Composing a Civic Life: A Rhetoric and Readings for Inquiry and Action (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Michael D. Berndt (Author), Amy M. Muse (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321413598 | ISBN-13: 978-0321413598 | Publication Date: April 9, 2006 | Edition: 2

Composing A Civic Life promotes informed, active citizenship by encouraging the reader to write as a means of inquiry and civic participation.

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This rhetoric/reader promotes informed, active citizenship by encouraging students to write as a means of inquiry and civic participation. Promoting the “examined life” as an ideal that brings inquiry and action together, this new text addresses the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills that are central to both academic success and democratic participation. Students write to reflect on their experiences, put forward their views to academic and public audiences, shape library and field research, and go under other people's arguments, seeking to understand the values and beliefs that define differences of opinion and working towards negotiation and positive social action. The readings chapters explore common communities like family, campus, country, faith–based, planetary, and virtual. Individuals who want are interested in citizenship, community, and writing as social action. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Longman; 2 edition (April 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321413598
• ISBN-13: 978-0321413598
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars difficult to detect some types of cheating, July 8, 2007

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This review is from: Composing a Civic Life: A Rhetoric and Readings for Inquiry and Action (Paperback)

There is a fascinating chapter worth perusing for the university reader. It talks about cheating in American universities. Apparently, many lecturers see or suspect this in papers turned in by their students. But there is little reward in the typical college apparatus for a lecturer putting in much effort into proving that a paper was bogus.

One positive countermeasure is discussed. The anti-plagiarism search engine websites, that have arisen to combat the scourge of paid-for essays. But the chapter points out serious flaws in these websites' techniques. The matching of an essay against a website's databases is often brittle. An all or nothing comparison that can be easily defeated by some trivial, minimal rewriting of a few sentences.

Also, the websites are unlikely to have in their databases high quality [and high cost] essays. Or custom essays that are sold to only one buyer.

Another response has been a trend towards closed book, proctored exams. As opposed to weekly take home essay assignments. One problem is that exams can be far more stressful to some students, compared to writing essays. And that each type of assessment tests different abilities.

The above is scarcely peculiar to American universities. A global problem. But the chapter also describes a variant probably confined mostly to the US. Where some students are on athletic scholarships, but could be weak academically. The chapter cites notorious incidents where tutors working for a university would write papers for those athletes, who then turned these in as their own.