Wendy M.K. Shaw

Loving Writing

This writing textbook bridges factual, critical, and expressive modes of writing to help students develop a reflective sense of why and how to write for university, professional, and public audiences. Exploring the ways in which writing builds tools for argument both in and beyond the university, it enables students to break out of the dusty and formulaic patterns of writing that too often threaten to render academic studies irrelevant. In a playful, personal, essayistic style, it examines existing academic writing methods and develops new modes of narrative-based expression rooted in the humanities. Reflective analysis invites emerging writers to self-consciously craft convincing and impassioned writing practices using an expanded methodological toolbox. It aims to imbue academic writing with the expressive potential of artistic research by transforming existing methods of articulating analysis within a broader expressive system, developing skills more typical of creative writing, such as providing a setting, considering frame, engaging emotions, expansion, and concision. If we believe in the value of our thoughts, discoveries, and arguments, we must enable them to sing. Loving Writing can be used as a textbook for advanced or introductory college writing courses and provides innovative guidance to liberal arts students seeking to develop their writing abilities.