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All academic writing requires skills in critical thinking, close reading, argumentation and research, but disciplinary differences among the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and applied fields leave students and instructors frustrated by a one-size-fits-all approach to these skills. For writing programs committed to preparing students for the full range of disciplines they will enter, An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing presents a proven pedagogy that helps students to adapt to the academic writing tasks of different disciplinary discourse communities.

The pedagogy features a series of flexible, transferable frameworks and concrete connections to the disciplines including unique Insider’s video interviews with scholars and peers. Based on the best practices of a first-year composition program that has trained hundreds of teachers who have instructed thousands of students, An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing offers two books in one: an innovative rhetoric of academic writing (available as its own book), and a thematic reader that foregrounds real readings from the disciplines. Use ISBN 978-1-319-05355-0 to get access to the online videos for free with the brief text and ISBN 978-1-319-05354-3 for the version with readings.

Susan Miller-Cochran is Professor of English and Director of First-Year Writing at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on instructional technology, ESL writing, and writing program administration. Her work has appeared in College Composition and Communication, Composition Studies, Computers and Composition, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and she is also an editor of Rhetorically Rethinking Usability (Hampton Press, 2009) and Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition (NCTE, 2002). Before joining the faculty at NC State, she was a faculty member at Mesa Community College (AZ). She has served on the Executive Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the Executive Board of the Carolinas Writing Program Administrators. She currently serves as Vice President of the Council of Writing Program Administrators.

Roy Stamper is Senior Lecturer in English and former Associate Director of the First-Year Writing Program in the Department of English at North Carolina State University, where he teaches courses in composition, rhetoric, and American literature. He is also academic advisor to the department’s Language, Writing, and Rhetoric majors. He has been recognized as an Outstanding Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and is a recipient of NC State's New Advisor Award. Prior to his current appointment, he worked as a high school English teacher. He has presented papers at a number of local, regional, and national conferences, including the Conference of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Stacey Cochran is a Lecturer who teaches academic writing for undergraduates at North Carolina State University. He has also taught academic and creative writing at East Carolina University and Mesa Community College (AZ). He earned his M.A. in English from East Carolina University in 2001 with a concentration in Creative Writing. He was finalist for the 1998 Dell Magazines Award, a 2004 finalist for the St. Martin’s Press/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Contest, and finalist for the 2011 James Hurst Prize for fiction. He is an experienced videographer and interviewer who was the host of The Artist's Craft, a television show in Raleigh which featured interviews with many bestselling authors and literary scholars.

PART ONE: A GUIDE TO COLLEGE AND COLLEGE WRITING

1. Inside Colleges and Universities
What is Higher Education?
     How do Colleges and Universities Differ from One Another?
        Inside Work: Choosing a College
     What is the Purpose of College?
          Inside Work: Writing about College
What are Academic Disciplines?
     How Many Different Academic Disciplines Are There?
          Inside Work: Understanding Disciplinarity
     Why Do Academics Write?
          Insider’s View: Undergraduate Students on Academic Writing
          Inside Work: Thinking about What Academics Write
How Does Writing in College Compare with Writing in Other Contexts?
          Insider’s View; Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
          Inside Work: Understanding the Goals of Your Writing Course
     What Do You Already Know about Writing in Different Contexts?
          WRITING PROJECT: Composing a Literacy Narrative
          WRITING PROJECT: Interviewing a Scholar
          Insider Example: Student Interview with a Faculty Member
Tip Sheet: Inside Colleges and Universities

2. Reading and Writing Rhetorically
Understanding Rhetorical Context
          Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
          Inside Work: Identifying Rhetorical Context
Understanding Genres
          Insider’s Link
Reading Rhetorically
Reading Visuals Rhetorically
          Inside Work: Reading Rhetorically
Writing Rhetorically
          Inside Work: Analyzing Rhetorical Context
Rhetorical Writing Processes
          Insider’s View: Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan Morris, Political Science
          Insider’s View: Patrick Bahls, Mathematics
Writing a Rhetorical Analysis
          George H.W. Bush, Letter to Saddam Hussein
          Insider Example: Student Rhetorical Analysis
          Sofia Lopez, The Multiple Audiences of George H.W. Bush’s Letter to Saddam Hussein
          WRITING PROJECT: Analyzing the Rhetorical Features of a Text
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing Rhetorically

3. Developing Arguments
Understanding Proofs and Appeals
          Inside Work: Writing About Arguments
Making Claims
     Thesis versus Hypothesis
Developing Reasons
          Inside Work: Constructing Thesis Statements
Supporting Reasons with Evidence
          Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
          Inside Work: Analyzing Audience Expectations
Understanding Assumptions
          Inside Work: Considering Assumptions and Audience
Anticipating Counterarguments
          Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
          Inside Work: Dealing with Counterarguments
Analyzing Arguments
          Insider Example: Professional Analysis of an Advertisement
               Jack Solomon, from “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising”
          Insider Example: Student Analysis of an Advertisement
              Timothy Holtzhauser, Rhetoric of a 1943 War Bonds Ad
          WRITING PROJECT: Composing a Rhetorical Analysis of an Advertisement
Tip Sheet: Developing Arguments

4. Academic Research
Conducting Research
     Developing a Research Question
          Inside Work: Writing a Research Question
     Choosing Primary and Secondary Sources
          Insider’s Link
          Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
          Inside Work: Collecting Primary Evidence
          Inside Work: Using Primary and Secondary Sources
     Searching for Sources
          Identifying Search Terms
          Inside Work: Generating Search Terms
          Using Journal Databases
          Searching for Journal Articles by Discipline
     Evaluating Sources
          Distinguishing between Scholarly and Popular Sources
          Insider’s View: Jonathan Morris, Political Science
          Inside Work: Evaluating Sources
     Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Quoting from Sources
          Summary
          Paraphrase
          Quotation
          Inside Work: Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting from Sources
     Avoiding Plagiarism
          Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
          Inside Work: Understanding Plagiarism
     Understanding Documentation Systems
          WRITING PROJECT: Writing an Annotated Bibliography
          WRITING PROJECT: Developing a Supported Argument on a Controversial Issue
Insider Example: Student Researched Argument on a Controversial Issue
     Ashlyn Sims, “Condom Distribution in High School”
Tip Sheet: Academic Research

PART TWO: INSIDE ACADEMIC WRITING

5. Reading and Writing in Academic Disciplines
          Research in the Disciplines
          Conventions of Writing in the Disciplines
          Genres in the Disciplines
          Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
Analyzing Genres and Conventions of Academic Writing
          Insider’s View: Moriah McCracken, Writing Studies
Adapting to Different Rhetorical Contexts: An Academic Writer at Work
          Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
          Inside Work: Reflecting on a Discipline
Using Rhetorical Context to Analyze Writing for a Non-Academic Audience
          Mike Brotherton, from “Hubble Space Telescope Spies Galaxy/Black Hole Evolution in Action”
          Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
          Inside Work: Reflecting on Rhetorical Context
Using Structure, Language, and Reference to Analyze Academic Writing
          M. S. Brotherton, Wil van Breughel, S. A. Stanford, R. J. Smith, B. J. Boyle, Lance Miller, T.
          Shanks, S. M. Croom, and Alexie V. Filipenko, From, A Spectacular Poststarburst Quasar
          Insider’s View: Mike Brotherton, Astronomy
          Inside Work: Reflecting on Disciplinary Writing
          WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis of an Academic Article
          WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Comparative Rhetorical Analysis
          WRITING PROJECT: Comparing Scholarly and Popular Articles
Translating Scholarly Writing for Different Rhetorical Contexts
          Insider Example: Student Translation of a Scholarly Article
          Jonathan Nastasi, Life May Be Possible on Other Planets
          WRITING PROJECT: Translating a Scholarly Article for a Public Audience
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing in Academic Disciplines

6. Reading and Writing in the Humanities
Introduction to the Humanities
          Insider’s View: John McCurdy, History
     Texts and Meaning
          Inside Work: Thinking about Texts
     Observation and Interpretation
          Inside Work: Observing and Asking Questions
Research in the Humanities
          Inside Work: Observing and Interpreting Images
     The Role of Theory in the Humanities
     Close Reading in the Humanities
          Insider Example: Professional Close Reading
          Dale Jacobs, “More than Words: Comics as a Means of Teaching Multiple Literacies”
     Strategies for Close Reading and Observation
          Kate Chopin, from “The Story of an Hour
          Inside Work: Annotating a Text
          Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
          Inside Work: Preparing a Content/Form-Response Grid
     Responding to the Interpretations of Others
Conventions of Writing in the Humanities
          Insider’s View: Shelley Garrigan, Spanish Language and Literature
     Structural Conventions
     Developing Research Questions and Thesis Statements
          Insider’s View: Karen Keaton Jackson, Writing Studies
          Inside Work: Developing Why, What, and How Questions
     Developing Effective Thesis Statements
          Inside Work: Drafting Thesis Statements
     Five-Paragraph Essays and Other Thesis-Driven Templates
     Other Structural Conventions in the Humanities
     Language Conventions in the Humanities
     Reference Conventions in the Humanities
     Documentation
           Inside Work: Analyzing Scholarly Writing in the Humanities
Genres of Writing in the Humanities
          Insider’s View: Shelley Garrigan, Spanish Language and Literature
     Textual Interpretation
          WRITING PROJECT: Interpreting a Text
          Insider Example: Student Interpretation of a Text
          Sarah Ray, “ ‘Til Death Do Us Part’: An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
     Artistic Texts
          WRITING PROJECT: Creating an Artistic Text
Tip Sheet: Reading and Writing in the Humanities

PART THREE: READINGS AND ACADEMIC CASE STUDIES

10. Love, Marriage, and Family
     Andrew Cherlin, How American Family Life Is Different
     “Both pictures, contradictory as they may be, are part of the way that Americans live their family
     lives. Together they spin the American merry-go-round of intimate partnerships.”

     Susan Krauss Whitbourne,. “The Myth of the Helicopter Parent.”
     “The findings lead to a new understanding of parent-child support in the years of emerging
      adulthood.”

     Brian Powell, Catherine Bolzehnhahl, Claudia Geist and Lala Carr Steelman,. “Change Counts,
     Counting Change”

     “The United States includes a rich diversity of families whether or not they are officially recognized
     as such. In fact, “the family,” although still invoked far too often in public and scholarly venues, is an
     increasingly untenable and obsolete concept.”

     Susan Saulny, “In Strangers’ Glances at Family, Tensions Linger.”

     “Many mixed-race youths say they feel wider acceptance than past generations, particularly on
     college campuses and in pop culture. . . .when they are alone, the family strives to be colorblind.
     But  what they face outside their home is another story.”

Academic Case Study: Perspectives on Love
     Humanities: Warren E Milteer, Jr., “The Strategies of Forbidden Love: Families across Racial
     Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century North Carolina”

     Social Sciences: Marissa A. Harrison and Jennifer C. Shortall. “Women and Men in Love: Who
     Really Feels It and Says It First?

     Natural Sciences: Donatella Marazzitia and Domenico Canale. “Hormonal changes when falling in
     love.”

     Applied Fields: Cara O. Peters, Jane B. Thomas, and Richard Morris, “Looking for Love on
     Craigslist: An Examination of Gender Differences in Self-Marketing Online”

WRITING PROJECT: Contributing to a Scholarly Conversation
WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Comparative Analysis of Research Methodologies

11. Crime, Punishment, and Justice
     Barbara Bradley Hagerty, “Inside a Psychopath’s Brain: The Sentencing Debate

     “Neuroscience and neuroimaging is going to change the whole philosophy about how we punish
     and how we decide who to incapacitate and how we decide how to deal with people.”

     Sophia Kerby, “The Top 10 Most Startling Facts about People of Color and Criminal Justice in the
     United States: A Look at the Racial Disparities Inherent in Our Nation’s Criminal-Justice System.”

     “It is imperative that criminal-justice reform evolves as the civil rights issue of the twenty-first
     century.”

     Clark Merrefield, “Should Juvenile Criminals Be Sentenced Like Adults?”

     “While some teenagers can be astonishingly mature and others inconceivably childish, middle
     adolescence—roughly, ages 14 to 18—might be the worst time in a person’s life for rational
     decision making.”

     Jennifer Wilkov, as reported to Abigail Pesta, “I Survived Prison: What Really Happens Behind
     Bars”

     “I’m about to become a prisoner in a massive penitentiary, and I feel an overwhelming sense of
     dread. I’m surrounded by people who have been here before, who know the system, who know
     how to work the guards. But I know nothing.”

Academic Case Study: Capital Punishment
     Humanities: Michael Owen Jones “Dining on Death Row: Last Meals and the Crutch of Ritual”

     Social Sciences: Benedikt Till and Peter Vitouch, “Capital Punishment in Films: The Impact of
     Death Penalty Portrayals on Viewers’ Mood and Attitude Toward Capital Punishment.”

     Natural Sciences: Teresa A. Zimmers, Jonathan Sheldon, David A. Lubarsky, Francesco Lopez-
     Munoz, Linda Wateman, Richard Weisman, Leonidas G. Koniaris., “Lethal Injection for
     Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?”

     Applied Fields: Cyndy Caravelis Hughes and Matthew Robinson, “Perceptions of Law
     Enforcement Officers on Capital Punishment in the United States”

WRITING PROJECT: Preparing a Brief Annotated Bibliography
WRITING PROJECT: Composing an Evaluative Rhetorical Analysis

12. Food, Sustainability, and Social Class
     Gustavo Arellano, “Taco U.S.A.: How Mexican Food Became More American Than Apple Pie”

     “Food is a natural conduit of change, evolution, and innovation. Wishing for a foodstuff to remain
     static, uncorrupted by outside influence—especially in these United States—is as ludicrous an idea
     as barring new immigrants from entering the country.”

     Brent Cunningham, “Pastoral Romance”

     “The reality of America’s food past is far more complicated, and troubling, than is suggested by the
     romantic image at the heart of our foodie nostalgia.”

     Dana Goodyear, “Grub”

     “Standing before a plate of brownies fortified with a mash of the sautéed mealworms, he said
     despondently, ‘This is the future! You’ll eat worms and like it. You gotta eat something.’”

     Michael Pollan, “Why Cook?”

     “Cooking has the power to transform more than plants and animals: It transforms us, too, from
     mere consumers into producers.”

Academic Case Study: Genetically Modified Food
     Humanities: Daniel Gregorowius, Petra Lindemann-Matthies, and Markus Huppenbauer,
     “Ethical Discourse on the Use of Genetically Modified Crops: A Review of Academic Publications
     in the Fields of Ecology and Environmental Ethics"

     Social Sciences: John C. Bernard, Katie Gifford, Kristin Santora, and Daria J. Bernard,
     “Willingness to Pay for Foods with Varying Production Traits and Levels of Genetically Modified
     Content”

     Natural Sciences: Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc, “Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides
     associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships in Quebec, Canada”

     Applied Fields: Sherry Seethaler and Marcia Linn, “Genetically Modified Food in Perspective: An
     Inquiry-Based Curriculum to Help Make Sense of Tradeoffs”

WRITING PROJECT: Crafting a Persuasive Narrative
WRITING PROJECT: Translating a Scholarly Work for a Popular Audience

13. Global Climate Change and Natural Catastrophes
     Sharon Begley, “Are You Ready for More?”

     “From these and other extreme-weather events, one lesson is sinking in with terrifying certainty. The
     stable climate of the last 12,000 years is gone.”

     Daniel Sarewitz and Roger A. Pielke Jr. “Rising Tide.”

     “Global climate change is real, and developing alternative energy sources and reducing global
     carbon-dioxide emission is essential. But the claim that action to slow climate change is justified by
     the rising toll of natural disasters . . . is both scientifically and morally insupportable.”

     John Broome, “The Ethics of Climate Change.”
     How should we—all of us living today—evaluate the well-being of future generations? . . . How
     should we respond to the small but real chance that climate change could lead to worldwide
     catastrophe?

     Ted Steinberg, “Disasters and Deregulation.”

     “From a statistical perspective, our nation’s recent hurricane problem comes down to a case of bad
     luck. . . . But we can help load the dice in our favor by understanding what has gone wrong with the
     federal government’s approach to natural hazards.”

Academic Case Study: Hurricane Katrina
     Humanities: Zenia Kish, “My FEMA People: Hip-Hop as Disaster Recovery in the Katrina
     Diaspora.”

     Social Sciences: Barbara L Allen, “Environmental justice, local knowledge, and after-disaster
     planning in New Orleans”

     Natural Sciences: Tingzhi Su, Shi Shu, Honglan Shi, Jianmin Wang, Craig Adams, and Emitt C.
     Witt, “Distribution of toxic trace elements in soil/sediment in post-Katrina New Orleans and
     Louisiana Delta.”

     Applied Fields: Jacqueline Rhoads, Fave Mitchell, and Susan Rick, “Posttraumatic Stress
     Disorder After Hurricane Katrina”

WRITING PROJECT: Composing a Research Proposal
WRITING PROJECT: Writing a Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Popular and Academic Sources

Appendix: Introduction to Documentation Styles
Index

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An Insider's Guide to Academic Writing: A Rhetoric and Reader

An Insider's Guide to Academic Writing: A Rhetoric and Reader

031256676X

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