The Norton Field Guide to Writing (2024)

rEFLections

Academic Writing, Real World Topics fills a void in the writing-across-the-curriculum textbook market. It draws together articles and essays of actual academic prose as opposed to journalism; it arranges material topically as opposed to by discipline or academic division; and it approaches topics from multiple disciplinary and critical perspectives. With extensive introductions, rhetorical instruction, and suggested additional resources accompanying each chapter, Academic Writing, Real World Topics introduces students to the kinds of research and writing that they will be expected to undertake throughout their college careers and beyond. Readings are drawn from various disciplines across the major divisions of the university and focus on issues of real import to students today, including such topics as living in a digital culture, learning from games, learning in a digital age, living in a global culture, our post-human future, surviving economic crisis, and assessing armed global conflict. The book provides students with an introduction to the diversity, complexity and connectedness of writing in higher education today.Part I, a short Guide to Academic Writing, teaches rhetorical strategies and approaches to academic writing within and across the major divisions of the academy. For each writing strategy or essay element treated in the Guide, the authors provide examples from the reader, or from one of many resources included in each chapter’s Suggested Additional Resources. Part II, Real World Topics, also refers extensively to the Guide. Thus, the Guide shows student writers how to employ scholarly writing practices as demonstrated by the readings, while the readings invite students to engage with scholarly content.COMMENTS“Academic Writing, Real World Topics promises to be an ideal resource for college-level writing instruction. For students, the organization of the book will be helpful as it guides them through the process of writing and then provides real examples of writing in different disciplines. For instructors, the pairing of those examples with the writing process will simplify classroom instruction and allow for focus on particular issues relevant to the students. I am looking forward to using the book in my own writing seminars.” — Jacob Sauer, Vanderbilt University“Rectenwald and Carl’s emphasis on discourses surrounding digital culture, transhumanism, and globalization will convince first-year writing students not only that they have something to say about these big issues, but also that their ideas matter and that there are many ways to participate in the conversation. Academic Writing, Real World Topics will model for students—as emerging scholars—the multiple approaches writers take to addressing and engaging with social, cultural, scientific, and technological change.” — Keaghan Turner, Coastal Carolina University“With Academic Writing, Real World Topics, Rectenwald and Carl have prepared the definitive writing-across-the-curriculum textbook. This book engages students and teachers in lively and robust topics, but it also introduces them to the world of academic disciplines and their various concerns. The topics are compelling, and the concise introduction to academic writing is thorough and easily digested. This book will function not only for introductory writing sequences and WAC courses, but also for first-year seminars and other introductory surveys. There is simply no better book that I have seen for introducing students to both college-level writing and academic discourses more generally. I recommend it for instructors who wish to engage their students in productive scholarly writing and discussion, and also for those who strive for broader and deeper intellectual activity.” — Tamuira Reid, New York University“What excites me about Academic Writing, Real World Topics is that this book is unapologetically smart, contemporary, and multi-disciplinary. It does a great job at presenting the anatomy of an argument as well as providing examples from a range of disciplines. Throughout, the book emphasizes the connection between logic, grammar, and rhetoric. The result is a systematic approach that makes students aware of how authors use language to create ideas. The emphasis on language in this text will ensure that students develop the reading and writing skills necessary to strive in college—something every text promises but rarely delivers. Finally, it is worth reiterating that the readings consist of contemporary essays in political science, sociology, education, information technology, and literary theory. This will engage students in the issues as well as prepare them as academic writers.” — Jacob Singer, Professor of Academic WritingComments from students using Real World Topics“Academic Writing: Real World Topics is a book that boldly discusses the real-world problems that the new generation is now facing … The book helped me, as a student, to organize my thoughts on the emerging global culture through the lenses of renowned scholars. This collection helps students apply their growing writing skills to real topics that are applicable and important to school as well as to the rest of their lives.” — Georgia Grace Larsen, Sophom*ore in Media, Culture, and Communications, New York University“Academic Writing, Real World Topics is an excellent resource for students in the twenty-first century. This book is engaging and easy-to-follow, as it is organized by thought-provoking and pertinent topics … As a student who used this book in a first-year writing seminar, I found it to be an excellent introduction to scholarly writing. Rectenwald and Carl break down various types of college-level writing into approachable steps, guide readers through each of those steps, and include a carefully-curated selection of essays that spark spirited discussions that extends well beyond the traditional boundaries of the classroom.” — Hon-Lum Cheung-Cheng, Sophom*ore in Politics at New York University

Journal of Academic Writing, 2016

RPLTL, 2019

Academic writing: Conformity and beyond A brief note Christine CALFOGLOU Let me start on an anecdotal note. I have drafted part of my doctoral dissertation and am expecting my supervisors' verdict. I'm literally floundering in a sea of doubts: Is my writing reader-friendly? Will it come up to the academic reader's expectations and standards? Have I followed the proper line of arguments and built my thesis plausibly? Is my review of the literature exhaustive? Have I convinced the reader of the novelty of my contribution? Is there a contribution in the first place? …. The verdict is merciless: "Interesting work, Christina, but …" and a barrage of flaws ensues. Dominant among them: "Some points are cryptic. And, most importantly, your writing doesn't seem to conform to the conventions of the academic writing community. It is a bit of a hybrid, a cross between linguistics and literature, which is rather confusing, for this is not literature, it's linguistics, so clarity and lucidity of expression are a major concern". So, I tell myself "If you are to convince your reader-judges, you cannot possibly give free rein to your literary self. Try to make your style more staccato and matter-of-fact. Shorten your sentences, use more mainstream, linguistics-oriented vocabulary, avoid metaphor". But then my other self-bounces back and refuses to be hushed: "Oh come on, what's so terribly wrong with long sentences? Henry James-and please do not hasten to call this arrogance, for how dare I associate my writing with the great novelist's …-wrote paragraph long sentences. And, anyway, I have always believed writing was my strong point. I was after all praised for my compositions at school and my undergraduate study writing proceeded smoothly. So, why submit?" Again on an anecdotal note, a student of mine once decided to opt out of the course, because she felt uncomfortable in the academic rigor straitjacket. She was more of a literary type, she said, so she found applied linguistics and methodology were too dry and deprived her of her freedom of expression. Harsh and unattractive as this may sound, academic writing is a process of submission and conformity. It is an exercise in discipline and an effort, easier to some but quite a challenge to others, to belong, to become a member of academia and gain recognition in the community. To achieve this, you need to develop a good command of the conventions employed in writing of the kind. Academic

College Composition and Communication, 1996

Journal of Academic Writing, 2018

Azarbaijan, Shahid Madani University, 2017

Writing has an overarching significance in our lives. We experience this significance in our personal, professional and social activities. Much of who we are and who we wish to become in our social life, in the professional community we belong to and even in the privacy of our individual life is the outcome of what we write and how we write. We are often judged and evaluated by our control of it. The fact that we write for many reasons and purposes, that there are diverse contexts in which written texts are produced and consumed, and that those who wish to learn writing have diverse backgrounds and needs, all push the study of writing into wider frameworks of investigation. Teaching and Researching Writing should be seen as a response to the necessity of understanding these wider frameworks and meeting the needs of teachers and learners who belong to totally diverse contexts. As a brilliant reflection of many years of scholarly work of its writer, Ken Hyland, combined with insights from other prominent figures, the book primarily helps us gain glimpses of different social, cultural and institutional dimensions in which written communication operates. In light of these glimpses, the readers are expected to understand how much written communication has become an integral part of the complex webs of human's social, cultural and institutional life. Hyland's admirable applied linguistic perspective i links the social, cultural and institutional aspects of written communication to diverse research potentials and finally to multiple dimensions of the classroom practice of teaching and learning writing. This strong cycle of theory, research and practice makes up the skeleton of the book. The logic underlying this structure is a true reflection of an applied linguistic perspective. This perspective invites practitioners and teachers of writing to define and approach their problems with a theoretically-informed point of view. Following the logic outlined above, the author has organized the content in three major sections which link theory, research and practice together and one complementary section through which the opportunity for communication with the wider community is enhanced. The three chapters in Section I provide a rich conceptual overview of how writing can and should be defined by being linked to a number of key issues including text, writer, reader, context, literacy, expertise, technology, identity, dominance, culture, plagiarism and error. The chapters are expected to raise some of the key issues and questions currently occupying the field. The three chapters in Section II attempt to translate this conceptual overview to research potentials and possibilities. The author indicates how our theoretical understanding of social, cultural and institutional

Diid. Disegno industriale industrial design, 2022

REFLections, 2022

This is the latest edition of a stalwart textbook for teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP). It is a stand-alone volume, unlike many EAP books that have become a series differentiated by stages of student ability (for example, the Oxford EAP series or Longman Academic Writing). The advantage is that Bailey's textbook accompanies the student through their courses, from beginner to advanced, rather than requiring several separate books. The book is systematic and thorough, with varied examples of material, and it is broken into logical sections and subsections like a science or engineering textbook. The emphasis is on students practicing and completing writing throughout, rather than a more theoretical approach.

Teaching academic writing in European higher …, 2003