The Curious Writer MLA Update (5th Edition)

About this book

For courses in First-Year Composition - Rhetoric. This version of The Curious Writer has been updated to reflect the 8th Edition of the MLA Handbook (April 2016) Puts inquiry at the heart of good writing We write to learn as much as we do to express what we already know. In his remarkably personal and engaging voice Bruce Ballenger makes that powerful concept central to The Curious Writer. The Curious Writer doesnt read like a textbook or provide a formula for composing essays. Instead it encourages students to suspend judgment to ask questions and to seek answers much like academics do. Yet it covers a wide range of genres beyond the academic essaynarrative profile review ethnography argument and moreall with a distinctive approach and personality that is lacking in other texts. It also reinforces the assumption that genres are malleable with a new chapter on repurposing or re-genre-ing. Students love that this book helps them learn to write by pursuing their own curiosity. Teachers appreciate that Ballenger gives students ample opportunity to develop the habits of mind necessary to become critical thinkers and curious writers. The 8th Edition introduces sweeping changes to the philosophy and details of MLA works cited entries. Responding to the increasing mobility of texts MLA now encourages writers to focus on the process of crafting the citation beginning with the same questions for any source. These changes then align with current best practices in the teaching of writing which privilege inquiry and critical thinking over rote recall and rule-following.