The Springfield College Reader is intended to support first-year writing students in their journey toward becoming well-developed writers. Throughout the book, students will find texts that will help them navigate the writing process and texts that will model what great writing looks like. These selections represent a selection of the same writing styles that students will be trying out over the course of the year, including, but not limited to, narrative, textual engagement, and researched-based writing. Collectively, the anthology also provides a variety of methods for conducting research and integrating sources into research projects.
Every year, the Springfield College Writing program sponsors an annual contest. The Student Essay section of this reader contains six award-winning essays written by students in College Writing 1 and College Writing 2. These essays are not only great reads in their own right, they will also offer a sense of how real students interpret the kinds of assignments first year students may encounter.
Part 1 Narrative Writing
Critical Thinking in College: Writing From the Personal to the Academic
Coming to an Awareness of Language
How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Exceptional Student Writing What a Nun Taught Me About Feminism
Part 2 Engaging With Texts
How to Read Like a Writer
Burke’s “Unending Conversation” Metaphor
Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person
Part 3 Writing With Research
Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews
The Meaning of Serena Williams
Part 4 Writerly Orientation
Shitty First Drafts
The Principles of Poor Writing
Five Principles for Getting Good Ideas
Part 5 Student Essays
The Wings of a Dragonfly
English is a Crazy Language
My Hair, My Crown
The Digital Transgender Archive
Gloversville Sea Dragons Struggle to Stay Afloat
Dependence breeds Mediocrity and Mediocrity breeds Contempt
Coaching on the Midfield