8 % Part III: Genres of Writing [ 145 ]
Reviewers whether ordinary people deciding whether they like a product
or critics deciding whether they like a cultural production are in the business of
making judgments. Making judgments is always an ethical activity, and so those
writing reviews need to keep this at the forefront of their consciousness.
Teaching lit er a ture reviews. The fi nal section of this chapter before the Roadmap
and readings goes over the uses and features of lit er a ture reviews. In the natu
ral, social, and applied sciences, the lit er a ture review section of an essay sets up
the study being reported in what can be termed teleological fashion: given previ-
ous research, I, the author, am asking the next logical question and answering it
To help students with this task, have them read Crystal Aymelek’s lit er a ture
review (pp. 31924) with a focus on how the review is structured. Students should
appreciate that a lit er a ture review always represents a review that is part report
(with a focus on a narrow body of empirical research), part narrative (in that there
paragraph doing? How does it move the lit er a ture review along? The opening para-
graph, for example, describes how human memory works according to information-
pro cessing theory, and it functions to provide background necessary for the
discussion in the next paragraph. As students will start to see, the function will
(almost) always involve linking previous information to information that occurs in
later paragraphs.
The second round of analy sis would involve having students focus on par tic-
u lar textual features and strategies Aymelek uses to construct her text. You might,
for example, ask dif fer ent groups of students to focus on:
1. the ways that information is reported and cited (e.g., “According to
information-pro cessing theory,” “Research has shown”).
[ 146 ]
Noting these ele ments and the language used to establish them will help students
learn the impor tant features of a lit er a ture review and then to write their own.
To help them begin the pro cess of writing a lit er a ture review, have students
bring in the sources they’ve gathered on their topic and/or any notes they’ve taken
from these sources. The fi rst step is to or ga nize the sources: ask students to sepa
Teaching the essays. Looking closely at the example essays can help students see
the Characteristic Features in action, understand how these features function in
reviews, and think about how they could use them in their own writing.
“Mono poly: The Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game,” by Tim Alamen
ciak (pp. 314–16). This review is annotated so that students can clearly identify the
genre features and see how they function in the essay. As they’ll see, Alamenciak
works hard to demonstrate his attention to the audience’s needs and expectations
“The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Exercise on Memory,” by Crystal
Aymelek (pp. 31924). This lit er a ture review comes from an essay Aymelek wrote
for one of her psy chol ogy courses, a fi eld where the IMRAD format for reports is
expected. Aymelek demonstrates her awareness of her audience’s expectations
here, psychologistsin terms of the information presented, the structuring of her
claims, and the format she uses for presenting references. It might be helpful to
“Ode to Joy (and Sadness, and Anger),” by A. O. Scott (pp. 331–35). Scott reviews the
lm Inside Out. Pos si ble answers to the study questions are given below. The audi-
ence, readers of the New York Times, is a quite general one; the straight path Scott
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
8 % Part III: Genres of Writing [ 147 ]
1. In his extremely positive review of Inside Out, A. O. Scott contends that
this Pixar lm uses technology to overcome a common criticism of movies,
namely, that they cannot get inside characters’ heads but must, instead,
rely on giving viewers hints about characters’ mental pro cesses. As Scott
2. Scott establishes his credibility in at least three ways. Throughout, he con-
textualizes his discussion of the fi lm in terms of longstanding debates
among phi los o phers and students of lit er a ture and cinema; in other words,
the achievements of the fi lm are about far more than merely the story it
tells. Second, he often describes the fi lms characters and events with ref
3. Scott assumes a well- read, cosmopolitan audience well versed in many
debates that are part of the Western intellectual tradition. His vocabulary
is sometimes quite sophisticated (e.g., bonhomie, neurological command
center as a way of referring to brain functions). He uses meta phors and
allusions from popu lar culture (dream team) and the world of work (orga-
nizational chart, micro– management). As noted, he also compares charac
4. Scott opens his review with a rhetorical question “Can movies think?”
pointing out that traditionally, many have argued that while lit er a ture is
able to demonstrate characters’ thought pro cesses and internal feelings,
“Serial: A Captivating New Podcast,” by Anya Schultz (pp. 336–39). Schultz’s review
combines details about this popu lar podcast with useful evaluative observations
about why it is so popu lar. Here are pos si ble responses to the study questions:
[ 148 ]
Slate) and that she has thought critically about the podcast both its con-
tent and its framing. Her tone is quite positive the unfolding melodrama
will keep her listening— even while she is aware of the sobering social
implications of what this podcast is unveiling. Words that help create that
2. Schultz is quite positive in her evaluation of the podcast. Her evidence
for that evaluation includes the artfulness of the storytelling: “Koenigs
style allows us to stumble through the story with her, as if we’re hearing
Sherlock Holmes’ diary. What keeps the story thrilling is that someone, be
it Adnan or a perpetrator who we haven’t been introduced to yet, is lying.
Someone is a murderer” (¶7); “But as the season goes on, it gives listeners a
unique opportunity to humanize the players” (13). Her analy sis of theme
3. The criteria for evaluation Schultz uses include (a) plot the commitment
of the series’ creator “to get to the bottom of the case” (¶4); (b) framing
and sequencing of the unfolding narrative the appeal of the series and
its ability to capture listeners’ attention and imagination (3), the sense
that listeners are discovering things as Koenig uncovers them (¶7), the
4. Were Schultz to write this review for an older audience, she might have
to motivate their interest in the case itself since older listeners would likely
be far away from adolescent romantic relationships. (Perhaps Schultz could
compare Lee and Syed’s relationship to that of Juliet and Romeo, an allusion
distantly hinted at in the review.) Some older listeners might also make
very dif fer ent assumptions about issues relating to race and justice and
5. Answers will vary.
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
8 % Part III: Genres of Writing [ 149 ]
Additional readings. If youre teaching with Every one’s an Author with Readings,
the Menu of Readings on the inside back cover can direct you to additional selections.
You can also fi nd fresh readings that offer reviews and that do so in a variety of
Chapter 16: Writing a Proposal / “ Here’s What I Recommend”
Like all the genres taught in this section of Every one’s an Author, proposals are
ubiquitous in daily life, and students are likely to encounter them and have occa
sion to write them long after leaving your classroom. Advertisements generally
represent truncated proposals (“Buy me!”), and the internet has given rise to a num-
ber of crowdsourcing or crowdfunding sites housing proposals of varying degrees
of sophistication. And as far as academic proposals go, students will likely be
Introducing the genre. One of the most common places to fi nd proposals today is
on crowdfunding sites that have become ubiquitous across the internet. These
sites include Kickstarter, which is used as an example in this chapter; GoFundMe,
which is mentioned in an exercise; Indiegogo; RocketHub; and Fundrazr, to name
only a few and that’s only for English- language users. An in ter est ing way to intro
duce the genre would be to have small groups of students compare three or four
crowdfunding proposals, listing the features they share as well as those that occur
Using the exercises. The chapter includes four exercises in italics and marked
with a red fl ourish that prompt students to pause and Refl ect. Across the chapter,
these exercises help students internalize not only the features of the genre but
also the ways in which they work together, and they encourage and model
[ 150 ]
Introducing the genre features. The fi ve features we’ve identi ed of successful
proposals are listed on p. 343. The sections that follow elaborate upon them with
examples that illustrate each. Reviewing these examples with your students can
A precise description of the prob lem. Obviously, if one is going to propose a way of
solving a prob lem, one must be able to defi ne the prob lem clearly and precisely. For
students, the challenges in this aspect of proposal writing take several forms. Some
students will want to bite off more than anyone can chew: bringing peace to the
Middle East, reforming the tax code or immigration policy, and ending world hun-
ger are surely larger and more complex prob lems than anyone can propose viable
One exercise to help students clearly and narrowly defi ne a prob lem begins
with a specifi c campus issue. Divide students into groups and have each group for
mulate a description of the prob lem, then compare the formulations dif fer ent groups
came up with. Rather than focusing on which group has produced the “right” or
evenbest description, it will be useful to ask the class to comment on the strengths
A clear and compelling solution to the prob lem. To pres ent a solution in a way that
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
8 % Part III: Genres of Writing [ 151 ]
with a single solution. Other groups may wish to propose several solutions (infor
mation that will be useful in working through later on when considering alternate
solutions); ask these groups to rank their list of solutions. Once each group has a
solution, the group should draft a paragraph summarizing and/or describing the
solution being proposed.
Evidence that your proposal will address the prob lem. This feature focuses on the
criterion of viability. First, the author must provide evidence to demonstrate that
her or his proposed solution will, in fact, address the prob lem and, ideally, solve
it or make pro gress toward doing so. As the vari ous examples in the chapter
demonstrate, such evidence can take several forms: hy po thet i cal cases (Oliver on
pp. 37072), prior research and pre ce dent (Sandberg and Grant on pp. 36669), logic
in the sense of being likely to be adopted, whether that involves matters of short
or longterm costs (of any kind) or feasibility.
Acknowl edgment of other pos si ble solutions. Strong, convincing proposals generally
acknowledge other pos si ble solutions in a way that demonstrates the superiority
of the proposal being put forth. In other words, they offer arguments of compara-
tive advantage rather than, say, arguments that seek to vitiate (or eviscerate) alter
natives completely. Remind students that arguments based on logical appeals
A statement of what your proposal will accomplish. The most effective proposals
make a point of stating explic itly what the proposed course of action would, if
adopted, accomplish. While they often do so early in the proposal, it can help to
[ 152 ]
Teaching proj ect proposals. Proj ect proposals are an increasingly common genre of
assignment across a range of disciplines. They permit an instructor to get a fairly
clear idea of which students are on track for major assignments and which ones
need additional support for or a complete re orientation to the task. In this regard
they help both parties: instructors get much better proj ects than they likely other
wise would, and students don’t waste time doing things that aren’t relevant to what
the assignment requires. Proj ect proposals also function heuristically, reminding
In some disciplines, a lit er a ture review evaluating existing research on a
topic is required as part of a proj ect proposal. (Send students to pp. 31718 in Ch. 15
for guidelines on writing lit er a ture reviews.) Students may also be required to pro-
vide a detailed description of the methodology they plan to use and perhaps to
include materials such as drafts of interview questions or data sets they plan to
study. As an instructor, youll want to make clear to students what is required of
use an indirect question instead. For example, for a research paper in a course on
American lit er a ture, a student might write, “Based on the correspondence of Zora
Neale Hurston and other biographical resources, this proj ect investigates the
complex relationship between Hurston and three of her white patrons: Annie
Nathan Meyer, Charlotte Osgood Mason, and Fannie Hurst.” The researcher would
then make clear what sorts of resources exist to be analyzed and what will be
learned from such an examination.
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
8 % Part III: Genres of Writing [ 153 ]
Teaching the essays. Looking closely at the example essays can help students see
the Characteristic Features in action, understand how these features function in
proposals, and think about how they could use them in their own writing.
A New Start for Newark Schools,” by Ras Baraka (pp. 352–55). In this proposal
Baraka does a good job describing the prob lem by laying out the history of how it
came to be and proposing a compelling solution. His solution is one that should
be familiar to those who have thought about many American po liti cal debates:
It may also be worth spending some time talking about the role that propos-
als play in po liti cal debate in the United States and the ways that politics run
through this par tic u lar proposal. Some students may have little knowledge of
New Jersey politics, and it would be helpful for understanding this proposal to know
The Economic Impact of Investing Public Funds in Professional Sports Franchises,
by David Pasini (pp. 357–60). This proj ect proposal, written in advance of a larger
research proj ect in a fi rstyear writing course focused on sports in American soci
ety, has been annotated to show the features of the proj ect proposal genre. Pasini
is explicit in his proposal about his topic, his motivations, his research question,
and planned methods for studying it. His outline of his proposed schedule and
“Speaking While Female,” by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant (pp. 366–69). In this
proposal, Sandberg and Grant describe an enduring prob lem the challenge
women have being heard (or even permitted to speak) in professional contexts.
Paragraph 4 crisply states the prob lem, and the preceding and following
[ 154 ]
paragraphs provide clear evidence for its indisputability. Paragraphs 1–3 open the
proposal by citing anecdotal evidence that gives the prob lem a human face, while
5–9 follow up with evidence from empirical studies to demonstrate that the situa-
tion cannot be dismissed as mere anecdote. Paragraphs 10–14 offer pos si ble solu
tions, acknowledging the need for short and long- term thinking. Fi nally, it is worth
1. In ¶5, Sandberg and Grant characterize the double bind that women fi nd
themselves in in the workplace: when a woman speaks up, she is likely to
be ignored or to be labeled aggressive. In contrast, men are often rewarded
for speaking up. (As a study by coauthor Grant, cited later in the article,
demonstrated, although men are more confi dent about their leadership
2. The authors suggest pos si ble solutions in ¶1014. Shortterm solutions
include innovation tournaments (10), “no- interruption rules (11), and
what they term “Obama- style meetings,” where women are offered the fl oor
“whenever pos si ble” (14). A longterm solution is to “increase the number
of women in leadership roles” (13); they again cite empirical evidence for
ing that they operate on the basis of the merit of employees’ ideas, regard-
less of aspects of their identity that may be the basis for vari ous biases. In
this regard, the authors’ argument can be seen as a part of a much larger
argument about how our society should be thinking about diversity, par
ticularly in the workplace.
4. Sandberg and Grant chose to write for readers of the New York Times, the
national newspaper of rec ord. Hence, they were aware they were possibly
addressing a broad segment of the educated populace at the national level
(and even internationally). Had they been writing instead for an audience
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
8 % Part III: Genres of Writing [ 155 ]
led by groups of women). They might also have gone into greater detail
about the subtle and notso- subtle ways in which this gender bias mani-
fests itself. They could surely have assumed greater knowledge of the
intricacies of the private workplace and the challenges of management
5. Answers will vary.
Lets Start an Education Revolution, by Mitchell Oliver (pp. 370–72). In this pro
posal, student Mitchell Oliver takes on what is surely the major challenge facing
most students today: student debt. In other words, he’s clearly chosen a compel-
ling prob lem to tackle, and his proposed solution human capital contracts
(HCCs)— borrows from the thinking of certain neo- liberal theorists. Oliver’s pro-
posal has all the genre features described in the chapter: a precise description of
the prob lem (¶1, as well as later discussion of the status quo— e.g., the opening sen-
to any college they wanted for free”). Following are pos si ble answers to the ques
tions for thinking about the text:
1. Oliver proposes a solution to the student debt crisis: the government will
act as guarantor of Human Capital Contracts, which will pay for students’
students (911); and offers hy po thet i cal examples of how the system
would work for students under dif fer ent circumstances (¶9–11). Evalua-
tion of the strength of this evidence will vary.
3. Oliver acknowledges that his proposal can be seen as offering a “negative
incentive to land a high paying job” (¶12), but seeks to neutralize or rebut
[ 156 ]
4. Oliver seeks to establish credibility in several ways. First, he writes as
someone who knows (or appears to know) what he is talking about. He
uses phrases like negative incentive common in discussion of business or
economics; he explains complex concepts like a human capital contract
Additional readings. If you’re teaching with Every one’s an Author with Readings,
the following selections at the back of the book also demonstrate the proposal
genre:
Mark Bittman et al., “A National Food Policy Could Save Millions of American
Lives
You can also fi nd fresh readings that make proposals and that do so in a variety
Suggested assignments and evaluation criteria. Youll nd sample assignments
for a proposal in the “Sample Writing Assignments” section of this Guide that can help
you craft your own assignment and criteria for evaluation. There are several ways
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
[ 157 ]
THIS SECTION OF THE BOOK can be used as the core of a course in argumen-
tation and as a reference for details about analyzing and supporting an
argument.
If youre teaching a course in argumentation, you could pair this section with
Chs. 1, 2, 3, and 4on THINKING RHETORICALLY, RHETORICAL SITUATIONS, READING RHETORI
CALLY, and MEETING THE DEMANDS OF ACADEMIC WRITING. Ch. 11, on ARGUING A POSITION, and
perhaps some of the Research chapters could also be useful. You might start by
These chapters can also work as a reference, somewhere students can turn to
from other chapters when they need help crafting an argument. Chapter 17
explains impor tant concepts to help students in ANALYZING AND CONSTRUCTING ARGU
MENTS, those they read as well as those they write. You might refer students to this
chapter from any of the genre chapters for help making the three basic appeals,
Chapter 17: Analyzing and Constructing Arguments /
Those You Read, Those You Write
What ever the shape of your writing course, its likely that you will want your stu-
dents to be familiar with the material in this chapter, since argument features
prominently in many college assignments, even informal ones. The chapter
nine
Part IV: The Centrality of Argument
[ 158 ]
teaches students how to analyze an argument, making them aware of the ele-
ments of an argument and what makes arguments persuasive. As such, the chap-
ter will help students consider arguments they read or other wise encounter with
You might open discussion of the chapter, then, by asking students to list
everyday arguments they have run into in the last day or so—in other classes, in
their newsfeeds, at their jobs or in extracurricular activities, or with friends and
family. The purpose of this discussion is to broaden students’ understanding of
What’s the Stance? The fi rst section of the chapter asks students to think about
where an argument is coming from, and what that tells us about its authors
stance. This simple question can lead to complex answers demanding quite a bit
of analy sis. You might want to bring in one or two easy- to- understand examples
of short arguments perhaps an advertisement or a very short editorial from the
What’s the Claim? The discussion of claims on pp. 383–87 gives you a chance to
work with students on how to identify and analyze claims made by others and
help students understand the relationship between the basic claim they want to
make and the thesis statement in which it’s usually embedded in college writing.
This section has examples of argumentative claims, from W. E. B. Du Bois on Abra
ham Lincoln to a review of dancer Judith Jamison to a New Yorker cover showing
Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie, implicitly commenting on the Supreme Court’s
overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act. Because power ful claims are often
Stasis theory, used from the time of the ancients to the pres ent day in order to fi nd
the crux of any issue, is introduced to students on pp. 38789. We have used Hur
ricane Katrina as an example to work through the stasis questions; you might
take a particularly hot topic on campus and ask students to do the same thing. As
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
9 % Part IV: The Centrality of Argument [ 159 ]
they work through the questions, they should see that the stasis questions are
generative they provide differing perspectives on an issue or topic and thus can
help students both unpack the issue and fi nd impor tant things to say about it. At
this point, you might ask students to choose a claim made in one of the examples
Emotional, ethical, and logical appeals. Students are usually fairly quick to pick up
on emotional appeals (pp. 38990), though they may have been taught to ignore or
denigrate them. You might want to point out that current research indicates that
most people make decisions based more on emotion than on anything else and
tics? What kind of ethos does the Preface proj ect and what words or statements
make them think so? You can also look closely at the Lawrence Lessig and Nelson
Mandela examples in this chapter, working with students to further articulate
the ethos developed in each.
Logical appeals (pp. 394400) will be more familiar, and students will likely
give more credence to them than to other kinds of appeals since Western society
tends to privilege logic. It’s impor tant, then, to ask students to “get to the bottom
of any logical appeals by asking where they come from and if those sources are
credible and reliable. As Mark Twain famously noted, there are three kinds of lies:
“lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Student readers need to remember Twains cau
Fallacies of reasoning are covered on pp. 400402. Our students usually have great
fun identifying fallacies in other people’s writing, so you might ask them to work
together to uncover fallacies in, say, a New York Times editorial: even professional
[ 160 ]
Ways of Structuring Arguments. The chapter ends with approaches to structuring
an argument, introducing students to four potential structures. The section on the
classical argument, derived from ancient Greece and Rome, offers detailed advice
and examples on how to use this approach to or ga nize an argument. A second
approach, the Toulmin method, expands the argumentative structure to include
attention to warrants those often unspoken assumptions under lying a claim
as well as necessary ele ments such as quali ers. It’s worth looking closely at this
section with students, helping them understand the somewhat unfamiliar termi-
You can also help students assimilate these structures by asking them to
look at Katherine Spriggs’ argument “On Buying Local” (pp. 150–58) and analyze
its organ ization. They might work in teams to outline the essay and then compare
outlines. If they come up with differing orga nizational patterns, you can help
them understand why those differences have occurred: are they reading or inter
preting the essay in dif fer ent ways? They can also see which ele ments from the
four approaches (classical, Toulmin, Rogerian, and invitational) Spriggs has used
in her argument. This activity could return the class to earlier discussions of the
Then have students do the same to their own writing. Have students look
through something they’ve written to see howor whether they’ve made any
ethical, logical, or emotional appeals. Have they used structures from classical, Toul-
min, Rogerian, or invitational argument? What ever they discover, have them then
think about how doing so might help their readers accept their argument.
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]
9 % Part IV: The Centrality of Argument [ 161 ]
Chapter 18 : Strategies for Supporting an Argument
This chapter will help students with much of the writing they do in college because
it introduces them to strategies that all authors use: analogy, cause and effect, clas-
si cation, comparison and contrast, defi nition, description, example, humor, narra
strategies often used in reviews and reports. It’s impor tant, we think, for students
to know that these strategies are multipurpose, and that they work across all the
genres they’ll typically write.
To introduce students to the usefulness of these strategies, ask them to look
over an assignment they have recently completed, note which of the strategies
they have used, and assess their effectiveness. If they fi nd they have not used any
of them, ask students to consider which ones might help them make their argu-
ment. If theyre making an argument that’s somewhat abstract, would an analogy
The strategies taught in this chapter can be useful from the very beginning
of the writing pro cess, as tools for generating ideas. Since students often have dif
culty developing points, you could show them how these strategies can help
them elaborate on what they’re trying to say. An analogy, for example, might help
more dif cult it would be to see the comparison of the fourteen cities in paragraph
form. Conversely, it might be fun to ask them to imagine how Dave Barry might have
made his comparison in photo graphs, illustrations, or some other sort of visual. The
point we like to make is that writers need to consider whether words, images, or a
combination of both will work better to say what they want to say.
This chapter provides several examples of each of the strategies in use. You
might build on them by asking students to bring in examples of each of the strate-
gies, or divide the class into groups and ask each group to provide two or three
examples of one of the strategies. In addition, ask students to bring in drafts and,
[ 162 ]
STUDENTS DO INFORMAL RESEARCH EVERY DAY in order to make decisions
and solve prob lems, but many fi rst year writers have little or no experi
ence in conducting formal academic research. Their previous experience may
have involved topics like gun control or underage drinking issues that are
perpetually or currently under public discussion and on which they can easily
find information. They may select a couple of sources that support their beliefs
and then one that takes the opposite position in order to acknowledge the coun-
We need to help students move beyond these initial encounters and into
more meaningful relationships with research practices. Why? Because learning to
discover, evaluate, and select appropriate material and then analyze, summarize,
and paraphrase what others have said in order to incorporate it into an original
argument will not only bene t them in all of their classes, but also result in their
Chapter 19: Starting Your Research / Joining the Conversation
Sincegetting started is the part of research proj ects that students themselves
claim to have the most dif culty with, we begin with guidelines on discovering
an engaging topic and narrowing it to a manageable focus, and then walk students
through the steps of developing a reasonable research question, stating a working
ten
Part V: Research
10 % Part V: Research [ 163 ]
If you’re planning to assign a research- based paper as one of several essays,
you might want to introduce the idea early on with a general discussion of what
academic research means and why we do it. Our students need to understand that
we ask them to do research in order to develop critical-thinking skills, improve
their abilities to discover ideas and investigate the ideas of others, and master the
Choosing a topic. The major dif culty will be moving students toward topics that
they must investigate in order to understand. Have students write out a list of
potentially in ter est ing topics and then discuss them in class. Encouraging students
to research a topic theyre learning about in another class can also lead to in ter est ing
topics and help them to make connections between what they are doing in your
Establishing a schedule. Establishing fi rm timelines and goals to be met will help
both you and the students manage the pro cess of information gathering, analy-
sis, interpretation, and pre sen ta tion. We provide a research schedule on pp. 453–
Task Every one’s an Author chapter
Choose a topic. Ch.19, STARTING YOUR RESEARCH (pp.44647)
Analyze your rhetorical situation. Ch.2, RHETORICAL SITUATIONS; Ch.19, STARTING
YOUR RESEARCH (pp.447–48)
Do some preliminary research. Ch.19, STARTING YOUR RESEARCH (p.450)
Narrow your topic and decide on a
research question.
Ch.19, STARTING YOUR RESEARCH (pp.44849,
45052)
Plot out a working thesis. Ch.19, STARTING YOUR RESEARCH (pp.452–53)
Do library and web research. Ch.20, FINDING SOURCES (pp.455–75)
Start a working bibliography. Ch.21, KEEPING TRACK;
[ 164 ]
Task Every one’s an Author chapter
Plan and schedule any  eld research. Ch.20, FINDING SOURCES (pp.47584)
Do any  eld research. Ch.20, FINDING SOURCES (pp.47584)
Draft a thesis statement. Ch.7, MANAGING THE WRITING PRO CESS
(pp.8586);
Ch.19, STARTING YOUR RESEARCH (45253)
Write out a draft. Ch.4, MEETING THE DEMANDS OF ACADEMIC
WRITING;
Ch.7, MANAGING THE WRITING PRO CESS;
Ch.9, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE WRITING
CENTER;
Ch.24, SYNTHESIZING IDEAS;
Ch.25, QUOTING, PARAPHRASING, SUMMARIZING;
Ch.31, HOW TO WRITE GOOD SENTENCES;
Ch.33, DESIGNING WHAT YOU WRITE
Get response. Ch.11, ARGUING A POSITION (pp.14345);
Ch.12, WRITING A NARRATIVE (pp.18889);
Ch.13, WRITING ANALYTICALLY (pp.238–39);
Ch.14, REPORTING INFORMATION (pp.28486);
Ch.15, WRITING A REVIEW (pp.329–30)
Ch.16, WRITING A PROPOSAL (pp.36465)
Do additional research if you need to. Ch.20, FINDING SOURCES
Revise. Ch.31, HOW TO WRITE GOOD SENTENCES
Prepare your list of works cited. Ch.27, MLA STYLE; Ch.28, APA STYLE
Edit. Ch.32, CHECKING FOR COMMON MISTAKES
Write your  nal draft.
Proofread. Ch.32, CHECKING FOR COMMON MISTAKES
Turn in the  nal draft.
Chapter 20: Finding Sources /
Online, in the Library, in the Field
Research is questiondriven. The researcher wants to know why, how, or what if
and begins the search for answers by fi guring out the best way to look for the
information that will help get to those answers. Our opening demonstrates this
with examples from a popu lar TV show and an actual research proj ect that started
[ TEACHING WITH EVERY ONE’S AN AUTHOR ]