THE NORTON FIELD GUIDE TO WRITING SECOND EDITION

What’s in the Book The Norton Field Guide covers 15 kinds of writing often assigned to college students. Much of the book is in the form of guidelines, designed to help students consider the choices they have as writers. Most chapters are brief, in response to students’ complaints about books with too much detail — but color-coded links send them to places in the book where they can find more information if they need it. The book has 7 parts: 1. RHETORICAL SITUATIONS. Chapters 1–5 focus on purpose, audience, genre, stance, and media and design. In addition, most chapters include tips to help students focus on their particular rhetorical situation. 2. GENRES. Chapters 6–20 offer guidelines for fifteen kinds of writing, from abstracts to lab reports to memoirs. Literacy narrative, textual analysis, report, and argument are treated in greater detail. 3. PROCESSES. Chapters 21–28 offer advice on generating ideas, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, compiling portfolios, collaborating, and writing as inquiry. 4. STRATEGIES. Chapters 29–41 cover familiar ways of developing and organizing text — writing effective beginnings and endings, coming up with good titles and developing effective thesis statements, comparing, describing, using dialogue, and other essential writing strategies. Chapters 40–41 offer useful strategies for reading and essay exams. 5. RESEARCH / DOCUMENTATION. Chapters 42–50 offer advice on how to do academic research; work with sources; quote, paraphrase, and summarize source materials; and document sources using MLA and APA styles. 6. MEDIA / DESIGN. Chapters 51–53 give general guidance on designing and presenting texts for print, spoken, and electronic media. 7. HANDBOOK. At the end of the book is a handbook to help students edit what they write. We’ve organized the handbook around the intuitive categories of sentences, words, and punctuation to make it easy for students to find the help they need. 7499_fm_pi-xxxiv 12/2/08 11:16 AM Page vi Preface vii What’s on the Website A free and open website provides instant access to much of The Norton Field Guide online. Visit the site at The Writing Toolbar, color-coded to match the book, downloads in Word so that students can access parts of the book on screen, as they write. Writing Guides offer guidelines on the 4 most common genres. Hyperlinks pop up more detailed information if students need it. MLA and APA templates help students document sources accurately. A Handbook helps students edit what they write, with 1,000 exercises for practicing sentence-level writing issues. 7499_fm_pi-xxxiv 12/2/08 11:16 AM Page vii Highlights It’s easy to use. Color-coding, menus, directories, and a glossary / index make it easy for students to find what they’re looking for; a minimum of jargon makes it easy to understand. Color-coded templates even make MLA and APA documentation easy. It has just enough detail, with short chapters that include color-coded links sending students to more detail if they need more. It’s uniquely flexible for teachers, with explicit assignment sequences if you want them — or you can create your own. See the facing page for ways of teaching with this book. A user-friendly handbook, with an intuitive organization around sentences, words, and punctuation to make it easy for students to find what they need. And we go easy on the grammatical terminology, with links to the glossary for students who need detailed definitions. What’s New 11 new readings, from a textual analysis of 24 to a report on the inevitability of air turbulence to a proposal for controlling the prices of textbooks. Updated 2009 MLA documentation guidelines and documentation maps showing where to look for publication information in common sources. A new chapter on synthesizing ideas, helping students connect ideas in multiple sources and use them in their own writing. (Chapter 45) A new chapter on mixing genres, showing how to combine a number of genres in a single text, as is done in much real-world writing. (Chapter 20) A new chapter on writing as inquiry, helping students approach writing projects with curiosity and providing strategies to help them get beyond what they already know about their topic. (Chapter 21) A new chapter on arguing, with strategies for articulating a position, giving good reasons and evidence, considering other positions, and more. (Chapter 32) A new chapter on taking essay exams (Chapter 41) viii PREFACE 7752_fm_pi-xxxiv 6/15/09 11:45 AM Page viii Ways of Teaching with The Norton Field Guide to Writing The Norton Field Guide is designed to give you both support and flexibility. It has clear assignment sequences if you want them, or you can create your own. If, for example, you assign a position paper, there’s a full chapter. If you want students to use sources, add the appropriate research chapters. If you want them to submit a topic proposal or an annotated bibliography, add those chapters. If you’re a new teacher, the genre chapters offer explicit assignment sequences — and the color-coded links will remind you of other detail that you may want to bring in.The Instructor’s Manual is designed for new teachers, with advice on creating a syllabus, responding to writing, balancing graduate work with teaching responsibilities, and more. If you focus on genres, there are complete chapters on 15 genres college students are often assigned. Color-coded links will help you bring in details about research or other writing strategies as you wish. If you organize your course thematically, you might start with Chapter 23 on generating ideas to get students thinking about a theme. You can also assign them to do research on the theme, starting with Chapter 43 on finding sources, or perhaps with Chapter 21 on writing as inquiry. If they then write in a particular genre, there will be a chapter to guide them. If you want students to do research, there are 8 chapters on the research process, along with guidelines and sample papers demonstrating MLA and APA documentation. If you want them writing particular genres, each genre chapter includes links to the research chapters. If you focus on particular strategies, you’ll find full chapters on narration, description, and so on. The chapters assume these to be strategies that a writer might use for many writing purposes, and each chapter points out genres where that strategy is particularly useful. If you wish to assign essays organized around a particular strategy, each chapter ends with links that lead students through the process of doing so. If you teach online, much of the book is on the Web, with a Writing Toolbar that downloads into Word to give students access as they write. Preface ix 7752_fm_pi-xxxiv 6/15/09 11:45 AM Page ix x PREFACE Acknowledgments Writing never takes place in isolation; from start to finish, it is always a collaborative venture. In writing our acknowledgments, we struggled thinking about whom to include and how far back we should go in recognizing the many people who have influenced what we do as writers and teachers, and as authors of this book. Even as we offer our gratitude here by naming those who have most directly contributed to making The Norton Field Guide to Writing, with handbook a reality, we are aware that many others have been instrumental as well. Marilyn Moller, the editor of the Field Guide, tops our list of those we want to thank, for her keen instincts, creative thinking, and unflagging assistance. She is one of the finest editors we’ve had the good fortune to work with. The quality of this book is due in large part to her knowledge of the field of composition, her formidable editing and writing skills, and her sometimes uncanny ability to see the future of the teaching of writing. The second edition has benefited from the steady editorial hand of Erin Granville, who shepherded it (and Rich) through its revisions. Her deft editing and insightful suggestions have been especially valuable for the new parts — and in fact have improved the entire book. Many others have contributed. Thanks to project editor Rebecca Homiski for her energy, patience, and great skill. Ana Cooke has coordinated a flurry of manuscripts and other materials, as did Cat Spencer before her. I thank Anna Palchik for the user-friendly (and award-winning) interior design and Debra Morton Hoyt for the whimsical cover. Jane Searle (and Diane O’Connor before her) transformed a scribbled-over manuscript into a finished product in record time — and to high standards. Mark Gallaher copyedited and Barbara Necol proofread, both with great attention to detail. Megan Jackson cleared text permissions, and Stephanie Romeo researched and cleared permission for the images. Eileen Connell, Jack Lamb, and Cliff Landesman planned, designed, and produced the sensational website. Steve Dunn helped us all keep our eyes on the market, and Mike Wright, Katie Hannah, and now Doug Day have worked enthusiastically and skillfully to introduce the book to the market. Thanks to all, and to Roby Harrington, Drake McFeely, and Julia Reidhead for supporting thi