Composition for the Student Scholar

Built around the production of four essays and a research paper, this interactive textbook guides students through the development of a scholarly research paper. 


The first assignment (a review essay) introduces students to the construction of paragraphs, as well as the organization of papers. After completing this assignment, students then develop a research question that becomes the basis for three subsequent essays and a research paper. Guided by this research question, students explore their topic through an informative essay, gain a greater understanding of that topic’s nuances through the creation of an annotated bibliography, and consider their opponents’ positions through an opposing view essay. Finally, students then condense, combine, and augment these essays to produce a final research paper.


In addition to exploring the rhetorical situation surrounding academic writing, this interactive textbook also explores the following topics: topic and topic sentence outlines, revision and editing, logical fallacies, types of arguments, and proper MLA and APA citation.