Cover: Critical Reading and Writing, 1st Edition by Jeff Ousborne
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Critical Reading and Writing

A Bedford Spotlight RhetoricFirst Edition ©2014 Jeff Ousborne

Critical Reading and Writing: A Bedford Spotlight Rhetoric helps students with key writing skills. It provides advice on how to read thoughtfully and analytically, with instruction on active reading and note-taking, plus help with analyzing visual and multimodal texts. It also takes student...
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ISBN:9781457674327

Cover: Critical Reading and Writing, 1st Edition by Jeff Ousborne

Package for free with any Bedford Spotlight Reader

Critical Reading and Writing: A Bedford Spotlight Rhetoric helps students with key writing skills. It provides advice on how to read thoughtfully and analytically, with instruction on active reading and note-taking, plus help with analyzing visual and multimodal texts. It also takes students through the writing process, explaining important concepts such as purpose, invention, rhetorical thinking, prewriting, thesis development, and organization, providing support when they need it most. Advice on using sources, revising, and editing will help them enrich, re-see, edit, and format their papers.

Features

Three chapters introduce students to critical reading and writing in a practical way.

Chapter One, Critical Reading, helps students read thoughtfully and analytically. It includes instruction on active reading and note-taking, plus help with analyzing visual and multimodal texts.

Chapter Two, Invention and Drafting, takes students through the writing process. This chapter covers purpose, invention, audience, prewriting, thesis development, and organization, providing support for your students when they need it most.

Chapter Three, Using Sources, Revising, and Editing, helps students enrich, re-see, edit, and format their papers. A sample student paper gives students a helpful model.

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Table of Contents

1 Critical Reading

What is Critical Reading?

Paying Attention to Form and Structure

Annotating As You Read

       Checklist: Questions for Critical Reading

From Comprehension to Analytical Reading

Looking for Themes

Paying Attention to Style, Voice, and Tone

       Checklist: Questions for Analytical Reading

Reading Visual Texts

Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With

Checklist: Questions for Visual Analysis

2 Invention and Drafting

Understanding Purpose, Audience, and Topic

Purpose: Why Are You Writing?

       Are You Writing to Inform?

       Are you Writing to Persuade?

       Are you Writing to Express Yourself?

       Checklist: Understanding Your Purpose

Audience: To Whom Are You Writing?

       Checklist: Understanding Your Audience

Discovering Your Topic

Freewriting

Brainstorming

Clustering

Reading to Write

       Checklist: Understanding Your Topic

Developing and Refining Your Thesis

       Checklist: Crafting Your Thesis

Organization

       Introductions

       Body Paragraphs

       Conclusions

       Checklist: Reviewing the Organization of Your Essay

3 Using Sources, Revising, and Editing

Evaluating Sources

       Is the Source Up to Date?

       Is the Source Credible and Authoritative?

       Does the Source Provide Broad and In-Depth Coverage?

       Is the Source Objective?

Using Sources from the Web

       Who Are the Authors?

       Who Sponsors the Site?

       How Accurate is the Site?

Integrating Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

       Summarizing

       Paraphrasing

       Integrating Quotations

       Signal Words

       Making Sources Work for You

Examples of MLA Style

       Checklist: Using Sources

Revision

Revising Thesis, Evidence, and Organization

Peer Review

       Checklist: Questions for Peer Review

Proofreading

Logan Block, College is Still Worth It: The Enduring Value of a College Degree [sample MLA
student essay]
Headshot of Jeff Ousborne

Jeff Ousborne

Jeff Ousborne (PhD, Boston College) has taught literature and writing at St. John’s University, Boston University, and Suffolk University. He is the editor of Reading Pop Culture: A Portable Anthology (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015), the author of Critical Reading and Writing: A Bedford Spotlight Rhetoric (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014), and editor of Writing Music: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. The former music editor at Details magazine, his scholarly articles and other writing have appeared Studies in Popular Culture, Clues: A Journal of Detection, The Boston Phoenix, Talking Writing, Life, Mens Fitness, Entertainment Weekly, CMJ Music Monthly, Boston Magazine, and other publications.