Points Of Departure

Points of Departure encourages a return to empirical research about writing, presenting a wealth of transparent, reproducible studies of student sources. The volume shows how to develop methods for coding and characterizing student texts, their choice of source material, and the resources used to teach information literacy. In so doing, the volume advances our understanding of how students actually write. The contributors offer methodologies, techniques, and suggestions for research that move beyond decontextualized guides to grapple with the messiness of research-in-process, as well as design, development, and expansion. Serviss and Jamieson’s model of RAD writing studies research is transcontextual and based on hybridized or mixed methods. Among these methods are citation context analysis, research-aloud protocols, textual and genre analysis, surveys, interviews, and focus groups, with an emphasis on process and knowledge as contingent. Chapters report on research projects at different stages and across institution types—from pilot to multi-site, from community college to research university—focusing on the methods and artifacts employed. A rich mosaic of research about research, Points of Departure advances knowledge about student writing and serves as a guide for both new and experienced researchers in writing studies. Contributors: Crystal Benedicks, Katt Blackwell-Starnes, Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Kristi Murray Costello, Anne Diekema, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, Elizabeth Kleinfeld, Brian N. Larson, Karen J. Lunsford, M. Whitney Olsen, Tricia Serviss, Janice R. Walker

Seventeen short stories by some of the best young writers being published in Mexico today.

Since the late 1960s, when he introduced Theodor Adorno’s work on literature and cultural critique to an English-speaking public, Samuel Weber has stimulated the discovery of new and unexpected links within a broad spectrum of humanistic disciplines, including critical theory and psychoanalysis, media studies and literary analysis, continental philosophy and theater studies. The international group of scholars who contribute to Points of Departure demonstrate the persistent fecundity of Weber’s work. Centered around his essay on the Ghost of Hamlet, as reflected in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt, the volume is broadly divided into explorations of the nature of spectrality, on the one hand, and the dynamics of reading, on the other. Each of the twelve essays thus takes its point of departure from “Weber’s singular path between languages, cultures, and traditions”—to quote Jacques Derrida, whose fictive “interview with a passing journalist” is published here for the first time.

First installment of the architectural thesis on new forms and typologies of airport design

The stories in this groundbreaking collection - including the Nebula Award-winning 'Rachel in Love' - effortlessly cross the boundaries between the real and the imaginary, blending visionary storytelling with uncompromising realism. They reveal the extraordinary range, depth, and insight that imbue all of Murphy's work, confirming her as one of the most gifted authors of short fiction writing today.

On 17 March 2003, Robin Cook, Leader of the House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary, resigned from the Cabinet in protest against the coming war in Iraq. His resignation speech against that war prompted the first standing ovation in the history of the House and marked the end of the ministerial career of one of Labour's most brilliant politicians. His arguments against that war are of profound interest and importance to American readers. For the two years prior to his resignation, Robin Cook kept a diary, a personal record of Labour's second term, that forms the core of this narrative. The Point of Departure is Robin Cook's unvarnished account of this dramatic period in British political history. Though surprised by his abrupt dismissal in 2001 as Foreign Secretary, he became determined to effect the changes in Parliamentary democracy that he believed were essential if Parliament was to move into the twenty-first century. As Tony Blair told Cook on offering him leadership of the House of Commons, "This is the job for you." Drawing on firsthand experiences in the Commons and the Cabinet, of encounters in conferences and corridors and late-night conversations, Cook details his gathering disillusionment with Tony Blair's change of direction, which he believes to be profoundly mistaken, and, above all, the change in foreign policy that led the United Kingdom away from its destiny in Europe and into participation in President Bush's war in Iraq. This is the inside story of a government in power -- and of the tensions between those who govern. But above all it is the story of a politician who genuinely wanted to bring democracy closer to the people, but who saw a government increasingly detached from the values of himself and his party, and who developed a growing conviction that the government position on Iraq was morally, diplomatically, and politically wrong.

Everyone assumes that successful Boston Realtor Kaye Winslow has it all. Until the day she goes out to show an expensive new listing and vanishes into thin air, leaving behind her credit cards, her BlackBerry and an unidentified male corpse. None of this makes sense—not to her husband, not to her business partner and not to the Boston P.D. But as the investigation ratchets up, homicide detectives Doug Policzki and Lorna Abrams discover the beautiful blond Realtor has an interesting dark side sh's kept carefully hidden. Turns out a lot of people don't like Kaye, and many of them have a beef with her. But until the not-so-lovely Kaye Winslow is located, people close to her are just a little bit twitchy—because any one of them could be accused of murder.

He grabbed my wrist, as I slapped him and was about to walk away. We stood there in a deadlock, and glared at each other. I was not prone to displays of temperament but he incensed me so much that I could barely see beyond my rage. I told him that he could not control me. It took more than arrogance to be my Master. Whatever power he had, I would give him, and that was how it works. I will submit to the man who changed my world and had dominance over things I did not. To master me was to master the path in front of me. It would have to be a way of life and not a game.