Getting Started with This Textbook
Harlow Crandall and Elizabeth M. Williams
Welcome to ENGL 1020: Research & Argumentative Writing!
This is an Open-Access, Creative Commons licensed textbook. Because this book functions differently than a print text, we encourage you to take a moment to familiarize yourself with the functionality. Also, if you’d like a print version of this text, you can purchase one for a small fee at the MTSU bookstore. In developing this text, we focused on keeping it low cost and accessible, so choose the version that meets your needs most effectively.
The way to navigate this textbook is by using the “Content” drop-down menus on the left side of the textbook screen. The text is divided into sections that address Introduction to First-Year Writing, Reading in Writing Class, Rhetorical Foundations, Rhetorical Forms & Delivery, Rhetoric & Argumentation, Research Process, and Source Types and Ethical Use.
Within each sections are chapters that we think you’ll find both useful and engaging to read.Whenever an outside source is linked as a chapter, you’ll see an abstract, links to the texts (sometimes there are podcast versions too!), keywords, and short bios for each author. The external links will open outside of the textbook, and you can navigate back to the textbook whenever you need or want.
The linked readings in this text come from different peer-reviewed collections: Try This: Research Methods For Writers by Jennifer Clary-Lemon, Derek Mueller, and Kate Pantelides; Writing Spaces edited by Dana Driscoll, Mary K. Stewart, and Matthew Vetter; Introduction to Writing in College by Melanie Gagich; Writing Commons created and edited by Joseph Moxley; ENG 102: Reading, Writing and Research by Emilie Zickel.; the Bad Ideas About Writing Podcast by Kyle Stedman; and Bad Ideas About Writing, edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe.
It is important to note that Bad Ideas About Writing includes titles that can be misleading if you do not read the text itself. Please note that the titles for all of the Bad Ideas About Writing essays are actually misleading myths about writing that circulate. It may be confusing, at first, to see these titles. And it is important to keep in mind the content of each essay dispels these popular beliefs about writing that can be found in the titles, by using research from the field.
