Comp Notes

This episode looks at the genre of analysis.

Transcript available here.

Additional Materials:  

• Laura Bolin Carroll's "Backpacks vs. Briefcases:  Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis"
• Purdue University Fort Wayne's "How to Write an Analysis"
• University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center's "Summary vs. Analysis"
• University of Michigan's Sweetland Center for Writing's "How Can I Create Stronger Analysis"
• John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Discipline's "Developing Deeper Analysis and Insights"

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode focuses on the genre of argument.  It discusses how to use Stephen Toulmin's model to make an argument.

Transcript available here.

Additional Resources:  

• Types of argument from Purdue OWL:
  • Classical
  • Toulmin
  • Rogerian
• Rebecca Jones' "Finding the Good Argument OR Why Bother with Logic?"
• Mark Sutton's "Warrants in an Argument" (This video discusses different kinds of warrants you can use in an argument)
• Harvard College Writing Center's "Counterargument"
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center's "Argument"
• Guide to Grammar and Writing's "Developing an Argument"
• Writing@Colorado State University's "Writing Arguments: An Overview" and "Understanding the Parts of an Argument"
• Walden University's "Developing Arguments" and "Responding to Counterarguments"
• "Finding the Responses to Counterarguments" from Anna Mills' How Arguments Work: A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College (online textbook)

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode focuses on the rhetorical concept of genre.

Transcript available here.

Additional Materials:  

• "Genre Theory" from The Mere Rhetoric Podcast
• WAC Clearinghouse's "What Should I Know about Genre and Design"
• Anis S. Bawarshi and Mary Jo Reiff's Genre:  An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy
• CCC Poster Page's "Genre"
• Kerry Dirk's "Navigating Genres"
• Brad Jacobson, Madelyn Pawlowski, and Christine M. Tardy's "Make Your 'Move': Writing in Genres"
• Clint Johnson's "On Genre"
• Lisa Bickmore's "Genre in the Wild:  Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco)systems"

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode discusses strategies for reading critically, an important skill for college students to possess.

Transcript available here.

Additional Materials: 

• The Kenneth Burke quote I talked about in this episode.  It's also called the Burkean Parlor.
• A selection of annotation strategies I share with my students.
• From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Learning Center (Note:  They have multiple pages on reading strategies, some of which are specialized. I selected the ones I thought might be of the most use to the most people):
  • "Annotating Texts"
  • "Reading Comprehension Tips"
  • "Taking Notes While Reading"
• Ellen Carillo's e-book A Writer's Guide to Mindful Reading
• Mike Bunn's "How to Read Like a Writer"
• Karen Rosenberg's "Reading Games:  Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources"
• Phil Sloan's "Reading for College, Part 1" and "Reading for College, Part 2"

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Just a quick heads up that I'm changing the release schedule to weekly instead of biweekly.

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode discusses proofreading, the stage of writing process where we check for small errors and grammar mistakes.

Episode transcript here.

Additional Materials: 

• Purdue OWL's "Finding Common Errors."  I refer to this page in the episode.
• Purdue OWL's "Beginning Proofreading"
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center's "Proofreading" (Note: This link leads to a YouTube video.)
• WAC Clearinghouse's "Editing and Proofreading Strategies"
• Butte College's "Tipsheet:  Proofreading"
• Walden University's "Self-Editing Strategies:  Proofreading"

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode focuses on editing, the aspect of writing process in which we refine our sentences for style and clarity.

Transcript available here.

Additional Materials:  

• Purdue OWL's "Concision"
• Purdue OWL's "Avoid Common Pitfalls."  This page covers many elements that can make sentences harder to read, issues you'll want to focus on while editing.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center's "Writing Concisely"
• "A Demonstration of Richard Lanham's Paramedic Method."  The paramedic method was developed by Richard Lanham.  It provides a systematic way to look for and recast elements that make sentences less concise.  The link leads to a video I created on this model.
• Guide to Grammar and Writing's "The Passive Voice"
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte Writing Resources Corner's "Nominalizations: Know Them. Try Not to Use Them"
• Purdue OWL's "Strategies for Variation." This page focuses on strategies for varying the kind of sentences you write.
• Walden University OASIS's "Varying Sentence Structure"

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode will discuss strategies for revision, the aspect of writing process that focuses on making major changes to a draft.

Episode transcript

Note:  While editing this episode, I realized that I misspoke a researcher's name.  I said Alex Horning when I meant Alice Horning.  I apologize for the error.

Additional Materials:  

• Handouts on the revision activities discussed in the episode:
  • Hot-spotting
  • Reverse Outlining (from the Duke University Writing Center)
  • Cutting Up a Draft
• "Revising Drafts" from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Writing Center
• Revision:  History, Theory, and Practice, edited by Alice Horning and Anne Becker (Note:  This link leads to an e-book that focuses on research into revision.)
• "Poster Page: Revision"  from the journal College Composition and Communication.
• MIT Global Studies' "Revise" and "Instructions for Revising" from The Writing Process
• L. Lennie Irvin's "Changing Your Mindset about Revision" (article in Volume 5 of Writing Spaces)

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This episode looks at the drafting part of writing process.

Transcript available here.

Additional Resources:

• A collection of drafting strategies I've shared with students
• An example of semidrafting
• Purdue OWL's "Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" and "Other Strategies for Getting Over Writer's Block"
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center's "Writing Anxiety"
• MIT Global Studies and Languages' "Draft"  (Note:  This source is for non-native speakers of English"

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

In this episode, we'll talk about prewriting, focusing on three strategies: freewriting, heuristics, and clustering.

Transcript available through this link.

Additional Resources:

• MIT's "The Writing Process:  Freewriting"
• Mere Rhetoric's "Stasis Theory" (New and Improved)
• MIT's "The Writing Process:  Idea Map/Web" (Note: This is an example of clustering, just with a different name)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's "Brainstorming"
• Purdue OWL's "Prewriting Questions" and "More Prewriting Questions"
• Michelle D. Trim and Megan Lynn Isaac's "Reinventing Invention:  Discovery and Investment in Writing" (Note: The link leads to a pdf file)
• Silva Rhetoricae's "Topics of Invention."  This page lists several topoi, or categories that represent different connections among ideas.  They can act as heuristics in your prewriting.
• CCC Poster Series: "Invention" (Note:  The link leads to a pdf file)

 Comp Notes © 2024 by  Mark Sutton  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-SA 4.0