The Writer’s Response: A Reading-based Approach to Writing

THE WRITER'S RESPONSE teaches you not only the basics of paragraph and essay writing―unity, coherence, and support―but also the basics of academic writing, making it a complete source to help you prepare for higher-level work. Through a variety of exercises and extensive readings, the text teaches you how to read carefully and summarize accurately, to recognize and respond to specific points in the material you have read, to synthesize ideas from several reading selections, and to evaluate and argue about the ideas you have found in your reading material. Although the authors' focus is on writing about reading, they also encourage you to use personal experiences to develop and support ideas. This combination results in a text that not only imparts the fundamentals of college-level writing, but also helps you find your voice.

Stephen McDonald has been teaching English since 1975. For seven years, 1977-1984, he worked as an adjunct instructor in San Diego County, teaching at three community colleges (San Diego Mesa College, Grossmont College, and Southwestern College). In 1984 he was hired as a full-time instructor at Palomar Community College in San Marcos, California. While at Palomar, he helped to design and subsequently chaired and administered the college’s Writing-across-the-Curriculum program, also giving workshops to assist instructors from a variety of disciplines as they developed writing assignments and techniques that would work in their classrooms. He has served as Chair of the English Department at Palomar, as a member of the Faculty Senate, and as a participant on a variety of committees. He has also attended three Great Teachers Seminars hosted by Palomar College. In 1991 he was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2007 received the Palomar College Research Award for publications ranging from college textbooks to poetry. For the past two years he has served as Dean of Languages and Literature. In addition to THE WRITER’S RESPONSE, he is co-author with William Salomone of INSIDE WRITING: A WRITER’S WORKBOOK and IN BRIEF: A HANDBOOK FOR WRITERS. He has also published a chapbook of poetry titled WHERE THERE WAS NO PATTERN (Finishing Line Press, 2007) and many individual poems in a variety of literary journals.

William Salomone has a BA in English from Arizona State University and an MA in English from San Diego State U. From June, 1970 to June, 2005 he taught as an associate professor of English composition and literature at Palomar Community College at San Marcos, California, twice serving as chair of the English Department, several years on the Faculty Senate and one term as President of the Faculty. Along with Stephen McDonald, he published three English textbooks, beginning in 1986: INSIDE ENGLISH: A WRITER’S WORKBOOK, THE WRITER’S RESPONSE, and IN BRIEF, which is a handbook for developing writers.

Sonia Gutiérrez is a poet and writer. In 2001, she began teaching as an Exchange Lecturer at the University of Valladolid, Spain. In 2004, she earned a Master's in Literature and Writing Studies with an emphasis in writing at California State University San Marcos. Since 2005, she has taught English Composition and Critical Thinking and Writing at Palomar College. In 2007, she started teaching at Mt. San Jacinto College, where she now teaches online Introductory Composition. She is also a Lecturer for the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Diego State University, where she teaches Chicana and Chicano Prose: Creative Writing. Gutiérrez's bilingual poems have appeared in The San Diego Poetry Annual, La Jornada Semanal, Silver Birch Press, and La Bloga's "Best Poems 2011" and "Best Poems 2012." Her vignettes have appeared in AlternaCtive PublicaCtions, Huizache, and Sunshine Noir II. Sonia's bilingual poetry collection, SPIDER WOMAN/LA MUJER ARAÑA, is her debut publication. KISSING DREAMS FROM A DISTANCE, a novel, is under editorial review. She is completing her second poetry collection, Legacy/Herencia.

Martin Japtok has an M.A. in American Studies from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis. He has been an English instructor since 1988 and has taught both English and African American Studies at UC Davis, West Virginia State University, and Palomar College. At Palomar College, where he has worked since 2004, he has served as Professional Development Coordinator and as a member of the Basic Skills Initiative. In 2006, he received the Palomar College Research Award. He is currently on the Executive Board of the Palomar Faculty Federation. While at West Virginia State University, he was elected Faculty of the Year by the students for three consecutive years (2000-2003). In addition to having published essays in scholarly journals and books, he is the author of Growing Up Ethnic: Nationalism, and the Bildungsroman in African American and Jewish American Fiction (2005), and the editor of Postcolonial Perspectives on Women Writers from Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S. (2003), and, with Rafiki Jenkins, of Black Authenticity/”Real” Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture (2011). He also serves as associate editor at Nomos Review, a literary journal.