Call to Write

With a focus on real-world writing, including diverse media, a treatment of visual literacy, and an emphasis on the ethics of writing, the Fourth Edition of The Call to Write continues to break new ground in composition. Organized by genres—letters, memoirs, public documents, profiles, reports, commentaries, proposals, and reviews—this innovative rhetoric gives students the practice they need to write both in college and in the public sphere. Connecting writing to everyday life, including college and work, it shows students the impact of writing and gives them the skills to help them write well. A strong emphasis on public writing promotes civic involvement through writing—to inform the public, to shape opinion, to advocate change, and so on—while relevant, provocative readings help students to understand the concept of being called to write" in response to a personal, community, or societal need."

John Trimbur is a specialist in composition and writing studies, with interests in cultural studies of literacy and the politics of language in the United States and South Africa. He holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from State University of New York, Buffalo. Trimbur is the director of the First Year Writing Program at Emerson College in Boston. He has published widely on writing theory and has won a number of awards, including the Richard Braddock Award for Outstanding Article (2003) for English Only and U.S. College Composition", the James L. Kinneavy Award (2001) for "Agency and the Death of the Author: A Partial Defense of Modernism", and the College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award (1993) for "The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary". He also was a visiting professor at the Centre for Higher Education Development and a resident fellow at the Centre for Rhetorical Studies, both at the University of Cape Town, South Africa."