Strategic Writing

AIMS OF THE CHAPTER

This chapter introduces a rhetorical approach to college writing. Rhetoric is
the study of effective communication in specific situations. A rhetorical ap­
proach emphasizes that writing is a way of acting in situations. In college,
most of your activity is communicative; you learn by listening and talking,
by reading and writing. Becoming more skillful in these activities will help
you become more involved and give your efforts more personal meaning.
The concepts presented in this and the next chapter should help you de­
velop terms to describe the rhetorical situations in which you find yourself
and the goals you may wish to accomplish in those situations.

KEY POINTS
1. Writing is rhetorical: an action you take when you participate in a spe­
cific situation.
2. Rhetoric has its origins in the classical world, but two cultural changes
since then affect your current rhetorical situation in college:
• The rise of schooling and literacy
• The specialization of knowledge and professions
3. In school and life we learn many strategies of minimizing our own feel­
ings to please others. However, your success as a writer in college and
elsewhere depends on your overcoming these strategies of disengage­
ment so that you become more involved in your activities.
4. Involvement comes from finding out what is important to you and then
acting on what you have found.
Part One Writing Your Self into College 3

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

• How is writing different in different situations? How might college
writing differ from the writing you did in high school? How do the
goals differ? How do the styles differ?
• When have you felt most involved in learning? When have you felt
least involved? Has the chance to discuss and write about what you are
learning and thinking made a difference in how involved you feel?
• What do you hope to get out of your education? What does writing
have to do with accomplishing those goals?

©AJ A First-Day Assignment

On the first day in writing courses, students are often asked to write some
variation of the following assignment. You might take fifteen minutes and
try it.
Write a paragraph introducing yourself to your instructor and
your classmates. Tell about your previous experience in this subject,
what you enjoy doing in school and out, what concerns you, and
what your ambitions and goals are.
Although you know many things about yourself, this may not be an easy as­
signment to write. It raises questions about which you have little information
on the first day of the term, perhaps even on your first day of college classes.
Who are the people you are writing to? How will these strangers respond to
what you write? What will this class be like? What will college be like? What
impression will people get from your writing? What impression would you
like to give in this class? What role and identity would you like to establish
in college? This assignment asks to give a picture of yourself, but until you
know more about the situation, you may not feel at all sure about what kind
of picture you want to draw. So writing this assignment is not just a matter of
simple description but rather a matter of self-presentation in a social situa­
tion.
One way to handle this assignment is to take no risks and just remain
friendly.
Hi. I'm Bill Stanley, an eighteen-year-old freshman at State Uni­
versity. I graduated last year from Franklin Roosevelt High School,
where I most enjoyed my courses in math and science. I also played
trombone in band. I have always gotten good grades in English, al­
though I find writing difficult. Teachers tell me I ought to be more
descriptive, but I say why waste words once you get your idea
across. I hope to major in biology and go on to medical school.
4 Chapter One Strategic Writing

This does what is asked, gives some details, and leaves Bill Stanley's op­
tions open. But it does not announce that Bill will be an enthusiastic and
memorable participant in this course. In order to take a more emphatic place
in the class, another student might take a more challenging stance, but still
give no important facts.
Yes, here I am. Writing again. In another English class. Telling
you who I am. I love writing, but I sure am tired of this assignment.
Sure I came from some high school. Sure I like some subjects, and
didn't like others. I got good enough grades to get into college, so I
could do the work. But this isn't what is important about me. What
is important is that I am looking - looking for new ideas, looking
for a style. I listen to music that's at the edge, I read stuff you'll
never find in school, I live in cyberia. Will I find what I am looking
for here or will this be just one more dull English class?
Rachel "Razzti" Rasmussen
Do you think either of these responses gives a full or revealing picture of the
students who write them? What kind of response do you think might start
someone off well in an unknown situation? Are there any things about the
situation that might help you decide how to represent yourself?
There is no right or wrong way to handle this assignment, but any way
you choose starts to establish your identity in the conversations, written and
spoken, that will take place in the class throughout the term. What makes
this assignment difficult and makes any response likely to look a little bit
foolish is that the conversation hasn't yet taken place, so you are writing as
part of a relationship that is only beginning. This is as tough as introducing
yourself to a stranger at a party.
Writing for people you don't know in a situation you don't understand
is the hardest writing to do. Every time you learn more about a situation and
the people you are writing to, you understand better what you want to ac­
complish, what you want to say, and what will work. Writing is not an ab­
stract skill that is always the same; it is strategic communication to fit the
circumstances. How can you know your strategy until you know the circum­
stances?

� Writing as Rhetoric
Each of you making it to a college classroom has succeeded in many situa­
tions where you have needed to write. You wrote well enough to complete
the tasks required of you. Even more, you expressed yourself, your knowl­
edge, and your ideas in ways that helped you develop and interact with oth­
ers. You wrote in high school for your teachers, in letters to your friends, on
shopping lists to take with you to the store, or in diaries to yourself. You
found ways of getting by, meeting your needs in each of those situations -
sometimes spectacularly, sometimes just adequately. But you did find a way.
Part One Writing Your Self into College 5

Why then must you study writing one more time? Why does learning to
write never end? Why isn't it enough to say, "Now I know how to write, and
I'm done with it"?
Learning to write never ends because you keep encountering new kinds
of situations. Whereas in high school you may have used materials from
your American history textbook to write an exam question about Lincoln's
actions in the Civil War, in college you may be asked to argue, using evidence
from personal letters, that Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation for
political motives rather than as an act of moral leadership. If you then be­
come a publishing historian, you may argue in a book that Lincoln was more
a politician than a statesman. These examples are all just within one field of
history. Legal briefs or management reports or chemistry research articles
will be done for totally different situations requiring different skills, re­
sources, and motives. As situations change, so must writing; in other words,
writing is rhetorical. Writing must speak to each situation, to the particular
local circumstances, to be successful.
Abraham Lincoln's 1858
debates with Stephen
Douglas spoke to the
politically and morally
charged atmosphere in Image removed for copyright reasons.
the United States just
before the Civil War.
 6 Chapter One Strategic Writing

-ngfor This is the first of a series of Writing for Reflection assignments that ap­
pear throughout the textbook. These assignments are intended as infor­
Reflection mal ways to think through your own experience of writing and learning
in relation to the ideas presented in this book. They need not be formal
essays. Here is the first assignment:
To gain a clearer picture of your writing experiences before coming to
college, describe in a few paragraphs the various kinds of writing you
have had to do in school and out. In each case describe the situation you
wrote for (for example, at the end of a term in a world history class, for a
community newspaper, or as part of a political campaign), the kind of
writing you did (for example, a biography of a writer, a sports news
story, or a sales brochure), and how that kind of writing fulfilled the
needs, demands, or opportunities of the circumstances.

Rhetorical Situations
As the preceding discussion has made clear, rhetoric is the practical art of
making successful statements in specific situations. If the purpose of com­
munication is to interact with others - to influence, to cooperate with, to op­
pose, to control, to comply with, to negotiate - then you have a greater
chance of success if you think about the following points:
• What the situation is
• Who you are communicating with
• What you want to happen
• What ways you might achieve that end
How can we use language in purposeful, practical ways to achieve our
goals? That question is the heart of rhetoric.
Successful communication varies from person to person and situation to
situation. There is no simple, single "good rhetoric," no one way to write.
You must always think about the specifics of the situation: what you want to
accomplish, with whom, and through what available means.
In college you will find yourself writing in a variety of new situations,
and you will need to think through how you want to respond to them. That
is, you will need to develop a "rhetoric for college" - a way of thinking
about your writing for the next few years that will help you get what you
want out of college and also satisfy the writing demands college places upon
you. At other points in your life you may need to develop a rhetoric for your
profession, a rhetoric for sales, a rhetoric for managing people, a rhetoric for
city politics, a rhetoric for talking to your children, or a rhetoric for talking to
your loved one. Right now, however, your most pressing need is likely to be
a rhetoric for college writing.
 Part One Writing Your Self into College 7

'fU;ngfor Make a list of the kinds of situations where people have to speak or write

Reflection
to carry out their part in an activity, such as chatting as part of a pleasant
dinner with friends, making a statement at a public meeting, filling out a
form to apply for a job, or writing a letter to publicize the work of your
organization. T hen in a few phrases for each, characterize how people
might use language in each situation and what strategies might be suc­
cessful. For example, at a dinner people might try to be pleasant and hu­
morous while sharing stories about themselves and mutual friends.

The Origins of Rhetoric

Many societies around the world have recognized that how people use lan­
guage is related to who they become, how they are viewed, and what they
accomplish. Traditional sayings in many cultures offer advice about how to
speak in public and private. Hindi traditional lore, for example, counsels,
"Write like the learned; speak like the masses." Thai wisdom advises, "To
speak well one must reflect, and to hit the mark one must aim." Turkish lore,
however, warns that people are not always happy when you tell them the
truth: "He that speaks the truth must have his foot in the stirrup."
As literacy developed in various cultures, treatises on education often in­
cluded language education as an important part of the training of leaders.
For example, the Chinese scholar Liu Xie wrote "The Cultivating of the Mind
and the Carving of the Dragon" (Wen Xin Diao Long- literally, "pattern
mind carve dragon") around 500 A.D. To become a dragon - that is, a wise
and powerful leader - one needs to carve out a patterned mind by learning
how to use the written language. (For more information, see H. Zhao,
"Rhetorical Invention in Wen Xin Diao Long," Rhetoric Society Quarterly 24
(1994), pp. 1-15.)
Ancient Greece and Rome developed an extensive and organized body
of thought about how to communicate successfully and how to help people
represent their interests within the new political institutions of democracy
and republic. Since reading and writing were not widespread in this period,
even among the elite class of citizens, rhetoric first developed in relation to
public speaking.
In public speeches, people accused of crimes needed to defend them­
selves; members of the consul needed to persuade others of their proposed
policies and laws; and people needed to be brought together with common
beliefs and values. These three forms of talk, all having their origins in the
agora - or marketplace where citizens came to meet and talk - were tasks
of argument and persuasion. Most of classical rhetoric's concepts and guide­
lines are especially applicable to the forums of democratic government. To­
day, our courts, legislatures, and politics are similar to, and even patterned
after, classical models. It is no accident that courthouses, legislatures, and
governor's mansions look like Greek and Roman buildings.
8 Chapter One Strategic Writing

The speeches of Image removed for copyright reasons.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.E.) were a
powerful influence on
the Roman Senate and
public.

To highlight some of the most useful concepts that have developed in the
rhetorical tradition, throughout this book there will appear definitions and
explanations of key rhetorical terms in places where they are most relevant to
the topic or activity being discussed (see the list below). The last chapter in
the book on argument will draw together many of these concepts.

� USEFUL CONCEPTS FROM RHETORIC

The types of rhetoric 9

Decorum 13
Dramatism 29
Rhetorical situation and rhetorical timing 42
Sentence combining 130
Key question words 136
Part One Writing Your Self into College 9

Genre 209
Intertextuality 231
The three moves in research article introductions 269
Stasis, where disagreements meet 302
Logos, ethos, and pathos 346
Identification 349
Common Places 354

@/C) USEFUL CONCEPTS FROM RHETORIC

The Types of Rhetoric

C lassical rhetoric was developed to help in three kinds of public

speech situations common in the classical world, all of which still
continue in the modern world.
Courtroom or forensic rhetoric - the strategic use of language to accuse
or defend a person concerning misdeeds or crimes. It is practiced to-
day in court cases.
Legislative or deliberative rhetoric - the strategic use of language to
persuade people to take particular actions or adopt particular laws. It
is practiced today in legislatures, editorials, and debates.
Political or epideictic rhetoric - the strategic use of language to praise
and blame people in order to encourage and discourage behaviors
and beliefs or to reinforce values in the community. It is practiced to-
day in sermons and political rallies.

for To explore how well the three traditional categories of rhetoric - foren-
sic, deliberative, and epideictic- cover the range of public and personal
Reflection speaking and writing today, identify one place where people communi-
cate frequently (such as a classroom, a coffee shop, a church or temple, an
office, a newspaper, or a talk radio channel). Either from memory or by
revisiting the location, make a list of the different kinds of messages peo-
ple present. Then develop categories for the different kinds of language
used. Do the three categories of traditional rhetoric fit, or do you need to
develop other categories? Describe your findings in a few paragraphs.
Then in a class discussion compare your findings and thoughts about the
location you examined to the findings and thoughts of other class mem-
bers who examined different locations.
10 Chapter One Strategic Writing

Courtroom lawyers Image removed for copyright reasons.

engage in forensic
rhetoric as they argue
for the guilt or
innocence of the
accused. Here Johnny
Cochran argues for the
innocence of O.J.
Simpson.

©/CJ Rhetoric in a Changing World: Literacy,

Specialization, and Technology
Although aspects of modern American life are deeply influenced by Greek
and Roman models, life today has also changed from classical times. Thus al­
though we may find that many concepts of traditional rhetoric help us un­
derstand contemporary situations, we also need new concepts to fit our new
ways of communicating. One major change especially relevant to college is
the rise of literacy. Reading and writing have joined listening and speaking
as major forms of communication. Today, although talk certainly takes place
at all levels of education, much of schooling is defined by the books you read
and the papers and tests you write.
Whereas the spoken word tends to be more personal, the written word
can travel through time and space and can be multiplied in many copies, in­
fluencing more people over a greater distance in a more enduring way. For
these reasons, the written language has become central to major institutions
of society. Religions are based on holy books, and legal systems are based on
written codes, contracts, and records. Governments rely on regulations, or­
ders, and information. Sciences formulate in writing knowledge about the
world we live in. Journalism records news and trends. Literature offers
books for entertainment and enlightenment.
The development of printing five hundred years ago has made books
and other printed material cheap and readily available. In turn, literacy -
the ability to read and write - has become more necessary for all aspects of
Part One Writing Your Self into College 11

life. Schooling developed to meet that need for literacy. Reading and writing
became not only subjects of instruction but central activities in all courses of
instruction. The basic 3Rs - reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic - are all funda­
mentally literate practices - paper and ink operations. All school courses
are structured through written syllabi, plans, guidelines, and catalogues.
Even classes that emphasize physical skills such as flight training or labora­
tory technique have lesson plans, textbooks, manuals, and written exams. So
doing well and getting what you want from college is very much a matter of
reading and writing.
Although electronic communication technologies, starting with the tele­
graph and telephone over a century ago, have changed our life, they have not
displaced literacy. In fact, the latest tools of the electronic revolution, com­
puters and computer networks, seem to have led to a proliferation of the
written word, as word processing has made composing and revision easier,
electronic databases have increased access to written information, and on­
line networks have increased the rapid exchange of text. Written communi­
cation flows across the Internet, from the most informal e-mail jottings to the
complete texts of literary masterpieces and scholarly essays. The most recent
developments in computer technology are supporting the combination of
written word, sound, and picture. Reading and writing are becoming seam­
lessly integrated with other modes of communication. Even the programs
that direct electronic representation are written, in the specialized languages
of programming.
A second change has been the development of specialized professions
and disciplines (that is, specific areas of study such as biology, sociology, and
history of art), especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each of
these communities has developed specialized ways of using the written lan­
guage to carry out its work. A medical doctor writing a patient's case record
writes differently than a literary critic evaluating a novel. A lawyer writing a
contract writes differently than an engineer writing a technical report. What­
ever your chosen career, you will notice that people in that field have special
ways of communicating with each other using particular styles and vocabu­
laries. At college your education is likely to be organized by disciplines, in
which you learn the information and the ways of communicating appropri­
ate to each. Most probably you will have to declare a major, identifying a spe­
cific discipline that you will study more intensively and adopt more fully as
a mode of communication.
These two changes, the rise of literacy as a school-taught skill and in­
creasing specialization, influence the kind of rhetoric that you will need to
develop for college - a rhetoric for written language as used in schools of
higher education, organized along disciplinary lines. Your reading and writ­
ing, influenced by the disciplines of the courses, are framed within the struc­
ture and practices of a classroom. Although you may read about biology and
may even read articles from biology journals, much of what you read is in
textbooks, much of what you write is for assigned papers and examinations,
and usually your goal is to demonstrate your knowledge and share your de­
veloping thoughts with your instructors. Thus a rhetoric for college is as
12 Chapter One Strategic Writing

much attuned to the work of the classroom as it is to the work of the profes­
sions and disciplines.

iting for Write several informal paragraphs on the various technologies you use

Reflection
for communication (from speech and pencil and paper through the latest
electronic tool), on what occasions you use them, and how you use them.
Be as specific as possible. For what kinds of communications do you use
the telephone? What kinds of documents do you write on word proces­
sors? What interactions do you carry out only by face-to-face talk? Have
you ever made a video, or do you just watch commercially produced tele­
vision? Then, in class discussion, compare your observations with those
of your classmates.

Rhetoric and Decorum in Daily Life

All of us already know a great deal about rhetoric because we learn and use
language to interact with each other. From earliest childhood we assess the
effect our words and actions have on others. We learn who answers our re­
quests by doing something for us, who tells us to do it for ourselves, who ig­
nores us, and who gets angry. We adjust our behavior accordingly, learning
how to talk to different people. We also learn at what times our parents will
listen to us, when we will be told to hush up, or when we will be put off with
an absent-minded nod. On the basis of this knowledge, we often consciously
judge what to say. We learn what kind of comments may meet with approval,
rejection, and irritation. Thus we start to learn about audience, timing, and
goals within various situations.
We also have learned about forms and styles appropriate to different sit­
uations -when to say "please" and when telling a joke fits the situation,
when to be precise, and when to be informal. We learn how to talk in the

Image removed for copyright reasons.

Part One Writing Your Self into College 13

classroom, or the schoolyard, how to write a history exam, or a literature essay,

and how to write a letter to our aunt. Communication and behavior appropri-
ate to a situation is known as decorum (for more on decorum, see below).
For each of these situations you have developed a strategy for maximiz-
ing the results for yourself. Sometimes it may have been to keep a low pro-
file, to stay out of trouble, and to not upset anyone. You may even have been
rewarded for passivity with praise for seeming cooperative. In other situa-
tions you may have found the most pleasure from fitting in, trying to talk or
write like everyone else around you so you feel accepted. Sometimes your
strategy may have been to follow the explicit instructions of an authority and
even to anticipate the authority's desires, saying or writing whatever you
think will please the authority. All these are strategies of going along on a
path laid out by others.
On the other hand, sometimes you may have created your own path and
have sought strategies that defined your individuality. You may have taken
risks to define your own point of view, reveal your own observations, ques-
tion something others believe, request something you really want, or oppose
something that you dislike. In doing so, you have brought a difference into
the situation that sets your statement apart. This is known as saying some-
thing.

@/C) USEFUL CONCEPTS FROM RHETORIC

Decorum

D ecorum, or the use of language and behavior that fits a situation, is

a much richer concept in rhetoric than the usual use of the word.
Today we usu ally associate decorum with polite, serious, respect-
ful behavior, such as authorities would like to maintain in classrooms or
courtrooms. Sometimes we associate decorum with etiquette, which is a
formal set of rules for polite behavior in formal social circumstances. How-
ever, in rhetoric decorum can be any behavior that fits the circumstances,
so one can also speak of the decorum appropriate to a loud dance party, a
football game, or a raucous political argument.
Decorum is attuning yourself to the circumstances. It can include
everything from learning to write a history paper that sounds like it comes
from a skilled history student to learning how to write a script that sounds
like it belongs on the evening news. Decorum doesn't limit what you can
say or do, but just helps you find a tone, style, and vocabulary that will be
recognized, acceptable, and effective as part of the unfolding situation.
14 Chapter One Strategic Writing

©/c) The Strategy of Growth

Every student who has gotten as far as college has developed automatic
ways of adjusting to the decorum of the classroom, of getting through each
school day without too much risk and with a moderate amount of success.
For many students, this strategy of getting by may have become so habitual
that it no longer seems like a strategy- it just seems a natural response to
the situation.
It is worth thinking through this position within each college classroom.
Paying attention to spelling, grammar, and well-organized paragraphs will
keep you from losing points for making a mistake, but if that is all you are
paying attention to, you have not yet begun to communicate. If you listen
carefully to the teacher's statements only to repeat them, you may be marked
correct, but you have not yet begun to grapple with the ideas and informa­
tion. If you give the teacher exactly what you think the teacher wants, the
teacher may be pleased with what you say, but there is no dialogue. The
teacher cannot respond to what you are really thinking and cannot speak to
your real questions, concerns, and differences of opinion.
As you grow older and have more experiences, your understanding of
yourself becomes richer, your skills and knowledge increase, and your inter­
ests become deeper. At this point superficial cooperation becomes less satis­
fying. You naturally want something more involving and challenging.
In your relations with your friends and classmates you are all discover­
ing new facts, encountering new ideas, confronting new problems, and find­
ing new directions. Although you may want to be accepted in a crowd where
you can relax, tell jokes, and go to the movies, you may also want to develop
relationships where you can share the changes in your life. Sharing what you
are going through demands a greater involvement and investment of your­
self and your own concerns than just telling jokes and making pleasant com­
ments. With certain close friends you may develop a more honest and
involving kind of communication based on a trust that they will respect what
you say, no matter how different and personal.
Just as you are demanding more from your life, teachers look for more
from you. Their expectations are higher. Although college teachers may con­
tinue to pass students who follow orders and do little else, such students do
not catch their personal attention or get the best grades. Teachers start asking
you for original thinking, novel problem solving, and honest engagement,
asking you to go beyond the safe minimum. They will be starting to prepare
you for professional life, where you will have to make confident, personal
judgments on difficult cases, judgments that must hold their own before
other professionals.
Because of this, both your own needs and the demands of the situation
suggest that you put more of yourself on the line, but in a way appropriate to
each situation. Putting yourself on the line does not always mean being con­
flictual or oppositional but rather identifying where you stand, elaborating
your position, and offering reasons. At times learning the power of the con­
cepts and approaches offered by a discipline and instructor may provide the
Part One Writing Your Self into College 15

greatest growth and excitement, with you feeling you have little to add; even
then, however, you still need to identify how you are perceiving the material
and what you are getting from it.
To get the most out of college, you need to set your own directions. After
all, although you were required to attend high school, you have chosen to be
at college, and you have chosen the particular college you are in, and that col-
lege has chosen you. You choose your classes (often there are options even
within course requirements), and you choose your major. So lying low no
longer makes sense. What makes sense is taking the risk to become who you
are becoming, to become personally involved in your learning.

To help you identify the kinds of independent stances you have created
through language, describe one or more incidents where you took a stand
contrary to what other people in the group expressed or approved. This
could be with parents, peers, community groups, or teachers; in classes or
clubs; or in any other situation where you used language to identify
where you stood apart. Describe the particular tactics you used to express
your individual position and the reaction others had to your statement.

@/a Becoming Involved Through Writing

Research indicates that student success in college is directly correlated with
involvement. According to these researchers, involvement includes such ac-
tivities as talking to teachers, spending time in the library and on your
courses, discussing your work with other students, thinking about what you
are hearing and reading, developing your own opinions and positions, and
asserting your ideas and goals in talk and writing. Involvement is a much
higher predictor of success in college than high school grades, achievement
and aptitude tests, IQ scores, or any other indicator researchers have found.
As we have already discussed, in a very basic way the strategy for success in
college is involvement- being high profile and not low profile.
However, involvement is not just a general impulse; it must be made real
through specific actions. Every time you find a more successful way to com-
municate about what you are learning and what you are thinking, you be-
come more involved in your learning and classes. Nothing is more involving
than writing a paper you believe in, that is well received by your teacher, and
that leads to further discussions among you, your teacher, and your class-
mates.
However, finding involving directions for our work, discovering areas
we are interested in exploring, identifying what we have to say- these
things often do not come easily. We don't always know ourselves and who
we are becoming well enough to make simple choices about what we want to
16 Chapter One Strategic Writing

do. Our memory of our past is limited and changeable from moment to mo­
ment. Our vision of who we are is influenced by every event in which we
take part. The present has far too many possibilities for us to notice as we
pass through it, and the future ...well, who knows. The best we can do is
follow what vague hunches we have about what might engage us and maybe
interesting things may develop.
Precisely because so much is unknown, learning to write means trying
something new. If an assignment seems to ask for more than you are used to,
excites new ideas that you don't quite know how to put together, or suggests
some research you think may be too hard, you will not learn if you depend
on an old strategy that worked for less challenging situations. It is important
to see what you can do in a new way, what ideas you can present for the
teacher to respond to.See what kinds of claims you can justify, once you put
yourself on the line.
As you take risks, what seemed dull and unrewarding may hold far
more than you imagined.The best way to discover what the real value of an
idea or a subject is, is to challenge it and to ask what it means.Even the act of
defining those subjects or approaches or courses that seem empty will help
you identify other areas that fit better with what you want to explore and
learn.When you find something that excites you, follow it.Conversely, when
you find something that holds nothing for you, no matter how much and en­
ergetically you explore it, then move past it as rapidly as you can to get into
something that will involve you. Don't try to cover your lack of interest by
inflating the subject, pretending an enthusiasm where you have none, or
making up empty phrases to cover a lack of things to say. Decide to get
through the dull work or uninteresting topic as efficiently and directly as
possible so you can spend more time on what interests you.
What has just been described is a strategy to increase your involvement
and concentration. In sports, concentration and involvement are also neces­
sary to notice and respond to moment-by-moment opportunities. Coaches
advise, "Keep your eye on the ball." "Watch the position." "Bear down, con­
centrate." Leaming is also being responsive to moment-by-moment circum­
stances. Your learning is in all the problems you have to solve, all the
information you need to absorb, all the ideas you puzzle over, all the skills
you have to develop, and all the statements you make in order to become
part of those situations which you pass through.
The analogy with sports, however, is limited in at least one very impor­
tant sense. In sports you are driven to outdo an opponent; a tough opponent
may drive you harder, improve your skill, and get you more involved.Com­
petition is a driving force in most sports. Education, however, is driven only
by your desire to extend yourself and learn new things.Tough material and
rewarding projects may lend new challenges, exciting teachers and class­
mates may increase your attention, but your own sense of growth is the only
thing that will carry you through every day. Whereas it is easy to be chal­
lenged by a tough opponent, your own. personal growth is a more elusive
target, a challenge that can get lost in discouragement or vagueness. If you
are lucky, teachers and others will notice your growth, point out directions
Part One Writing Your Self into College 17

for you, and reflect your development back to you. But ultimately you have
to pull the picture together to locate your own motivation to face continued
challenge and growth.
One of the ways to keep an eye on yourself and your own growth is to
watch your writing. If you keep a file of your papers as you go from year to
year and course to course, you can get a sense of where you have been, where
you are going, and how far you have come. By seeing who you are becoming
as a writer, you can reflect on who you are becoming through your educa-
tion.

1. Describe one occasion when you got caught up in a writing assign-

ment for a course. What was the assignment? What specifically did
you choose to write about? What did you say in the paper? What
made the assignment so engaging? What did you think about as
you wrote the paper? What did you learn from writing it? What
were you proudest about in the paper? Who read the paper? How
did they respond?
2. Interview several friends about one time they became involved in
their writing for school. Ask them about the assignments, what
they wrote, what made their work interesting for them, and what
they felt they accomplished. Then write a paragraph about each of
the engaging assignments to share and discuss with your class-
mates.

@/C) NEWS FROM THE FIELD

What Difference Does College Make?

M ost students hope that college will make a difference- not only
in income, but in the kind of life they lead. Is this just a hope, or
does research confirm that college does make a difference?
Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini's book How College Affects Stu-
dents (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991) presents a comprehensive survey
of the extensive research on this subject. It reviews hundreds of studies of
students in colleges of all sizes and kinds and in all regions of the
country- making comparisons among them and with students who have
not attended college. The authors report that college indeed has a marked
effect.
1. Seniors usually have better verbal and quantitative skills than fresh-
men. Moreover, seniors reason better abstractly, solve problems bet-
18 Chapter One Strategic Writing

ter, use evidence more effectively to reason through issues that have
no certain answers, are more flexible in seeing multiple sides to is-
sues, and can organize and manipulate more complex ideas. In short,
college tends to make you smarter.
2. Most seniors have greater self-understanding, self-definition, and
personal commitment than freshmen. They also have a better self-
image and more self-esteem, as well as more independence from
their parents. In short, college helps you become a reflective, confi-
dent, self-directed adult.
3. Seniors tend to have an increased openness to and tolerance of diver-
sity. Moreover, they tend to reason about moral issues in principled
ways more than freshmen. In short, college can help make you a
more tolerant and reasonable person.
4. Seniors have more interest in art, culture, and ideas than freshmen.
They tend to believe more in the value of a liberal education and less
in college as a form of vocational training. In short, college helps you
value education and culture.
5. Completing college has strong socioeconomic benefits over one's
whole career, but when you complete college you tend to care less
about money and more about the intrinsic value of education than
when you entered. Moreover, upon completing college you are more
likely to enter challenging careers and engage in lifelong learning. In
short, you are likely to earn more money if you finish college, but the
money won't seem as important.
Of course, statistics never tell you what will happen in any particular
case. There are no guarantees that upon graduation you will play the vio-
lin, be on your way to a Nobel Peace Prize, earn a six-figure salary, or not
care whether you earn a six-figure salary. Your personal situation, motiva-
tion, and activity affect how you are influenced by your college experience.
But research does confirm that the changes are almost always positive.
As you engage in the college activities that lead to these personal
changes, you often need to think about what you should say, what you
should write. By learning to articulate your thoughts, experiences, and
learning through writing, you are learning to articulate yourself as a per-
son. That is a theme that runs throughout this book.

,........... for Write a few paragraphs looking forward to the next few years. How do
you think or hope that college will affect you? In what ways would you
Reflection like to grow or change? What parts of yourself do you hope or expect will
not change? What do you think you will be most involved in; and what
not?
Part One Writing Your Self into College 19

Find the procedures for getting an e-mail account at your school, and es-
tablish an account. Learn the procedures for writing, editing, and sending
a message. Send a short message to your instructor. Send another to a
classmate introducing yourself.