Let's Get Writing! LET’S GET WRITING! Virginia Western Community College, Roanoke, Virginia Authors: Kathy Boylan, English Department Elizabeth Browning, English Department Katelyn Burton, Brown Library Kirsten DeVries, English Department Jenifer Kurtz, English Department Editor: Ann Moser, English Department Project Manager: Dale Dulaney, Brown Library Graphic Designer: Kalyca Schultz, Brown Library Peer Reviewers: Sarah Chitwood, English Department Nancy Francisco, Academic Link, Writing Center Janet Little, English Department Annie Woodford, English Department Christine Woods, English Department Publisher: Virginia Western Educational Foundation, Inc. Special Thanks: This book’s title is the suggestion of Eileen Franco, a student in Elizabeth Browning’s ENG 111 class. The cover is the work of Noah Sutphin, a student in ART 247, Painting Technique, created under the super- vision of Professor Sue Steele Thomas. Let's Get Writing! by Virginia Western Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Contents Foreword: Why We Created an Open Textbook ix Dale Dulaney Introduction: About Writing and This Book 1 Ann Moser 1. Chapter 1 - Critical Reading 3 Elizabeth Browning 2. Chapter 2 - Rhetorical Analysis 21 Elizabeth Browning 3. Chapter 3 - Argument 34 Kirsten DeVries 4. Chapter 4 - The Writing Process 104 Kathy Boylan 5. Chapter 5 - Rhetorical Modes 128 Jenifer Kurtz 6. Chapter 6 - Finding and Using Outside Sources 181 Katelyn Burton 7. Chapter 7 - How and Why to Cite 197 Katelyn Burton 8. Chapter 8 - Writing Basics: What Makes a Good Sentence? 211 Jenifer Kurtz 9. Chapter 9 - Punctuation 269 Jenifer Kurtz 10. Chapter 10 - Working With Words: Which Word is Right? 290 Jenifer Kurtz Index 329 Foreword: Why We Created an Open Textbook DALE DULANEY This book was created for reasons quite diferent than most of the textbooks you have used so far in your academic career. What is the diference? Most of the books you have used so far are commercial books and textbooks, created by an author or company that sells the book to make a proft. The author or company protects its creation through an old legal principle called copyright. This system has worked well for many years! If it sells well, the author and publisher makes a proft. Proft or not, the author’s work will be pro- tected from being used or sold without permission. Unlike other books, and for various reasons, the cost of textbooks continues to rise at an incredible pace. These high costs present barriers to many students who need assigned class materials and are already struggling to pay tuition. In response to this reality, authors, through the help of a community of educators and not-for-proft publishers, are beginning to freely share their work in order to lower or eliminate the cost of class materials. This book is one of those instances of sharing. It is free to you and anyone else who would like to use it. The key to this ability to freely use and re-use this material is something called Creative Commons. It is a license that the author places on his or her work that waives some of the protections of copyright and allows for the work to be shared and used in certain ways. To learn more about Creative Commons see this help- fulvideo (https://youtu.be/4ZvJGV6YF6Y, transcript here). Thanks to Creative Commons, our faculty authors were able to draw from 12 other open textbooks to supplement their own writing and create a new, open textbook for ENG 111. This book is made possible by the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA), the committed faculty of the English department, the staf of Brown Library, and the fnancial support of the Virginia Western Educational Foun- dation. Virginia’s community college system was created to provide greater access to education across the Commonwealth. This book was created in that same spirit. Foreword: Why We Created an Open Textbook by Dale Dulaney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. ix Introduction: About Writing and This Book ANN MOSER Why are you taking yet another writing class? The quick answer is that you have developed skills and thinking patterns over the years that allow you to elevate your writing style to a professional level. The long answer can be found in the research of William Perry, who studied developmental growth in college students from 18-22 years old [an overview published in 2013 here (https://tinyurl.com/ybnjh9kg)]. What we understand about the developmental processes, along with recent brain studies [described here (https://tinyurl.com/yc6893kp)]combine to illustrate the adaptive nature of learning over time. There- fore, as we learn more about the brain, we continue to construct learning around that knowledge. To accom- modate the knowledge of a changing brain over time, the scafolding approach to building writing skills has emerged; everything you have learned in your writing education and practice has led you to this point. Now we are going to employ that and elevate your skills further. We also understand that communication proceeds in the following way throughout life and any learning experience: we absorb concepts orally frst, then we can talk about the concept; we read and absorb, and then we can write about it – having built a more thorough and comfortable store of knowledge on the subject or skill. This is how we learned language and behavioral norms, and this is how we learn higher-level concepts. It takes time, practice, and feedback. People have to reach a level of mental maturity before they can even perceive higher-level concepts, and when we truly understand this learning theory [Vygotsky (https://tinyurl.com/ybjxosuv)] we can proceed with more confdence. This introduction is designed to exemplify how writers think about and produce text. The guiding features are the following: • Every good piece of writing is an argument. • Everything worth writing and reading begins with a specifc question. • Improving skills takes practice, feedback, and re-thinking, redoing, revising. The layout of our book implies there is a beginning, middle, and end to a writing course, but because writing is both an art and a skill, people will fnd their own processes for learning, improving, and using these skills. Writing processes difer because we are each looking for a workable schemata that fts our way of thinking. Try out a variety of writing processes and strategies, and fnd what works for you. If you are not uncomfort- able on this journey, you simply are not stretching yet. Learning is prickly, awkward, and risky, so if it does not feel a bit unnerving, push harder and farther. We are not here to prove the skills we already have; this course is about stepping up. It’s like anything else you want to improve: if you can run a 10K in 2 hours, what do you need to do to make it in 1:45? A quick glance through the book will show you that it deftly covers the basics, which are always important to 1 2 LET'S GET WRITING! review as you get ready to build onto your scafolding. Reminders of terminology that form the foundation of a discipline—as well as explanations, descriptions, and examples of their use in a basic education—are in chapters such as “Critical Reading,” “Writing Basics: What Makes a Good Sentence,” “The Writing Process,” “Punctuation,” and “Working with Words.” These are, of course, fundamentals that you have worked with throughout your education, learning in each course skills and habits that elevate your reading, writing, and thinking abilities. This college writing course will ensure that you take another step up to college and profes- sional writing. This text is diferent in its emphasis on research skills and research writing. In English 111, you will work on all of the disparate research skills, bringing them together to learn how to handle a unifed project that adds to a conversation in any feld. The form you will learn, the building blocks of that form, the formality, and the sacrosanct crediting of sources is explained here from English professors and our instructional librarian at the college. Leaning on questions that lead to searches for answers that lead to arguments that present your understanding, the chapters “Critical Reading,” “Rhetorical Modes,” and “Argument” will fll out your growing appreciation of and comfort with the research form in everyday life. From the discussion of source types to guidance through the research process to the models of essay deconstruction, you will fnd that the expectations and language of this text begin with the college-level student in mind. Working through this text will elevate you into the next stage of writing for a 21st century student and pro- fessional. So Let’s Get Writing: What is your frst question? Introduction: About Writing and This Book by Ann Moser is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. CHAPTER 1 Chapter 1 - Critical Reading ELIZABETH BROWNING When you are eager to start on the coursework in a major that will prepare you for your chosen career, get- ting excited about an introductory college writing course can be difcult. However, regardless of your feld of study, honing your writing, reading, and critical-thinking skills will give you a more solid foundation for success, both academically and professionally. In this chapter, you will learn about the concept of critical reading and why it is an important skill to have—not just in college but in everyday life. The same skills used for reading a textbook chapter or academic journal article are the same ones used for successfully read- ing an expense report, project proposal, or other professional document you may encounter in the career world.