Composing Knowledge

Orients students to the new and unfamiliar experience of higher education. Students come to college with numerous questions: What kind of work is expected? Just what does all that stuff on professors' doors mean? Composing Knowledge probes assumptions -- some basic, others more advanced -- about literacy and the use of language and persuasion, helping students gain a greater understanding of the ways in which learning and writing intersect formal education, and preparing them for their college careers.

7 thematic chapters critically investigate topics that connect the classroom to the larger world. (1) "Joining the Conversation" looks at the challenges undertaken by new students; (2) "Inventing the University" examines how language permits and restricts knowing and learning; (3) "Persuading Each Other" takes a close look at the give-and-take of dialogue; (4) "Engagements" examines how collaborations can be enriched; (5) "(En)gendering Knowledge" prompts students to see how gender influences debate; (6) "Learning Technology" questions the role of technology in the production of knowledge; and (7) "Seeing and Believing" encourages students to engage critically with visual texts.

71 readings introduce students to academic fields and issues. The readings focus on provocative issues that highlight the unstated assumptions students bring to college -- and that colleges impose on students. Each unit moves from short, accessible essays -- such as Deborah Tannen's "How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently" and Mike Rose's "Entering the Conversation" -- to more substantial pieces that will help students participate in discussions now shaping the academy -- including Mary Louise Pratt's "Arts of the Contact Zone" and Thomas Kuhn's "The Essential Tension: Tradition and Innovation in Scientific Research."

Innovative apparatus encourages critical reading and engaged discussion. It includes a number of features to help students consider the issues raised:
--A general introduction acquaints students with the ways literacy, community, and inquiry intersect;
situates the readings in Composing Knowledge as conversations set in various communities; and
connects students' lives to the work of the text.
--Introductions to each group of readings set the stage for the concerns raised in the selections.
--Pre-writing activities follow each introduction and help students tie their experiences to the
issues discussed.
--Headnotes to each selection set a context for the reading as a contribution to an ongoing
conversation.
--Two sets of questions follow each reading to encourage students to uncover core issues and arguments and to make connections with other texts.
--"Into the Field: Options for Writing Projects"at the end of each unit prompt students to develop more extended writing projects that link issues raised in the readings with their own experience.

A companion Web site at bedfordstmartins.com/composingknowledge provides research links for each unit in Composing Knowledge, helping students to make connections among the text, their academic and personal lives, and issues in the world at large.