DESIRED OUTCOMES RELEVANT FEATURES OF READING CRITICALLY, WRITING WELL, TWELFTH EDITION
Rhetorical Knowledge Learn and use key rhetorical concepts through analyzing and composing a variety of texts.
Chapter 1 provides students with a clear, workable definition of the rhetorical situation and asks students to apply
that knowledge as they read four passages on curiosity.
Chapters 3–11 ask
students to read, analyze, and compose a variety of texts.
Reading Like a Writer activities in Chapter 11 ask students to analyze how the combination of genres in the multi-genre readings work together to meet the needs of each author’s rhetorical situation.
Gain experience reading and composing in several genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’
and writers’ practices and purposes.
Chapter 2 provides a catalog of reading strategies that help
students recognize genre conventions.
Chapters 3–11 emphasize the connection between reading and composing:
Analyze & Write activities ask students to read like a
writer, identifying the key features of the genre.
The Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 lead students through the process of composing their own text in that genre.
Develop facility in
responding to a variety of situations and contexts, calling for purposeful shi s in voice, tone, level of
formality, design, medium, and/or structure.
In Chapters 3–11, students practice
responding to a variety of rhetorical situations and contexts. The Guides to Writing in each of these chapters help students develop their own
processes and structures.
Read to Respond
activities in Chapters 3–11 inspire active
engagement, leading students to explore the cultural contexts of the readings as well as their own responses to the readings.
Sentence strategies in each chapter help
students deal with issues of voice, tone, and
formality.
Understand and use a variety of technologies to address a range of
audiences.
One of the book’s
assumptions is that most students compose in digital spaces for varied audiences and use
different media for doing so. This idea is woven throughout, especially in Chapters 3–11.
Online tutorials in
Achieve for Readers and Writers include how-tos for using technology;
topics include digital writing for specific
audiences and purpose, creating presentations, integrating photos, and appealing to a
prospective employer.
Achieve for Readers and Writers also includes a
robust digital writing space informed by pedagogical best
practices for writing and revising.
Match the capacities of different environments (e.g., print and electronic) to varying rhetorical
situations.
Chapters 3–11 emphasize the importance of the rhetorical situation to composing.
Throughout the book students are prompted to consider how changes to the rhetorical situation, especially genre and medium, shape decisions about tone, level of
formality, design,
medium, and structure.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing Use composing and reading
for inquiry, learning, thinking, and
communicating in various rhetorical contexts.
Chapter 1 defines reading and writing as forms of inquiry, underscores the importance of curiosity to success in college, and includes a sample student essay that
models the role of curiosity in the writing process.
Chapter 3 on
autobiography, which now includes literacy narratives, asks students to reflect on their own literacy experiences and to extrapolate from the literacy narratives they are reading.
Read to Analyze
Assumptions activities in Chapters 3–11 lead
students to think more critically about the beliefs and values implicit in the text’s word choices,
examples, and assertions and also to examine the bases of their own
assumptions as readers.
Read a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and evidence,
Chapter 1 teaches students that critical analysis involves paying attention to how ideas
patterns of organization, the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements, and how these features function for different audiences and situations.
are supported by evidence.
Chapters 3–11 include a range of professional selections and student essays for students to critically analyze through reading and writing.
The Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 offer advice on framing topics to appeal to the audience.
Sentence strategies throughout these chapters model techniques for
responding to alternative views readers may hold.
Chapter 12 emphasizes the importance of using evidence in research- driven projects to
effectively support one’s view.
Locate and evaluate primary and secondary research materials,
Chapter 1 includes
activities that encourage students to use their
including journal articles, essays, books, databases, and informal Internet sources.
curiosity to inspire research.
Chapter 12 offers extensive coverage of finding, evaluating, and using print and electronic sources, with guidance on responsibly using online sources, including
interactive sources (e.g., blogs, wikis).
The “Conducting Field Research” section in Chapter 12 provides a comprehensive overview of and strategies for
conducting observational studies and surveys in order to use these as primary sources.
Use strategies — such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/ redesign — to compose texts that
integrate the writer’s ideas
Chapters 3–10 regularly ask students to anticipate and respond to opposing positions and alternative perspectives in their writing.
with those from appropriate sources.
Sentence strategies
throughout Chapters 3–11 model for students how to situate their own ideas in relation to other
sources.
Chapter 12 offers detailed strategies for integrating research into an
academic project.
Specifically, this chapter provides advice on how to integrate and introduce quotations, how to cite paraphrases and
summaries so as to
distinguish them from the student’s own ideas, and how to avoid plagiarism.
Processes
Develop a writing project through multiple dra s.
Chapter 1 includes a model student essay that shows the recursive
nature of the writing process.
In Chapters 3–11, Guides to Writing prompt
students to compose and revise. These chapters include activities for inventing, planning, composing, evaluating, and revising over the course of multiple dra s.
Develop flexible strategies for reading, dra ing,
reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting,
rereading, and editing.
The student essay in Chapter 1 models the importance of flexibility to the writing process.
The Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 offer extensive advice on reading, dra ing,
rethinking, and revising at multiple stages.
Troubleshooting charts in Chapters 3–11 encourage students to discover, review, and revise, urging students to start from their strengths.
Chapter 2 provides a variety of strategies for
reading analytically and critically.
Use composing processes and tools as a means to discover and reconsider ideas.
Chapter 1 introduces the idea of using reading and writing to discover ideas and models this work in the sample student essay, which shows the student returning to the
generating ideas and planning stages.
Strategies for evaluating, revising, and editing in the Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 help
students reconsider their ideas over the course of multiple dra s.
Experience the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
The Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 ask
students to practice each genre, while making
students aware that these genre definitions are
useful because they are built on shared
expectations and enable more effective written collaboration and communication.
Peer Review Guides in Chapters 3–11 provide opportunities to work collaboratively.
Read to Analyze
Assumptions prompts throughout Chapters 3–11 o en ask students to engage with classmates about the sources of their assumptions.
Students are introduced to the concept of
empathy in Chapter 1 and are expected to be
empathetic readers and writers willing to identify with other readers and writers, including those with different
perspectives, ideas, values, or worldviews.
Learn to give and act on The Peer Review Guide in
productive feedback to works in progress.
the Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 offers students specific advice on constructively
critiquing the work of their classmates.
The troubleshooting chart in the Guides to Writing in Chapters 3–11 supports students as they critique their own writing and gives students detailed strategies for
strengthening their
essays based on their own critiques and the
feedback from their peers.
Adapt composing processes for a variety of technologies and modalities.
One of the book’s
assumptions is that most students compose in digital spaces for varied audiences and use
different media for doing so. This idea is woven throughout, especially in Chapters 3–11.
Achieve for Readers and Writers, which can be packaged to accompany Reading Critically, Writing Well, offers a digital
course space and writing space informed by best practices for peer review and revision. It also offers integrated digital
tutorials, such as how-tos for using technology;
topics include digital writing for specific
audiences and purpose, creating presentations, integrating photos, and appealing to a
prospective employer.
Reflect on the development of composing practices and how those practices
influence their work.
Students are introduced to the importance of metacognition, as a habit of mind, in Chapter 1.
The reflection prompts at the end of Chapters 3–11 encourage self-awareness and invite students to
develop an
understanding of their own experiences as readers and writers.
Sample annotated essays in Chapters 3–10
demonstrate how
annotations can support reflective reading.
Knowledge of Conventions Develop knowledge of
linguistic structures — including grammar,
punctuation, and spelling — through practice in
composing and revising.
Editing and proofreading advice appears at the end of Chapters 3–11,
prompting students to check for errors in usage, punctuation, and
mechanics.
Sentence strategies
throughout Chapters 3–11 model for students
common linguistic structures.
Understand why genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics vary.
Chapter 1 prompts students to consider which passages on
curiosity are intended for
an academic audience and which are intended for a popular audience.
Chapters 3–11 emphasize the importance of the rhetorical situation and how changes to the rhetorical situation, including in genre, shape decisions about tone, level of formality, design, and structure.
Gain experience negotiating variations in genre
conventions.
Students read, analyze, and compose a variety of texts in Chapters 3–11.
The Guides to Reading ask students to analyze texts in terms of the basic features of the genre and the Guides to Writing prompt students to apply these genre conventions.
Chapter 11 provides a checklist of genre features so that students can
experiment with
combining different genres.
Chapter 12 allows students to gain experience as they compose an academic research project.
Learn common formats and/or design features for different kinds of texts.
Students are asked to analyze and consider the role of any visuals that accompany the readings throughout Chapters 3–
11.
Questions following the sample student essay in Chapter 11 encourage students to consider alternative formats and design features for that essay.
Explore the concepts of intellectual property (such as fair use and copyright) that motivate
documentation conventions.
Chapter 12 offers detailed coverage of how to use sources fairly, and features sections dedicated to
acknowledging sources and avoiding plagiarism.
Chapter 12 teaches
strategies for integrating, citing, and paraphrasing sources.
Practice applying citation conventions systematically in their own work.
A number of the professional reading selections in Chapters 3–
11 model citation conventions.
Student essays in Chapters 3–11 offer models for documenting sources.
Chapter 12 includes detailed advice for integrating and
introducing quotations, citing paraphrases and summaries so as to
distinguish them from the student’s own ideas, and avoiding plagiarism.
Chapter 12 provides an overview of MLA and APA style requirements and a
directory of common documentation models.