Speaking of Writing: A Brief Rhetoric - with MLA 2021 Update

Co-authored by a novelist and a scholar, Speaking of Writing follows four college students from diverse backgrounds as they face the challenges of reading, writing, and critical thinking in first-year composition classes and across the disciplines. Each chapter engages students in relatable, often humorous scenarios that focus on key challenges.

Through its story-based approach, this brief rhetoric enacts process-based pedagogy, showing student writers grappling with fundamental questions: How can I apply my own strategies for success to new assignments? How can I maintain my own voice when asked to compose in an academic style? What do college professors mean by a thesis? Why is my argument weak, and how can I make it stronger? The book vividly dramatizes a draft-and-revision process that includes instructor feedback, peer review, and careful research.

“Speaking of Writinghas everything a writing textbook should have--chapters on rhetoric, summary, analysis, argument and thesis, revision, documenting sources, voice and style--doing so using characters and often humorous narratives that my students found engaging, intuitive, and effective. Each chapter includes a variety of activities, from easy to more difficult, which are easy to combine with specific assignments. It is a book both students and instructors will cherish. -- James Pasto, Master Lecturer, Arts and Sciences Writing Program, Boston University Speaking of Writingis unique in its ability both to engage students in first-year composition and to provide truly practical advice for multidisciplinary critical reading and writing situations. -- Stacey Donohue, Professor of English, Central Oregon Community College I love this textbook! I thought Speaking of Writingwas just going to be another boring old dull English book, but surprisingly this one is really interesting! The four students in the book provide personal experiences which I found helpful. I got to know what and how other people write, and the students' strategy for developing a writing process was very interesting to read. -- Stephen Wu, Student, University of Ottawa In Speaking of Writing: A Brief Rhetoric, Allegra Goodman and Michael Prince provide an indispensable, engaging guide to basic rhetorical concepts and how to write well. Through a creative structure and engaging prose, they make dry and difficult-to-parse concepts come to life, allowing readers to discover what makes writing work and not work in chapters that mimic the process of learning when guided by cogent, thoughtful instructors. ... readers looking for an introduction to or a primer on essential writing and rhetorical concepts will be hard-pressed to find another textbook as fun, educational, and interesting. -- Dylan Schrader, Technical Communication”

“Speaking of Writing has everything a writing textbook should have—chapters on rhetoric, summary, analysis, argument and thesis, revision, documenting sources, voice and style—doing so using characters and often humorous narratives that my students found engaging, intuitive, and effective. Each chapter includes a variety of activities, from easy to more difficult, which are easy to combine with specific assignments. It is a book both students and instructors will cherish.” — James Pasto, Master Lecturer, Arts and Sciences Writing Program, Boston University

“Speaking of Writing is unique in its ability both to engage students in first-year composition and to provide truly practical advice for multidisciplinary critical reading and writing situations.” — Stacey Donohue, Professor of English, Central Oregon Community College

“I love this textbook! I thought Speaking of Writing was just going to be another boring old dull English book, but surprisingly this one is really interesting! The four students in the book provide personal experiences which I found helpful. I got to know what and how other people write, and the students’ strategy for developing a writing process was very interesting to read.” — Stephen Wu, Student, University of Ottawa

“In Speaking of Writing: A Brief Rhetoric, Allegra Goodman and Michael Prince provide an indispensable, engaging guide to basic rhetorical concepts and how to write well. Through a creative structure and engaging prose, they make dry and difficult-to-parse concepts come to life, allowing readers to discover what makes writing work and not work in chapters that mimic the process of learning when guided by cogent, thoughtful instructors. … readers looking for an introduction to or a primer on essential writing and rhetorical concepts will be hard-pressed to find another textbook as fun, educational, and interesting.” — Dylan Schrader, Technical Communication

Allegra Goodman’s novels include Sam, Kaaterskill Falls, The Family Markowitz, Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, and The Chalk Artist. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and Best American Short Stories. She has taught first-year composition at Stanford and creative writing at Boston University and Harvard. Michael Prince is the founding director of the Arts and Sciences Writing Program at Boston University, where he is Professor of English, specializing in Writing Studies and early modern literature and philosophy. His publications include The Shortest Way with Defoe: Robinson Crusoe, Deism, and the Novel (2020), which received the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize from the University of Virginia Press. Emmeline Pidgen is an illustrator, creating books, comics, and commercial illustration in northwest England. She has worked with a wide range of clients internationally and was named “UK Freelancer of the Year” in 2016.

Co-authored by a novelist and a scholar, Speaking of Writingfollows four college students from diverse backgrounds as they face the challenges of reading, writing, and critical thinking in first-year composition classes and across the disciplines. Each chapter engages students in relatable, often humorous scenarios that focus on key challenges. Through its story-based approach, this brief rhetoric enacts process-based pedagogy, showing student writers grappling with fundamental questions: How can I apply my own strategies for success to new assignments? How can I maintain my own voice when asked to compose in an academic style? What do college professors mean by a thesis? Why is my argument weak, and how can I make it stronger? The book vividly dramatizes a draft-and-revision process that includes instructor feedback, peer review, and careful research.

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