Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students
Patricia Lynne, Framingham State University
Publisher: ROTEL
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA
Reviews
The text covers all areas of reading strategies from pre-reading to annotation and note-taking. That information is then tied to writing strategies and how they will help students become better writers. read more
The text covers all areas of reading strategies from pre-reading to annotation and note-taking. That information is then tied to writing strategies and how they will help students become better writers.
Content was very accurate. All references were noted. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for a teacher to write a completely unbiased text.
Examples were relevant and timely, yet not so specific that they will need to be revised every year or two.
Well done. The Zone of Proximal Development is explained in the beginning of the text and broken down for the reader. That trend continues throughout the text.
Author used terms and examples consistently throughout the entire text.
The author definitely took their own advice here. Chunking was well done. Sections were broken into concise sections.
I appreciated the topics and the logic that was used to arrange them in the text.
Charts were well placed. No navigational issues noted.
There were a few typos in the beginning of the text.
Well done. I especially appreciated the attention paid to Indigenous Peoples and the land acknowledgement at the beginning of the text.
I was impressed that the author had her text tested by colleagues and former students. All angles were covered.
The text included words of advice to students and invitations to pause and react to the material they were reading. This will be a great resource to college reading and writing instructors everywhere.
The textbook entitled "Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students" is comprehensive in nature and is well organized. It is divided into 3 Parts: I. Successful College Reading: Reading effectively, creating an optimal setting... read more
The textbook entitled "Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students" is comprehensive in nature and is well organized. It is divided into 3 Parts: I. Successful College Reading: Reading effectively, creating an optimal setting for reading, examining a sample assignment, using pre-reading strategies, annotating and note taking II. Doing Intellectual work: Understanding Bloom’s Taxonomy, understanding writing assignments as intellectual work, examining sample assignments and III. Writing Process in College, which consists of Thinking about the Writing Process, Pre-writing and Drafting and getting feedback and IV. Writing with Sources: Understanding source types, Finding and Evaluating sources, paraphrasing and quoting, and citing sources.
The “Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students" textbook is well-researched and provides accurate details on how to read, write, revise, and cite.
The content is relevant to college writing, shows that writing is a process, and is a skill that all students can learn if they focus on how to read, write and revise. This book can be updated to include changing trends and current information.
The textbook is well-written and easy to use. The material is accessible for students, and the Table of Contents and book is well organized and detailed. Students have great visuals, such as pictures and graphics, to keep the reader interested.
The structure of the book is easy to follow, the chapters are brief and to the point and are consistent with the Table of Contents.
The textbook is broken into sections that are easy to read with student profiles, examples, charts/graphics and pictures. The author does this consistently throughout the book.
The topics and chapters are well organized throughout the book. Once again, the Table of Contents does an excellent job of outlining the sections and topics. The information is clearly written, logical, and flows throughout the book. The end of the book provides detailed information on how to cite sources correctly and give authors their due credit.
The textbook is well done and easy to navigate. It has no issues with the interface and is accessible and easy to use.
The textbook entitled, “Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students" textbook is well written and I did not identify any visible grammatical errors.
This book is culturally relevant as it includes a Land Acknowledgement, which includes the Native tribe that resides in this region and has students from diverse backgrounds who have provided feedback on assignments. It makes students from different backgrounds feel seen and included.
Given the accessible nature of this book and how intentional the author of this book has been in sharing and revising their best writing practices, I feel compelled to use this book during the Fall semester for the Academic Seminar that I teach. I would also like my students to use it as a reference and guide as they transition from high school to college.
Table of Contents
- Welcome, Students!
- Welcome, Instructors!
- Ackowledgements
- Land Acknowledgement
- Icons and Textbooks
- I. Successful College Reading
- Reading Effectively
- Creating an Optimal Setting for Reading
- Examining a Sample Assignment
- Using Pre-Reading Strategies
- Focusing Your Reading
- Annotating and Note-Taking
- Doing Quick Research
- Finding the Main Point
- Working Carefully Through Trouble Spots
- Rereading
- Responding to What You Are Reading
- Summarizing and Reflecting on a Text
- Reading in College and Elsewhere
- II. Doing Intellectual Work
- What is Intellectual Work?
- Understanding Bloom's Taxonomy
- Understanding Writing Assignments as Intellectual Work
- Examining Sample Assignment 1: Summary and Analysis
- Examining Sample Assignment 2: Position Paper
- Examining Sample Assignment 3: Article for a Public Audience
- Examining Sample Assignment 4: Reflection
- Treating Complext Tasks as Intellectual Work: Why?
- III. Writing Process in College
- Why Writing Process in College?
- Thinking about Writing Process
- Prewriting 1: Understanding the Task
- Prewriting 2: Generating Ideas
- Drafting 1: Setting Up Your Structure
- Drafting 2: Producing Text
- Getting Feedback
- Revising 1: Revising Globally
- Revising 2: Revising Paragraphs
- Editing
- Proofreading
- Owning Your Process
- IV. Writing with Sources
- How Are Sources Used in College?
- Understanding Sources Types
- Finding Sources
- Evaluating Sources
- Summarizing
- Paraphrasing
- Quoting
- Choosing Between Quotations and Paraphrases
- Citing Your Sources
- Plagarizing
- Integrating Source Material with Your Ideas
- Thoughtful Source Use
- Glossary
- Works Cited
- Grant Information
Ancillary Material
About the Book
This textbook provides students with guidelines for understanding writing tasks as intellectual work using Bloom’s Taxonomy and for treating the writing process as a set of variable activities that move along a trajectory from idea or assignment to a finished product. The book also includes chapters on strengthening reading strategies and on finding, evaluating, and using sources effectively.
About the Contributors
Author
When I first entered graduate school, I thought I was going to study postmodern novels, and I took a job teaching writing to pay for my tuition. But as my first semester of teaching progressed, I found myself much more interested in what was going on with my students than in the novels I was reading. And I was particularly fascinated by the scholarship in my composition theory and pedagogy course. So much to learn!
I have been learning about writing ever since. Nearly every semester of my academic career, I have taught first-year writing, and I know it sounds clichéd, but I learn so much from my students. My students have taught me to see them each as individuals with something of their own to say. They have taught me that no one strategy writing works for everyone, which has forced me to be agile in my suggestions and guidance. My students have also gifted me with ideas about using highlighters and the concepts of “rainbow paragraphs” and “final-ish drafts” (the drafts they submit for my feedback before revising them for portfolios).
In addition to teaching writing, I garden, knit, read, and play online puzzle games with one of my children and MMORPGs with my partner and another child (right now, it’s classic World of Warcraft). I have fostered dogs in recent years, though I’m not doing that right now because my dog has gotten older and less tolerant—I’m not going to make him share our attention during his golden years. I enjoy and collect wooden jigsaw puzzles, both classic and modern.
When I was a child, I would come home from school and teach my younger sister everything that I had learned. She ended up skipping a grade as a result! It’s no surprise that I became a teacher and landed in a career where I can have the first day of school twice a year. Thank you to my students and my colleagues for sharing this ride with me!