Reviews for Patterns in action

The average rating for Patterns in action based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-12-14 00:00:00 Deborah Duphily Decent reading selections and organization of writing lessons. Readings are predominantly essays, but they do come from a diverse set of authors and they explore current debates (albeit more mainstream debates such as gun control, immigration, etc). I did not use any of the activities or questions included. I will likely be choosing a different text or eliminating the text altogether for the spring semester as I would like to include more fiction.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-12 00:00:00 David Miller This is a helpful resource book for any beginning college student. Writing and critically reading are two skills that all students must have, and this book explores the relationship between reading and thinking and then planning one’s ideas in the writing process. In this sense, it is a valuable book just to have in your back pocket (not literally, though, as it is nearly 900 pages long). The book opens with a chapter on “reading to write” and the essence of being a critical reader. There are some helpful and valuable tips, such as tips on determining an author’s purpose, as well as some ideas on prewriting and establishing a thesis statement as well as outlining. From here, the book launches into tips on editing, proofreading and then gives various chapters that focus more specifically on rhetoric, with various passages covering a wide range of ground and topics. The questions within these sections are helpful in drawing a focus on the readings, and the readings are by some established and various writers (Kate Chopin, Sandra Cisneros, Malcolm X, Amy Tan, Aristotle, Jonathan Swift, to name a few). The essence of these reads is to not only generate analysis, but argumentation and discussion for important life issues and topics. While some of the exercises are as rudimentary as writing a thesis sentence, or writing a few ideas about a given topic, these are in here for a greater purpose. This book, literally, is a wealth of higher range skills centered around thoughtful topics and writing pieces. There are many nuggets of wisdom and advice for beginning writers to more polished writers. Everyone has experience writer’s block at some point, right? Sometimes to a struggling student writer one of the best skills to keep in mind is to simplify ideas first, then expound on this idea to create a much more thoughtful piece of writing. Tips are included here that take you through this process. This resource offers advice to a wide range of writing—research, expository, persuasive, analysis, etc—so I think this book works as a valuable tool for any high school student taking an AP style class or any college student who must write about rhetoric, language, style or take on research projects of some type. Good resource for college students, one worth a look.