978-0393617467 Lecture Note Part 10

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10 % Part V: Research [ 165 ]

to be made between types of sources: primary or secondary? scholarly or popu lar?

older/historical or current? Because our students have had some difﬁ culty with

both ﬁ nding and discerning acceptable academic sources and recognizing the dif–

Identifying the most helpful sources. For a class in which the research- based

essay is one of several, limiting the scope of the proj ects will help you— and your

students— manage the time needed to complete the proj ects. In a class focusing on

Smoking isn’t allowed indoors, but smokers tend to congregate around the door–

This is an issue that has been quite the focus of student discussion and debate on

one of our campuses, but your students should identify the hot topics for their

campus. Issues that they are interested in will lead to more engaged discussion.

• From primary sources like the public safety ofﬁ ce, students could determine

what campus rules and regulations are in place regarding this issue, whether

they are being violated, and if so how frequently and what the penalties are

for violation.

• From the internet they could obtain data on peer institutions and how they

handled this issue.

Some students may need help in conducting a quick assessment of sources, so

these questions may help initially:

[ 166 ]

• Are popu lar sources useful? Some topics may call for popu lar sources. But

while they can help initially and can sometimes steer you toward other

Visit the library and go on the internet. Where once we could classify sources as

those you ﬁ nd in the library and those you ﬁ nd online, that is no longer the

case: libraries and print publications are moving online, and power ful internet

resources are accessible through the campus library. The new organ ization of

this chapter reﬂ ects this shift and more closely aligns with how research is done

Meet the librarians. Take the class to the library—or have the library come to you.

Establishing a relationship with research librarians early on can beneﬁ t your stu-

dents. Before completing your syllabus, check your campus library site for research

support materials; most will be happy to work with you on setting up some sort of

tigating local issues or prob lems, on campus or in the immediate community,

interviewing experts or observing critical actors involved in the area can provide

a rich data source. Students working on larger issues can use primary research to

provide an immediate connection that either supports or contends with regional

or national claims.

Chapter 21: Keeping Track / Managing Information Overload

Our goal in this chapter is to help students ﬁ gure out how best to make good

choices about organ izing the potential mountain of sources they can collect in the

pro cess of gathering information. We provide concise explanations of source label-

ing, tracking, and compiling, as well as suggestions and guiding questions.

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10 % Part V: Research [ 167 ]

Use this short chapter to help students plan and practice good information

management. Don’t merely ask them to read it; have them actually identify

sources, take notes, and begin a working bibliography of sources. They can then

use the questions in the next chapter (pp. 493–95) to evaluate these sources. You

might try this initially as a class proj ect for small groups. Using one topic, divide

students into groups of three or four, provide each group with a couple of sources

The working bibliography will be a new experience for many. You can help

by emphasizing the importance of approaching this systematically and establish-

ing some format standards for keeping track of information. We’ve had success

combining this with the annotated bibliography, explaining to students— and

reminding them periodically— that the sources they use in a working bibliography

Chapter 22: Evaluating Sources

Many ﬁ rst– year writers have trou ble discerning between a strong scholarly source,

an academically acceptable source, and popu lar but unvetted sources. This chap-

ter begins where all research begins: with questions. The discussion of vetting

sources, especially Howard Rheingold’s statements, should prompt some to ques–

tion what they think they know about ﬁ nding trustworthy information. We’ve

collected speciﬁ c prompts to thinking under headings designed to encourage

Be on the lookout for personal biases— students sometimes have trou ble rec-

ognizing the distinction between objective information and personal beliefs or

opinions. Be prepared to explain the importance of establishing ethos through

carefully selected sources and of critically evaluating any information before

[ 168 ]

The tendency to buy into what ever is in print or online and accord it the status of

Truth can easily derail the research pro cess for our students. Be aware, too, that stu-

dents will often grab the ﬁ rst thing that pops up in their Google or Google Scholar

search, appropriate or not. One way to avoid this is to create a worksheet using

selected questions from pp. 493–95 and require students to respond in writing for

a given number of sources.

Ascertaining validity is not the only difﬁ culty for new researchers. We need

to remember that our students are relatively new to the task of sifting through

and evaluating all kinds of claims. Help them to identify and use source material

how to identify bias in such targeted claims, and then asked them to construct

their own versions. This becomes an especially in ter est ing exercise when done

with websites. Because our students are so familiar and comfortable with the

web, they tend to be quite accepting of what they ﬁ nd there. Asking them to assess

the language and the visuals on some of the sites they select as useful for their

research can help them identify subtle (and not– so- subtle) biases and recognize

credible sources.

Chapter 23: Annotating a Bibliography

We ask students to create an annotated bibliography primarily because it’s an

opportunity to practice in a small format most of the skills involved in becoming a

Show students how to annotate sources (we discourage overhighlighting in

favor of actual notation on texts), but allow for ﬂ exibility: some students may be

very comfortable with using Zotero, for example, while others may prefer note

cards.

This is another of those chapters that can be part of a larger research proj ect

or stand alone as a genre assignment. The Characteristic Features, concisely

explained, are followed by two sets of sample annotation from a student author,

one set that is descriptive and a second that evaluates as well as describes each

source. Some students ﬁ nd it difﬁ cult to distinguish between the annotated bibli-

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10 % Part V: Research [ 169 ]

Chapter 24: Synthesizing Ideas / Moving from

What Your Sources Say to What You Say

This chapter begins with an unexpected (at least in the context of academic research)

example of synthesizing material from dif fer ent sources: the musical mash-up. We

chose this deliberately to reinforce the notion that conducting research— the practice

of gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing information— isn’t restricted to the class–

The ﬁ rst step in synthesizing materials is identifying and understanding rela–

tionships among ideas and among sources. Before students can integrate an author’s

ideas with their own or integrate two or more authors’ ideas with each other, they

need to learn how to identify and interpret the connections between them. Inexpe-

rienced researchers and writers will often focus too much on one source (“But it says

every thing I wanted it to!”) or use multiple sources in sequence without really

Following are a few exercises that can also help you move your students into

synthesizing sources:

• Have students engage in discussion with a text. Rather than highlighting

passages they ﬁ nd in ter est ing, have them use an index card or compose a

response on their laptop to speciﬁ c sentences or passages. Invite them to ask

• Start with the previous exercise, then ask students to individually summa-

rize the discussion based on blending the several recorded observations and

their own experience as listeners.

You might also consider using this pro cess to introduce a lit er a ture review (pp. 317–

18) on its own or as part of a larger assignment, by working with the Reﬂ ection

exercise on p. 508.

[ 170 ]

Chapter 25: Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing

We believe that these three essential skills are among the most impor tant for stu-

dent researchers and writers to master. In this chapter, we provide explanations

and precise examples of how and why to make the choice among these three

options. Then we take that a step further by helping students see how to incorpo–

can be enormously helpful. In addition to the examples in the chapter, you might

want to ask students to bring in sources they are working with and workshop the

pro cesses of choosing, writing, and incorporating a quotation, a summary, and a

paraphrase of one or more short passages.

When and how to quote. As an in- class exercise, provide students with several

short passages on a single topic and ask them to identify short se lections from each

that illustrate speciﬁ c points. (You could post these points beforehand or have stu-

dents work to develop them from the readings.) Review the se lections as a group,

When and how to paraphrase. It’s very tricky to paraphrase correctly; inexperi–

enced writers tend to either use too much of the original (approximating plagia-

rism) or to make a patchwork of it (also approaching plagiarism). Managing to

convey the meaning of the original but doing so in their own words is difﬁ cult for

When and how to summarize. To teach students to summarize effectively, pro–

vide them with several passages that are short enough to be manageable, but long

enough to provide sufﬁ cient text to work with. Have them work in small groups

and highlight the thesis in each article, then rephrase it in their own words. Then

have them highlight the main supporting ideas. Ask them to brieﬂ y review what

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10 % Part V: Research [ 171 ]

original words. At the end, as a class, try to compile one perfect summary from the

many contributions.

Chapter 26: Giving Credit, Avoiding Plagiarism

This ﬁ nal chapter before the documentation chapters focuses on helping students

understand what sources they must acknowledge and why. Contrary to popu lar

opinion, little of what gets identiﬁ ed as plagiarism is actually an attempt to cheat.

More often students don’t quite understand the distinctions involved. And the

• Have an open and clear discussion of what constitutes plagiarism and why

it’s impor tant to credit sources; some students simply haven’t been taught US

• Set deadlines for each increment (this avoids the last– minute topic change

that frequently invites plagiarism).

• Emphasize planning and keeping to deadlines, especially for meetings with

you.

Note, too, that the chapter includes an explanation of Fair Use and the Internet, as

well as a series of steps to take to avoid plagiarism. Try to familiarize your stu-

dents with both.

Chapter 27: MLA Style / Chapter 28: APA Style

These chapters provide explicit guidance in using these two most common for–

mats for documenting sources, and the examples in each should help students see

how to do so smoothly.

[ 172 ]

ONE OF THE REAL PLEASURES OF TEACHING WRITING TODAY is the

opportunity to watch students experiment with style: to think not only

about what they say, but how they say it. And they now have reason to think about

more than just words; they have color, fonts, the ability to insert images with the

click of a mouse, and all the other things that a good word– processing program

allows. We think it’s becoming more and more impor tant than ever to call stu–

dents’ attention to the crucial role style plays in getting their messages across,

Style can be liberating for students because it allows for so much choice: sel–

dom is there just one right way to say something. For us as teachers, this means

being a coach or a guide or a respondent rather than a prescriber. That’s one reason

we included the fascinating analogy about baseball and writing on pp. 639–40. It’s

from a piece by rhetorician Brent Simoneaux that we found on the RhetHistoria

blog analyzing the way a batter needs to be able to make split– second decisions

based on deep knowledge of the game and its rhetorical situation. When the

pitcher throws the ball, the coach can’t tell the batter what to do; he can only hope

The concept of kairos— the ability to seize the opportune moment, to say just

the right thing at the right, most appropriate, time— can be helpful in discussing

style, so take time to talk with students about it. You might want to show them a

picture of Kairos, the god of opportunity, who runs with little wings on his ankles

and a lock of hair on the front of his head, the better to be seized. It’s worth noting

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Part VI: Style

11 % Part VI: Style [ 173 ]

that once Kairos has passed by, it’s impossible to grasp him— the back of his head

is completely bald! (For an image and explanation of Kairos and how the concept

relates to MANAGING THE WRITING PRO CESS, see p. 87.)

she’s surrounded by Aristotle, Virgil, Cicero, and other ancient phi los o phers. You

might then invite students to have a little fun creating a “Dame Rhetorica” for the

twenty– ﬁ rst century. What would she look like, and who would she have around

her? What would she be wearing? What would be her style?

Chapter 29: What’s Your Style?

This chapter provides a general introduction to style in terms of rhetorical

appropriateness—of what’s right for a par tic u lar situation— and of how writers

pres ent themselves as authors. One big goal is to help students think about and

reﬂ ect their own style? If not, ask them to suggest some ways they might make it

do so. Would they add some ﬁ gurative language? insert a bit of humor? incorpo-

rate another variety of English—or another language? The goal here is to help stu-

dents discover their own sense of style and to think about how they can proj ect

their own style in their writing.

The chapter emphasizes that style in writing is a matter of appropriateness,

not correctness— and that there are no easy rules to follow. As with all the choices

writers have, making appropriate stylistic decisions will almost always depend on

their rhetorical situation. You might ask students to analyze something they’ve

written: what was its rhetorical situation, and how would they characterize its

explain, middle to please, and high to persuade. The excerpt from a speech by Pres-

ident Obama after the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Gif–

fords that appears on pp. 645–46 demonstrates high style (you can listen to the speech

on the book’s companion Tumblr site)— and is then contrasted with an example

where Obama used a much less formal style for a less solemn occasion.

[ 174 ]

Stance is another impor tant issue that affects what style a writer or speaker

uses. On pp. 647–48, we compare the work of two restaurant reviewers— eighty-

ﬁ ve- year– old Marilyn Hagerty and “Dive Bar Girl”— who have dramatically dif fer–

ent styles (as do the restaurants they’re reviewing). In both these examples, you

can point to the concept of appropriateness and talk about how the style in each

case ﬁ ts well with the audience and the rhetorical situation. Students can then

activity enthusiastically and that they come up with some pretty fabulous imita–

tions—of writers (Dr. Seuss is always a favorite, though Stephen King often shows

up as well), singers, rappers, and so on. It’s a lot of fun to share these in class, and

you might try your hand at doing one as well.

Chapter 30: Tweets to Reports /

On Social Media and Academic Writing

Our students (indeed, many of us) are awash in social media, posting, tweeting,

and text ing as easily as we breathe. But they also must communicate in a wide

variety of other, more formal situations. This chapter has two goals: to show stu-

dents that many of the rhetorical strategies they use comfortably on Facebook and

• participating in conversations

• sharing information

• representing yourself in writing

• providing context

• organ izing what you write

For each of these issues, we’ve provided an example of the kind of social media

writing our students do. Each example is followed by a brief analy sis of how it works

in social media— and then we suggest ways it would likely need to change in aca–

demic writing.

[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]

11 % Part VI: Style [ 175 ]

rewrite her post as a formal paragraph to be published in an article in the school

newspaper. They could also bring in some of their own Facebook status updates or

tweets and try rewriting them in more formal academic En glish. (Or you could

invite them to have a little fun rewriting some of their academic writing as a tweet

or text!) You might help them look for features in their social media writing that

This chapter also provides an opportunity to focus attention on tone, which

is a concept many students understand implicitly but may not have worked very

much on in their own writing. Ask them to read pp. 659–60 carefully and then

bring some of their own writing to class ( either formal or informal) and work in

You might consider assigning this chapter in the ﬁ rst week or two of the

term, especially if it’s the ﬁ rst week of college for many of your students. Used that

way, it could serve as a bridge between the kinds of writing students are very

familiar with and those kinds of writing they’ve come to your class to learn.

Chapter 31: How to Write Good Sentences

Not long ago, when one of us met with a ﬁ rst– year class at a University of Califor–

nia campus, a student asked a question we don’t often get: “How can I make my

sentences sing?” It’s a question that has stuck with us and that we kept in mind

while writing this chapter.

• Simple sentences are used to express a single main idea.

• Compound sentences are used to join ideas that are equally impor tant.

You might have students work with something they’ve written using the advice

on pp. 669–74, looking ﬁ rst to see what kinds of sentences they wrote and whether

they are the best way to say what they wanted to say. Are the most impor tant

[ 176 ]

as a complex sentence? Are there any ideas that should be combined? And so on.

Notice that the focus here is on the complex link between sentence structure (the

shape of a sentence) and sentence function (the work that sentence does in creat–

Some of us begin discussion of this chapter by asking students to tell us how

they would deﬁ ne a great sentence, a sentence that “sings.” We ask them to read

some of the sentences in the opening of the chapter aloud and then comment on

what makes them particularly memorable. You could also ask them to ﬁ nd a sen-

tence or two that they really like, and to explain why they like it. And, of course, you

could ask them to identify a sentence or two in an essay they have written and

then invite them to work on improving it using the advice in this chapter.

Chapter 32: Checking for Common Mistakes

This chapter is designed for students to use as they revise what they write, and

speciﬁ cally to check for mistakes that writers often make. If you ﬁ nd any of these

errors in your students’ writing, this is the chapter to refer them to for help.

[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]

[ 177 ]

THIS SECTION OF Every one’s an Author reﬂ ects the authors’ recognition of

the increasing importance of design and delivery in twenty– ﬁ rst– century

communication. As the introduction to this part observes, if De mos the nes’ asser–

tion that the three most impor tant parts of rhe toric are “delivery, delivery, deliv-

ery” once seemed anachronistic, that is no longer the case. Granted, at the time

Chapter 33: Designing What You Write

Although academic assignments don’t often ask students to think about design,

we ﬁ nd that students today are aware of design ele ments: they know a good–

looking webpage or a memorable advertisement when they see one, and they

know that design has a lot to do with what makes them effective. It might be

in ter est ing, then, to begin by asking your students to talk about what counts as

From there you might move on to explain that any design decisions they

make as authors are driven by their rhetorical situation. Especially for academic

work, design should never be for the purpose of prettying up a text; rather, it

should help writers reach their audience and achieve a purpose— and suit the rest

twelve

Part VII: Design and Delivery

[ 178 ]

their texts so that they achieve their purposes. One way to get your students work–

ing with design is to have them revise a draft— even a graded one—to address a

dif fer ent audience or other wise respond to a dif fer ent rhetorical situation by

bombarded by visual design every day, all day, so much so that it no longer strikes

us as “design”— it’s just a part of the world we live in. This chapter can help you

help your students see the world of communication with fresh eyes.

Chapter 34: Writing in Multiple Modes

Multimodal writing is “writing that uses more than one mode of expression, including

some combination of words, images, audio, video, links, and so on.” As the epigraph

introducing Ch. 34 notes, written texts have incorporated visual ele ments since the

earliest illuminated manuscripts. Then, such colorful images were rare and precious;

now, colorful visual images along with sound, video, animation, multiple fonts, and

Determine what you need to know. If you feel a bit insecure yourself, most cam-

puses offer faculty support centers where you can draw on experienced staff to help

you learn as much as you think you’ll need. And in most classes, you’ll ﬁ nd students

who already do a lot of multimodal composing; drawing on their expertise and

Determine what your students know. Because multimodal writing frequently

calls for student writers to work with digital media, you’ll want to ﬁ nd out how

much they know. You might ask them to complete a short survey of their experi-

ence with and interest in using digital media. You also might include questions

about their knowledge of word– processing basics. Some will know next to nothing,

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12 % Part VII: Design and Delivery [ 179 ]

You might also create groups within the class, combining those who know

with those who need to learn. One caution: create groups with both skills and

personalities in mind. Avoid putting a student who tends to dominate interac-

tions with those who are insecure about their skills; try to balance proﬁ ciency and

need, introversion and extraversion, as well as gender.

Introduce multimodality into your classroom. Students need to be encouraged

to take owner ship of their own learning, but in an environment where they feel

empowered to play with unfamiliar skills. Provide that by encouraging them to

experiment in stages. You might begin by having the class watch a YouTube video

or listen to a radio segment and then asking them about what they heard and saw

and what drew their attention. What did they notice the authors doing that is

Follow up by assigning a short narrative essay composed according to regu-

lar essay conventions. Once they have written it and revised it successfully, ask

them to tell the same story without using any words. They can compose in any

other medium, just not the written word. What does this accomplish? It forces us

to translate our preferred and comfortable usual way of doing something into a

new and not– so- familiar form—at least initially. But somewhere in the pro cess,

paper on a campus issue could be enhanced by creating a website that can include

audio, video, written text, and links to information about the issue. Students who

are analyzing a visual could extend their analy sis by creating a video that shows

the visual (perhaps it’s a ﬁ lm scene) and overlaying their spoken commentary

onto it.

Consider the rhetorical situation. Remind students that, in a multimodal essay,

they are still creating a rhetorical act and, just as in a traditional ink– on– paper text,

[ 180 ]

• Who is your audience? For whom are you composing this? How will your

audience affect the choices you make? What might they already know about

• Consider your stance— why did this topic engage you? And how do you want

your audience to perceive you as you pres ent this to them?

• What ele ments in the rhetorical context should be foremost in your mind as

you compose? When and where will you create the composition? And when

and where will it be “read”? Consider also the cultural ele ments at play, both

those of the audience and your own. Cultural understandings—or a lack

thereof— inﬂ uence the impact of your message.

Compose with more than words. Modalities are the visual, audio, gestural, spa-

tial, or linguistic ways of creating meaning. Drawing on multiple modalities of

expression requires close attention to the par tic u lar beneﬁ ts of each. The author’s

choice should convey something par tic u lar, something that would not be

expressed as well in another mode. Therefore, it’s critical to select the most effec-

tive means of communicating to achieve the desired effect. Is there a strong

• Video to express movement. Sportswriters can be brilliant at describing

action, but even the best written description cannot compete with seeing

the game; while the best ﬁ lm, movie, and theater critics can almost make

you “see” the action they’re describing, watching the actual ﬁ lm provides a

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12 % Part VII: Design and Delivery [ 181 ]

bustle of a city or the calm of a country meadow, broken only by the occa-

sional birdcall, let audiences hear what you hear.

• Music to create/support a mood. Think about your favorite ﬁ lms or TV shows

and how impor tant music is to creating a mood, emphasizing some aspect

of a character, or giving us a sense of where the action is going. Good sound

in transcripts or quotes. Consider the difference between the voice of a young

child and that of an adult. Hearing the distinct quality of individual voices

can be very poignant.

• Color to create or enhance mood. Color can be an integral part of meaning, not

least because par tic u lar colors convey meaning by themselves, depending on

the culture. In Western culture, for example, red suggests danger, excitement;

As students consider which of these ele ments can help them relay their message

in a way that achieves their purpose, remind them also to consider the media out–

let: how audiences will receive their writing. Will the colors appear on a poster or

Teaching dif fer ent kinds of multimodal proj ects

Illustrated essays. Embedding photos, drawings, charts, graphs, maps, or info-

graphics in a written text to illustrate or support a point offers students a familiar

way into multimodal composing. They see these in magazines and newspapers,

Blogs. Nearly ubiquitous online, blogs can be used to facilitate out– of– class writing

groups. Digital writing interaction provides a low- stakes environment where stu-

dents can get to know each other, explore dif fer ent writing habits, and play with

[ 182 ]

Wikis. You might assign students to contribute to the wiki of their choice, or you

might have them create a topic- centered wiki for the class. Contributing to a wiki

will both reinforce the idea of writing as a collaborative activity and remind them

Audio essays. NPR is the recognized master of this form. Have students listen to

Video essays. Every student has seen hundreds by now. YouTube offers brilliant

examples of both excellent video essays and epic failures. As an introduction, you

Posters. You’ll need to decide in your assignment whether students will introduce

and explain their posters, or merely set them up to be studied by the audience.

Either way, their posters should be assembled with an eye toward accessibility,

Help students or ga nize their materials and manage their time. Working in mul–

tiple modalities, potentially in diverse media, can take much longer than expected.

One way to help students manage their time is by having them lay out a rough

story board and a timeline and then work backward from the assignment due date.

Just be sure to help them include all the steps and stages of development. If students

are mixing modalities— video and still images, or video and audio, for example—

they will need to think in terms of planning, recording, editing, and publishing.

[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]

12 % Part VII: Design and Delivery [ 183 ]

one of the videos from the National Bullying Prevention website. If the assign-

ment is to review or critique a work of art, including samples will help readers see

and understand the subject.

Respond to and evaluate student proj ects. Just as our evaluation of alphabetic

texts produced by students is informed by our rhetorical understanding, so should

our evaluation of multimodal compositions. That is, the basic princi ples remain

the same. And our approach to assessment needs to be grounded in our

assignments— students need clear and detailed assignments in which our criteria

for assessing their work are laid out in advance. So we need to know exactly why

rial included), and include speciﬁ c objectives for the assignment, which should in

turn address one or more of the course objectives. Providing a rubric for evaluation

when the assignment is given turns the assessment pro cess into part of the learn-

ing pro cess.

A ﬁ nal word of caution: before you make assignments that involve incorpo-

rating or being entirely created in multiple modalities, you should do the assign-

ment yourself. Doing so will help you to anticipate and address difﬁ culties that

may arise.

Chapter 35: Making Pre sen ta tions

This chapter addresses the most impor tant issues students need to consider in order

to make effective oral pre sen ta tions. The chapter begins by reviewing the work of

Nancy Duarte, the author of two well- received books on pre sen ta tions: Slide:ology:

The Art and Science of Creating Great Pre sen ta tions (2008) and Resonate: Pres ent

Visual Stories that Transform Audiences (2010). Instructors who wish to learn more

Teaching oral pre sen ta tions can raise some in ter est ing challenges for instruc–

tors. Some students undervalue the skill and knowledge required to make an

effective pre sen ta tion. Other students may experience profound anxiety when

faced with the need to speak in public. You can motivate the former group and

reassure the latter group by emphasizing that just as writing is a learnable skill,

[ 184 ]

so too is public speaking. And you can remind them that they can draw on the

rhetorical sensitivity they have developed as writers, readers, speakers, and

listeners.

Chapter 36: Assembling a Portfolio

Even if your school doesn’t have a portfolio requirement, you can opt to use one

within your own classroom. There are many reasons to do so. Asking students to

design and deliver a portfolio at the end of the term gives them a sense of author–

ship and control: the individual writer must take responsibility for selecting and

evaluating the writings over a term, choosing the best, and explaining why they

on students’ self– conﬁ dence and increases their ability to assess and revise work.

Portfolios also remind students that writing is always a work in pro gress.

The chapter explains all the necessary steps involved in assembling a portfo-

lio and provides a sample reﬂ ection letter (pp. 797–98) so students can see how that

genre works. It also discusses ways that students might use portfolios in vari ous

work– related situations after graduation.

Chapter 37: Publishing Your Writing

One reason we say that every one can be an author is that there are now so many

opportunities for sharing and publishing our writing. From the tiniest tweets to a

full– length novel, anyone with an internet connection can share their work with

a wide audience. This last chapter provides a long list of suggestions for how and

where to do so. At the end of the chapter is a great example: a student essay that

[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]