interpretations and how other writers do. The only weakness of the book in relation to the Paul-Elder model is that it doesn’t necessarily make the logical jump for the students that their readings have implications and consequences. This element of thinking is

Presented by Melissa Bone and Beth Mohon, 11/18/2009 English 602 more inferred and embedded in the book. The book also follows most of the universal intellectual standards well (clarity, accuracy, precision, depth, breadth, fairness, logic, relevance); however, there is less focus in the book on significance (Is this the most important problem to consider? Is this the central idea to focus on? Which of these facts are most important?).

 Types of writing assignments supported: The book is ideally suited to writing assignments focused around genre and audience. Since the book talks so much about determining what genre will be most effective to make your point, it could be interesting to design a prompt where students have to demonstrate their new found knowledge by choosing for themselves the genre that the piece will be written in and drawing out a genre-based plan before they write. The book also gives information on fifteen different genre types (including literacy narrative, annotated bibliographies, evaluations, lab reports, literary analyses, memoirs, profiles, proposals, reflections, resumes) which gives teachers a lot of resources for designing many types of assignments. The book also includes a chapter on mixing genres, but much less emphasis is put on this point as it is tucked away as an afterthought at the end of many chapters on rigid genre types.  Student writings: The 2008 edition includes at least one student writing for most (but not all) genres; only two student writings are included in the “Readings” section in the complete book.  Balance and appeal of readings: The readings included in the basic format of the book are good examples of the genre they represent and seem to have a wide range of topics. There are readings on movies, music, and television, which would appeal to students, but they may be a bit dated. The readings included in the full version of the book are also organized by genre (5-8 readings per genre). There are readings from Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, David Sedaris, Joan Didion, Stanley Fish, and Zora Neale Hurston, to name a few, as well as essays and articles on topics such as cell phones, blogging, Harry Potter, and other pop culture artifacts.

Strengths:

 An especially useful book for a class focusing on genre; the Preface and “How to Use This Book” section also give instructors a way to use the book in a thematic course or research-oriented course. The “Guide to

Presented by Melissa Bone and Beth Mohon, 11/18/2009 English 602 Teaching” that accompanies the book also lays out examples of class plans for various ways of organizing the course.  Could give instructors a lot of freedom in picking and choosing parts of the book to use, designing writing assignments, coming up with homework prompts and daily activities.  The book is color-coded throughout, every time rhetorical situations, genres, processes, strategies, research/documentation, and media/design is discussed in some way. Key words are highlighted according their category. For example, “freewriting,” and “clustering” are highlighted in purple for “Processes”; “thesis” is highlighted in orange for “Strategies” (specifically, “Guiding Your Reader”).  The writing process is emphasized throughout the entire book. In particular, there is a big focus on purpose and audience.  Although the book seems focused mostly on genre, the chapter on “Doing Research” is really detailed and includes chapters on developing a research plan, finding and evaluating sources, quoting/paraphrasing, documentation and avoiding plagiarism, and lots of MLA and APA examples.  The “Strategies” chapter may especially help students in 102 and beyond. Considering the rhetorical situation, working on organization, and learning reading strategies are just a few of the topics covered in this section that will (hopefully) transfer beyond the course.  The book has a website (http://www.wwnorton.com/write/fieldguide) that includes some of the writing guides, model essays, glossary, and online handbook. There are also templates and worksheets for activities like determining the rhetorical situation, peer review, editing and proofreading, etc. and a writing toolbar (color-coded just like the book) that can be downloaded into Word so students can access parts of the book while they write.  The book also seemed to be written from a perspective that empowers students. It allows them to choose their own topic, and it's written in a very direct format so that they do not necessarily need the aid of a teacher to work through the book.

Weaknesses:

 Lack of student writings.

Presented by Melissa Bone and Beth Mohon, 11/18/2009 English 602  No questions or group activities after the readings included in the basic version (there are questions for “Engaging with the Text” included after each reading in the full book).  Explanations may be overly simplistic, less sophisticated than Writing Arguments.  Seems more tailored to instructors than to students and may not be very engaging for students to read as homework.  Color-coding system has the potential to be confusing and perhaps just overlooked or disregarded by students.  “Guide to Teaching” emphasizes letting the students choose their own topics, which might not be particularly useful for new instructors. However, there are a few suggestions for some of the genres.

Presented by Melissa Bone and Beth Mohon, 11/18/2009 English 602