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Welcome to Writing in Context, a composition course rhetoric that supports teaching college writing in the context of academic disciplines and professions. This Open Educational Resource (OER) eBook incorporates the pedagogies, or teaching methods, of Teaching for Transfer (TFT) and Writing About Writing (WAW) while supporting students’ studying and applying knowledge domains of writing (Beaufort) in their composition course(s), as well as any other contexts for writing to include their other classes, workplaces, communities, and personal lives.

How to Read This Text

The goal of this text is for students to not only read about composition concepts but also engage with them. The more active you are in your learning, the more you will grow as a writer. Here’s how:

Read this book as a scholarly text. Much of this book is written more as a scholarly text than a textbook. This means that it uses academic scholarship—published research, theory, etc.—citing the sources for the information provided. Our entire body of scholarship is how we know what we know in the fields of rhetoric and composition studies, and we’re still debating and studying ideas in this text. Your instructor may direct you to read some of the complete scholarly articles used in this text; they are available in academic journals and books and many are anthologized in editions of the reader Writing About Writing. The citations for these sources used are in Modern Language Association (MLA) format, which is a style often used in the academic discipline of English studies. When you come across something you don’t understand, look it up or ask your instructor. For example, you might think what on earth does “et al.” or “sic” mean?

TRY THIS to engage with essential concepts as you read. You’ll see a number of “try this” and interactive activities that your instructor may or may not assign for homework or as in-class activities. If not assigned, you should still do them in your notes as you complete readings in this text. This way you’ll have spent some time thinking about and practicing important concepts in preparation for lessons and assignments, and you can know what questions to ask for any needed clarification.

Click the links. You’ll notice a number of links in this text. As you read, click to follow them. Some link to reference information while others supplement the information in the chapter and should be read closely with the rest of the chapter’s content.

Watch and learn. In addition to written text and graphics, you’ll notice a number of videos in this text. As directed by your instructor, watch and take notes on these videos like any other part of the text. Some of these videos are to illustrate concepts or to use as texts in activities. You’ll notice a number of videos throughout the text that feature faculty from various academic disciplines and subjects talking about writing in their classes, fields, and professions. Pay close attention to these instructors from writing contexts across the curriculum because, as you’ll come to learn, writing can be learned only in context.

I wish you the best as you begin your journey writing in context!

This work is licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.