The following was presented in a roundtable session at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (November 3, 2018) at the South Padre Island Convention Center, Texas with Romeo García of the University of Utah, Jorge Ortega of Weber State University, and Jonathan Ramirez of Salt Lake Community College. I’m looking at my yellow notepad on which I’ve scrawled “NCPTW 2018” at the top. Yes, I do still primarily draft by hand, even though I have handwriting that would put even the most diehard pharmacist to the test. I’ve written a note to myself, lest I forget, “START WITH SOMETHING CONTROVERSIAL” in all caps. And now, as I’m actually typing this into my computer I’m asking myself why? As a rhetorical device, starting with a controversial statement is, most likely, meant to rile your audience up--get them to pay attention. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little weary these days of the controversial--the attention-grabbing. Ok, so in case you were wondering, my “controv
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