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Writers' Handbook v. 1.0 This is the book Writers' Handbook (v. 1.0). This book is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/ 3.0/) license. See the license for more details, but that basically means you can share this book as long as you credit the author (but see below), don't make money from it, and do make it available to everyone else under the same terms. This book was accessible as of December 29, 2012, and it was downloaded then by Andy Schmitz (http://lardbucket.org) in an effort to preserve the availability of this book. Normally, the author and publisher would be credited here. However, the publisher has asked for the customary Creative Commons attribution to the original publisher, authors, title, and book URI to be removed. Additionally, per the publisher's request, their name has been removed in some passages. 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You can browse or download additional books there. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments................................................................................................................. 1 Dedication............................................................................................................................... 4 Preface to Teachers .............................................................................................................. 5 Preface to Students............................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1: Writing to Think and Writing to Learn...................................................... 14 Examining the Status Quo........................................................................................................................... 15 Posing Productive Questions ...................................................................................................................... 21 Slowing Down Your Thinking..................................................................................................................... 27 Withholding Judgment ................................................................................................................................ 31 Chapter 2: Becoming a Critical Reader .......................................................................... 35 Browsing the Gallery of Web-Based Texts................................................................................................. 36 Understanding How Critical Thinking Works........................................................................................... 47 Reading a Text Carefully and Closely......................................................................................................... 50 Chapter 3: Thinking through the Disciplines ............................................................... 58 Exploring Academic Disciplines ................................................................................................................. 59 Seeing and Making Connections across Disciplines ................................................................................. 64 Articulating Multiple Sides of an Issue...................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 4: Joining the Conversation............................................................................... 72 Raising the Stakes by Going Public ............................................................................................................ 73 Recognizing the Rhetorical Situation ........................................................................................................ 79 Rhetoric and Argumentation...................................................................................................................... 88 Developing a Rhetorical Habit of Mind...................................................................................................... 95 Chapter 5: Planning............................................................................................................ 99 Choosing a Topic ........................................................................................................................................ 100 Freewriting and Mapping.......................................................................................................................... 104 Developing Your Purposes for Writing.................................................................................................... 107 Outlining ..................................................................................................................................................... 112 iii Chapter 6: Drafting........................................................................................................... 116 Forming a Thesis ........................................................................................................................................ 117 Testing a Thesis.......................................................................................................................................... 119 Supporting a Thesis ................................................................................................................................... 124 Learning from Your Writing..................................................................................................................... 129 Learning from Your Reading .................................................................................................................... 132 Generating Further Questions .................................................................................................................. 135 Using a Variety of Sentence Formats....................................................................................................... 138 Creating Paragraphs .................................................................................................................................. 142 Chapter 7: Researching.................................................................................................... 153 Organizing Research Plans........................................................................................................................ 154 Finding Print, Online, and Field Sources ................................................................................................. 163 Choosing Search Terms ............................................................................................................................. 166 Conducting Research ................................................................................................................................. 169 Evaluating Sources..................................................................................................................................... 173 Taking Notes............................................................................................................................................... 177 Making Ethical and Effective Choices ...................................................................................................... 181 Creating an Annotated Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 186 Managing Information .............................................................................................................................. 189 Chapter 8: Revising........................................................................................................... 192 Reviewing for Purpose............................................................................................................................... 193 Editing and Proofreading .......................................................................................................................... 197 Making a Final Overview........................................................................................................................... 201 Chapter 9: Designing ........................................................................................................ 204 General Text Formatting Considerations ................................................................................................ 205 Creating and Finding Visuals.................................................................................................................... 213 Incorporating Images, Charts, and Graphs ............................................................................................. 218 Chapter 10: Publishing..................................................................................................... 223 Choosing a Document Design.................................................................................................................... 224 Developing Digital Presentations ............................................................................................................. 231 Presenting Orally ....................................................................................................................................... 235 Chapter 11: Academic Writing ......................................................................................