Six. A Materialist Theory of Writing

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. One. Why Read This Book? 1
4. Part I. Writing as Practice
5. Two. Unlearning What You (Probably) Know 7
6. Three. Eight Strategies for Getting Writing Done 17
7. Four. Institutional Contexts 36
8. Five. Dissertations and Books 41
9. Six. A Materialist Theory of Writing 47
10. Seven. How Do Readers Work? 51
11. Part II. Strategy
12. Eight. The Uneven U 59
13. Nine. Structure and Subordination 74
14. Ten. Structural Rhythm 81
15. Eleven. Introductions 89
16. Twelve. Don’t Say It All Early 99
17. Thirteen. Paragraphing 102
18. Fourteen. Three Types of Transitions 107
19. Fifteen. Showing your iceberg 116
20. Sixteen. Metalanguage 126
21. Seventeen. Ending Well 130
22. Eighteen. Titles and Subtitles 140
23. Part III. Tactics
24. Nineteen. Citational Practice 151
25. Twenty. Conference Talks 164
26. Twenty-one. Examples 167
27. Twenty-two. Figural Language 169
28. Twenty-three. Footnotes and Endnotes 176
29. Twenty-four. Jargon 178
30. Twenty-five. Parentheticals 180
31. Twenty-six. Pronouns 184
32. Twenty-seven. Repetition 188
33. Twenty-eight. Rhetorical Questions and Clauses 191
34. Twenty-nine. Sentence rhythm 196
35. Thirty. Ventilation 203
36. Thirty-one. Weight 208
37. Part IV. Becoming
38. Thirty-two. Work as Process 213
39. Thirty-three. Becoming a Writer 215
40. Thirty-four. From the Workshop to the World (as Workshop [as World]) 218
41. Thirty-five. Acknowledgments 221
42. Appendix. A Writer’s Workbook 225
43. Works Cited 239
44. Bibliography 245