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Writing about Writing (WAW) is a method or theory of teaching composition that emphasizes writing studies research. Writing about Writing approaches to first-year composition take a variety of forms,^[1] typically based on the rationale that students benefit when engaging the 'declarative and procedural knowledge' associated with writing studies research.^[2]

Instead, I read.and read.and read.probably racking up 10 - 15 hours a week lost in the written word. This can be an expensive habit if you don't have a library membership or you get sidetracked by bookstores! Worst of all, when I go away almost half of my luggage is books. So now I'm looking at buying. Writing About Writing Wordle Ebook Readers. 4/24/2017 0 Comments They can be used in the classroom for reading purposes, for writing. In fact, an ebook can often. I asked about the ebook market in Ireland. Use wordle to make a visual graphic of your language and see what you are over.

• 1History
• 4Writing about Writing: A College Reader

History[edit]

Composition is not widely recognized as its own discipline. Composition instructors strive to teach students how to become better writers. As public perception often shapes public policy, this uninformed view of composition as a legitimate field of study has contributed to a lack of funding and emphasis on composition classes in academia.^[3]

'Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions'[edit]

In 2007, Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle published an article titled 'Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions' in which they propose a reform of first-year composition instruction based on the results of a test course they developed. This course sought 'to improve students' understanding of writing, rhetoric, language, and literacy' and promoted a view of reading and writing as scholarly inquiry, encouraging 'more realistic conceptions of writing.' ^[4] The article is considered to be revolutionary by other scholars in the field, and it's frequently cited by those who have continued the work in the WAW movement.

In the article, Downs and Wardle deny the existence of a universal educated discourse, which conflicts with first-year composition goals of preparing students to write across the curriculum. Downs and Wardle write that teaching students how to write across the curriculum supports the idea that 'writing is not a real subject, that writing courses do not require expert instructors, and that rhetoric and composition are not genuine research areas or legitimate intellectual pursuits.'^[4]

The article goes on to outline the course they designed that is centered more on teaching the students about 'writing studies', rather than how to write in college. The authors discuss readers, research assignments, reflective assignments and presentation assignments before going on to report case-studies of two students who took Downs' and Wardle's WAW-centered first-year composition course. While these were different types of students who had different learning outcomes, both stories illustrate the flexible nature of WAW and how this type of course can be tailored towards individual student needs. The authors discuss several benefits they observed of using WAW to teach first-year composition, but also indicate the presence of challenges associated with teaching this kind of course, and address both these challenges as well as critiques they received from colleagues.

The authors conclude that an implementation of WAW-centered classes in first-year composition professionalizes writing instruction, and raises awareness about writing studies as a legitimate discipline. Downs and Wardle write 'rather than purporting to teach students 'academic writing' and claiming to prepare them for writing in their disciplines, the course teaches students what we as a field have learned about writing as an object of study.'^[4] Essentially, the aim of a WAW course is to demonstrate how writing works.

'Continuing the Dialogue'[edit]

After its publication, the article caused a stir in academia and received a lot of response from the community, prompting a follow-up article by Wardle in 2008 titled 'Continuing the Dialogue: Follow-up Comments on 'Teaching about Writing, RightingMisconceptions.' In it, Wardle addresses responders who commented that she and Downs put too much emphasis on first-year composition within the field by explaining that first-year composition should not hold more value than other branches within their field, but it is of importance and merits scholarly inquiry. She reaffirms their main point as being 'that we should reconceive the nature of FYC goals and focus on the content knowledge we have as a field from which students can benefit.'^[5] She goes on to write, 'Let me be as clear as possible: Doug and I are arguing that composition instructors should refuse to separate knowledge about writing from practice in writing and some instruction on how to complete the writing tasks at hand.'^[5] Another misconception she addresses is misconstruing a first-year writing WAW approach as being the same as an introductory course to a writing major and dismisses the claims that a WAW approach is put in place to recruit writing majors. The differences between these two courses, she explains, are both audience and purpose. Downs and Wardle expanded have produced an accompanying textbook, Writing about Writing: A College Reader, which was published in 2011.

Benefits[edit]

In 'Teaching About Writing, Righting Misconceptions,' Downs and Wardle discuss several benefits they found WAW affords students including:^[4]

• an increased self-awareness about writing
• improved reading abilities
• improved confidence as a student
• raised awareness of research writing as conversation

WAW asks students to read about writing and various processes, which allows them to identify what works for them. By reading articles that a composition studies student might read, the first-year composition student is able to gain further insight into the ongoing conversation centered around writing. In her article 'Writing about Writing in Basic Writing,' Shannon Carter explains 'a writing-about-writing approach foregrounds research in writing and related studies by asking students to read and discuss key research in the discipline and contribute to the scholarly conversation themselves.' ^[3] She explains that having students immerse themselves in this type of scholarship will not only improve their writing but their understanding of writing as an academic discipline will increase as well, which in turn contributes to changing the public perception that writing is only something that is a piece of other disciplines.

Many instructors who use WAW are also benefited in that they themselves are able to learn more about composition studies along with their class, promoting parallel learning. In an article titled 'Seeing is Believing: Writing Studies with 'Basic Writing' Students,' Charlton reports that some see value in teaching first-year composition from a cultural studies approach because not only does this allow for composition instructors to teach what they love, but the types of reading promote critical thinking and analysis—two goals many first-year composition courses have. Also, the article reports on several instructors incorporating graduate level writing-studies readings into their first-year writing courses with much success. Charlton writes, 'Students were engaged and were developing research questions and projects that rivaled my on senior-level composition theory class, both in terms of complexity and overall quality of finished products.'^[6]

Criticism and responses[edit]

As WAW is a relatively recent movement and is still in its early stages of development, proponents don't always agree on how WAW should be applied to the classroom. Carter points out instructors only account for a small portion of the composition community, and therefore disagreement is common and 'often in fundamental ways.' ^[3]

In his response to Downs and Wardle's 'Teaching About Writing, Righting Misconceptions,' Joshua P. Kutney argues that providing students with an awareness of writing through WAW won't necessarily transfer to their writing performance. He compares WAW to students who take courses that raise their awareness of social problems. While students gain a greater sense of these issues through these courses, rarely do they display behavioral changes in regards to these issues.

Kutney also argues that an increased awareness of writing studies may result in students becoming more comfortable with validating their insufficiencies as a writer because they now recognize the difficulties expert writers have, and not because they now comprehend 'the nuances of the composing process.' He goes on to say that while Downs and Wardle discuss WAW as allowing students to see academic writing as engaging in an ongoing conversation, this knowledge might overwhelm the student and cause them to avoid engaging in the conversation altogether. Kutney writes, 'While First-Year Composition may not do much to develop the writing abilities of students, Downs and Wardle offer no reason to think that Introduction to Writing Studies, a course that does not purport to teach writing, will do more.' ^[7]

In their response to Downs and Wardle, Miles et al. claim a WAW approach seems like it serves as an introduction to a writing major, which would not be beneficial to first-year students. They take issue with Downs and Wardle's 'dismissal of the importance of teaching situated procedural knowledge',^[8] most notably the rhetorical situation. Miles et al. claim the only rhetorical situation a WAW course exposes its students to is that of scholarly research. They also argue that Downs and Wardle put too much emphasis on first-year composition within the field of writing studies, seeing it as the predominant branch of the field. They also argue that Downs and Wardle fail to give voice to the students in their case study who didn't benefit from the WAW approach and that only those who did are highlighted. Another main criticism they have is WAW's reliance on one modality of research writing while they argue that their 'research and scholarship is an interesting hybrid of several modalities at once.'^[8]

Downs published a response to Miles et al. in which he expresses displeasure at the arguments the authors laid out:

My first reaction to Miles et al.'s response to 'FYC as Intro to Writing Studies' is about as magnanimous as their response itself – that is, not remotely. This disappoints me, because I do maintain the ideal of scholarship wherein a constructive dialectic stretches, shapes, and builds ideas rather than merely tearing them down. I confess my first instinct is to tear down Miles et al.'s response as they attempt to tear down the construct we forwarded. (Earning the condemnation of an entire department is bracing-and ironic when the scholarship of some of the signatories – for me, Schwegler and Shamoon – planted seeds of ideas they find unworkable.^[9]

He writes Miles et al. 'seem to address us as if we are sitting at the kids' table at Thanksgiving dinner.' His main contentions are:^[9]

• Miles et al. seem only to respond to arguments Downs and Wardle didn't make rather than focusing on the ones they did.
• There is a major difference between the type of course he and Wardle advocate from first-year writing and a course that serves as in introduction to a writing major.
• Miles et al. grossly misinterpreted the types of readings that are purposed to be involved in WAW, as they are not all of an academic nature and nowhere in Downs' and Wardle's article do they say that it is.
• In regards to the criticism that first-year writing students will have a difficult time comprehending readings that are also taught to graduate students, Downs states that it's an 'admirable goal' of writing programs to support this kind of learning, and cutting first-year students off from this type of learning is 'unnecessarily limiting.'

He concludes by writing 'I am grateful not only for the opportunity to respond, but to have something to respond to. And I wonder how differently our students might understand writing if they had similar opportunities.'^[9]

A response to Downs' response to Miles et al. by Slomp and Sargent doesn't reject Downs and Wardle's ideas in the same way Miles et al. does, but calls for more research on the WAW method. The authors also argue that Downs and Wardle fail to position themselves into an ongoing conversation in the same way they advocate for in WAW. Slomp and Sargent say that Downs and Wardle paint themselves to be 'lone pioneers' in this venture, but in the 1990s Wendy Bishop supported the use of writing as the main subject in the writing classroom. They also reference Peter Elbow as being someone who touched on similar ideas to WAW long before Downs and Wardle published 'Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions.'^[10]

Shannon Carter, while a proponent of WAW, describes how it isn't always accessible to other instructors or policy makers. She describes how WAW can be 'off-putting' to others, and the scholarship on the subject cannot be relied on in making changes to composition curriculum. She explains that while WAW can be effective for some, it is simply one way to approach teaching composition and won't work with everyone's teaching style.^[3]

As previously mentioned, many believe that because the readings are written by professionals for professionals, undergraduates will not be able to easily understand the concepts, which will negatively affect engagement with the course. Some even question Downs and Wardle's motives, and see WAW as a ploy in 'recruiting' more students to become majors in the field.^[6]

Writing about Writing: A College Reader[edit]

Published in 2011, Downs and Wardle's book is described as 'encouraging students to draw on what they know in order to contribute to ongoing conversations about writing and literacy.' ^[11]In the preface for the instructors, Downs and Wardle describes their frustration with composition courses that are based around themes that have nothing to do with writing. They list several reasons as to why WAW is a 'smart choice' in terms of an approach to teaching first-year composition:^[12]

• WAW engages students in a relevant subject
• WAW engages students' own area of expertise
• WAW helps students transfer what they learn
• WAW has been extensively class tested—and it works.

The book addresses several questions geared towards helping the student understand multiple components of writing: Why study writing? How do readers read and writers write? How do you write? How have you become the readers and writer you are today? How do communities shape writing? How do you make yourself heard as college writer? A mixture of selected readings from both scholars, authors, and students are provided, as well as various activities and discussion questions associated with the readings.^[12]

Selected readings[edit]

Below are some of the readings included in Writing about Writing: A College Reader:

• Stuart Greene, Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument
• Joseph M. Williams, The Phenomenology of Error
• Donald M. Murray, All Writing Is Autobiography
• Christina Haas and Linda Flower, Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning
• Sondra Perl, The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers
• Mike Rose, Rigid Rules, Inflexible Plans, and the Stifling of Language: A Cognitivist Analysis of Writer's Block
• Anne Lamott, Shitty First Drafts
• Stephen King, What Writing Is
• Allegra Goodman, Calming the Inner Critic and Getting to Work
• Kent Haruf, To See Your Story Clearly, Start by Pulling the Wool over Your Own Eyes
• Susan Sontag, Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed.
• Junot Díaz, Becoming a Writer
• Malcolm X, Learning to Read
• Sherman Alexie, The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me
• Shirley Brice Heath, Protean Shapes in Literacy Events: Ever-Shifting Oral and
• Dennis Baron, From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies
• John Swales, The Concept of Discourse Community
• James Paul Gee, Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction

Reception[edit]

The book is praised for its accessibility and forward thinking. For instance, David R. Russell from Iowa State University called the book 'a milestone in composition textbooks.' ^[11] Russell is known for his work in Writing Across the Curriculum and activity theory.

Its publisher's website describes it by saying 'Throughout the book, friendly explanations and scaffolded questions help students connect to readings and — even more important — develop knowledge about writing they can use at work, in their everyday lives, and in college.' ^[11]

Further reading[edit]

• WritingAboutWriting.net: A website maintained by the Writing About Writing standing group of CCCC, with resources such as syllabi, assignments, and reflective blog posts on using WAW pedagogy.
• Write On: Notes on Teaching Writing about Writing: Wardle and Downs' blog on WAW
• Writers on Writing Blog: affiliation of a podcast by the same name hosted by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

References[edit]

1. ^Downs, Doug & Wardle, Elizabeth. (2012). Reimagining the nature of FYC: Trends in writing-about-writing pedagogies. 10.2307/j.ctt4cgjsj.11.
2. ^'CF 27: Reflecting Back and Looking Forward by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs'. compositionforum.com. Retrieved 2019-07-27.
3. ^ ^abcdCarter, Shannon (2010) [2009]. 'Writing about Writing in Basic Writing: A Teacher/Researcher/Activist Narrative'. Basic Writing e-journal. 8–9.
4. ^ ^abcdDowns, Douglas; Elizabeth Wardle (2007). 'Teaching About Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning 'First Year Composition' as 'Introduction to Writing Studies']'. College Composition and Communication. 58 (4): 552–584.
5. ^ ^abWardle, Elizabeth (2008). 'Continuing the Dialogue: Follow-up Comments on 'Teaching About Writing, Righting Misconceptions''. College Composition and Communication. 60 (1): 175–181.
6. ^ ^abCharlton, Jonkka (2012) [2009]. 'Seeing is Believing: Writing Studies with 'Basic Writing' Students'. Basic Writing Online. 8/9.
7. ^Kutney, Joshua P. (2007). 'Will Writing Awareness Transfer to Writing Performance? Response to Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle, 'Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions''. College Composition and Communication. 59 (10): 276–279.
8. ^ ^abMiles, Libby; et al. (2008). 'Interchanges: Commenting on Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle's 'Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions''. College Composition and Communication. 59 (3): 503–511.
9. ^ ^abcDowns, Douglas (2008). 'Response to Miles et al'. College Composition and Communication. 60 (1): 175–181.
10. ^Slomp, David H.; M. Elizabeth Sargent (2009). 'Responses to Responses: Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle's 'Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions''. College Composition and Communication. 60 (1): 171–175.
11. ^ ^abcBedford St. Martin's, Writing about Writing 10 February 2012.
12. ^ ^abDowns, Douglas; Elizabeth Wardle (2011). Writing about Writing: A College Reader. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN978-0-312-53493-6.

Ebooks can be life-changing. If you want a steady stream of side income, or if you want to take the first big step in your career as a writer, writing an ebook is a great place to begin.

Lots of writers (and would-be writers) recognize that, but have yet to get started on their own ebook. Perhaps you’re one of them: you’re not sure where to begin, or you’re worried about how you’ll find the time.

I’ve been writing and publishing ebooks — for myself and for clients – since 2008, and I’ve helped lots of writers get their own ebooks finished. These nine tips will help you come up with a great idea, do your research, and get your first draft written.

Note: I’m focusing here on nonfiction ebooks — but many of the tips will also work for fiction writers. Feel free to pick out the ones most applicable to you!

Writing About Writing Textbook

Coming Up with Ideas

The biggest mistake that new ebook writers make is to pick an idea that they think is good — without discovering whether or not there’s a market.

Tip #1: Don’t Just Follow the Money

Some topics might sound like great possibilities because you know there’s a big market out there. Don’t decide to write a “dieting book” or “self-help book” (or any other type of book) just because you think it will make money, though. You may find that the market is saturated — and only established big names are currently selling well.

Instead, choose a topic that (a) you already know a lot about and (b) you’ll enjoy writing about. This saves you doing lots of research just to get up to speed, and it substantially increases the chance that you’ll see your ebook through to a final draft.

Tip #2: Think about the Magazines and Blogs You Read

If you’re not sure what your specialist topics are, take a look at your magazine subscriptions or the blogs that you visit frequently: these should give you some clues!

Once you’ve settled on a topic, dig deeper into these resources. You’ll probably find that certain articles (with a different spin each time) crop up again and again; these will be ones that address perennially popular topics, and the core idea that they cover could be a great one for an ebook.

Tip #3: Use Your Blog or Newsletter Audience

If you’ve got a blog or an email newsletter, then you’re well ahead in the ebook game. You not only have a ready-made audience for your work — you also have a great source of ideas.

Two simple ways to do this are to:

Writing About Writing Book

• Come up with three to seven possible ebook titles or topics, and survey your audience to find out which they prefer. (SurveyMonkey is great for this.)
• Go through comments or emails you’ve received. What questions or problems crop up again and again? Could you write an ebook addressing these?

Doing Your Research

However well you know your topic, you’ll need to do some research, even if that’s just to check facts and provide a few extra nuggets of interesting information for your readers.

Tip #4: Allocate a Set Amount of Time for Research

Many writers find it’s easy to get stuck at the research stage, gathering more and more articles and resources, thumbing through books again and again, jotting down great quotes, facts and references.

Avoid this by giving yourself a limited amount of time for research. That could mean setting aside, say, two weeks purely for research before you begin writing, or researching for a certain length of time as you come to each new chapter of your ebook.

Tip #5: Read Similar Books or Ebooks

This is an obvious tip, but some writers are overly reliant on blog posts and articles, and don’t necessarily turn to other (e)books. Whatever your topic is, it’s likely you’ll be able to find some similar books and ebooks. If you can’t, you may have to consider whether it’s too obscure to focus on.

You won’t need to read every word of every book you choose; instead, use the table of contents or index to help you find the parts most relevant to you. These can also help throw up extra ideas on aspects of the topic you might not have considered yet.

Tip #6: Be Certain of Facts and Statistics

If your particular topic area has a few oft-quoted facts or statistics, it can be tempting to repeat these without double-checking them. Be careful, though: other authors won’t necessarily have verified the facts themselves.

Between 2008 and 2011, I wrote a lot of material for personal development and self-improvement blogs. One popular “fact” in this area is about “the Harvard Goal Study.” (You can read an account of this supposed study here.)

One excellent blogger in the area, though, debunked this in a post Writing Down Your Goals — The Harvard Written Goal Study. Fact or Fiction? This helped open my eyes to the sad truth that some authors make up facts and statistics to suit them, so you do need to look for original studies, government publications, and other reputable sources of information where possible.

Writing About Writing Online

If you come across something presented as fact which seems odd or hard to believe, Snopes.com is a great place to turn for an initial check.

Writing the First Draft

Writers who sail through the idea-generation and researching stages sometimes come to a sudden halt here, but writing the first draft of your ebook doesn’t need to be daunting or difficult.

Tip #7: Write a Full Outline First

One of the simplest ways to make writing easier is to have a clear outline before you begin. Otherwise, it’s easy to get stuck a couple of chapters into your ebook.

Your outline should include:

• A title for each chapter – don’t spend too long agonizing over the exact wording at this stage. It’s usually better to have, say, 15 short chapters instead of five long ones. If your ebook deals with a broad topic, it may also be appropriate to also split it into three to five different parts.
• Subheadings or subsections for each chapter, with a list of points detailing information you want to cover. You could produce this as a linear list, or you could create a mind-map to help you come up with new ideas and link them in different ways.

Tip #8: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

For most people, writing is a demanding, high-energy task — and it’s often easy to give in to distractions.

Don’t put temptation in your path: create a distraction-free environment by using a program that allows for full-screen writing, like Dark Room, Write Room or Scrivener. Turn off your phone. Sign out of your email account, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and anything else that might make sounds or pop alerts up on your screen.

Tip #9: Imagine You’re Writing an Email

If you find yourself staring at the screen, wondering how to word a particular point, or struggling over how much information to put down, imagine that you’re writing an email to a friend (or blog reader). Simply type what you’d say to them.

You could take this even further by using questions for your subheadings, if that helps you get into the flow: “How do I register a domain name?” might make for an easier section than “Domain name registration”, for instance. If you don’t like the question format for subheadings, you can simply reword them at the end.

If you’ve got any tips of your own to share, or any questions about the ebook-writing process, just pop a comment below.

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