As a GenXer in the 1980s, I grew up as a latch-key kid. TV, movies, and video games vied for my siblings and my attention as we ate junk food. Yet, I became a reader at an early age, majored in English post-high school, and became a teacher and writer. Something about my childhood encouraged me to become a life-long reader. What was it?
SCAFFOLDS: A CHILDHOOD MEMOIR OF BOOKS is about the meaningful books I read when I was a kid and teenager. But the key to creating a life-long reader isn
I’m on sabbatical from my teaching duties in order to write a book. I intended to write just one book. I ended up writing two. This is one of them.
STRUCTURES: THE RELUCTANT WRITER’S GUIDE TO COLLEGE ESSAYS is a freshman composition handbook for those who dislike writing essays. Filled with straightforward information, easy-to-follow outlines, and essay examples, STRUCTURES demystifies essay writing and gives the reluctant writer support and confidence in a life skill that isn’t always pleasant but is always necessary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
1: Invention & Prewriting
2: Arrangement
3: Drafting
4: Revision & Editing
5: Different Answers = Different Essays
6: Narration, with Description
7: Process
8: Division, with Exemplification
9: Comparison and/or Contrast
10: Classification, with Exemplification
11: Cause and Effect
12: Argumentation
13: Researching and Documenting Sources
14: Argumentation Essays
15: Mixed-Mode Essay
Recommended Resources
Once upon a time, after I earned my PhD in May 2006, I pursued getting my dissertation published with an academic press. I actually got a serious bite from a university press (one amongst dozens to whom I sent out the book proposal).
But after nearly two years of non-followup-communication from that publisher (and after two years into a permanent full-time faculty position at a community college), the pressure to get my dissertation published was no longer there. Thus, my manuscript just sat there — mothballed.
However, I would find myself referring to my dissertation to my composition students. Surprisingly, it was not as an example of Flannery O’Connor scholarship (although I was and still am proud of what I accomplished), but as an example what a successful result of the writing and research process CAN BE — if they only trusted in the process.
Also, as time passed, the era of free and user-friendly self-publication arrived, so I thought, “Why not?”
So, world, here it is —