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Strategies for
Successful Writing
A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook
James A. Reinking Robert von der Osten Sue Ann Cairns Sixth Canadian Edition
Contents vii
Sample Student Essay Based on Personal Interview “Autoholics” by Tim Falconer 427
“Getting Schooled by My Pakistani Mother” “Go Take a Hike” by Joe Kelly 432
by Filza Ahmar 369
“Beyond Bullying” by Krissy Darch
Questionnaires and Surveys 373 and Fazeela Jiwa 435
Sample Student Questionnaire Report “Findings from “Screen Saver” by Laura Trethewey 437
a Smoking Questionnaire Distributed to
“Private Language, Public Language”
Bartram College Students” by Kelly Reetz 376
by Richard Rodriguez 439
Direct Observations 378
“The Men We Carry in Our Minds”
by Scott Russell Sanders 444
Chapter 16 Strategies for Documentation:
MLA Style 380 Convincing Others: Argument and
MLA System for Preparing Papers 382 Persuasion 448
Preparing a “Works Cited” List of Bibliographic “Going Nuclear” by Patrick Moore 448
References 382
“Ten Reasons Why New Nuclear Was a
Handling In-Text Citations 390 Mistake—Even Before Fukushima”
Citing Quotations 394 by Alexis Rowell 451
Avoiding Plagiarism 395 “The Church of Please and Thank You”
by Julie Traves 457
Chapter 17 Documenting Sources: “Fostering Multiple Identities through Teaching
APA Style 397 Cyborg Writing” by Natalie ‘Ilaheva Tua’one
Gallagher 462
APA System for Preparing Papers 397
“Community: Use It or Lose It?”
Preparing APA Bibliographic Citations for a
by Ross Gordon 468
Reference List 398
Handling In-Text Citations 408
Citing Quotations 411 PA RT F O U R HANDBOOK
Sentence Elements 481
PA RT T H R E E READER
Subjects and Predicates 481
Personal Writing: Narration and Complements 483
Illustration 413 Appositives 484
“Down Labrador” by John Gimlette 413 Parts of Speech 485
“Clearing House” by Michael Harris 416 Phrases and Clauses 503
“Why Can’t I Feel What I See?”
by Jeffrey Andreoni 420 Editing to Correct Sentence Errors 512
Revising Sentence Fragments 512
Analytical Writing: Process, Cause and Revising Fused Sentences and Comma Splices 514
Effect, Definition, Comparison, and Creating Subject–Verb Agreement 516
Classification 424 Achieving Pronoun–Antecedent Agreement 518
“Let’s Get Vertical!” by Beth Wald 424 Using Effective Pronoun Reference 520
Contents ix
The sixth Canadian edition of Strategies for Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide,
Reader, and Handbook is a versatile, all-in-one text that offers ample material for either a
full-year or a one-term composition course.
While informed by current rhetorical theory, the text engages students directly
through a clear, conversational style that invites them into the text, lessens their
apprehension about writing, and provides a model for their own prose. This style
complements our practical, student-based approach to writing.
The organization of Strategies for Successful Writing reflects a view of writing as a
process that is rarely linear. This edition emphasizes the interrelationship of critical
reading, thinking, and writing. It helps students move along a developmental continuum
as they learn, practise, and consolidate their writing skills, while also helping them gain
insight into the recursive and fluid nature of the writing process. Students learn how to
generate ideas in the early prewriting stages; how to arrange these ideas in the drafting
stage, employing rhetorical devices such as analysis, comparison, or argument; and
how to make strategic changes in the editing stage. Lively and relevant professional and
student model essays help students observe and internalize the strategies of effective
writing. Practical classroom-tested activities engage students in and give rise to
stimulating class discussions.
The Rhetoric
The Rhetoric is a streamlined 13 chapters, which may be used independently or sequen-
tially. The first five chapters are grouped together under the heading Writing Strategies:
A Writing Process. These chapters help students learn and practise writing strategies for
planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the principles
of effective writing: awareness of purpose; awareness of audience, including conven-
tions in different discourse communities; the qualities of strong writing; and ethical
concerns in writing. Chapter 2 offers strategies for active reading, including summaries
and critiques. Chapter 3 looks at strategies for prewriting, drafting, and finding a thesis.
Chapters 3 and 4 are unified by an unfolding case history that includes the first draft of
a student paper, the initial revision marked with changes, and the final version. Notes in
the margin highlight key features of the finished essay. Students can relate the sequence
of events to their own projects as they work through the various stages. Chapter 4
focuses on more global revision strategies, while Chapter 5 focuses on local revisions,
helping students to look closely at paragraphs, sentences, and words, and to think about
their editing in more subtle ways as they consider style, tone, diction, sentence rhythm,
variety, and emphasis. Sets of checklists pose key questions for students to consider.
The remaining eight chapters in the Rhetoric feature various strategies, or modes
such as illustration, cause and effect, definition, and argument that can be used to
xii P r e fac e
develop an essay. While we point out that these strategies do not usually exist in isolation
and may overlap considerably, these rhetorical modes can be considered natural ways of
organizing our thoughts and ideas. Each of these eight chapters includes a mini-reader,
which contains at least one student essay and one professional essay employing the
relevant rhetorical mode. The first essay in each strategy section is annotated in the
margin to highlight aspects of the rhetorical strategy under discussion.
The rhetorical strategies move progressively from more personal writing closer to
home to more analytical writing and eventually to more research-based, formal writing.
These strategies also move from relatively straightforward to more complex kinds of
writing, culminating with persuasion and argument. In Chapter 6, which focuses on
narration, we have provided new material, and sample student essays, including the
literacy narrative that invites students into a metacognitive reflection on their own
learning about literacy. Strategies for using illustration follow, since illustration is
commonly used to strengthen both personal and formal writing. The next three
rhetorical modes—process analysis, cause and effect, and definition—all represent types
of analytical writing. Chapters 11 and 12 introduce the organizational patterns of
comparison and classification. Finally, Chapter 13, Strategies for Convincing Others,
shows how argument often subsumes many rhetorical modes such as definition,
illustration, and analysis. Because argument is an important focus for many writing
instructors, we have included two pairs of model essays in Chapter 13, in addition to the
five argument essays in the Reader. These essays pair arguments on the politics of food
and on cultural diversity, and instructors can use them separately or together.
The Reader
The third section of the text is the Reader, organized according to broad rhetorical
categories of personal writing, analysis, and argument. Within these broader catego-
ries instructors will find examples of other rhetorical strategies, such as comparison
or definition. Instructors may also choose to approach the essays thematically (see the
Thematic Table of Contents in the Instructor’s Manual), for example by examining
different points of view on cultural identities, popular culture, or health. A brief
P r e fac e xiii
biographical note about the author precedes each selection, and stimulating ques-
tions designed to enhance student understanding of structure and strategy follow it.
In addition, a section titled Toward Key Insights poses one or more broad-based
questions prompted by the essay’s content. Answering these questions, either in dis-
cussion or in writing, can help students engage more deeply with their writing as they
gain more insight into important issues. Finally, we include one or more writing
assignments related to each essay’s topic.
The Handbook
The fourth and final section of the text is a concise grammar and mechanics handbook,
which features tab indexing on each page for easy access to all material and consists of
five parts: Sentence Elements, Editing to Correct Sentence Errors, Editing to Correct
Faulty Punctuation and Mechanics, Spelling, and Glossary of Word Usage. Explanations
avoid using unnecessary grammatical terminology and are reinforced by sets of sen-
tence exercises in the first three sections. The section Sentence Elements explains how
students can use sentence structure to improve their writing skills. We also include
connected-discourse exercises—unfolding narratives that engage and retain student
interest while they correct errors—in the sections Sentence Errors and Editing to
Correct Faulty Punctuation and Mechanics. The Spelling section presents four useful
spelling rules and an extensive list of commonly misspelled words. The Glossary of
Word Usage offers a similarly comprehensive coverage of troublesome words. Instructors
can use the Handbook either as a reference guide or as a basis for class discussion.
Supplements
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Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to reviewers for their helpful suggestions that assisted me in finding a
new shape for and perspective on this sixth Canadian edition:
Elizabeth Gooding Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Gene Homel British Columbia Institute of Technology
Rachel Mines Langara College
Jennifer Read Capilano University
Lauralynn Tomassi George Brown College
Like all textbook writers, I am indebted to many people: colleagues, reviewers, and
the outstanding team at Pearson Canada, whose editorial expertise, genial guidance,
and promotional efforts have been vital to this project. Joel Gladstone and David Le
Gallais, the acquisitions editors, provided helpful direction at the early stages of the
project. A special note of appreciation is due Rachel Stuckey, the developmental editor
who was so very responsive and efficient, even when she was travelling in Asia, shep-
herding this project from beginning to end. Thanks also to the copy editor, Susan
Broadhurst, and proofreaders Garima Khosla and Rachel Stuckey again; they worked
hard to make things consistent throughout the book; and to the Pearson marketing
team, whose efforts will help this book reach its audience. I would like to express my
appreciation to colleagues Greg Chan, Mark Cochrane, Elizabeth Gooding, Ranjini
Mendis, and Jennifer Williams, for suggestions on aspects of this text, and to
friends/colleagues Ross Gordon and Barry MacDonald for permission to use their writing.
Finally, a special salute to the students from Kwantlen Polytechnic University whose
essays and excerpts appear in this edition for the first time: Filza Ahmar, Kyle Butt,
Kimberly Florendo, Jessie Foley, Kiran Heer, Gurminder Khun Khun, Jamie Lockrey,
Alexander Mcilwain, and Sheridan Taylor for their contributions to this text; thanks
also to James Greenhalgh, whose sample research project proposal appears in the
Instructor’s Manual for this text.
Dr. Sue Ann Cairns
Part O ne
R HETORIC
Writing Strategies: A Writing Process
CHAPTER 1
Writing:
An Overview
Why write? Hasn’t the Digital Revolution made ordinary writing unnecessary? Is the
popularity of texting, online chat, email, and status updates making us, as some have
feared, less and less literate?
Actually, the younger generation is writing more, not less, than previous genera-
tions, especially outside the classroom. Most people reading this have probably written
some kind of message today—most likely a text or two at the very least. The ease of
online communication offers people more chances than ever to play with written lan-
guage. How, why, and when we write may be changing, but one thing is certain: The
need to communicate with others through writing is more vital than ever.
Writing offers very real benefits to both writers and readers:
1. It allows us to share thoughts, information, and ideas with others.
2. It gives writers time to reflect on and research what they want to communicate,
and then allows them to shape and reshape the material to their satisfaction.
3. It makes communication more precise and effective.
4. It provides a permanent record of thoughts, actions, and decisions.
5. It saves the reader time: We absorb information more swiftly when we read it
than when we hear it.
Many people will expect you to write for them. Instructors ask you to write reports,
summaries, reflective pieces, critiques, research papers, and essay exams. If you’re
2 Pa rt O n e R h e to r i c
looking for a job, you’ll need to write resumés and cover letters. And once you’re hired,
writing will probably figure in your job duties. You might be asked to discuss the capa-
bilities of new computer equipment, report on a conference you attended, or write a
progress report on a client with whom you have worked. The ability to write will help
you earn better grades, land the job you want, and advance in your career.
Writing also yields personal benefits. Sometimes people find that private writing, as
in a journal, can help them sort out their emotions and achieve greater clarity about
their decisions. At university, taking notes in class or writing summaries of lecture mate-
rial can help you understand, remember, and integrate information. Informal, explora-
tory writing can help you uncover ideas you didn’t know you had. In your personal life,
writing can bring social and even financial benefits. You might have to write a tactful
letter of apology to mend a broken relationship. Or you might need to defend a reim-
bursement claim you filed with your dental insurer or document a request to replace a
faulty product. Being comfortable with these different writing challenges will help you to
be more effective in the world.
Although we may write for ourselves in order to explore ideas, to make knowledge
our own, or to communicate privately with our inner selves, we usually write in response
to situations that involve other people. When we write, we adapt our tone, style, and
message to the situation or environment in which we are writing. We follow different
writing conventions when writing journal entries, texts to our friends, emails, status
updates, policy briefs, memos, letters of reference, reflective critiques, and formal
research-based essays. To write effectively in different social, business, or academic
contexts, we need to be aware that readers have different expectations and values in
different situations. If we are dashing off a text message to a friend, we might leave out
commas and periods, partly to save time but also because using complete sentences
might seem overly formal in that casual situation. However, before we submit an
academic essay to be graded, we would be wise to check our punctuation very carefully.
Purpose in Writing
Whenever you write, a clear purpose should guide your efforts. If you don’t know why
you’re writing, neither will your reader. Writing simply to fulfill an assignment doesn’t
qualify as a real writing purpose. Faced with a looming deadline for a research paper
or report, you may tell yourself, “I’m doing this because I have to.” However, an
authentic purpose requires you to answer this question: What do I want this piece of
writing to do for both my reader and me? As you might expect, purpose grows out of
the writing situation.
Here are four general writing purposes. Remember that a single piece of writing may
have more than one purpose.
To Persuade You probably have strong views on many issues, and these feelings
may sometimes impel you to try to sway your reader’s views. You might write a letter to
a newspaper editor about the need for more bicycle lanes in your community. Or,
alarmed by a sharp jump in provincial unemployment, you might write to your member
of provincial Parliament or member of the legislative assembly and argue for a youth
employment program.
To Express Yourself Expressive writing includes personal essays, fiction, plays, and
poetry as well as journals and diaries. Self-expression has a place in other kinds of writ-
ing, too. Almost everything you write offers you a chance to enjoy playing with words
and to use fresh turns of phrase to enliven your prose.
Besides having one or more general purposes, each writing project has its own spe-
cific purpose. Consider the different papers you could write about Canada’s refugee
policy. You could explain how the process works, compare and contrast it with the U.S.
policy, or argue why and how it should be reformed.
Having a specific purpose assists you at every stage of the writing process. It helps
you define your audience; select the details, language, and approach that best suit the
needs of the people who will read your writing. The following example from the Internet
has a clear and specific purpose.
Marianne Halavage
6 But for my hearing’s sake in the future, I will. I’m 28, long out of teeniedom, so no
doubt some damage has been done. But I will, from now on, keep the volume on my
iPod at an ear-friendly level, as the experts advise:
“The message is, we’ve got to stop what we are doing,” said Dr. Tommie Robinson Jr., president of the
American Speech-Language-Hearing Assn. “We have to step back and say: OK, turn down the volume
on iPods and earbuds and MP3 players. Wear ear protection at rock concerts or when you are exposed to
loud noises for long periods of time,” like when using a lawn mower.
7 Um, not so sure that many teens will take to wearing ear protection at concerts.
They’d probably rather lose their hearing than have their pals laugh at them for looking
a bit naff in it.
8 But, no ear protection now, hearing aid later . . .
9 Suddenly ear protection never sounded so good.
Imagine people so glued to their computers that they forget to eat or sleep
and even miss work. It is like a strange version of a zombie movie. What could
have eaten their brains? Video games can be addictive as players struggle to
get to the next level. Still, this negative effect is exaggerated. But there are a
number of qualities that make a video game player want to keep coming back
to the game and any good game designer needs to know those qualities.
Is the essay for game addicts to get them to quit, is it meant to entertain, or is it
s erious recommendation for game designers? Once the writer decides on a purpose, the
paragraph can be focused.
The stereotype of gamers is that they are so glued to their computers that
they forget to eat, sleep, or work. While this is a gross exaggeration, game
designers do want their players to be hooked on their games. There are in fact
many qualities that make video players want to keep returning to a favorite
game, and any good game designer needs to know those qualities.
an essay that argues for more strict enforcement of local fishing regulations might be
directed to a general educated audience such as an English professor, but also could
address fellow recreational fishers and perhaps a wider audience of the public.
Since the ultimate purpose of all writing is to have an effect on a reader or readers,
purpose and audience are closely linked. Whether you are writing to inform someone of
something, to persuade someone to believe or do something, to express feelings or insights
to someone, or to entertain someone, you will write better if you know or can at least imag-
ine a particular someone as the audience for your writing.
In any kind of writing you do, you can’t assume that the reader is able to read your
mind and understand what you really meant to say. It is important to recognize that
writing, even texting, is very different from face-to-face conversations.
In face-to-face conversations, you can observe your listeners’ reactions and instantly
respond to signs of confusion, boredom, or anger. You can clarify your meaning by offer-
ing examples. You can alter your tone, ask a question, or even change the subject. You
can use gestures and facial expressions to emphasize your main points. When you write,
however, the words on the page are all that carry your meaning. Once written or sent into
cyberspace, your written work is on its own, even if the tone is wrong and the message is
garbled or incomplete. Readers will not charitably fill in gaps in meaning and you will
not be there to explain what you really meant. Of course, when you write to friends or
others you know well, you may be able to anticipate how they might respond to what you
say, but when you write for people you know only casually or not at all—such as employ-
ers, customers, or the general public—you need to assess your audience before starting to
write. What do they already know? What do they need to know? How can you appeal to
their interests? The more you understand your readers’ assumptions, expectations, needs,
and desires, the more you can tailor your writing to their needs and interests.
One way to assess your readers is to develop an audience profile. This profile
emerges gradually as you answer the following questions:
1. What are the educational level, approximate age, and cultural outlook of the
audience I want to reach?
2. Why will this audience read my writing? To gain information? Learn my views
on a controversial issue? Enjoy my creative flair? Be entertained?
3. What attitudes, needs, and expectations do they have?
4. How are they likely to respond to what I say? Can I expect them to be neutral?
Opposed? Friendly?
5. How much do they know about my topic? Do they need certain background
information to follow my argument? (Your answer here will help you gauge
whether you’re saying too little or too much.)
6. What kind of language and tone will reach them most effectively?
6 Pa rt O n e R h e to r i c
Discourse Communities
In university, as at work, people often write as members of specific communities that
have their own conventions, values, shared assumptions, and background knowledge.
This shared understanding affects how they write. For example, professional and schol-
arly writing often begins with a section linking the content to previous research projects
and articles that will be of interest to that specialized community of study. Environmental
biologists with similar interests engaged in dialogue about policies related to climate
change in the Arctic can safely assume that their audience is familiar with current
research findings. In specialized discourse communities, custom often dictates what
information must be included, what pattern of organization should be used, and what
style the paper should follow. In formal academic writing, documentation of sources
follows different conventions in the humanities (such as English) than in the social sci-
ences (such as psychology).
In addition, different academic disciplines and discourse communities may empha-
size different writing structures and forms. In a marketing class, you might be asked to
do a case study; in a communications class, you might be asked for a technical report
and PowerPoint presentation; and in an economics class, you might be asked to analyze
an economic problem and explore a hypothetical solution to the problem. A chemistry
instructor might expect you to write a lab report in such a way that someone with your
background could repeat the experiment exactly as you did. In a literature class, an
instructor will probably be more interested in your in-depth analysis or interpretation of
a story than in an accurate recounting of the plot. So, throughout your studies you will
discover that learning to write well means becoming familiar with the values and con-
ventions of different discourse communities. To do this, you need to read carefully in a
particular field, acquainting yourself with its current issues and concerns and learning
how to write about them. Ask yourself these questions as you start reading in any profes-
sional area:
1. What are the major concerns and questions in this discourse community?
2. What seems to be common knowledge?
3. To what works do writers regularly refer?
4. How do those in the field go about answering questions?
5. What methods do they follow?
6. Which kinds of knowledge are acceptable? Which are not?
7. What values seem to guide the discourse community?
8. What kinds of information must writers include in papers?
9. How are different writing projects organized?
10. What conventions do writers follow?
Of course, we all belong to many different communities, but the more comfortably
you can move from one discourse community to another, the more you will be in a
C H A P T E R 1 W r i t i n g : A n O v e rv i e w 7
osition to exert influence in your world. At university, as you gain familiarity with the
p
language, conventions, and expectations of different academic audiences such as psy-
chology, philosophy, or marketing, you will find it gets easier to write papers for these
different discourse communities.
Exercise The three excerpts below deal with the same subject—antigens—but each explanation
is geared to a different audience. Read the passages carefully; then answer the following questions:
1. The human body is quick to recognize foreign chemicals that enter it. “Foes” must be
attacked or otherwise got rid of. The most common of these foes are chemical materials
from viruses, bacteria, and other microscopic organisms. Such chemicals, when recog-
nized by the body, are called antigens. To combat them, the body produces its own chem-
icals, protein molecules called antibodies. Each kind of antigen causes the production of a
specific kind of antibody. Antibodies appear in the body fluids such as blood and lymph
and in the body’s cells.
L.D. Hamilton, “Antibodies and Antigens,” The New Book of Knowledge
2. [An] antigen [is a] foreign substance that, when introduced into the body, is capable of
inducing the formation of antibodies and of reacting specifically in a detectable
manner with the induced antibodies. For each antigen there is a specific antibody, the
physical and chemical structure of which is produced in response to the physical and
chemical structure of the antigen. Antigens comprise virtually all proteins that are
foreign to the host, including those contained in bacteria, viruses, protozoa, helminths,
foods, snake venoms, egg white, serum components, red blood cells, and other cells and
tissues of various species, including man. Polysaccharides and lipids may also act as
antigens when coupled to proteins.
“Antigen,” Encyclopaedia Britannica
3. The substance which stimulates the body to produce antibodies is designated antigen
(antibody stimulator). . . .
Most complete antigens are protein molecules containing aromatic amino acids,
and are large in molecular weight and size. . . . Other macromolecules, such as pure
polysaccharides, polynucleotides, and lipids, may serve as complete antigens.
However, certain other materials, incapable of stimulating antibody formation by
themselves can, in association with a protein or other carrier, stimulate antibody
formation and are the antigenic determinants. . . . Referred to as incomplete antigens or
haptens, . . . they are able to react with antibodies. . . .
However, before an antigen can stimulate the production of antibodies, it must
be soluble in the body fluids, must reach certain tissues in an unaltered form, and
must be, in general, foreign to the body tissues. Protein taken by mouth . . . reaches
the tissues of the body as amino acids [and] no longer meets the requirements for
antigenic behavior.
Orville Wyss and Curtis Eklund, Microorganisms and Man
8 Pa rt O n e R h e to r i c
Email While in school, you will email faculty and advisers. Email has the advantage
of giving both you and your reader a written record of the exchange. If you ask a fac-
ulty member for permission to vary an assignment, it might be better to ask using an
email, as a face-to-face conversation will soon fade from people’s memories. An email
provides you with a written record of your request and, hopefully, the permission
you received.
Even though emails are usually informal, you should still be as clear as possible
when writing them. The following email to a professor is clearly too informal and
incomplete. It also establishes the wrong tone.
C H A P T E R 1 W r i t i n g : A n O v e rv i e w 9
Hey Prof
Sorry missed class. Car trouble. I’ll turn my assignment in Monday when I see
u, OK.
Thanks tons.
Who is writing the message? Was the car trouble sufficient for an extension on the
assignment? Is the person simply using the car trouble to stall for extra time? Why didn’t
she jump the car or get a ride to campus? The informal tone makes it seem that the
student does not take the class or the professor seriously.
A more formal communication sensitive to both the situation and the audience
would be received much better.
This more complete email recognizes the relative formality of the situation, uses an
appropriate form of address, provides a clearer explanation, indicates a serious attitude
about the work in question, takes clear steps to meet the demands of the situation, and
clearly identifies the writer in a way that recognizes the reader may have many classes
and students.
Your email, like all writing, should be appropriate to the situation and the
audience. An email in response to a formal situation or sent to an important audi-
ence should be appropriately serious and respectful. Since you and your readers are
busy, try to write clearly and completely so that follow-up exchanges are unneces-
sary. Use a subject line that clearly identifies what the email is about. Avoid abbre-
viations, slang, emoticons, or other informal devices except with close friends.
Be sure to clearly identify who you are, your position, and why you are writing;
not all email addresses clearly identify the writer. Most important, remember that
your email can be forwarded to other readers, so make sure your messages reflect
well on you.
10 Pa rt O n e R h e to r i c
Exercise Below are sample emails sent by students either to an instructor or an adviser. In each
case, point out the problem with the email and explain how it could be written to be more effective for the
audience.
Text Messaging Text messaging has some dangers. It is easy to respond too quickly
to a question and to strike the wrong note. Because messages are necessarily short, they
can often lack necessary information or context. Since people text from their phones, it
is easy to be excessively informal or make careless mistakes in spelling or grammar. Even
if you are in the habit of sending unedited text messages to your friends, you should be
aware that sloppiness in grammar and spelling will create a negative impression in less
casual situations where you might be judged.
As with all writing, you should know your audience. If you are writing to your
BFF, you can LOL . If you are writing to someone you don’t know well or with
whom you have a professional relationship, however, avoid abbreviations and symbols
and be as clear and concise as you can while still providing any necessary reminders
or cues the reader might need. The short text message “Go ahead with 3 copies to
Halifax” will be confusing unless the context is clear. Even if something is on the top
of your mind, the receiver of your text may be too busy or distracted to recall what
you talked about last week, so you may need to be more complete. “Please send 3 cop-
ies each of the editions of FemSpec from 4.1 to 10.2 to our address at 245 Milsom St.,
Halifax, NS B3N 2C2.”
Twitter There are some fields, such as media studies or business, where you may be
required to follow the Twitter feed for an industry or area. Twitter is simply a system for
sending short messages of 140 characters maximum. Most tweets are not very conse-
quential. However, if you are writing or responding to a tweet, the goal is to have an
interesting message in very few words, and you will need to assume some context.
Writing tweets, like writing telegrams in the previous century and even before, can pro-
vide practice in distilling words and characters to their absolute essence.
Exercise Rewrite the following messages so that they would be suitable as a tweet.
1. Katherine Briggs has done it again and in River Marked produced another compelling
Mercy Thompson story with magic, mystery, and romance. She is on her honeymoon
with husband, a werewolf, but their getaway doesn’t last long as she ends up in a
battle for her life with a river monster that threatens humankind. (Create a tweet for
Katherine Briggs fans.)
C H A P T E R 1 W r i t i n g : A n O v e rv i e w 11
2. This semester our online registration system will allow interested students to sign up
for two semesters instead of just one, locking in their schedule for not just the fall but
also the spring semester. Students are not required to schedule the second semester.
If they do so, they will have to do an online drop and add process to change schedules.
However, students who do not register for two semesters may find the classes they
want closed for the spring semester. (Create a tweet that could go to students.)
Blogs The term blog, one that blends the two words web and log, is a web-based
record of a writer’s personal ideas, opinions, observations, interests, and experiences,
often including hyperlinks to other sites. Many learning platforms allow you to blog
so you can share your ideas with your class. Some teachers have students create
blogs using an easy blog-based program such as WordPress or Blogger. Blogs allow
you to share an enthusiasm, and you can incorporate images or video files to draw
people’s interest. Since bloggers have to compete with busy Internet traffic, you
need to grab a reader’s attention quickly and use vivid, economical language to say
something interesting.
Web Pages Having your own website or web page, a kind of online portrait, can
help you in your job hunt and also help you network with others who might have similar
interests. More and more students applying for jobs provide an address for their web
page on their resumé or even use a web page as a resumé. A web page allows you to post
more information about your experience, show samples of your work, and shape the
professional impression you want to make. Employers often look for the websites of
applicants, not only to get more information about a job candidate, but also to find out
whether the prospective employee has initiative and necessary skills. In many careers,
writing for a web page can be a regular responsibility. A nurse might write for a hospital
web page on standard post-operative care. An engineer may write technical information
about the company’s product line. To help you prepare for your web-based future, a
number of university courses have students work on a web-based project.
Web pages need to be attractive, easy to use, and appealing to multiple audiences.
Clarity and conciseness are vital; if you need to provide more in-depth information, you
can insert hyperlinks to additional material. You also want to make it as easy as possible
for the reader to understand and process information. When appropriate, use headings,
subheadings, and bullet points to guide your reader’s attention, as well as pictures or
other visuals that illustrate your point and make your site stand out. Of course, as a
public document that helps you establish an online presence, your web page should be
free of grammatical and spelling mistakes.
Graphics and Text Many writers incorporate graphics, charts, and images along with
text. As a student, you may have used graphics such as pictures, charts, or diagrams in your
PowerPoint or other kinds of presentations; such graphics can sometimes be combined
with text to enliven a piece of writing, to show patterns and relationships, and to add cred-
ibility. If you do use graphics in your communication, keep in mind a few key points:
1. The images need to clearly make the point or support the point.
2. The writing needs to be very clear and concise, with precise vocabulary.
3. The graphics need to fit the available space without overrunning the text.
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TABLE DES MATIÈRES
Aux Lecteurs 1
Le simulacre du suffrage universel 3
Dégradée civique-née 7
La femme dans la Commune 12
Voix données aux femmes 16
Les femmes dans l’Etat 22
Les femmes et le budget 27
L’éducation politique des français 34
Le vote des femmes célibataires 40
Vous n’êtes pas militaires! 48
Vous êtes cléricales! 55
La religion laïque 59
Les femmes ont voté en France 65
La loi salique 68
Les prérogatives des femmes en l’ancienne
France 70
Revendication des femmes en 1789 77
Après la Révolution 89
Les suffragistes en 1848 93
Jean Macé féministe suffragiste 97
Les femmes qui agissent et qui écrivent 99
Journaux et sociétés féministes 115
Etats ou les femmes exercent leurs droits
politiques 119
L’inscription sur les listes électorales 124
Le prix d’un vote de femme 131
Le bluff électoral 132
Refus de l’impôt 136
Pourvoi devant le Conseil de préfecture 144
Pourvoi devant le Conseil d’Etat 148
L’arrêt du Conseil d’Etat 152
Le droit pour les femmes de pétitionner 156
Un sexe est-il supérieur à l’autre? 185
Madame Curie et sa découverte 190
La réforme primordiale 192
Les femmes sont les nègres 196
Les frustrées du Bulletin 199
Le forçage des idées 207
Instauratrices de bien-être 210
L’universalisation du suffrage 216
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