Touchstones A Guided Approach to Writing Paragraphs and Essays

Using methods he developed through grant-funded research, award-winning instructor Chris Juzwiak has documented a 15% increase in basic writers' success rates on his campus. These methods serve as the foundation for Touchstones, a paragraph-to-essay level book that begins with a focus on academic paragraphs and essays, then moves to higher-level skills such as using precise language and working with sources. Like Stepping Stones, Juzwiak's book for the sentence-to-paragraph level, Touchstonesincludes scaffolded exercises and instruction, color-coded parts of speech, and creative activities that keep students engaged. By moving progressively from simple to more complex skills in each part of the book and in each chapter Touchstonesensures that all students feel confident in what they're learning and empowered to continue.

Chris Juzwiak holds an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is ABD. He has taught college-level literature and composition for twenty-three years and is currently chair of the Developmental Composition Program at Glendale Community College. Under the auspices of grants from the Carnegie and Hewlett Foundations and the California Basic Skills Initiative, Chris has pioneered new pedagogical approaches to development composition instruction. He is coauthor of “Pedagogies of Visibility: The Full E-mersion and Beyond,” an article in the spring 2009 edition of New Directions for Community Colleges. In addition, Chris has presented his work at ISSOTL, the League for Innovation, ECCTYC, Strengthening Student Success, the California State Academic Senate, and the Carnegie and Hewlett Foundations. At Glendale College, he has received the John Craven Award for innovative composition instruction and in 2010, the Distinguished Faculty Award. His latest project, IMPACT (Incremental-Motivational Pedagogy, Assessment-Cycles Training), is a distillation of ten years of pedagogical research and innovation, and is now used in all the developmental composition classes at his college.