Eighty Readings This newly revised collection of professional and student essays --written to inform, persuade, or inspire -- is arranged thematically with an alternate rhetorical table of contents. Less than half the cost of standard composition readers, this brief, but substantial, essay anthology is priced to accommodate students' tight budgets.

Table of Contents:
Preface. 1. Writers on Writing. Joan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook. Anne Johnson (student), On “On Keeping a Notebook.” Susan Scarbek (student), Monkey See, Monkey Do. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Introduction to Frankenstein. John O'Hayre, A First Look at Gobbledygook. Virginia Woolf, If Shakespeare Had a Sister. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Journal Notes on Thoreau. Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture 1993. William Safire, The Perfect Paragraph. Kurt Vonnegut, How to Write with Style. Donald M. Murray, The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscript. John Keats, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be. George Schimmel (student), Redaction in Keats' “When I Have Fears.” 2. Nature. Chief Seattle, Address. Allison Hobgood (student), Sioux Sun Dance Ceremony. Diana Peck (student), The Shellfish of Arey's Pond. Mark Twain, Two Views of the Mississippi. John Muir, A Wind-Storm in the Forests. Andrew Campbell (student), Night in the Woods. Mary Austin, Water Trails of the Ceriso. Barry Lopez, Encounter on the Tundra. Edward Abbey, Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks. Al Gore, Remarks to Climate Change Conference. Carey McAlister (student), Spatial Memory in Pigeons and Rats. 3. Women and Men. Mary Wollstonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. John Stuart Mill, from The Subjection of Women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments and Resolution. Olive Schreiner, Sex-Parasitism. D.H. Lawrence, Pornography. Margaret Atwood, Pornography. Lisa Shin (student), Response to Lawrence and Atwood on Pornography. Mark Gerzon, Manhood: The Elusive Goal. Paul Theroux, Being a Man. Anita K. Blair, Shattering the Myth of the Glass Ceiling. Lester C. Thurow, Why Women Are Paid Less Than Men. Kay Ebeling, The Failure of Feminism. Felicia Andersen (student), Why I Am Not a Feminist. 4. Customs and Habits. Jane Austen, from Pride and Prejudice. Leah Neuman (student), Calling a “Boy” for a “Date.” Stephanie A. Crockett, 'Haven't We Met … ?': The Pickup Line Just Goes On and On. Kathleen Doheny, Desperately Seeking … Anyone. Adam Burrell (student), Time Torture. W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of White Folk. William Raspberry, The Handicap of Definition. Melvin Konner, Kick off Your Heels. 5. Politics and Belief. Translations of the Bible. D. T. Suzuki, What Is Zen? John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address. Adlai E. Stevenson, Veto of the “Cat Bill.” Eileen Williams (student), Mandatory AIDS Testing for Job Applicants. Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal. Mark Twain, Running for President. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, School Prayer (con position). The American Center for Law and Justice, School Prayer (pro position). 6. Rights and Obligations. Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address. Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro. Henry David Thoreau, An Immoral Law. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail. Catherine Garaldi (student), King's Way with Words. Linda Hasselstrom, The Cow versus the Animal Rights Activist. Tom Regan, Animal Rights, Human Wrongs. Stephen Rose, Proud to Be Speciesist. Thomas Sowell, Cold Compassion. Katha Pollitt, A Dangerous Game on Abortion. Roy Bowen Ward, Is the Fetus a Person? The Bible's View. Sarah Doud (student), Changing Kyle. Katherine Crane (student), Handling Room. 7. Coming of Age. Zora Neale Hurston, I Get Born. Edith Wharton, The Valley of Childish Things. Annie Dillard, from An American Childhood. Ashley Wagner (student), The Third Row. Richard Wright, The Library Card. Aaliyah El-Amin (student), Milestones. Russell Baker, from Growing Up. Mark Gerrard (student), Bozo Revisited. Anne Frank, Diary. E. B. White, Once More to the Lake. Pearl Klein (student), Once More to the Pool. Jonathan Muir (student), Bottom of the Ninth. Acknowledgments. Rhetorical Index