Ch 1 Notes

Chapter 1: Why Do We Argue?

  • Writing can be empowering giving the person who writes a voice and opportunity saying something meaningful.

So, What's the Point of Scholarly Writing?

  • Communication
    • Technology gives us more tools to use for research.

A Scholar's Work - in College and Beyond

  • to communicate
  • to create knowledge
    • apprentice as a scholar

Why Bother

  • Skills
  • Knowledge
    • Apprentice scholar
    • a personal and professional life
  • Habits

Scholarly Habits of Mind

  • Make decisions carefully and take their time
  • Carefully explain and support their conclusions for others to scrutinize.
  • Everyones perspective, including their own is limited.

A Fresh Look at Your Old Writing Process

  • Scholars use a recursive process
    • They also allow drafting
      • revision
      • peer feedback to shape ideas
  • Effective writing is not a magical or natural talent.
  • Your expected to apprentice as a scholar
  • To Develop your writing ability
    • Knowledge
      • Practice
      • Feedback
      • Motivation

The One-Draft Wonder

  • Efficiency
  • Experienced writers don't write the same way every time and neither should you.

Toward a Better Writing Process

  • Discovery
  • Drafting
  • Revision
  • Editing
  • The more time and effort you spend drafting, the less time you have to invest in discovery or revision.

An Experienced Writer's Process

  • If you only write one draft, you lose the opportunity to revise and expand your thinking.
  • Set priorities and adapt your process

Practicing Argument

  • Have real purposes based in problems that interest the participants.
  • Address a specific audience
  • Belong to larger conversations, histories, and contexts that determine the rules for what counts as a good argument.
  • Pursue ideal purposes
  • Address sophisticated, demanding audiences

A Note about Rhetoric

  • The investigation of how persuasion and communication work
  • Always pay careful attention not just to the content of what you read but also to the author and his audience and purpose.

The Rhetorical Situation

  • Rhetorical situation includes writers, audience, and context.
    • Who
    • What and How
    • When and Where
    • Why

From Academic Writing to Scholarly Writing

Envision Your Purpose and Audience

Writing with a purpose

  • Analyze
  • Evaluate or critique
  • Interpret

Writing for Your Professor

Writing for Others

Make it Matter

  • Why it matters in the first place

So What?

What's Next

  • Seeing Yourself as a Scholar
  • Real-World Publishing
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