Pretexts for Writing, a textbook for first-year writers, is available in third edition as paperback and ebook on the Kendall/Hunt website. First-year college writers sometimes fail to see the importance of writing and language use to their future professional goals. They may have learned through their high school courses to trivialize the content of a writing class. Pretexts for Writing begins here, where first-year students often begin, including the assumption that when they begin taking a college writing course, first-year writers have already received writing instruction for a long time. While some of this instruction has been excellent, some of it has been reductive, shrinking the writing task to mere reporting through a few basic essay structures and ignoring the processes of invention and revision. Pretexts for Writing begins with these assumptions and engages students where many of them find themselves at the beginning of college. From chapters on process and organization to chapters on conducting research and developing an effective style, Pretexts for Writing offers dialogue, engagement, and new insights.
Written in an engaging style, Pretexts for Writing makes invention, rather than forms, a primary concern for writing and speaking. With this emphasis, the text guides students in the following areas:
Process Knowledge: Encourages novice writers to rethink and deepen a personal approach to writing processes and the complex demands of composing text.
Rhetorical Knowledge: Engages students in important aspects of persuasion, especially when dealing with culturally divisive issues.
Community Knowledge: Emphasizes the importance of community values lurking in commonplaces when writing persuasively.
Genre Knowledge: Provides an introduction to college genres of argument, research, and report writing. Review and evaluation essays, opinion essays, character profiles, and consensus-seeking argument are given special focus as well.
*Provides an introduction to narrative writing and creative nonfiction.
*Instructs in key issues of raising research questions and the successful use of documentation.
Developmental Understanding: Provides the basis for continued development in future writing courses.
Grammar: Placed between each chapter, grammatical interludes, using terms of traditional grammar, introduce students to a working writer’s grammar.
What Others are Saying about Pretexts for Writing…
“This writing textbook includes excellent instruction for college students. Its approach is fresh, the sample essays are well-chosen, and the writing is lively. Although I teach writing, I also found it helpful and inspiring in my own work as a writer. I think students and other writers will respond well to the direct, approachable style.” -Joseph Bentz, professor and author of eight books, including A Son Comes Home and Pieces of Heaven. (From Amazon.com)
“…My students’ favorite section of the book relates to scholarly research and ‘entering the conversation’ that is ongoing. It helps them begin to understand that researched arguments have a context, and a writer’s voice is one among many.” Karen Strovas, professor. (From Amazon.com)