Writing as Action , a class-tested first-year rhetoric, helps students understand and meet the rhetorical demands of writing in both academic and non-academic settings.

In both organization and content, Writing as Action foregrounds the rhetorical situation: writer, reader, subject, and context. It recognizes the writer as thoroughly social, and its assignments invite students to examine how social institutions define, promote, or constrain their writing as students, employees, and citizens. Assignments also encourage students to reflect on their own beliefs and to explore their different voices in many rhetorical contexts. This rhetoric shows how various forms of writing are privileged in different cultural scenes and, in particular, how academic discourse is constructed.