Joining the Conversation A Guide for Writers

Don't let writer's block get the best of you. Joining the Conversation encourages you as a writer with smart and friendly advice applicable for any type of academic or professional writing.

Mike Palmquist is an Associate Provost at Colorado State University, where he leads university-wide efforts to enhance learning and teaching in face-to-face, blended, and distance courses. A professor of English and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar, he is recognized nationally for his work in computer-supported writing instruction and, in particular, in designing Web-based instructional materials to support writing. His most recent Web-based projects are Writing@CSU (http://writing.colostate.edu), an open-access, educational Web site for writers and writing instructors, and the WAC Clearinghouse (http://wac.colostate.edu), the leading site for communication across the curriculum. He is the author of numerous articles and essays on writing and teaching with technology and writing across the curriculum. In 2004, he received the Charles Moran Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field, which recognizes "exemplary scholarship and professional service to the field of computers and writing." In 2006, the CCCC Committee on Computers in Composition and Composition named him Outstanding Technology Innovator. From 2009 to 2011, he served on the Executive Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English and as chair of the NCTE’s College Section. He is the author of Joining the Conversation: Writing in College and Beyond (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010); The Bedford Researcher, Third Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009); and Designing Writing: A Practical Guide (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005).

NEW Chapter 1, Understanding Yourself as a Writer, helps students see themselves as writers and prepares them to engage with the writing processes that work for them. Emphasizing reflection, transfer, and the rhetorical situation, this chapter connects the key concepts of Part 1 to the first assignment chapter, Writing to Reflect, and in-depth support for writing process later in the book. A new scenario follows the path of student writers through their composition course, showing how students develop inquiry and reflection skills.

More sophisticated academic readings. Each assignment chapter now has 4 readings, offering a balance of complex academic pieces and real-world genres. Eighteen engaging new readings include

• a profile on African-American ballerina Misty Copeland (Writing to Inform)
• a Rolling Stone music review (Writing to Evaluate)
• a literacy narrative showing one writer’s development from almost dropping out of high school to award-winning novelist (Writing to Reflect)
• a student-written proposal for a campus bike share (Writing to Solve Problems)

Expanded "Starting a Conversation" questions about each selection address critical reading and reflection more prominently.

Expanded chapter on fieldwork. This new research chapter covers topics with real relevance to students, such as the ethics of taking photos in public.

Genre Talk, an engaging bridge between the book and LaunchPad. To help students check their understanding of genre, the online activity asks them to examine documents on provocative topics, such as child slavery in the cocoa industry or the global immigration crisis, and complete auto-graded activities to test their understanding of purpose, genre, design, and context.

Expanded Assessment Options and new Activities in LaunchPad In addition to the Genre Talk activities mentioned above, LaunchPad for Joining the Conversation also includes customizable, autoscored reading quizzes for every reading selection; diagnostic quizzes; an expanded set of LearningCurve adaptive quizzing activities on grammar, argument, source documentation, and other topics; and Exercise Central, a bank of searchable and customizable grammar, punctuation, style, writing, and research exercises