writing spaces Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspectives writing spaces on a wide-range of topics about writing. In each chapter, authors present their unique views, insights, and strategies for writing by addressing the undergradu- ate reader directly. Drawing on their own experiences, these teachers-as-writers invite students to join in the larger conversation about the craft of writing. Con- sequently, each essay functions as a standalone text that can easily complement other selected readings in first year writing or writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at any level. Volume 3 continues the tradition of previous volumes with topics such as voice and style in writing, rhetorical appeals, discourse communities, multimodal composing, visual rhetoric, credibility, exigency, working with personal experi- ence in academic writing, globalized writing and rhetoric, constructing scholarly ethos, imitation and style, and rhetorical punctuation. All volumes in the series are published under a Creative Commons license and available for download at the Writing Spaces website (www.writingspaces.org), Parlor Press (www.parlorpress.com/writingspaces), and the WAC Clearinghouse (wac.colostate.edu/). punctuation’s rhetorical effects . how to write meaningful peer response praise . understanding visual rhetoric . writing with force and flair . strategies for multimodal composing . grammar, rhetoric, and style . understanding discourse communities . evolution of imitation: building your style . scholarly ethos in the writing classroom . composing usable texts for audiences from different cultures . weaving personal experience into academic writing . exigency-what makes my message indispensable to my reader . assessing wss sourcewr credibility for iticrafting a ngwell-informed argumentspacesspaces writing spaces readings on writing series editors, Dana Driscoll, Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter volume 3 www.writingspaces.org 3015 Brackenberry Drive parlor Anderson, South Carolina 29621 press edited by Dana Driscoll, www.parlorpress.com S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9 Mary Stewart, and Matthew Vetter ISBN 978-1-64317-127-2 Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing 3 Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Editors Dana Driscoll, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Mary Stewart, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Matthew Vetter, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Copyeditors Ashley Cerku, Oakland University Brynn Fitzsimmons, University of Kansas Megan Heise, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Jennifer Johnson, University of California, Santa Barbara Heather A. McDonald, American University John Whicker, Fontbonne University Web Editor Joshua Daniel-Wariya, Oklahoma State University Social Media Editor Delilah Pope Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspec- tives on a wide range of topics about writing. In each chapter, authors present their unique views, insights, and strategies for writing by ad- dressing the undergraduate reader directly. Drawing on their own ex- periences, these teachers-as-writers invite students to join in the larger conversation about the craft of writing. Consequently, each essay func- tions as a standalone text that can easily complement other selected readings in first year writing or writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at any level. All volumes in the series are published under a Creative Com- mons license and available for download at the Writing Spaces website (http://www.writingspaces.org), Parlor Press (http://www.parlorpress. com/writingspaces), and the WAC Clearinghouse (https://wac.colos- tate.edu/). WRITING SPACES Readings on Writing Volume 3 Edited by Dana Driscoll, Mary Stewart and Matthew Vetter Parlor Press Anderson, South Carolina www.parlorpress.com Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, USA © 2020 by Parlor Press. Individual essays © 2020 by the respective authors. Unless otherwise stated, these works are licensed under the Creative Com- mons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) and are subject to the Writing Spaces Terms of Use. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/, email [email protected], or send a letter to Creative Com- mons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. To view the Writing Spaces Terms of Use, visit http://writingspaces.org/terms-of-use. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on File 1 2 3 4 5 Cover design by Colin Charlton. Printed on acid-free paper. Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, and eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress. com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. It is also available in eBook formats at http://writingspaces.org and http://wac.colostate.edu/. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email [email protected]. Contents 1 Punctuation’s Rhetorical Effects 3 Kevin Cassell 2 Understanding Visual Rhetoric 18 Jenae Cohn 3 How to Write Meaningful Peer Response Praise 40 Ron DePeter 4 Writing with Force and Flair 52 William T. FitzGerald 5 An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing 65 Melanie Gagich 6 Grammar, Rhetoric, and Style 86 Craig Hulst 7 Understanding Discourse Communities 100 Dan Melzer 8 The Evolution of Imitation: Building Your Style 116 Craig A. Meyer 9 Constructing Scholarly Ethos in the Writing Classroom 128 Kathleen J. Ryan 10 Writing in Global Contexts: Composing Usable Texts for Audiences from Different Cultures 147 Kirk St.Amant v vi Contents 11 Weaving Personal Experience into Academic Writing 162 Marjorie Stewart 12 Exigency: What Makes My Message Indispensable to My Reader 175 Quentin Vieregge 13 Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting a Well-Informed Argument 189 Kate Warrington, Natasha Kovalyova, and Cindy King Contributors 205 About the Editors 209 vii Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing 3 1 1 Punctuation’s Rhetorical Effects Kevin Cassell Overview Many students tend to think of punctuation as governed by a set of rules. This chapter encourages them to conceive of punctuation as a system of conventions, which includes standard expectations of correct usage—cer- tain “rules”—but applies them within a broader rhetorical context. After distinguishing between punctuation and grammar (the two terms are of- ten associated), students are provided with three reading strategies to help them become aware of how punctuation operates in printed texts. The first strategy, explicit reading, adopts Writing Spaces author Mike Bunn’s Reading Like a Writer (RLW) approach, but emphasizes a reading style that is sensory. The second strategy, visual reading, asks students to adopt a “typographical perspective” when reading so that they literally see how punctuation operates. The third one, aural reading, asks them to listen – possibly by reading aloud – to how punctuation conveys an author’s tone of voice, which can help to illustrate context. Palpably experiencing punc- tuation usage while reading will help students use it with confidence and facility in their own writing. This chapter accommodates readers with hearing or visual impairments so they may participate in this sensory reading. recently shared a few short written expressions with students in my first-year writing class at the University of Arizona.* Each one was a sentence or two long and conveyed a different idea that related to Ilanguage use. I didn’t tell my students who wrote them. I just projected * This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) and are subject to the Writing Spaces Terms of Use. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/, email [email protected], or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. To view the Writing Spaces Terms of Use, visit http://writingspaces.org/terms-of-use. 3 4 Kevin Cassell each one on the classroom screen and asked them what they thought. They responded to the ideas of each quite well– until I put this final one up for them to read: Alway’s; use the proper name, for thing’s. Fear, of a name increase’s fear, of the thing, itself. WRITING SPACES 3 Not a single student engaged with the idea here – that the way something’s named can cause people to have an emotional response to it. Instead, they severely critiqued the writing itself. As I had expected, they said the writer had “bad,” “clumsy,” even “horrible” grammar. When I asked for examples of this bad grammar, they said the apostrophes were wrong, the semicolon didn’t belong there, and there were too many incorrectly placed commas. I completely agreed with the problems they pointed out – except one. If you ignore the apostrophes, the semicolon, and the commas, then you’ll see that the grammar of this two-sentence expression is fine. In fact, the original version had none of those punctuation marks. I put them there after taking it from one of the most popular books in the world – J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. If you’ve read this book, you may remember the half-blood wizard Professor Dumbledore explaining to young Harry why he calls the villainous Voldermort by his real name and not “the Dark Lord” or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” which are terms that undeservedly inflate his status to mythic proportions (298). Here are the actual two sentences before I got my hands on them: Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. I incorrectly punctuated these sentences to demonstrate two things. First, I want to point out that there is a difference between grammar and punctuation. Grammar refers to the structure of sentences. If I had changed the grammar of the first sentence, it would have come out as The proper name for things always use or, worse, Things the proper name always use for.