Composing Knowledge: Readings for College Writers

Higher education has its own rules -- rules about who is heard, what counts as knowledge, what works as persuasion. They are conventions that must be learned -- and taught. So it is no wonder that for new students, college can be a confusing place. Composing Knowledge asks students to examine their assumptions about learning. It provides them with a training ground for the sometimes disquieting experience of higher education, giving them the tools with which to understand their experience. For instructors, it offers provocative academic readings they themselves find engaging, allowing them to connect their scholarly interests to student experience. The readings explore the role of language in learning, the conventions of the classroom, the nature of persuasion, the importance of collaboration, the force of gender, the impact of technology, and the power of the image. When students contend with these issues, they see the ways that scholars view them, and enter the academic conversations that shape their college years -- and their future professional and civic lives.