4/5 (Thaiss/Zawacki)

Today's reading: Thaiss/Zawacki's Engaged Writers/Dynamic Disciplines. I am looking over their Introductory chapter, in which they attempt to lay out a definition or explanation of academic writing.

There are a few nice disclaimer statements:

1. "Academic writing" is one of those terms that is often invoked, usually solemnly, as if everyone agreed on its meaning, and so is used imprecisely yet almost always for what the user regards as a precise purpose; e.g., commonly by teachers in explaining what they want from students. 
   
2. "There are exceptions to almost every principle an analyst can identify as a characteristic of academic writing." (5)

T/Z offer the following "characteristics" of academic writing:

1. Clear evidence in writing that the writer(s) have been persistent, open-minded, and disciplined in study. 
   
2. The dominance of reason over emotion or sensual perception. 
   
3. An imagine reader who is coolly rational, reading for information, and intending to formulate a response. (5-7)
   

Okay, so I've finished reading the first chapter of T/Z. It looks like an incredibly interesting study and I hope to be able to keep reading it, but there was not too much else of interest to my project there.