Customer Reviews

Writing Analytically

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the few rhetoric's that deals exclusively with how to think and write analytically. It is very methodical and it gives younger students concrete tools that they can use. It helps students break away from boring, static 5-paragraph themes that state the painfully obvious.

I use the book as the only textbook in a college-level Rhetoric and Writing class. The book is honestly a revelation for most of my students, and it improves their writing and thinking exponentially.

The book does suffer from tone problems, and it is occasionally condescending. It does indeed relate to the reader as a teen/novice, but then again that is who the book is for. It is also not the book for those who need help with style, basic clarity or grammar. Writing Analytically is intended for just that: learning the craft of academic analysis.

I highly recommend it for any instructor who is struggling to help their students learn to think critically.

And let me say that it helped me a lot. My writing got better, and, more importantly, my reading comprehension got better. The "try this" exercises bring out the AWESOMENESS in you... as do the end of the chapter exercises. Not buying this book would be a mistake.

I teach composition at a mid-sized Catholic university in the mid-Atlantic region, and this book has improved my students' writing by leaps and bounds in only a month. The topics are ordered in a way that makes more sense than many composition textbooks; Rosenwasser and Stephen start with reading strategies, and only get to the nuts and bolts of writing after laying out the steps for critical analysis. In other words, THINKING comes before WRITING - as it should. The examples drawn from student papers are very helpful, and the "Try This" exercises provide excellent and meaningful practice (my students grumble a bit about having to do all of them, but I can see the results in the vastly improved work that they turn in).

As a seasoned engineer who dreaded english classes in college, but now enjoys writing enough to take a course in the subject, this book presented a digestable approach for writing analytically and thoughtfully. Though some might criticize the authors for trying to package writing into simple steps and methods, I disagree that his approach talks down to the audience. As an engineer, I appreciate that most any formidable task, like writing a coherent paper, can be broken down into smaller tasks that are easier to accomplish and understand, if presented correctly. Writing doesn't come easy for me, and the methods presented here were not trivial, but thought provoking. I can't say if this book would help those writing fiction, I believe it would, but for the non-fiction I wrote, this book was very worthwhile.

The book writes in the style that captures students' attention; not the usual style of textbooks, which is a huge plus! Only read the chapters that were assigned, but the book contains lots of god tips.

This book has been central to the development of my practice as an instructor of English composition for mostly beginning college students. The authors offer an array of skills, concepts, and practical exercises for building skills to write thoughtfully about complex subjects and to analyze texts. I have rarely assigned the book itself to students -- it's a ton of stuff to read and digest, more than they can usually take in -- but it's been incredibly helpful to me in fostering the growth of real skills and the development of complexity in writing and critical thinking. This is an essential book for writing instructors who are starting out, or want to add to their bag of tricks, and an excellent resource for students who are serious about writing well in an academic context.

Rosenwasser and Stephen demonstrate that knowing how to write is knowing how to think. This is a resource I used throughout college and still use today.

Thanks so much for this book. I couldn't afford it new, and I don't have a lot of money, and the price was perfect. Thank you!

The book is not in perfect condition, but is used and accurately described by the seller.

This book is great for improving writing skills, because it teaches you how to actually observe instead of skimming over a subject. This art is lost on a lot of people now. There are very palatable sections with lots of great hints and reading material to test out their advice on.