Writing Well: Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing Across the Curriculum

“You can write about anything, and if you write well enough, even the reader with no intrinsic interest in the subject will become involved,” claims Tracy Kidder, an award-winning nonfiction writer.

He's right. Occasionally, you'll have the luxury of selecting your topic, so you can make it a honey. Most often, however, the topic will be given to you, like a soggy tuna fish sandwich. Ditto on your audience. Then, you'll have to work your writer's magic to make something marvelous from something mediocre—while making sure you exactly target your readers.

In this section, you'll explore the writing styles and slants of various subjects you'll likely have to write about in school, on the job, and in your community work. These include business, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. After we compare and contrast the writing tasks common to the various subjects, I'll teach you effective techniques for writing across the curriculum. Next comes a section on documenting sources in the different disciplines. The section concludes with a discussion of collaborative writing, a common writing method in many curricula.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Well © 2000 by Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D.. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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