xxi, 360 pages : 29 cm "Engaging Ideas, Second Edition is a practical nuts-and-bolts guide for teachers from any discipline who want to design interest-provoking writing and critical thinking activities and incorporate them into their courses in a way that encourages inquiry, exploration, discussion, and debate. Integrating critical thinking with writing-across-the-curriculum approaches, the book shows how teachers from any discipline can incorporate these activities into their courses. This edition features new material dealing with genre and discourse community theory, quantitative/scientific literacy, blended and online learning, and other current issues."--Publisher information Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-352) and index 1. Using writing to promote thinking: a busy professor's guide to the whole book -- Part 1: Understanding connections between thinking and writing -- 2. How writing is related to critical thinking -- 3. Helping writers think rhetorically -- 4. Using a range of genres to extend critical thinking and deepen learning -- 5. Dealing with issues of grammar and correctness -- Part 2: Designing problem-based assignments -- 6. Formal writing assignments -- 7. Informal, exploratory writing activities -- Part 3: Coaching students as learners, thinkers, and writers -- 8. Designing tasks to promote active thinking and learning -- 9. Helping students read difficult texts -- 10. Using small groups to coach thinking and teach disciplinary argument -- 11. Bringing more critical thinking into lectures and discussions -- 12. Enhancing learning and critical thinking in essay exams -- 13. Designing and sequencing assignments to teach undergraduate research -- Part 4: Reading, commenting on, and grading student writing -- 14. Using rubrics to develop and apply grading criteria -- 15. Coaching the writing process and handling the paper load -- 16. Writing comments on students' papers