The mad scientist's guide to composition : a somewhat cheeky but exceedingly useful introduction to academic writing
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The mad scientist's guide to composition : a somewhat cheeky but exceedingly useful introduction to academic writing
Broadview Press, c2020
- softcover
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Considering the composition classroom as a mad scientist's laboratory, The Mad Scientist's Guide to Composition introduces different kinds of writing as experiments. Writing an essay is a task that can strike fear into a student's heart, but performing an experiment licenses creativity and doesn't presume that one knows the outcome from the start.
The Mad Scientist's Guide covers the kinds of writing most often required on college campuses, while also addressing important steps and activities frequently overlooked in composition guides, such as revision and peer reviewing. Actual examples of student writing are included throughout, as are helpful reminders and tips to help students polish their skills. Above all, the Mad Scientist's Guide seeks to make writing fun.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Monsters are Scary, but Writing Doesn't Have to Be!
Your Turn: Anxieties
Chapter 1: Nuts and Bolts: Mechanics
Your Turn: The Horror, The Horror!
Dismembered Parts of Speech
Your Turn: Mad-Libbing Monster Style
The Curious Case of the Incomplete Clause
Danger Words
I Am Legion: The Singular They
Punctuation of Doooommmmmm
This is the End (end punctuation)
The comma: look upon me and despair
That vs. Witch
Commas Around Titles?
Comma splices
The Mysterious Semicolon
Transitional phrases
The Revenge of the Apostrophe
Colon-oscopy
Quotation Marks: The Summoning
Punctuation Placement
Your Turn: Sentences Gone Mad!
Your Turn: The Paragraph from Hell
Paranormal Paragraphs
How Many Paragraphs?
The Between: Transitions
Your Turn: Cross Over Children-Transitions
Chapter 2: Graverobbing: finding sources, evaluating sources, and incorporating sources
Conjuring Spirits: Finding and Using Sources
Terminology: Primary vs. Secondary Sources
Terminology: Scholarly vs. Non-Scholarly Sources
Terminology: Periodicals and Journals
Terminology: Just What the Heck is a Novel?
Terminology: Editors and Edited Collections
Burial Sites: Finding Sources
Databases
Working Backwards from References Lists
Here Lies Truth: Evaluating Sources
Peer Reviewed Sources
Publication Venue
Bias vs. Biased
Media Sources and Bias
Authors
Sources of Despair
Encyclopedia Articles
Book Reviews
Wikipedia
Academia.edu
Theses and Dissertations
Translating Incantations: Reading for Meaning
Your Turn: Reading for Meaning
Speak Spirit! Incorporation Sources
Note taking
Summary
Paraphrase
Quotation
Your Turn: Summary, Paraphrase, Quotation
How To Avoid Angering the Dead: Plagiarism and Quotation
Signal Phrases
Quotation Marks: Single vs. Double
Quotation Marks: Placement with Punctuation
Quotations Explained
Chapter 3: Readying the Lab: Brainstorming, Formulating an Argument, Outlining
Brainstorming
Arguments: Thesis statement Guidelines
Use of the First Person in Academic Writing
Your Turn: Evaluating Arguments
Outlining
Chapter 4: Conducting Experiments: Writing to Inform, Writing to Persuade, and Writing to Evaluate
Rhetoric of the Damned: The Art of Persuasion
Context, Audience, Conventions
Diction and Tone
Your Turn: Context, Audience, and Conventions
Rhetorical Strategies
Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Your Turn: The Classical Appeals
The Five A's: Allusion, Analogy, Anecdote, Assertion, Authority
Your Turn: The Five A's
Rhetorical Fallacies
Your Turn: Rhetorical Fallacies
Your Turn: The Rhetorical Analysis
Channeling Information: Writing to Inform
Experiment: The Informational Essay
Mirroring the Soul: The Personal Reflection
Experiment: The Reflective Essay
Unholy Mash-up? Synthesizing Sources
Experiment: The Synthesis
Here for An Argument
In the Beginning: Introductions
Since the Beginning of Time
Pieces of the Body: Body Paragraphs
Cherry-picking Support
Final Destination: the Conclusion
Experiment: The Argumentative Essay
Success or Failure? Writing to Evaluate
Experiment: The Evaluation
Chapter 5: The Monster Lives! ... or Does it? Revision, Retroactive Outlining, Peer Reviewing
Self Review
Final Steps...
The Perilous and Painful Process of Peer Review
Re-Vision
Retroactive Outlining
Return of the Dead: Revision in Action
Your Turn: Retroactive Outlines
Your Turn: Peer Reviewing and Outlining
Your Turn: The Error Log
Your Turn: Further Evaluation
Chapter 6: Placating Ghosts: Systems of Citing Sources to Avoid Angering the Dead ... and the Living
Plagiarism (again)
Italics vs. Quotation Marks: A Battle to the Death for the Ages
Monsters Love Asparagus (MLA formatting)
Audacious Paranormal Association (APA)
Cunning Methods of Suffering (Chicago Manual of Style)
Ouija
Chapter 7: The Great Beyond...
Your Turn: A Letter to Your Former Self
Addendum 1: Successful Experiment 1
"The Stigmatization of Mental Disorders in Psychological Thrillers" by Katelyn Miller
Addendum 2: Successful Experiment 2
"Pennywise the Dancing Clown as a Metaphor for Bullying" by Dimitri Dikhel
Addendum 3: Common Mad Scientist Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
Addendum 4: Finishing Touches
Addendum 5: A Monstrous Word Search
by "Nielsen BookData"