Week 15.

Writing
Workshop
 Writing Tips: Straight Forward is Better
1.  Your reader should always know why you’re talking about something and how it
connects back to your topic, thesis, or research question. Think and sometimes
write, “But what does this have to do with my specific topic?” Then explain.

2.  Connect your paragraphs with transition sentences and words. Especially your lit
review—it’s in these words that your lit review begins to make an argument.

3.  Avoid: x and synonym: “Nostalgia protects and defends identity.”

4.  Up-front the action, avoid long prepositional openings to sentences:

“Responding to such cultural observations, and they needed a definite long-
term response, over the past decade in university and colleges, nostalgia
research has become increasingly scientific, again, focusing on the emotion’s
homeostatic function.”

5.  Avoid verb strings: “New Materialism advances inquiry into the nature of how
Youtube was not only immaterially digital but a physical place as well.”

6.  Don’t introduce key terms the first time without defining them (especially intros
and lit reviews)
 Introductions
¤  By the end of your intro I should
have a thesis, questions, know
your lens (though not have it Common Errors
explained), know your cases,
and know your structure. ¤  Get to your thesis, argument, or
research question faster.
¤  Show me your problem/topic,
demonstrate it. ¤  Illustrate your thesis, topic, or
research question faster.
¤  Pose your research question or
puzzle in relation to that ¤  TLDR: 2-3 pages.
demonstration
¤  Starting too broad.
¤  Clearly signpost.

¤  Introduce me to the things/

people you are going to be
looking at. Don’t make we wait
for your methods.
Sample Intros: What’s are the
rhetorical moves?
1.  Parry-Giles
2.  Marwick
Pass your article one person to
the left: Read the first two pages.

1. How long does it take until you get a clear understanding of

what this paper is about?
2. How long until you get a clear example that demonstrates what
the paper is about?
3. Write a 1-2 sentence thesis
4. Write a 1-2 research question.
Write a ten word thesis
statement.
Write a ten word research
question.
 What does your thesis and
research question commit you to
doing?
What literature does it presume that you’ll engage?

In this article we offer a rhetoric of nostalgia: a route to probing what people are nostalgic
for, why, and to which ends, without being condescending to citizens who feel the
emotion or excising nostalgics from definitions of a critical citizenry. To do so, we first lay
out our rhetoric and then complicate it through studies of (1) nostalgia’s historical role in
preparing Appalachia for industrial paternalism and (2) how the psychology of nostalgic
self-sacrifice is rhetorically primed by industry advocates to keep longing for coal fresh
today. We’ve chosen Appalachia, and specifically West Virginian coal fields, as the site of
our study because of how often the rest of the nation has concurrently longed for the
simplicity of the region, dismissed it as backward, and attempted to capitalize on, distort,
and sell back a nostalgic ideal to its citizens. But within our analysis, we also consider how
critical nostalgia can uncover gaps in yearning, seek divergent traditional identities, and
build emancipatory futures. That is, we’ll argue that though theorists like Jenny Rice
suggest “critical regionalism obviously risks confusion or an unfortunate conflation with
nostalgia,” critical regional movements are often powered by the emotion (2).
How are you going to make me ask
the question or wonder or get angry
or care before you actually say these
things?
 Lit Reviews
¤  I don’t know why I’m reading this lit review—it
should always be directly related to your topic/
thesis/argument.

¤  I don’t need 5 surface level theories or a full

¤  Here’s the 2 key definitions, theories, or
lenses you need to know before we get
into my argument
¤  Put these lenses in conversation with
one another, don’t isolate them
¤  The lit review is an argument—It’s
important to understand how this and
this matter to my topic.
¤  If I put these two two three things into
conversation with one another your
¤  Don’t progress by author, progress by idea
argument is popped out.
¤  Make sure you are giving examples to illustrate
review of everything on your topic. I just need to
know the lenses you’re going to use to read your
topic.
¤  I’m talking about YouTube do I need a history
of youtube (maybe a sentence—probably
not)
¤  I’m talking about protest, do I need a
summary of all that’s been written on the
rhetoric of protest (probably not—maybe a
sentence)
¤  Theories like identity, performativity, gender,
class, race, are too big to do in a lit review.
What approach are you taking to them.
your theories and connecting it back to your
topic. No theory without illustration. Ideally, your
examples come from your topic.
Sample Lit Review: What is the
rhetorical move of each
sentence?
Parry-Giles, Marwick, DeLuca
Pass your paper one person to
the right.
1.  Skip the introduction—jump to the lit review/methodology.
2.  Reading just two pages of this section, what do you think this paper is about?
3.  What is it’s thesis?
4.  What are the two major theories, definitions, or topics introduced? Are they
clear? Are they connected to one another?
5.  Write missing definition if the first time a key theory is introduced it’s not
clearly defined.
6.  Write missing example next to each time a complex theory is discussed
without an example.
What are the two key theories
you are looking at.
How do these theories talk to or
complicate one another?
What’s your gap/contribution?
Hint: Usually it’s using a unique combination of these theories to
read your subject.
Use your lit-review to build to a
research question
What do we discover if we look at my subject by combining x and
y theories?
Why did you choose the
examples you did?
You should have a reason—they are the most popular videos, they
are samples of several genres, they are…

“We’ve chosen Appalachia, and specifically West Virginian coalfields,

as the site of our study because of how often the rest of the nation has
concurrently longed for the simplicity of the region, dismissed it as
backward, and attempted to capitalize on, distort, and sell back a
nostalgic ideal to its citizens.”
 The Body
¤  Too easy
¤  Get to this ASAP
¤  Assuming that your claim is so clear it doesn’t
¤  Let your paper be driven by interesting need an example to substantiate it.
examples and quotes from your primary
sources. They’re what are unique to you; ¤  Assuming your example is so obvious that it
they’re the most interesting thing; they’re
doesn’t need analysis/theory applied to it.
always the clearest way to illustrate your
theory.
¤  Not differentiating your sections enough.
¤  Make me understand your topic’s nuances
as compared to the literature. ¤  Not weaving your sections back together.

¤  Don’t simply impose order from your lit ¤  Having sections and claims that don’t answer
review—let your subject and examples your research question or prove your thesis.
break your tools and break your readers’ Does this connect to my topic?
guessing machines.

¤  Not engaging your primary sources’

¤  Use citations that explain your subject in
nuanced ways, not the other way around. epistemologies but pasting them over with your
own.
Sample Body: What’s are the
rhetorical moves?
Exp. Summers
Describe to me the three to four
movements of your body
sections.
First I’m going to talk about x, then y, then z.
How does your topics advance by
complication. Ideally, section 1poses
a question that section 2 answers
which poses a question that section 3
answers.
What are these questions?
Describe to me the most
interesting example that you plan
on analyzing.
Why is your topic important to
the world?
 What does a conclusion do?
Exp. Tarabochia

1.  A conclusion is short

2.  A conclusion quickly summarized key takeaways

3.  A conclusion tells me why what I read was important

4.  A conclusion suggests room for future research

5.  A conclusion suggests a plan of action (what do you

want me to do with this? Pedagogy? Protest?)
 Final Presentations

¤  Ten minutes: ~4-5 double spaced pages. Time yourself

¤  Required Q&A: ~Five Minutes

¤  PowerPoint

¤  Intro, lit review, two-three topics/examples, conclusions

¤  Should be highly example driven

¤  1-page handout

¤  Highly Sign-Posted