Subject Librarian
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Course description for WRIT 2 (Mackey)
As you begin your Dartmouth journey and your required composition class, you should, I think, wonder why (or maybe even if) you ought to write. After all, AI can now write almost anything for you. So what do you have to gain from a class like this? Can writing do anything for you beyond giving you a means to communication ideas you already have? Or can writing be a process for discovering ideas? We'll explore these and many related questions in the first half of Writing 2, before turning our attention to other topics of interest, which we will investigate by, in part, writing about them. You will complete numerous writing exercises and write multiple drafts of three formal essays. You can expect extensive feedback from your instructor, your teaching assistant, and your classmates, and you will, hopefully discover something new about writing.
Writing 2 (General)
In Writing 2-3, we expect you will begin to develop the core capabilities you need for college writing and thinking, which include: reading, inquiry, analysis, interpretation, discussion, and composing. You will learn to approach your own writing with what we call "rhetorical flexibility," which means being familiar with different writing tools and strategies and being able to choose the best tools and strategies to create and communicate your meaning for any given context and in different modes, such as multimodal projects, collaborative compositions, or speeches. By committing yourself to the rigorous process of reading, writing, discussing, researching, conferring, and rewriting, you will learn to craft clear and compelling academic arguments.
[Source, Syllabus, 09/29/2023]
In the Library's collections
You can use one of these subject headings to start your research in the library's online catalog:
- consciousness AND realityThis is a subject keyword in the library's online catalog.
Introductory reading(s)
Writing and script: a very short introduction by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199567782Writing is the defining marker of civilization, without which there could be no records, no history, no books, no accumulation of knowledge. But when did this essential part of our lives begin? Why do we all write differently and how did writing evolve into what we use today? All of these questions are answered in this Very Short Introduction. Andrew Robinson tells the fascinating story of the history of writing, shedding light on its development and examining the enormous variety of writing and scripts we use today. ...
Selected book title(s)
A better pencil: readers, writers, and the digital revolution by Call Number: Baker-Berry Z 45 .B37 2009ISBN: 9780195388442Computers, now the writer's tool of choice, are still blamed by skeptics for a variety of ills, from speeding writing up to the point of recklessness, to complicating or trivializing the writing process, to destroying the English language itself. A Better Pencil puts our complex, still-evolving hate-love relationship with computers and the internet into perspective, describing how the digital revolution influences our reading and writing practices, and how the latest technologies differ from what came before. ...
The greatest invention: a history of the world in nine mysterious scripts by Call Number: Baker-Berry P 211 .F42713 2022ISBN: 9780374601621In this exhilarating celebration of human ingenuity and perseverance--published all around the world--a trailblazing Italian scholar sifts through our cultural and social behavior in search of the origins of our greatest invention: writing. The L where a tabletop meets the legs, the T between double doors, the D of an armchair's oval backrest--all around us is an alphabet in things. But how did these shapes make it onto the page, never mind form complex structures such as this sentence? ...
A life of one's own: nine women writers begin again by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780063073104A piercing blend of memoir, criticism, and biography examining how women writers across the centuries carved out intellectual freedom for themselves--and how others might do the same. ...
Perfect copies: reproduction and the contemporary comic by Call Number: Baker-BerryISBN: 9781978826533Analyzing the way that recent works of graphic narrative use the comics form to engage with the "problem" of reproduction, Shiamin Kwa's Perfect Copies reminds us that the mode of production and the manner in which we perceive comics are often quite similar to the stories they tell. Perfect Copies considers the dual notions of reproduction, mechanical as well as biological, and explores how comics are works of reproduction that embed questions about the nature of reproduction itself. ...
Why write?: collected non-fiction, 1960-2013 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PS 3568. O855 A6 2017ISBN: 9781598535402Tracing the full span of Philip Roth's career - from the early controversies surrounding the stories in Goodbye, Columbus to his recent assessments of his work and corrections of the record - this retrospective summation of his essays and interviews shows at every turn the vigour, acuity, and persuasive power of our most celebrated living novelist.
Other library resource(s)
Rhetoric and communication from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199756841The term “rhetoric” (rhetorike) was coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and systematically elaborated upon by his successor Aristotle. On the basis of these foundational texts in particular, the term has been borrowed, abused, adapted, and transmuted by every culture from the ancient Romans onward to contemporary rhetorical studies and communication scholars. This bibliography conceives of rhetoric as a “metadiscourse,” or a language about language, one that has been used at various times, places, and circumstances in order to enable the production and interpretation of discourse. ...
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
You can find writings about writing in many publications. You can start your search in a general index such as Academic Search Complete or Web of Science. Or you can use the search box at the top of the page.
Communication & mass media complete (CMMC) by Call Number: Electronic resourceThis is the main article index for the field of Communications and Mass Media.
Academic search complete by Call Number: Electronic resourceA scholarly, interdisciplinary article index and a good starting place for article searching on any subject.
Web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
Internet resource(s)
- Why We Write: Four Reasons from The Write Practice
Why do we write? Nonfiction and fiction writing has been an instrumental way for people to connect to one another in the real world. ... - Why Write? from The Paris Review
I encountered Joan Didion’s famous line about why she writes—“entirely to find out what I’m thinking”—many times before I read the essay it comes from, and was reminded once again to never assume you know what anything means out of context. ...
Citing and Tracking Your Bibliographic References
Use this guide to help you learn how to correctly cite and keep track of the references you find for your research.
Keeping up with scholarly journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with scholarly journal literature in any discipline? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it through our online catalog here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.