Chris Trimble

Chapter 11

1. What is the basic format for a proposal?

a. An introduction that defines a problem, stresses its importance, and offers a brief description of the proposed solution (the thesis).

b. An analysis of the problem, discussing its causes, and its effects.

c. A detailed plan that shows step by step how to solve the problem.

d. A costs- benefits analysis that measures the benefits of the plan against its costs.

e. A conclusion that looks to the future and stresses the importance of taking action.

2. Where are proposals used?

a. In todays workplace, the proposal is one of the most common genres. Anytime someone wants to solve a problem or present new ideas, he or she will be asked to write the proposal. Internal proposals are written for people inside a company or organization to pitch new ideas, with external proposals written for clients to sell a companys services. Solicited proposals respond to Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Grant proposals are used by researchers and not- for- profit groups to obtain funding for their projects.

3. What are the steps for inventing your proposals content?

a. Inquiring: Defining the Problem

b. Inquiring: Analyzing the Problem

c. Researching: Gathering Information and Sources

d. Inquiring: Planning to Solve the Problem

e. Researching: Find Similar Projects

4. What are the three primary sources of information when writing proposals?

a. Online Sources. Choose some keywords from your concept map, and use Internet search engines to gather background information on your topic.

b. Print Sources. Your best print sources will usually be newspapers and magazine articles, because most proposals are written about current or local problems.

c. Empirical Sources. Set up interviews, do field observations, or survey people to gather empirical evidence that supports or challenges your online and print sources.

5. What are the steps involved with planning to solve the problem?

a. Map Out Your Plan. Again, a concept map is a useful tool for figuring out your plan.

b. Explore Each Major Step. Now, consider each of the major steps one at a time.

c. Figure Out the Costs and Benefits of Your Plan. With your plan mapped out, you should now identify its costs and benefits.

6. Why should the writer list the costs and benefits of the proposal plan?

a. Essentially, your goal is to determine whether the benefits of your plan outweigh the costs. After all, nothing is free. So someone, probably your readers, will need to give up something (like money) to put your plan into action. You want to prove to your readers that the benefits are worth the costs. When figuring out the costs and benefits, brainstorming is an especially helpful tool.

7. What steps should the writers use to choose an appropriate style?

a. Create an Authoritative Tone. Pick a tone that expresses a sense of authority.

b. Use Metaphors and Similes. Metaphors and similes allow you to compare new ideas to things that are familiar to your readers.

c. Pay Attention to Sentence Length. Proposals should generate excitement, especially at the moments when you are describing your plan and its benefits.

d. Minimize the Jargon. Proposals can get somewhat technical, depending on the topic. So look for any jargon words that could be replaced with simpler words or phrases. If a jargon word is needed, make sure you define it for readers.

8. List three tips for designing your proposal.

a. Create a Look. Figure out what image your proposal should project to the readers.

b. Use Meaningful Headings. When they first pick up your proposal, your readers will likely scan it before reading.

c. Include Relevant, Accurate Graphics. Proposals often talk about trends, so you should look for places where you can use charts or graphs to illustrate those trends.

9. What four steps should a writer follow to revise and edit a proposal?

a. Look for Inconsistencies in Content. As you drafted your proposal, your ideas about the topic probably evolved and changed as you learned more about it.

b. Get Rid of the Extra Stuff. Look for places where you have included material that goes beyond the readers need to know.

c. Tweak the Design. When the whole proposal is put together, look for places where the design is inconsistent or looks odd.

d. Dont Forget to Proofread! Proofreading is always important, but it is essential for proposals.

Chapter 12

1. What is the format for a report?

a. When starting a research project, you first need to figure out your topic, your research question, and your hypothesis. Your hypothesis will serve as your thesis statement while you are drafting your report. Then you need to discover what you already know about your topic and come up with a systematic way to find out what others know. And finally, you need to use your research skills to generate findings, analyze those findings, and develop your conclusions or recommendations. In other words, much needs to happen before you sit down to draft your report.

2. How do writers develop their research question and hypothesis?

a. Define your topic and then narrow it down to something you can handle in the time you have available. Now, its time to develop your research question. Your research question should state your topic and identify an issue that your research will address. Once you have figured out your research question, you should turn it into a hypothesis that will guide your research. Your hypothesis is your best guess for the moment about how your research question will be answered.

3. What are the steps for creating a research plan?

a. In the middle of the screen or page, write down your research question.

b. Write down the two to five major steps you will need to take to answer that re-search question. Circle them.

c. For each major step, write down two to five minor steps that you would need to take to achieve that major step. Circle them and draw lines to connect them to the major steps.

4. What is the organizational pattern for an executive summery or abstract?

a. Executive summaries usually devote a small paragraph to each major section of the report. Abstracts tend to be only one paragraph, devoting a sentence or two to each section of the report. The executive summary or abstract should be written after you have finished drafting the rest of the report.

5. What materials should be included in the methods section of a research essay?

a. Explain your research methods step by step in a way that would allow your readers to replicate your research. Each major step will usually receive at least one paragraph of coverage

6. What is the purpose of a findings or results section of a research paper?

a. Choose the two to five most important findings or results from your research. In larger reports, each major finding should at least receive its own paragraph. Your job in this section is to describe what you found. Where possible, use graphics, such as charts, graphs, and tables, to present the data youve collected.

7. What should writers include in the conclusions/recommendations section of a research paper?

a. The conclusion of your report should be brief. A reports conclusion typically makes all or some of the following moves. Restate your main point. One more time, state the reports overall main point or finding. Make two to five recommendations. Using the results of your research, make some recommendations about what should be done about this issue. Reports often present these recommendations in a list. Reemphasize the importance of the topic. Explain briefly why your readers should care about this topic and take action. Look to the future. Reports often end with a small paragraph that describes what will happen in the near and distant future.

8. Where can writers go to get assistance with writing a reference or works cited page?

a. Provide bibliographic information for any sources you have cited. For APA style, they should be listed under the title References. For MLA style, call them Works Cited. Turn to Chapters 27 and 28 for help with your references.

9. What are nominalizations and how do writers get rid of them?

a. Nominalizations make your writing less clear because they hide the action in a sentence. If you move the action into the sentences verb, your meaning will be much clearer to your readers.

10. What does it mean to choose an appropriate style, and what are some examples of appropriate styles as mentioned in chapter 12 of the text?

a. Reports usually sound neutral and objective. Your readers expect you to give them information in a straightforward way. As a result, reports are usually written in a plain style.

11. Why are headings important in the design of your report?

a. Your reports headings should give readers a clear idea about what is in each section of the report.

12. What are some strategies for revising and editing a report?

a. Because research reports tend to be large documents, the revising and editing phase is critical to improving your reports quality.

13. Where and how does the report define sexual-ization? Based on your own experiences, do you agree with these definitions? Have you experienced these kinds of conditions in your own life?

a. So,

Chapter 18

1. Define global revision.

a. Global Revision reexamines and adjusts the documents overall approach, using genre to sharpen its topic, angle, purpose, thesis, and appropriateness for the readers and context.

2. Define substantive editing.

a. Substantive Editing pays attention to the documents content, organization, and design.

3. Define copyediting.

a. Copyediting focuses on revising the style for clarity, persuasion, and consistency, paying close attention to paragraphs and sentences.

4. Define proofreading.

a. Proofreading examines and revises surface features, such as gram-metical correctness, spelling, and usage.

5. In order, what are the four levels of revising and editing?

a. Level 1: Global Revision Level 2: Substantive Editing Level 3: Copyediting Level 4: Proofreading

6. What are three examples of global issues?

a. Your Drafts Topic, Angle, and Purpose You need to challenge your first draft to make sure its doing what you intended.

7. When thinking about your readers (the context), what should you consider?

a. Expectations. Have you considered how the genre leads readers to have certain ex-petitions?

b. Values. Are your readers values different from yours?

c. Attitudes. Have you adjusted the text to fit your primary readers attitude about your topic?

d. Place. How will the physical place in which readers experience your document shape how they read it?

e. Medium. How will your papers medium (e. g., paper, podcast, presentation) influence how people react to your message or interpret what you have to say?

f. Social and Political Influences. How will current social, economic, and political trends influence how your readers feel about what your paper has to say?

8. How do you know when you have enough information?

a. Your paper needs to have enough information to support your claims and explain your ideas to readers, but you dont want to include more content than you need. . Does your thesis statement and main claim (usually in the introduction and/ or the conclusion) describe what youre achieving in this paper? Are your claims in the body of the paper expressed completely and accurately? Could you express them in a more prominent, precise, or compelling way? Can you find any places where your ideas need more support or where your the-sis and claims need more evidence drawn from sources? Are there any digressions? Can you trim the text down?

9. What are three questions you can ask to determine whether you need to reorganize your work to better use the genre?

a. Does your paper have each of the sections included in this genre? If not, are you making a conscious choice to leave out a section or merge it with something else?

b. Does your introduction do its job according to the conventions of the genre? Does it draw your readers in, introduce them to the topic, state the thesis and main claim, and stress the importance of the subject?

c. Are your main ideas prominent enough? If not, can you move these main ideas to places where your readers are more likely to see them?

10. Why should writers have others read their work?

a. Substantive editing is a good time to ask others to review your work. Ask a friend or someone from your class to read through your text. Tell him or her to concentrate on content, organization, and design. Your editor can ignore any typos or grammatical errors, because right now you need feedback on higher- level features and problems.

11. What are your titles and headings intended to do for your essay?

a. Your title should grab the readers attention, and the headings in your document should help them quickly grasp your ideas and understand how the document is structured.

12. What should the writer consider when editing paragraphs to make them more concise and consistent?

a. Work through your document paragraph by paragraph, paying attention to how each one is structured and how it works with the paragraphs around it.

13. How can a writer revise sentences to make them clearer?

a. After you reshape and refine each paragraph, focus your attention on the clarity and style of individual sentences.

14. How can a writer revise sentences to make them more descriptive?

a. Now, work on giving your sentences more impact and power. . Do your sentences use vivid detail to help readers see, hear, touch, taste, and smell what you are writing about? Would any similes, metaphors, or analogies help your readers to understand or visualize what you are talking about? Do your sentences generally use a consistent tone and voice? Can you describe in one word the tone you are trying to set in your paper?

15. Whats the purpose of proofreading? What are the three strategies for proofreading?

a. Proofreading is the final step in editing your document, during which you should search for any typos, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and word usage problems. Proofreading takes patience and practice, but it is critical to successful writing.

b. 1, Read Your Writing Out Loud 2, Read Your Draft Backwards 3, Read a Hard Copy of Your Work

Chapter 22

1. Define argument. When are arguments used in college and the professional world?

a. An argument involves making reason-able claims and then backing up those claims with evidence and support. The objective of an argument is not to win and prove you have the truth. Instead, your primary goal is to persuade others that you are probably right.

b. In college and in the professional world, arguments are used to think through ideas and debate uncertainties. Arguments are about getting things done by gaining the cooperation of others. In most situations, an argument is about agreeing as much as disagreeing, about cooperating with others as much as competing with them.

2. What types of topics are considered arguable?

a. When laying the groundwork for an argument, you need to first define an arguable claim that you will try to persuade your readers to accept as probably true. For example, here are two arguable claims on two sides of the same topic: Arguable Claim: The United States made a mistake when it invaded Iraq in 2003 because the invasion was based on faulty intelligence that suggested Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Arguable Claim: Despite faulty intelligence, the United States was justified in invading Iraq because Saddam Hussein was a dangerous dictator who was threatening Iraqs neighboring countries, supporting worldwide terrorism, and lying in wait for an opportunity to purchase or build weapons of mass destruction that could be used against the United States and its allies.

3. What are the four sources of arguable claims?

a. Issues of Definition. Some arguments hinge on how to define an object, event, or person.

b. Issues of Causation. Humans tend to see events in terms of cause and effect.

c. Issues of Evaluation. We also argue about whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, or better or worse.

d. Issues of Recommendation. We also use arguments to make recommendations about the best course of action to follow. These kinds of claims are signaled by words like should, must, ought to, and so forth.

4. What is a two-step strategy to help the writer sharpen his/her claim?

a. Issues of Definition. Some arguments hinge on how to define an object, event, or person.

5. What are three ways to support your position?

a. Once you have developed an arguable claim, you can start figuring out how you are going to support it with evidence and reasoning. There are three ways to support your position: reason, authority, and emotion

6. Define logos, ethos, and pathos. How are these kinds of evidence used in argument writing?

a. Reason (Logos) Reasoning involves appealing to your readers common sense or beliefs.

i. The first type of reasoning, logical statements, allows you to use your readers existing beliefs to prove they should agree with a further claim.

b. Authority (Ethos) Authority involves using your own experience or the reputations of others to support your arguments.

i. Ethical Principles. Demonstrate that you are arguing for an outcome that meets a specific set of ethical principles.

c. Emotion (Pathos) Using emotional an appeal to persuade your readers is appropriate if the feelings you draw on are suitable for your topic and readers.

i. Demonstrate to your readers that agreeing with your position will help them gain things they need or want, like trust, time, money, love, advancement, reputation, comfort, popularity, health, beauty, or convenience.

7. Define fallacy.

a. A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning.

8. How do writers avoid logical fallacies in argument writing?

a. Logical fallacies do not prove that someone is wrong about a topic. They simply mean that the person is using weak or improper reasoning to reach his or her conclusions.

9. Give two examples of logical fallacies from your own personal experience.

a. Ad Hominem Attacking the character of the arguer rather than the argument. Mary has no credibility on the smoking ban issue, because she was once a smoker herself.

b. Weak Analogy Making an improper comparison between two things that share a common feature. Paying taxes to the government is the same as handing your wallet over to a mugger in the park.

10. What is a rebuttal? How do writers use rebuttals in argument writing?

a. Because we argue with others in an effort to gain their understanding and cooperation, you need to understand opposing viewpoints fully. You also need to anticipate how your readers will feel about your claims and your support. You need to imagine their possible objections or misunderstandings. After all, something that sounds like a good reason to you may not seem as convincing to your reader.