This book offers students a method for understanding and mastering the rhetorical patterns that comprise expository writing. Its exercises ask students to arrange jumbled sentences into logical order, forming model essays for standard rhetorical patterns such as comparison/contrast, classification, and thesis support. These techniques force students to see the basic logic of different writing patterns. The goal of Whimbey's workbook is to teach the student to write concise and original essays on any topic.

Patricia T. O'Conner, the bestselling language maven who charmed legions of readers into civilizing their grammar ("Woe Is I") and their writing ("Words Fail Me"), now drags proper English kicking and screaming into the Age of E-Mail. Do the old truths still apply? Yes, insist O'Conner and co-author Stewart Kellerman, her journalist husband. In fact, good English and good manners are even more important online. Thanks to the computer, we're writing again, but we'll have to upgrade our lousy language and social skills or suffer the cyber-consequences.
With chapters on etiquette (To E or Not to E), beefier writing (The E-Mail Eunuch), deconstructing a message (All's Well That Sends Well), and civilized English (Grammar a la Modem), "You Send Me" delivers everything you need to connect with real people in the virtual world.

The creative writing workshop has existed since the early part of the 20th century, but does it adequately serve the students who come to it today? While the workshop is often thought of as a form of student-centered pedagogy, it turns out that workshop conversations serve to marginalize a range of aesthetic orientations and the cultural histories to which they belong. Given the shifting demographics of higher education, it is time to re-evaluate the creative writing curriculum and move literary writing pedagogy toward a more inclusive, equitable model. Toward an Inclusive Creative Writing makes the argument that creative writing stands upon problematic assumptions about what counts as valid artistic production, and these implicit beliefs result in exclusionary pedagogical practices. To counter this tendency of creative writing, this book proposes a revised curriculum that rests upon 12 threshold concepts that can serve to transform the teaching of literary writing craft. The book also has a companion website www.criticalcreativewriting.org offering supplemental materials such as lesson plans and course materials.

This invaluable book offers the student of literature detailed advice on the entire process of critical essay writing, from first facing the question right through to producing a fair copy for final submission to the teacher.

New Subediting gives a detailed account of modern editing and production techniques. Its aim is both to help the young subeditor and to spell out to the newcomer to newspaper journalism what happens between the writing of news stories and features and their appearance in the newspaper when it comes off the press. In this age of technological change the quality of the subbing has never been more important to a successful newspaper. The careful use of typography, pictures, graphics and compelling headlines and the skillful handling of text coupled with good page planning, all help to give character,style and readability. This book examines, and draws lessons from, work in contemporary newspapers in editing and presentation; it defines the varied techniques of copytasting, of editing news stories and features, of styles of headline writing and the use of typography to guide and draw the attention of the reader. It takes into account developments in the use of English as a vehicle of mass communication in two important chapters on structure and word use; and it shows how to get the best out of the electronic tools now available to subeditors. It also reminds journalisis that, however advanced the tools, a newspaper is only as good as the creative skills of those that write, edit and put it together.

This book undertakes a general framework within which to consider the complex nature of the writing task in English, both as a first, and as a second language. The volume explores varieties of writing, different purposes for learning to write extended text, and cross-cultural variation among second-language writers. The volume overviews textlinguistic research, explores process approaches to writing, discusses writing for professional purposes, and contrastive rhetoric. It proposes a model for text construction as well as a framework for a more general theory of writing. Later chapters, organised around seventy-five themes for writing instruction are devoted to the teaching of writing at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. Writing assessment and other means for responding to writing are also discussed. William Grabe and Robert Kaplan summarise various theoretical strands that have been recently explored by applied linguists and other writing researchers, and draw these strands together into a coherent overview of the nature of written text. Finally they suggest methods for the teaching of writing consistent with the nature, processes and social context of writing.

Someday computers will be artists. They'll be able to write amusing and original stories, invent and play games of unsurpassed complexity and inventiveness, tell jokes and suffer writer's block. But these things will require computers that can both achieve artistic goals and be creative. Both capabilities are far from accomplished. This book presents a theory of creativity that addresses some of the many hard problems which must be solved to build a creative computer. It also presents an exploration of the kinds of goals and plans needed to write simple short stories. These theories have been implemented in a computer program called MINSTREL which tells stories about King Arthur and his knights. While far from being the silicon author of the future, MINSTREL does illuminate many of the interesting and difficult issues involved in constructing a creative computer. The results presented here should be of interest to at least three different groups of people. Artificial intelligence researchers should find this work an interesting application of symbolic AI to the problems of story-telling and creativity. Psychologists interested in creativity and imagination should benefit from the attempt to build a detailed, explicit model of the creative process. Finally, authors and others interested in how people write should find MINSTREL's model of the author-level writing process thought-provoking.

Critical Reading and Writing in the Digital Age is a fully introductory, interactive textbook that explores the power relations at work in and behind the texts we encounter in our everyday lives. Using examples from numerous genres - such as fiction, poetry, advertisements and newspapers - this textbook examines the language choices a writer must make in structuring texts, representing the world and positioning the reader. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, Critical Reading and Writing in the Digital Age offers guidance on how to read texts critically and how to develop effective writing skills. Extensively updated, key features of the second edition include: a radically revised and repackaged section that highlights the theme of discourses of power and authority and the new possibilities for resisting them; a revamped analysis of the art of communication which has changed due to the advent of new media including Facebook and Wikipedia; fresh examples, exercises and case studies including fan fiction, articles from the BBC, Daily Mail and South China Morning Post, and a selection of international ads for a variety of products; a brand new companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/goatly featuring projects, quizzes and activities for each chapter, a glossary and further reading. Written by two experienced teachers, Critical Reading and Writing in the Digital Age is an ideal coursebook for students of English language.

A growing number of information providers are now online, and as a result being able to produce copy that is suitable for an online readership is of increasing importance. In this text the basic principles of copywriting are covered, along with more specific guidance on writing for online sources. The differences between writing for online and offline are highlighted to enable the reader to distinguish between the two and consequently write the best form of copy for the end source. Different sources of online content require different approaches, and therefore the author takes a structured approach, taking each of these channels in turn, for example writing for web sites, writing for email, ezines and newsletters, writing for search engines, and writing for online ads. By approaching each topic individually, specific guidance is provided enabling the reader to be properly equipped with the tools required to write the most appropriate copy for the task in hand.

Winner of the 2018 CCCC Technical and Scientific Communication Award in the category of Best Book in Technical or Scientific Communication Responding to the effects of human mobility and crises such as depleting oil supplies, Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder turns specifically to automobility, a term used to describe the kinds of mobility afforded by autonomous, automobile-based movement technologies and their ramifications. Thus far, few studies in technical communication have explored the development of mobility technologies, the immense power that highly structured, environmentally significant systems have in the world, or the human-machine interactions that take place in such activities. Applying kinaesthetic rhetoric, a rhetoric that is sensitive to and developed from the mobile, material context of these technologies, Pflugfelder looks at transportation projects such as electric taxi cabs from the turn of the century to modern day, open-source vehicle projects, and a large case study of an autonomous, electric pod car network that ultimately failed. Kinaesthetic rhetoric illuminates how mobility technologies have always been persuasive wherever and whenever linguistic symbol systems and material interactions enroll us, often unconsciously, into regimes of movement and ways of experiencing the world. As Pflugfelder shows, mobility technologies involve networks of sustained arguments that are as durable as the bonds between the actors in their networks.

Write It Short, Sell It Now Short stories and personal essays have never been hotter--or more crucial for a successful writing career. Earning bylines in magazines and literary journals is a terrific way to get noticed and earn future opportunities in both short- and long-form writing. Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays capitalizes on the popularity of these genres by instructing on the two key steps to publishing short works: crafting excellent pieces and successfully submitting them. You'll learn how to: Develop different craft elements--including point of view, character, dialogue, scene writing, and more--specifically for short stories and essays. Recognize the qualities of excellent short works, using examples from recently published stories and essays in major journals. Understand the business of writing short, from categorizing your work and meeting submission guidelines to networking and submitting to writing contests. Master the five-step process for submitting and selling like a pro. Featuring advice and examples from a multitude of published authors, Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays is a must-have for any writer's bookshelf.

The School Administrator's Complete Letter Book with CD-ROM, Second Edition offers a comprehensive selection of model letters and memos for a wide variety of educational purposes and situations. This book and its accompanying CD contain a gold mine of tested, usable letters and other communiqués, some of which can be used practically word-for-word from the book, while others can be adapted to your specific needs.
The book's letters and memos represent the contributions of more than 60 outstanding school administrators throughout the United States— including superintendents, principals, supervisors, guidance counselors, and others— all of them with well-earned reputations for solid, professional communication.
Many types of letters are included— letters addressed to parents, teachers, students, teacher applicants, other school administrators, businesspeople, and the community at large. In addition, this handy resource is clearly organized, designed for easy use, and filled with the best letters of the best communicators in modern American education. The CD-ROM makes the letters easy to modify to fit your own situations.

NOVELISTA is a friendly, straight-talking writing guide for people who want to write a novel but don't know how to begin. It asks all the important questions and gives a host of reassuring answers that demonstrate that anyone can write a novel - even you! To begin with, what the hell is a novel? It's basically a tiny world, where characters are born, live, and (sometimes) die. To write one all you need is a notebook and a pen - but along the way you'll want to learn about good writing habits, planning, mastering descriptions and dialogue and how to pull it all together. This book will guide you through the process and orient you towards the goal of publication. From absolute beginner to novelista, this book will change the way you write and think about writing.

As colleges and universities across the country continue to deal with regular decreases in state funding, technical communication programs, in particular, are being forced to "do more with less." As budget cuts become the new normal, the long-term health of technical communication depends on our ability to evolve and adapt to an array of internal, external, and technological pressures. The New Normal: Pressures on Technical Communication Programs in the Age of Austerity explores the ways technical communication programs are responding to conditions of economic austerity and investigates how smaller programs, or programs situated in smaller institutions, use increasingly limited resources to meet the challenges of increased student demand, the responsibilities of teaching service courses effectively, the technological demands for online education, and the constant pressure to prepare our students appropriately for the ever-changing needs of the job market in technical communication. More specifically, the contributors to this collection are overtly conscious of the marginalized/peripheral status of technical communication programs within both small and large institutions. This awareness allows them to articulate specific ways that austerity has had a direct, and local, effect on a particular technical communication program and to describe short- and long-term strategies for creating sustainable futures for a technical communication program, despite cuts and marginalization.

As colleges and universities across the country continue to deal with regular decreases in state funding, technical communication programs, in particular, are being forced to "do more with less." As budget cuts become the new normal, the long-term health of technical communication depends on our ability to evolve and adapt to an array of internal, external, and technological pressures. The New Normal: Pressures on Technical Communication Programs in the Age of Austerity explores the ways technical communication programs are responding to conditions of economic austerity and investigates how smaller programs, or programs situated in smaller institutions, use increasingly limited resources to meet the challenges of increased student demand, the responsibilities of teaching service courses effectively, the technological demands for online education, and the constant pressure to prepare our students appropriately for the ever-changing needs of the job market in technical communication. More specifically, the contributors to this collection are overtly conscious of the marginalized/peripheral status of technical communication programs within both small and large institutions. This awareness allows them to articulate specific ways that austerity has had a direct, and local, effect on a particular technical communication program and to describe short- and long-term strategies for creating sustainable futures for a technical communication program, despite cuts and marginalization.

A research paper or graduate essay demonstrating weak English and poor formatting is likely to be rejected by an editor or marked down by an assessor; but why should these gaps in your English knowledge undermine your subject knowledge and skill as an engineer or student of the discipline? Written English: A Guide for Electrical and Electronic Students and Engineers is the first resource to work at the sentence level to resolve the English language problems facing international engineering students and scholars. Informed by hundreds of research papers and student essays, this valuable reference: Covers grammar essentials and key terms in the fields of electrical engineering, electronic engineering, and communication systems Uses real-world examples to reveal common mistakes and identify critical areas of focus Provides practical solutions to formatting, vocabulary, and stylistic issues Written English: A Guide for Electrical and Electronic Students and Engineers equips readers with the necessary knowledge to produce accurate and effective English when writing for engineering.

The Other Kind of Funnies refutes the mainstream American cultural assumption that comics have little to do with technical communication-that the former are entertaining (in a low-brow sense) and juvenile, whereas the latter is practical and serious (to the point of stuffiness). The first of its kind, this book demonstrates the exciting possibilities of using comics in technical communication. It defines comics as a medium and art form that includes cartoons, comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels; provides conceptual and historical backgrounds on comics; and discusses the appeals and challenges of using comics-style technical communication. More specifically, it examines comics-style instructions, educational materials, health/risk communication, and political/propaganda communication. The author argues that comics-style technical communication encourages reader participation, produces covert persuasion, facilitates intercultural communication, benefits underprivileged audiences such as children and readers of lower literacy, and challenges the positivist view of technical communication. An abundance of comics-style technical communication examples, carefully selected from across cultures and times, demonstrates the argument. While the book proposes that comics can create user-friendly, visually oriented, engaging, and socially responsible technical communication, it is also quick to acknowledge the limitations and challenges of comics-style technical communication and provides heuristics on how to cope with them. The Other Kind of Funnies is unique in its interdisciplinary approach. It focuses on technical communication but speaks to design, cultural and intercultural studies, historical studies, and to some extent, education, politics, and art.

This practical and portable guide has been designed specifically to help academics and students in medicine and surgery departments at universities all over the world, who are required to write in English to maximize exposure to their research, produce professional and accurate academic English and eradicate the errors that occur at all levels from bad habits or gaps in knowledge. By identifying likely mistakes and then instructing the writers on how to correct them, with exercises to encourage self testing, this easily accessible and at-a-glance resource can be kept readily to hand as an invaluable companion during the course of writing an essay, thesis or paper.

In the field of technical communication, academics and industry practitioners alike regularly encounter the same question: "What exactly is it you do?" Their responses often reveal a fundamental difference of perspective on what the field is and how it operates. For example, academics might discuss ideas in terms of rhetorical theory, while practitioners might explain concepts through more practical approaches involving best business practices. And such differences can have important implications for how the field, as a whole, moves forward over time. This collection explores ideas related to forging effective academia-industry relationships and partnerships so members of the field can begin a dialogue designed to foster communication and collaboration among academics and industry practitioners in technical communication. To address the various factors that can affect such interactions, the contributions in this collection represent a broad range of approaches that technical communicators can use to establish effective academy-industry partnerships and relationships in relation to an area of central interest to both: education. The 11 chapters thus present different perspectives on and ideas for achieving this goal. In so doing, the contributors discuss programmatic concerns, workplace contexts, outreach programs, and research and writing. The result is a text that examines different general contexts in which academia-industry relationships and partnerships can be established and maintained. It also provides readers with a reference for exploring such interactions.

In the field of technical communication, academics and industry practitioners alike regularly encounter the same question: "What exactly is it you do?" Their responses often reveal a fundamental difference of perspective on what the field is and how it operates. For example, academics might discuss ideas in terms of rhetorical theory, while practitioners might explain concepts through more practical approaches involving best business practices. And such differences can have important implications for how the field, as a whole, moves forward over time. This collection explores ideas related to forging effective academia-industry relationships and partnerships so members of the field can begin a dialogue designed to foster communication and collaboration among academics and industry practitioners in technical communication. To address the various factors that can affect such interactions, the contributions in this collection represent a broad range of approaches that technical communicators can use to establish effective academy-industry partnerships and relationships in relation to an area of central interest to both: education. The 11 chapters thus present different perspectives on and ideas for achieving this goal. In so doing, the contributors discuss programmatic concerns, workplace contexts, outreach programs, and research and writing. The result is a text that examines different general contexts in which academia-industry relationships and partnerships can be established and maintained. It also provides readers with a reference for exploring such interactions.

Developed for emerging academic writers, Primary Research and Writing offers a fresh take on the nature of doing research in the writing classroom. Encouraging students to write about topics for which they have a passion or personal connection, this text emphasizes the importance of primary research in developing writing skills and abilities. Authors Lynee Lewis Gaillet and Michelle F. Eble have built a pedagogical approach that makes archival and primary research interesting, urgent, and relevant to emerging writers. Students are able to explore ways of analyzing their findings and presenting their results to their intended readers. With in-text features to aid students in understanding primary research and its role in their writing, chapters include special elements such as: Communities in Context - Profiles of traditional and digital communities that help students understand the characteristics of communities and group members Profiles of Primary Researchers - Spotlights on professionals, giving an illuminating look into the role primary research plays in real-world research and writing Student Writing - Examples of exemplary student writing that demonstrate how research can be relevant, engaging, and interesting, with annotations. Invention Exercises - Exercises designed to help students locate primary investigation within communities that they already understand or find appealing Writing Exercises - Writing exercises that offer students practice in exploring communities and investigating primary materials. Readings - Annotated readings with questions to guide analysis, pulled from a variety of rich sources, that give students inspiration for undertaking their own research projects. This text has a robust companion website that provides resources for instructors and students, with sample syllabi, chapter overviews, lecture outlines, sample assignments, and a list of class resources. Primary Research and Writing is an engaging textbook developed for students in the beginning stages of their academic writing careers, and prepares its readers for a lifetime of research and writing.

"An original and absorbing guide to English style. Get it if you can."-Wall Street Journal Say it with style-on paper or in person. This book explains why the best writing sounds that way, with hundreds of examples from Lincoln, Churchill, Douglass, and other masters of the language. As Farnsworth says, "Explaining a precept may take just a few words, but only examples can make it familiar to the ear. So we will consider examples from writers and orators who all have lessons to teach." Farnsworth shows how small choices about words, sentences, and paragraphs put force into writing and speech that have stood the test of time. What was the secret? Knowledge of choices in the selection of words, the arrangement of sentences, the creation of a cadence. Now that knowledge can be yours through hundreds of examples of the very best use of rhetorical devices, classical cadence patterns, hyperbole and much more. This is must for anyone who wants to speak or write with clear, persuasive, enjoyable, unforgettable style. "A storehouse of effective writing, showing the techniques you may freely adapt to make music of your own."-The Baltimore Sun