The Word on College Reading and Writing The Word on College Reading and Writing Monique Babin, Carol Burnell, Susan Pesznecker, Nicole Rosevear, Jaime Wood This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. The Word on College Reading and Writing by Monique Babin, Carol Burnell, Susan Pesznecker, Nicole Rosevear, Jaime Wood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Contents Introduction ix PART 1: WORKING WITH TEXTS What is a Text? 2 BUILDING STRONG READING SKILLS Read Effectively 4 Create an Optimal Setting for Reading 6 Use Pre-reading Strategies 8 Read Efficiently 10 Annotate and Take Notes 11 Do Quick Research 13 Discover What a Text is Trying to Say 14 Explore the Ways the Text Affects You 16 Reflect 17 Troubleshoot Your Reading 18 WRITING ABOUT TEXTS Reading Critically 22 Exploring the Structure of a Text 23 Dialectic Note-taking 25 Analyzing Content and Rhetoric 28 Sentence-Level Analysis 30 Point of View 32 Word Choice 34 Paragraph Analysis 35 Summarizing a Text 36 Critiquing a Text 37 Drawing Conclusions, Synthesizing, and Reflecting 39 WHAT IS INFORMATION LITERACY? Why is Information Literacy Important? 42 Finding Quality Texts 44 Learning About Plagiarism and Guidelines for Using Information 51 PART 2: WRITING About This Section 56 WHY WRITE? Self-Exploration and Self-Enrichment 58 Creativity 59 Comprehension and Academic Performance 60 Professional Opportunities 61 Effective Communication and Persuasion 62 DETERMINING YOUR AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE Audience 64 Purpose 66 Appealing to Your Audience 67 Exercises 69 Tone, Voice, and Point of View 73 PREWRITING—GENERATING IDEAS Selecting and Narrowing a Topic 78 Strategies for Getting Started 81 Imagining Your Audience’s Needs 86 DRAFTING Organizing Your Ideas and Looking for Connections 90 Finding the Thesis 92 Writing a First Draft 93 Writing Paragraphs 97 The Paragraph Body: Supporting Your Ideas 103 Developing Relationships between Ideas 105 Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development 109 Writing Introductions 114 Writing Conclusions 117 Writing Summaries 120 Paraphrasing 124 Quoting 127 USING SOURCES CORRECTLY Crediting and Citing Your Sources 130 Citing: Identifying In-Text Sources 130 Citing or Identifying Images in Your Writing 135 Handling Titles 136 Proofreading Your Work with Sources 137 Using Citation Generators 138 DEALING WITH OBSTACLES AND DEVELOPING GOOD HABITS Overcoming Writing Anxiety and Writer's Block 140 Good Writing Habits 145 Procrastination 147 REVISING Higher vs. Lower Order Concerns 152 Reverse Outlining 154 Editing 157 Document Format, Documentation Style, and Proofreading 158 Giving and Receiving Feedback 160 What's Next? 163 Grammar and Style 165 Resources for Working with MLA 170 Creating a Works Cited Page 173 Results for the "Check Your Understanding" Activities 178 Glossary of Terms 182 Works Cited in This Text 184 Introduction Welcome to The Word on College Reading and Writing! Have you ever wished for a handy guide that would steer you in the right direction through all of your reading and writing assignments? This text aims to be that kind of guide. Written by five college reading and writing instructors, this interactive, multimedia text draws from decades of experience teaching students who are entering the college reading and writing environment for the very first time. It includes examples, exercises, and definitions for just about every reading and writing related topic you will encounter in your college courses. How the Text is Organized The text is organized into two major parts. Part 1 is titled “Working with Texts” and emphasizes building strong reading skills and how to work with texts that you need to use in completing college reading and writing assign- ments. Part 2, titled “Writing,” is all about, well, writing. This half of the text covers a variety of topics includ- ing determining the audience and purpose for your writing assignments, getting started, drafting, working with sources, revising, and more. While navigating through the text, you’ll notice that the major part of the text you’re working within is identified at the top of the page. We hope this helps you to navigate between sections and sub- sections and to understand the relationships between them. How Should You Use This Text? This is a use-it-as-you-need-it kind of text. In other words, you don’t have to read every word from beginning to end. Instead, skip around using the table of contents to find answers to your questions or to do exercises that will improve your reading and writing skills. You might find it useful to have this text with you as you’re doing reading and writing assignments because confusion will happen, questions will come up, and we’re here to help when you need it most. Resources to Accompany This Text For a growing list of instructor and student resources to accompany this text, visit http://the- word4instructors.wordpress.com/. At this site, we have plans to build a repository of various materials to aid instructors and students in using this text and in teaching and learning at this level of college reading and writing. We plan to include sample syllabi and assignments, sup- plemental readings, additional exercises and activities (in addition to those we offer in this text), multimedia materials, and more. Please check the site in fall of 2017 when we plan launch this text, and then be sure to check back regularly, as we have plans to add new materials every term. Gendered and Gender-Neutral Language As you read, you may notice that we use a variety of pronouns such as she/her, he/him, or they/them to refer to a person we’re discussing. Our goal is to represent all people, regardless of gender, and to do so in a balanced way. Therefore, in some paragraphs, we may designate “she” as the pronoun, while in others “he” will stand in for the x Introduction person being written about. However, you’ll also come across “they” being used as a singular pronoun, which may be confusing at first. The pronoun “they” allows a single person to represent any gender, including those genders that aren’t accurately represented by “he” and “she.” It’s important to consider gender-neutral language in your own writing, so we wanted to make sure we modeled what that looks like in this text. Links and References in Online and Print Versions of This Text The online text includes links, but we’ve used specific language to allow readers of the print version to find the same pages within the text or outside resources. For example, in the “Summarizing a Text” section, we mention an external text in this sentence: “In his essay, “Consider the Lobster,” writer David Foster Wallace asks readers to con- sider the ethical implications of feasting on lobsters. (You can find a copy of this essay online at Gourmet.com.)” If you’re using the print version of this text, you can find that David Foster Wallace essay by doing a web search using the title, author, and website like this: “consider the lobster david foster wallace gourmet.com.” If you’re looking for a page within this text that we’ve linked to, go to the Table of Contents, and look for the title of the relevant section there. Note to teachers: Make sure you provide a heads up for potential students using the print version so they can access web resources. Acknowledgements Most creative endeavors are better off when folks collaborate, sharing their various skills and insights, making the finished product a better version of what was originally imagined. This text is no different. We would like to thank the fearless peer reviewers—Laura Joyce, Brenda Marks, David Mount, and Lisa Niel- son—whose detailed suggestions, critiques, and compliments made this text much improved and gave us courage to move forward. Thanks also to Amy Hofer whose support, both through the grant that made this work possible and through her vast knowledge of all things related to Open Educational Resources, was everpresent. We were also supported by an important cast of characters at Clackamas Community College who were there to answer questions and provide encouragement including Jil Freeman, Ann Boisselle, Sheila Baack, and Sarah Nolan. Finally, we would also like to thank Daniel Lemke. His knowledge of CSS and HTML5, coupled with his support through the design process, were instrumental in helping us make the final product look good and function prop- erly. The five authors who set off on this journey together are incredibly lucky to know each other and to get to work together on a regular basis, making this project a delight, even when it was a challenge in the midst of all of life’s other obligations. Making something new out of an idea isn’t easy, but help is all around. We are grateful for all that we’ve received. Part 1: Working with Texts What is a Text? As a college student, much of your time will be spent interacting with texts of all types, shapes, sizes, and delivery methods. Sound interesting? Oh, it is. In the following sections, we’ll explore the nature of texts, what they will mean to you, and how to explore and use them effectively. CC0 Public Domain Image In academic terms, a text is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person who examines it. You might have thought that texts were limited to written materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and ‘zines (an informal term for magazine that refers especially to fanzines and webzines).