This book offers students a method for understanding and mastering the rhetorical patterns that comprise expository writing. Its exercises ask students to arrange jumbled sentences into logical order, forming model essays for standard rhetorical patterns such as comparison/contrast, classification, and thesis support. These techniques force students to see the basic logic of different writing patterns. The goal of Whimbey's workbook is to teach the student to write concise and original essays on any topic.
Biography
Whimbey, Arthur; Jenkins, Elizabeth Lynn
"With this book...for the first time in my teaching career, I have found it possible to give more than just lip service to the idea of teaching thinking skills to freshmen writing students, specifically to my basic writing students....two chapters alone are worth the price of the book since they offer foolproof approaches to guided writing of full-length essays: Chapter 8 [Writing a Paper Beginning with a Thesis Statement That Includes an Opinion and Supporting Evidence] and Chapter 9 [Writing a Paper for a Competency Test]."
—Writing Lab Newsletter"I think that those of you who teach basic (pre-college) writing will find it a God-send...Instead of reading model essays and answering literal questions to prove that they have read the assignments, students take apart the works of successful writers to see 'what makes them tick.' Grammar, syntax, and rhetorical modes are covered in Analyze, Organize, Write in ways which require student application. The workbook also incorporates peer review...We will be including it in our remedial writing course."
—Sandra Burmeister
President, Midwest College Learning Center Association"At last, after decades of teaching basic writing, I have fallen in love with a text....everything that I have done in writing and found successful with my students I found in your text."
—Myra J. Linden
Joliet Junior College
