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The Curious Researcher: Inquiry in the Age of AI, 10th edition

Published by Pearson (November 26, 2024) © 2025

  • Bruce Ballenger
  • Kelly Myers Boise State University

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For courses in Research Writing.

Empower students to bring fact-based writing to life

The Curious Researcher: Inquiry in the Age of AI provides an inquiry-based guide to writing research papers that shows how to harness the power of AI. This appealing alternative to traditional research texts stands apart due to its conviction that research writing can be full of rewarding discoveries. Throughout the text, Bruce Ballenger and new co-author Kelly Myers stress that curiosity is the best reason for investigating ideas.

The 10th Edition has been thoroughly revised to show students how they can leverage generative AI in their research and writing without surrendering authority over their work.

Hallmark features of this title

  • An engaging, informal writing style demonstrates and advocates for interesting writing.
  • An emphasis on inquiry-based investigations frames research papers as opportunities for discovery and learning.
  • A focus on exploratory research positions writers’ personal interests, interpretations and judgments at the heart of the process.
  • Instruction on reading like a researcher provides techniques for reading source material strategically and critically.
  • The text’s 5-week structure suggests weekly activities and assignments that keep the process going and combat procrastination.
  • Full treatment of MLA and APA citation formats, including thorough coverage of electronic formats, provides students with the tools they need.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: Reflected in the new subtitle “Inquiry in the Age of AI,” the 10th Edition helps students harness the power of generative AI in their research and writing. Throughout this thoroughly revised edition, the authors explain how to effectively deploy AI as a research assistant. They identify useful categories of AI prompts and commands that can help writers with a range of challenges, including:
    • developing a working knowledge of a topic
    • framing a researchable question
    • analyzing drafts and collaborating on revisions
  • NEW: An Eye on AI features raise timely questions about the ethics of using AI to help write papers. In these sections, the authors reflect upon their own questions and concerns about how AI is changing things for college writers and researchers.
  • NEW: For the 10th Edition, author Bruce Ballenger is joined by new co-author Dr. Kelly Myers. Dr. Myers brings new perspectives that strengthen the text, including a deep understanding of the first-year student experience, a grounding in rhetoric and a keen understanding of argument.
  1. Thinking about, and Rethinking, Researched Writing
    • 0.1 Generative AI as a Writing Assistant
    • 0.2 Using This Book
    • 0.3 Pen to Paper: Fastwriting and Notebooks
    • 0.4 Patience: The 5-Week Plan
    • 0.5 Process: Unpacking Your Assignment
    • 0.6 Facts Don’t Kill
    • 0.7 Creative Research Papers?
    • 0.8 Following the Furrows
  2. The First Week
    • 1.1 Generative AI and Research: The Crew Not the Captain
    • 1.2 The Importance of Getting Curious
    • 1.3 Developing a Working Knowledge
    • 1.4 Narrowing the Subject
    • 1.5 “Why I Write?”
    • 1.6 Reading for Research: A Metaphor
    • 1.7 Following the Furrows
  3. The Second Week
    • 2.1 What Are Your Research Routines?
    • 2.2 Planning for the Dive
    • 2.3 An AI-assisted Literature Review
    • 2.4 Developing Focused Knowledge
    • 2.5 Keeping Track of What You Find: Building a Bibliography
    • 2.6 The College Library and the Defense of Access
    • 2.7 Searching Library Databases for Books and Articles
    • 2.8 Advanced Internet Research Using Google Scholar
    • 2.9 Searching Library Sources
    • 2.10 Living Sources: Interviews and Surveys
    • 2.11 Fieldwork: Research on What You See and Hear
    • 2.12 Following the Furrows
  4. The Third Week
    • 3.1 Writing in the Middle: Conversing with Sources
    • 3.2 Notetaking as a Scene of Writing
    • 3.3 Dialogues with Generative AI
    • 3.4 Working with Sources: A Shifting Relationship
    • 3.5 Plagiarism Q & A
    • 3.6 Why Plagiarism Matters
    • 3.7 The Notetaker’s Triad: Quotation, Paraphrase and Summary
    • 3.8 Notetaking Methods
    • 3.9 When You’re Coming Up Short: More Advanced Searching Techniques
    • 3.10 Following the Furrows
  5. The Fourth Week
    • 4.1 Your Thinking, Your Draft
    • 4.2 Getting to the Draft
    • 4.3 Organizing the Draft
    • 4.4 Preparing to Write the Draft
    • 4.5 Starting to Write the Draft: Beginning at the Beginning
    • 4.6 Writing for Reader Interest
    • 4.7 Writing with Sources
    • 4.8 Driving through the First Draft
    • 4.9 Following the Furrows
  6. The Fifth Week
    • 5.1 Generative AI Couldn’t Write This
    • 5.2 Strategies for Global Revision
    • 5.3 Using Generative AI to Evaluate the Draft
    • 5.4 Using Generative AI to Re-research
    • 5.5 Local Revision: Revising for Language and Voice
    • 5.6 Using Generative AI to Evaluate Style and Persona
    • 5.7 Preparing the Final Manuscript
    • 5.8 Following the Furrows

Appendix A: Communicating Your Research

  • A1 Life Beyond the Research Paper
  • A2 Genre-Fit: Finding the Best Match for Your Rhetorical Goals
  • A3 Learning a New Technology
  • A4 Quick Guide to Multimedia Genres
  • A5 Following the Furrows

Appendix B: Guide to the New MLA Style

  • B1 Citing Sources in Your Work
  • B2 Building Citations for the Work Cited Page
  • B3 Preparing the Works Cited Page and Other Formatting
  • B4 Student Paper in MLA Style

Appendix C: Guide to APA Style

  • C1 Citing Sources in Your Essay
  • C2 Formatting Your Essay
  • C3 Preparing the References List
  • C4 Student Paper in APA Style

About our authors

Bruce Ballenger, an emeritus professor of English at Boise State University, taught courses in composition, composition theory, the essay tradition and creative nonfiction. He’s the author of 7 books, including the 3 texts in the Curious series: The Curious Researcher, The Curious Reader and The Curious Writer, all from Pearson Education. His book Crafting Truth: Short Studies in Creative Nonfiction, is also from the same publisher. Ballenger lives in Boise, Idaho.

Kelly Myers is an Associate Professor of Writing Studies and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boise State. In the Department of Writing Studies, she teaches undergraduate courses that focus on writing, rhetoric and revision. Her current research project explores the rhetoric around failure and regret. In her administrative work, she oversees advising, first-year experience, and student persistence and re-enrollment. Myers co-authored the 6th Edition of The Curious Writer with Bruce Ballenger and Michelle Payne. She lives in Boise with her husband, daughter and dogs.

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