Questioning Literary and Rhetorical Analysis

With classical, rhetorical underpinnings and well-chosen essays, the author uses questioning techniques to move from critical reading and the rhetorical triangle to research and documentation. The author hopes by offering selections that challenge our beliefs and raise our social conscience that he can foster a deeper commitment on the part of the student to self-examination and introspection. These reflect the expectations of Dr. Peter Elbow who advocates, “you should expect reading and writing assignments that help you to make sense of your ‘lives and feelings.’”

Intended Market:
Meant for use in a second semester course in composition or a first semester course with an emphasis on persuasion and argument. The book uses professional and student essays to establish lines of argument that culminate in a research paper and a reflective essay.

Unique Features:

• Questioning techniques are used throughout the text to reinforce the power of analysis as a useful tool to help students discover their own, quoting from Questioning, “‘stasis’, or places to ‘stand’ relative to those with opposing views”.
• Students are encouraged to keep those answers, the responses to their writing from the instructor and their assigned peer group in an electronic or written journal. Journaling becomes an essential invention, analysis and assessment strategy in Questioning.
• Archived journal entries are the documents used at the end of the semester to help students create a portfolio and to help them evaluate through a reflective essay their growth as a writer.
• Assignments are chosen and grouped by theme to help students find a reason to care about their writing, and, when persuasion is not possible or not the goal, new methods for mediation are discussed.
• Classical rhetorical organization provides a framework for developing the techniques and strategies essential to learning how to write in a composition course.
• An emphasis on literary analysis and the subtext of inherent meaning engenders an understanding of the elements of literature in a variety of genres including a play and a separate chapter on writing about poetry

Choices: Situations for College Writing

Choices: Situations for College Writing is a course in writing for the new century. As technology increases our ability to communicate with each other, then the need to write more effectively increases, too. Students who know the basics of sound writing and effective argument and who can make use of new writing technologies will be more in demand by their profession of choice and will be more effective in their communities. As such, we've designed this course to integrate classic writing strategies with the latest writing technologies. The book is accompanied by a web based program that is designed to help students turn their writing projects into something more than just exercises for class; It's a showcase for their work. The Choices web portal is an innovative learning utility that is intended to guide students through the writing process in a way that is familiar to them.The web site consists of a personal workspace for creating a homepage, for keeping a blog, and for completing the projects.

Searchers A Quick Guide to Researching, Evaluating, and Documenting Electronic Sources

Carol Lea Clark, a leading author in the use of electronic tools for academic endeavors, has just updated the ideal pocket guide for students who are conducting research. Searchers covers the basics of how to start a research project, how to find and evaluate electronic sources, and how to properly document sources.

It concentrates on using the power of the Web while still covering more traditional tools such as library databases. And, in the tradition of all Fountainhead Press products, it is concise and inexpensive.

Languaging Force X

is a role play game created and designed to be used exclusively for the first-year composition course. The text provides a rationale for gaming as a genre for studying composition: examples of how the game is played; suggestions for creating identities; and adventures that the students work through to gain experience to help them become better thinkers and writers.

Stratagems
Arguing Issues for Writers, 2/e

This multi-genre reader for freshman composition examines all aspects of the rhetorical argument. From persuasive ads, cartoons, screen plays, debates, interviews, professional and student essays, lyrics and graphic novels, every output is discussed by the authors to establish a foundation for seeing arguments, reading and annotating arguments and writing arguments. The building of more sophisticated stratagems and more modern approaches to rhetorical situations, including conspiracy and gaming theories, becomes essential if students wish to understand the impact of their arguments and the arguments of others and to participate in discussing the issues of today in a global community.

Intended Market:
Meant for use in a second semester course in composition or a first semester course with an emphasis on argument and global issues. This reader/rhetoric uses a multi-genre, visual, aural approach to writing to reach an audience that is more media orientated.

Unique Features

• The mission of the book is to foster literacy awareness by uncovering, analyzing and researching the deeper meanings of the argumentative messages in a variety of genres.
• A multi-genre, multi-modal approach provides a beginning writer with more options for addressing the audience and finding a suitable voice for different rhetorical situations.
• Aural and visual components of the text offer other dimensions for rhetorical exploration of argument and audience by providing examples of court cases, speeches, screenplays, lyrics, graphics, ads, comics and debates.
• A wide variety of cross-media formats, rhetorical strategies and approaches, and stimulating issues allow for maximum instructional flexibility.

Praxis
A Brief Rhetoric

Praxis takes the rich history of rhetoric and applies it to everyday writing situations students encounter in the university, work, home, and beyond.  It informs students of the language of historical rhetoric, including terms such as kairos, ethos, pathos, and logos.  Then, it applies this useful vocabulary to modern day issues such as airline travelers being stranded on runways, the rights of smokers and non-smokers, and global warming.

Praxis is written for instructors who have essentially the same practical goals as Aristotle and other Rhetors who taught in ancient Greece—to help their students improve their composition skills and by doing so, increase confidence in their ability to handle any occasion for writing.

Praxis moves the student from theory to practical reason to action!

Features

• Flexible!  Praxis is designed to be used as either a stand-alone text or in conjunction with Instructor chosen projects and readings.
• Inexpensive and brief.    Less than $35 to the student!
• Customizable!  You can choose to use individual chapters from the text.
• Hot Topics including Global Warming, Traveler’s Rights, and President Obama.

Praxis – to specify practical reasoning, for which the goal is action.

The Rhetoric of Green

A first-year composition course is in many ways a rite of passage for university students like yourself. It is not only a course that will help you write effective academic discourse, although that may be its most important purpose. It is also not only a course that is designed to stretch you intellectually and teach you how to think critically, a skill essential to academic success. It is a course that asks you to engage directly with the world in which you live.

The word “green” in the context of this text is, of course, much more than just a color. “Green” suggests a set of preoccupations about how and why we make decisions that responsibly consider our environment. Given Colorado State’s position as a “green university,” it makes sense to ask what, exactly, does it mean to be “green”? On a local level it is worth considering what has happened on campus since Colorado State implemented its “Green is Gold” initiative in 2001. Taking a practical standpoint, how effective are initiatives like “the great sofa round-up”? Last year Colorado State competed with more than 500 universities in “RecycleMania,” and placed second in the nation for our campus recycling rate. How important is it to recycle? Now first-year students can choose whether they wish to pay to use renewable energy in their dorm rooms, powering their laptops and video consoles with alternative sources of electricity. Does this make any difference to overall campus energy consumption—and environmental health? What are the effects of the recent “green construction” guidelines for new buildings on campus? Is “going green” just a campus fad?

Green rhetoric spans every academic discipline and facet of university life. It has also been integrated into so many aspects of our modern world that even the most apathetic cannot escape it. Today, most people give at least some attention to the environmental significance of their decisions and actions. There are few conversations that engage a wider audience than discussions about the environment, including topics as diverse as climate change, green business practices, composting, “clean” energy, sustainability, controlling greenhouse gas emissions, water conservation, and the ethical consumption of natural resources, among many others.

The rhetoric of green also transcends political parties; it includes multiple perspectives. Questions about being “green” come with you in your car; they follow you to the grocery store; they even find their way onto your cell phone––Which one should I buy, and how does the company dispose of it once it’s no longer in use? Businesses, corporations, universities, and non-profits are all dealing with the new interest in being green. And many of them are certainly not hesitating to use green rhetoric in their materials and advertising, using words fresh to the common lexicon like footprint and sustainable in product packaging and websites.

As teachers of writing, we felt the opportunity to have our students examine such language (and the interests that guide the selection of such language) was too rich to pass up. We began collecting the essays for this reader by simply asking questions related to our theme: What are people doing with words within the new contexts of “green” or environmental awareness? How are particular arguments framed, and who is doing the framing? Who are they being framed for, and to what rhetorical effect? We chose these essays based on their relevance to the conversation surrounding what it means to live in an age of environmentalism; perhaps they will ultimately help us all understand what it means to be a student at “a green university.”

The essays mainly show you some of the ways thoughtful writers are considering our interactions with the environment. These essays will provide a foundation for your growing familiarity with different positions on what it means to be environmentally conscious and responsible, before you start your own research and enter the conversation.