Mary Lamb - Connections

27 January 2015

In response to Reading and Writing Connections

           In Mary R. Lamb book, “Reading and Writing Connection” (2014): Academic Writing Begins with Reading, she compares the difference between  skim reading and slow reading; she states that skim reading is reading only the information you want, while slow reading is analyzing the information and identifying the writer`s motive.  In this section, she teaches you the different layouts, rhetorical strategies, writings styles and word choices in creating a good essay.  In order to capture the learner’s attention and give him the resources to write a perfect paper, the author uses different inserts from various authors such as John Beam “Effective Writing Begins with a Perception of a Problem”.  In addition, the section “Connecting to Genre” provides the reader or learner with the knowledge of fiction and non-fiction materials and explains the different types of papers written such as expository paper and argumentative paper.

We are intrigued by the way the author Mary Lamb gathers the data and compiles it from several sources so that the reader can learn with understanding.

 According to Mary Lamb, the third type of paragraph is critical thinking which comes after the Précis and the RRR or Rhetorical Reading Response.  She describes the styles of paragraph writing, the MLA and APA formats, creating a thesis, designing formats and reflecting on what you have wrote.  The thesis contains the main idea along with the topic sentences and three major topics that relates to the main idea.  The three major topics allow the essay to transition from one paragraph to the next.  The RRR, Rhetorical Reading Response, allows you to reflect on what you have read or written and revised.  The analytical paragraph is the meat and the gravy of the essay and captures the audience’s attention by providing your audience a good read.  Lastly, do not forget to include citations in your essay so that you may give credit where credit is due. 

 Mary Lamb captures her audience’s attention by not only her own instructions to writing a paragraph but the teaching of several authors who inspired her teachings.  She connects the different thoughts and ideas of other instructional writers such as Christina Haas, Linda Flower, Kenneth Bruffee, (84)(85) of “Connections Book”.  Mary Lamb allows the authors to enhance her teaching by describing topics such as:  Connecting to Genre through Reading” which discuss the different types of writing[JL1]   such as (text book, editorial, blog, novel, short story or even a poem” and Connecting to Writing through Reading(84) which allows you to engage in rhetorical reading for analyzing the context of what is being read.  Finally, she describes the different between fiction and non-fiction, purpose and context for the reader to learn the techniques of writing.