An assessment of the study and teaching of writing against the larger theoretical, political and technological upheavals of the past 30 years, ""Fragments of Rationality"" asks why composition studies has been less affected by postmodern theory than other humanities and social science disciplines. For Lester Faigley, the very conservativism of composition teaching - which has resisted the challenges of postmodern thought - makes it a revealing object of study. Composition at first seemed ready to accommodate postmodern ideas, but by the late 1980s, writing teachers were beginning to question many of the traditional presumptions underlying their approach to the task. This crisis in theory has come just as the tenacious back-to-basics movement, a heightened emphasis on education for economic productivity, cuts in funding for public education, and the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots in US society have forced teachers to consider the role of literacy instruction in reproducing social inequality. Drawing on the insights of Foucault, Lyotard and other postmodern analysts, Faigley addresses the theoretical debate about the ""self"" the student writer is asked to occupy, the ""modernist"" goal of producing a rational, coherent student subject, and the writing instructor's unconscious imposition of elite values and expectations in evaluating student work. He explores how networked computer technologies in writing classrooms are destabilising texts and subjects, and he asks what this loss of authority will mean for teachers of literacy. Faigley concludes by arguing that the electronically mediated culture in which we live has not brought an end to meaning, history, or subjectivity, but it does require thinking through the politics of location. In postmodern theory he finds ways of describing how subjects encounter boundaries in negotiating across competing discourses, and how awareness of those boundaries can be introduced into classroom practice.

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-0205648606: MyCompLab with Pearson eText

-0205743404: Brief Penguin Handbook, The: MLA Update

In The Penguin Handbook, Brief Edition , Faigley rethinks the way handbooks present information and ideas with a reference that's tailored for today's visually and technologically oriented students.

Drawing on student feedback and a wealth of classroom experience to design a handbook that gives students the information they need in a format they will actually use, The Penguin Handbook, Brief Edition, addresses the changing nature of today's students as well as today's writing assignments. This text uses unique, “at-a-glance” documentation pages to help students visually understand how to cite sources, while “Common Errors” boxes for grammar and style help students identify the building blocks necessary for academic writing so that they can successfully employ them in their work. Additional visuals throughout the text help students with everything from how to construct a descriptive paragraph to understanding how visual information can be used in a paper, presentation, or Website.

The Penguin Handbook, Brief Edition, makes major advances over existing handbooks by broadening the context of communication, including concise, practical discussions of verbal and visual texts as well as detailed coverage of writing in its many forms. While an emphasis on the process of academic writing and research is maintained throughout, the book and its Website also include coverage of non-fiction genres—brochures, magazine articles, and letters of application—that are used more typically outside the classroom. In addition, The Penguin Handbook is the first handbook to combine this coverage with three purposes of writing: reflective, informative, and persuasive writing.

Throughout, Lester Faigley's expertise in matters relating to technology is consistently evident, including integrated references to the text's comprehensive and meticulously constructed Web site. This site extends the interactive nature of the text by providing self-scoring exercises linked to the “Common Error” boxes, “ESL Worksheets” for non-native speakers, “Writing in the World” projects linked to the writing process chapters, and more. On everything from Internet research and documenting online sources to cutting-edge chapters on writing for the Web and creating visuals for papers and oral presentations, The Brief Penguin Handbook, Brief Edition, ensures that student writers are adequately prepared for anything they are likely to encounter in today's academic environment and beyond.