Joining The Conversation

Avoiding the male-authored model of competing orations, French and Italian women of the Renaissance framed their dialogues as informal conversations, as letters with friends that in turn became epistles to a wider audience, and even sometimes as dramas. No other study to date has provided thorough, comparative view of these works across French, Italian, and Latin. Smarr's comprehensive treatment relates these writings to classical, medieval, and Renaissance forms of dialogue, and to other genres including drama, lyric exchange, and humanist invective -- as well as to the real conversations in women's lives -- in order to show how women adapted existing models to their own needs and purposes. Janet Levarie Smarr is Professor of Theatre and Italian Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

With the continued fragmentation of the media and proliferation of media options, the balance of power has shifted from the marketer to the individual. In Join the Conversation, Jaffe discusses the changing role of the consumer and how marketers must adapt by joining the rich, deep and meaningful conversation already in progress. This book reveals what marketers must do to become a welcome and invited part of the dialogue, and how to leverage and integrate the resulting partnership in ways that provide win-win situations for businesses, brands and lives.

Grounded in the best practices of effective writing instruction, Joining the Conversation’s rhetorical approach teaches students the key critical thinking skills they will draw on as they begin to explore and respond thoughtfully to the complex conversations around them. From reflective and informative to analytical and persuasive writing, chapters follow real student writers as they find a conversation, develop, revise, and document their writing. Thoroughly revised, the fourth edition includes new student projects and more support for academic reading, critical thinking, and assessing credibility and bias.

Don't let writer's block get the best of you. Joining the Conversation encourages you as a writer with smart and friendly advice applicable for any type of academic or professional writing.

With the success of The Bedford Researcher, Mike Palmquist has earned a devoted following of teachers and students who appreciate his accessible approach to the process of inquiry-based writing. Now he brings his proven methodology and friendly tone to Joining the Conversation. While students may know how to send text messages, search for images, and read the news online all at the same time, they don’t necessarily know how to juggle the skills they need to engage readers and compose a meaningful contribution to an academic conversation. Meeting students where they are — working online and collaboratively — Joining the Conversation embraces the new realities of writing, without sacrificing the support that students need as they write for college and beyond.