Rewriting: How To Do Things With Texts

by Joseph Harris

Overview

"Like all writers, intellectuals need to say something new and say it well. But unlike many other writers, what intellectuals have to say is bound up with the books we are reading . . . and the ideas of the people we are talking with."

What are the moves that an academic writer makes? How does writing as an intellectual change the way we work from sources? In Rewriting, a textbook for the undergraduate classroom, Joseph Harris draws the college writing student away from static ideas of thesis, support, and structure, and toward a more mature and dynamic understanding. Harris wants college writers to think of intellectual writing as an adaptive and social activity, and he offers them a clear set of strategies—a set of moves—for participating in it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874215397
Publisher:	Utah State University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	150
File size:	227 KB

About the Author

Joseph Harris is professor of English at the University of Delaware, where he teaches courses in academic writing, critical reading, creative nonfiction, and digital writing. Before moving to Delaware, he was the founding director of the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University—an independent, multidisciplinary program noted for its approach to teaching writing as a form of intellectual inquiry. A former editor of College Composition and Communication, he is also the author of A Teaching Subject: Composition Since 1966 and co-editor of Teaching with Student Texts.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction 1 1 Coming to Terms 11 2 Forwarding 29 3 Countering 45 4 Taking an Approach 61 5 Revising 81 Afterword: Teaching Rewriting 104 Acknowledgments 113 Index 116

Editorial Reviews

"While the book is aimed at undergraduates, [it] reads like a thoughtful primer on doing scholarly writing and, even more importantly, on forming a professional identity as a publishing scholar. . . . Harris provides the 'terms of art,' as it were, for writers to achieve that self-awareness."
—Howard Tinberg, CCC


"[O]ne of the reasons why I find the book so teachable and important is that it invites us to think more deeply than we might otherwise about what we want our writing to do and how we intend to make that happen."
—Laura Micciche, CCC


"Writing this essay in response to Rewriting has given me a better sense of the moves I, myself, make. . . . I can think of no higher praise."
—Donna Qualley, Reader, special issue on Rewriting

From the Publisher