Since its initial publication, Writing about Writing has empowered tens of thousands of students to investigate assumptions about writing and to explore how writing works.  It does so by making writing itself the subject of inquiry. Unique to Wardle and Downs’ approach, the text pre...

Since its initial publication, Writing about Writing has empowered tens of thousands of students to investigate assumptions about writing and to explore how writing works.  It does so by making writing itself the subject of inquiry. Unique to Wardle and Downs’ approach, the text presents “threshold concepts” about writing—central ideas that writers need to understand in order to progress. As they come to a deeper understanding of these threshold concepts, students are able to transfer their understanding to any writing situation they encounter.

Students are prepared in Part One to engage with the readings in Part Two. The Part One chapters explain the value of investigating writing, introduce threshold concepts and the notion of transfer, detail the elements of genre and rhetorical reading, and offer a guide for conducting writing studies research at a level appropriate for undergraduates. A new threshold concept, “Rhetorical choices shape worlds,” is supported by a new, more diverse and inclusive set of readings in Part Two.