Getting Real about College Composition: A Practical and Conceptual Guide to Writing

Getting Real About College Composition translates critical scholarly perspectives on writing into a usable and provocative classroom curriculum. What is writing, really? How does writing reflect reality? And create new realities?

Like other creative activities, writing can be considered from two aspects: one is engaging in critical insight, originality, and transformation, and the other is navigating technique, precedent, and expectations. Getting Real About College Composition distinguishes itself from other textbooks by inviting students to actively connect both sides of this dynamic in their writing. The first five chapters encourage students to recognize the personal and public significance of the writing process, while laying out helpful and inspiring writing exercises. The next five chapters explain the conceptual commitments and core qualities of five distinct styles, outlining an innovative framework that enables students to draw from, critically examine, and contribute to these traditions of writing as they develop their own projects.

Structured for use in freshman composition classes, this textbook delivers on the deepest promise of a university writing class: to provide practical guidance for joining the profoundly significant human project of writing as self and social transformation.