Offers a fresh approach to the methods of development by pointing out the universal necessity and utility of the modes in thinking and writing and demonstrating how these modes work together.

Features a practical checklist called "The Seven Common Moves" which helps students understand choices writers make.

• 1. Beginning.
• 2. Ending.
• 3. Detail.
• 4. Organization/Plot.
• 5. Style.
• 6. Voice/Attitude.
• 7. Economy.

Presents a four-dimensional approach.

• First dimension includes stylistic options including "The Seven Common Moves."
• Second dimension includes the various organizational options.
• Third dimension is interpretation which gives any essay its "so-what factor," the element that captures readers' interest.
• Fourth dimension is persuasion, which is the substance of any serious rhetoric.

Includes sentence level exercises based on the common-sense notion that students need to be taught patterns that they don't already produce when they write.

Presents a recipe for teaching writing in each chapter.

• 1. After choosing a model essay, construct an assignment that would have produced it.
• 2. Before showing the students the model, give them the assignment and let them struggle with it for a while.
• 3. After students have spent time working on the assignment, they will be ready to profit from analyzing the model, looking for techniques to imitate, using So-What and the Seven Common Moves to reveal moves that would otherwise go unnoticed.
• 4. Have students prepare a draft.
• 5. Teach students to workshop the draft, providing So-What and the Seven Common Moves as a checklist to keep their discussion focused.
• 6. Grade the final draft, using So-What and the Seven Common Moves as an analytic grading system.