About the Book
Now in its tenth edition, this market—leading language reader continues to feature thought—provoking readings that explore the various interconnections between language and American society.
For over 25 years, this engaging reader has challenged students to critically examine how language affects and constructs culture and how culture constructs and affects language. This tenth edition maintains the integrity of past editions, while reflecting the new and fascinating language issues that exist in today's culture. Provocative selections are organized around nine major language areas, and then broken into stimulating sub—themes like political correctness, hate speech, language and the presidency, and censorship on campus, inviting students to debate current social and cultural issues that are inseparable from language.
Table of Contents:
* Notes a new selection to this edition.Preface.
Introduction: Thinking and Reading Critically.
What Is Critical Thinking?
Why Read Critically.
How to Read Critically.
Critical Reading in Action—Sample Essay for Analysis.
“The Selling of Rebellion” by John Leo.
Logical Fallacies.
Exploring the Language of Visuals.
1. Breaking Silences.
Beginnings: Moving From Silence Into Language.
“Language and Thought,” Susanne K. Langer.
“A Brief History of English,” Paul Roberts.
“The Story of Writing,” C.M. Millward.
“Another Language for the Deaf,” Margalit Fox.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: “Lessons in SignWriting” Valerie Sutton.
Personal Recollections: Coming to Language.
“Homemade Education,” Malcolm X.
“A Word for Everything,” Helen Keller.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: Sign Language.
“The Language of Silence,” Maxine Hong Kingston.
“The Jellyfish,” Susan Kinsolving.
“Spanish Lessons,” Christine Marín.
Speaking Out: Language that Inspired Change.
“Seneca Falls Declaration,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King Jr.
“Aren't I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth.
“The Struggle for Human Rights, ” Eleanor Roosevelt.
Visual: Margaret Sanger (silenced).
2. Writers Writing: Words in Contexts.
The Writing Process.
“Writing for an Audience,” Linda Flower.
“The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts,” Donald M. Murray.
“Getting Started,” Anne Lamott.
“What My Students Have Taught Me About Writing,” Pamela Childers.
“How I Write,” Evan Miller (student essay).
Finding the Right Words.
“The Case for Short Words,” Richard Lederer.
“Saying is Believing,” Patricia T. O'Conner.
“How To Write With Style,” Kurt Vonnegut.
“Clichè's Anyone?” James Issacs.
“The Financial Media’s 25 Worst Clichés,” Jonathan Clemens.
3. Politically Speaking.
Political Word Play.
“How to Detect Propaganda,” The Institute for Propaganda Analysis.
“Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell.
“The Pep Talk,” Hugh Rank.
“Doubts About Doublespeak,” William Lutz.
Language and the Presidency.
“The Rhetorical Presidency,” Robert E. Denton Jr., and Dan F. Hahn.
“Dubya and Me: We've Got No Idea,” Ian Frazier.
“The Making of the Speech,” D.T. Max.
“Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People,” George W. Bush.
Case Study: Terrorism and the War of Worlds..
“Semantics of Murder,” Amir Taheri.
“A True Jihad?” Jim Guirard.
“Fighting Words: The War Over Language,” John Hooten.
“A Lot to Learn,” David Brudnoy.
“Self Evident,” Ani Defranco.
“Nameless Event,” William Safire.
4. The Art of Conversation.
He Says, She Says: Differences in Discourse.
“Women Talk Too Much,”Janet Holmes.
“No Detial is Too Small for Girls Answering a Simple Question,” Tony Kornheiser.
“Sex Differences,” Ronald Maculay.
“I'll Explain It to You: Lecturing and Listening,”Deborah Tannen.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: “Men Are from Belgium, Women Are from New Brunswick.”
“Nonverbal Behavior: Culture, Gender, and the Media,” Teri Kwal Gamble and Michael Gamble.
Let's Talk About It: Conversation In Action.
“The Social Basis of Talk,” “Some Friends and I Started Talking: Conversation and Social Change,” Ronald Wardhaugh.
“A Few of My Friends Started Talking,”Margaret J. Wheatley.
“Like, Uptalk?,” James Gorman.
“The Other Side of E-Mail,” Robert Kuttner.
“Come in CQ: The Body on the Wire,” Ellen Ullman.
5. The Language of Humor: What Makes Us Laugh.
“Outsiders/Insiders,”Joseph Boskin.
“ Excerpt from the La La Awards,” Latins Anonymous.
“In Answer to the Question, Have You Ever Considered Suicide?” Kate Rushin.
“Mr. Language Person Takes A Hammer to Grammer,”Dave Barry.
Case Study: Political and Editorial Cartoons.
“Editorial Cartoonists - An Endangered Species?”Doug Marlette.
“What Is A Cartoon?”Mort Gerberg.
“Defiantly Incorrect: Humor of John Callahan,”Timoghy Egan.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: Cartoon by John Callahan, “wheelchair posse.”
“When Cartoonists Were at Their Wits' End,” James Ricci.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: Editorial Cartoons from September 11.
6. The Language of Mass Media and Advertising.
As Seen On TV.
TV News: “All the World in Pictures,”Neil Postman and Steve Powers.
“Oh, the Profanity!”Paul Farhi.
“Is Bad Language Unacceptable on TV?” BBC Online “Talking Point Forum.”
“Taking a 'War of Words' Too Literally,” Deborah Tannen.
“The Entertained Culture,”Tom Shachtman.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: Inset: Two-Headed Monsters.
The Language of Advertising.
“With These Words I Can Sell You Anything,” William Lutz.
“The Language of Advertising,” Charles A. O'Neill.
“Language Abuse,”Herschell Gordon Lewis.
“Selling America,” Sandra Silberstein.
*Exploring the Language of Visuals: American's Stand United, AAI Advertisement
*Exploring the Language of Visuals: Two Sample Ads for SUVs
7. Censorship and Free Speech.
Censorship and Books.
“The Freedom to Read,” The American Library Association.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: (inset) The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000.
“Book Banning, Real and Imaginary,”Jeff Jacoby.
“Is Harry Potter Evil?” Judy Blume.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: Huckleberry Finn Banned!
“Author's Afterword from Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury.
Case Study: Censorship on Campus.
“The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses,” Alan C. Kors.
“Regulating Racist Speech on Campus,”Charles Lawrence III.
“There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too,” Stanley Fish.
Speech codes at Harvard Law School.
“Muzzling Free Speech,” Harvey A. Sillverglate.
“Difficult Conversations,” Dorothy Rabinowitz.
“Censor This?” Austin Bramwell.
8. Political Correctness and Hate Speech.
Politically Correct Language.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: Lady Liberty Gagged.
“Hate Speech,” Robin Tomach Lakoff.
“Bias-Free Language: Some Guidelines,”Rosalie Maggio.
“The Word Police,” Michiko Kakutani.
“Beware the Advozealots: Mindless Good Intentions Injure the Handicapped,” Bernard Rimland.
Case Study: Words that Hurt.
“'Nigger': The Meaning of a Word,” Gloria Naylor.
“Some Notes on the Word `Nigger.’
“The Etymology of the International Insult,” Charles F. Berlitz.
“The 'R' Word: How Do You Avoid Saying 'Retarded?'” John Cook.
“Queer,” Lillian Faderman.
“Crimes Against Humanity,” Ward Churchill.
“Discrimination at Large,” Jennifer A. Coleman.
“Where Heaven and Earth Touch: A National 'Speak No Evil Day',”Joseph Telushkin.
9. Language and the USA.
What Is 'Standard English'?
“Why Good English Is Good for You,” John Simon.
“Everyone Has An Accent but Me, ” John Esling.
“Label Babel,” Richard Liebmann-Smith.
“Good English and Bad,” Bill Bryson.
English Only or Bilingualism?
“Bilingualism in America: English Should Be the Only Language,” S.I. Hayakawa.
Exploring the Language of Visuals: “Please Do Not Feed the Pigeons.”
“Let's Not Say Adios to Bilingual Education,” Lourdes Rovira.
“A Nation Divided by One Language,” James Crawford.
“My Spanish Standoff,” Gabriella Kuntz.
