This best-selling collection features ten chapters focusing on the classic methods of narration, description, argument, and persuasion. It contains classic and contemporary essays about popular culture, along with advice about how to read analytically, and how to write persuasively and effectively. Fifteen new essays, including timely topics such as Wikipedia, Facebook, and Iraq. Each chapter is organized clearly and effectively, enabling the reader to not only understand each essay and but also what the writer was trying to convey. 

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS   THEMATIC CONTENTS   PREFACE   HOW TO READ AN ESSAY      Exploring the links between reading and writing           Why do you read essays in a writing course?           How does reading an essay help you become a better writer?           How does writing help you become a better reader?           What is the difference between an active and a passive reader?           What steps do you follow to become an active reader?      Practicing active reading: A model           Lewis Thomas, “On Cloning a Human Being”      Some things to remember about active reading   HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY      Getting ready to write           Where do you start when you have an assigned topic?           Where do you start when you have to choose your own topic?           How do you gather information?                Exploring personal experience and observation                Freewriting to get words down                Daily writing in journals and blogs                Brainstorming and mapping                Asking formal questions                Interviewing           How do you write a thesis statement?      Writing a draft           How do you structure your paper?           How do you write an introduction?           How do you write a conclusion?           How do you check the structure of your essay?      Some things to remember about writing a draft   HOW TO REVISE AN ESSAY      Revising the essay           What does revising mean?           What are the steps in revising?           What is a revision log and why is it important?           Why should you get help from your peers?           What can you expect from a writing center or writing tutor?           How should you prepare for a conference with your instructor?           Why is proofreading important?      Some things to remember about revising   WRITERS AT WORK      A student writer: Tina Burton, “The Watermelon Wooer”      A professional writer: Gordon Grice, “Caught in the Widow’s Web”           Notebook entries           Drafts           Final essay   CHAPTER ONE: GATHERING AND USING EXAMPLES      Getting ready to write           How important are examples in your writing?           Where can you find your examples?           How do you gather examples from your experiences?           How do you gather examples from outside sources?      Writing           How many examples do you need?           How do you place examples into your essay?      Revising           Are your examples good choices?           How did you order or arrange your examples?           Did you make transitions as you moved from example to example?                     Student essay:     Frank Smite, “Looking for Love”      Some things to remember about using examples      Seeing example in other contexts                          Literary:         Brett Lott, “Night”                          Reading:         Steven Pinker, from The Language Instinct           Visual:     Photographs      Additional writing suggestions using example        Anna Quindlen, “The Name Is Mine"          “I was given it at birth, and I have never changed it, although I married.”      Bob Greene, “Cut"          “In driving around the country, I have found that an inordinately large proportion of successful men share that same memory–the memory of being cut from a sports team as a boy.”      Edwidge Danticat, “Westbury Court"          “Even now, I question what I remember about the children. Did they really die? Or did their mother simply move away with them after the fire?”      Oscar Casares, “Ready for Some Fútbol?”          “Speedy Gonzales, the famous cartoon star of the fifties and sixties, has been in the news again lately.”      Brock Read, “Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?"          “Among academics, however, Wikipedia continues to receive mixed–and often failing–grades.”   CHAPTER TWO: NARRATION      Getting ready to write           What is narration and what are its elements?           What are the common forms of narrative writing?           What do you write about if nothing ever happened to you?           What do you include in a narrative?      Writing           How do you structure a narrative?           How do you end a narrative?           How are narratives told?           How do you write dialogue?      Revising           How do you revise a narrative?                Pruning out unnecessary detail                Making your essay’s structure clear                Looking again at the difference between showing and telling      Student essay:     Hope Zucker, “The Ruby Slippers”      Some things to remember about writing narration      Seeing narration in other contexts                          Literary:         Peggy McNally, “Waiting”                          Reading:         S.E. Schlosser, “Blue Hen’s Chicks”                          Visual:     Photographs      Additional writing suggestions for narration        Langston Hughes, “Salvation”          “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen”      Maya Angelou, “Sister Monroe”          “Each time they pried Sister Monroe loose from the preacher he took another deep breath and kept on preaching, and Sister Monroe grabbed him in another place, and more firmly.”      Tom Haines, “Famine”          “What comes from knowing people who, with an empty grain basket or a thinning goat, edge closer to death?”      Allison Perkins, “Mission Iraq"          “He didn’t tell me it was dark. He didn’t tell me it was quiet.”      Evans Hopkins, “Lockdown"          “I have endured lockdowns in buildings with little or no heat; lockdowns during which the authorities cut off the plumbing completely, so contraband couldn’t be flushed          away; and lockdowns where we weren’t allowed to shower for more than a month.”   CHAPTER THREE: DESCRIPTION      Getting ready to write           What is description?           If recording sense impressions in words is difficult, why should you bother?           What is the difference between objective and subjective description?           What do you include and what do you exclude from a description?      Writing           How do you describe an object or a place?           How do you describe a person?           How do you organize a description?      Revising           How do you revise a description?                Overusing adjectives and adverbs                Overusing figurative language                Keeping focused                     Student essay:     Nadine Resnick, “Natalie”      Some things to remember about writing description      Seeing description in other contexts                          Literary:         Duane BigEagle, “Traveling to Town”                          Reading:         Charles Dickens, from Bleak House                          Visual:     Photograph      Additional writing suggestions for description        Debra Ann Davis, “A Pen by the Phone"          “My father did have one request in life. All he ever wanted was a pen by the phone.”      N. Scott Momaday, “The Way to Rainy Mountain”          “I returned to Rainy Mountain in July. My grandmother had died in the spring, and I wanted to be at her grave.”      William Least Heat Moon, “Nameless, Tennessee”          “`You think Nameless is a funny name,’ Miss Ginny said, `I see it plain in your eyes. Well, you take yourself up north a piece to Difficult, Defeated or Shake Rag. Now them are silly names.’”      Terry Tempest Williams, “The Village Watchman"          “`Breech,’ my mother told me of my brother’s birth. `Allan was born feet first. As a result, his brain was denied oxygen. He is special.’”      Scott Russell Sanders, “The Inheritance of Tools”          “At just about the hour when my father died, soon after dawn one February morning when ice coated the windows like cataracts, I banged my thumb with a hammer.”   CHAPTER FOUR: DIVISION AND CLASSIFICATION      Getting ready to write           What is division?           What is classification?           How do you choose a subject?      Writing           How do you divide or classify a subject?                Defining a purpose                Making your classification or division complete                Using parallelism           How do you structure a division or classification essay?      Revising           How do you revise a division or classification essay?                Having a clear purpose                Keeping the analysis logically structured                Making sure the categories or parts are proportionally developed                Checking for parallelism one more time                     Student essay:     Evan James, “Riding the Rails: The American Hobo”      Some things to remember about writing division and classification      Seeing division and classification in other contexts                          Literary:         Aurora Levis Morales, “Child of the Americas”                          Reading:         Mark Lester, from Grammar in the Classroom                          Visual:     Photograph      Additional writing suggestions for division and classification        David Bodanis, “What’s in Your Toothpaste?”          “So it’s chalk, seaweed, antifreeze, paraffin oil, detergent, peppermint, formaldehyde, and fluoride–that’s the usual mixture raised to the mouth on the toothbrush for a fresh          morning's clean.”      Barbara Ehrenreich, “In Defense of Talk Shows”          “As anyone who actually watches them knows, the talk shows are one of the excruciatingly moralistic forums the culture has to offer.”      Pico Iyer, “This Is Who I Am When No One Is Looking”          "My secret life, as Leonard Cohen calls it, also happens to be my deepest and my best life.”          Judith Ortiz Cofer, “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria”          “Every time I give a reading, I hope the stories I tell, the dreams and fears I examine in my work, can achieve some universal truth that will get my audience past the particulars of           my skin color, my accent, or my clothes.”      Bernard R. Berelson, “The Value of Children: A Taxonomical Essay"          “Why do people want children? It is a simple question to ask, perhaps an impossible one to answer.”      Deborah Tannen, “But What Do You Mean?”          “Unfortunately, women and men often have different ideas about what’s appropriate, different ways of speaking.”   CHAPTER FIVE: COMPARISON AND CONTRAST      Getting ready to write           What is comparison and contrast?           How do you choose a subject?           Do you always find both similarities and differences?      Writing           How do you structure a comparison and contrast essay?           How do you use analogy, metaphor, and simile?      Revising           How do you revise a comparison and contrast essay?                Avoiding the obvious                Keeping the analysis logically structured                     Student essay:     Alicia Gray, “Minimizing the Guesswork in a Library Search”      Some things to remember about writing comparison and contrast      Seeing comparison and contrast in other contexts                          Literary:         Martin Espada, “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio”                          Reading:         John McPhee, from Oranges                          Visual:     Before and after photographs      Additional writing suggestions for comparison and contrast      Alice Mathias, “The Fakebook Generation"          “I’ve always thought of Facebook as online community theater.”      William Zinsser, “The Transaction: Two Writing Processes”          “A school in Connecticut once held `a day devoted to the arts,’ and I was asked if I would come and talk about writing as a vocation. When I arrived I found that a second speaker had          been invited–Dr. Brock . . . a surgeon who had recently begun to write.”      David Sedaris, “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa”          “When Hugh was in the fifth grade, his class took a field trip to an Ethiopian slaughterhouse. He was living in Addis Ababa at the time, and the slaughterhouse was chosen because, he          says, `it was convenient.’”      Suzanna Britt, “Neat People vs. Sloppy People"      “I’ve finally figured out the difference between neat people and sloppy people. The distinction is, as always, moral. Neat people are lazier and meaner than sloppy people.”      Danzy Senna, “The Color of Love”          “We had this much in common: We were both women, and we were both writers. But we were as different as two people can be and still exist in the same family.”      Meghan Daum, “Virtual Love”          “It was the courtship ritual that had seduced us. E-mail had become an electronic epistle, a yearned-for rule book. It allowed us to do what was necessary to experience love.”   CHAPTER SIX: PROCESS      Getting ready to write           What is process?           How do you choose a subject to write about?      Writing           How do you structure a process essay?      Revising           How do you revise a process essay?               Choosing an interesting and manageable subject of interest to a reader               Checking for logical organization                Beginning and ending                     Student essay:     Julie Anne Halbfish, “How to Play Dreidel”      Some things to remember about writing process      Seeing process in other contexts                          Literary:         Janice Mirikitani, “Recipe”                          Reading:         CareerWomen.com, “Getting the Interview”                          Visual:     Photography      Additional writing suggestions for process        Lars Eighner, “My Daily Dives in the Dumpster”       “I began scavenging by pulling pizzas out of the dumpster behind a pizza delivery shop.”      Nora Ephron, “Revision and Life: Take It from the Top–Again”       “I have been asked to write something for a textbook that is meant to teach college students something about writing and revision.”      Walter Mosley, “For Authors, Fragile Ideas Need Loving Every Day”       “`I know I have a novel in me,’ I often hear people say. `But how can I get it out?’”      David Brooks, “The Culture of Martyrdom”        “Suicide bombing is the crack cocaine of warfare. It doesn’t just inflict death and terror on its victims, it intoxicates the people who sponsor it.”          Charlie Drozdyk, “Into the Loop: How to Get the Job You Want after Graduation”       “Finding a job by interviewing with firms that show up on your campus is like getting a job through the want ads–it’s a passive take-what’s-being-thrown-in-front-of-you approach.”      Jennifer Kahn, “Stripped for Parts”        “None of this is what I expected from an organ transplant.”   CHAPTER SEVEN: CAUSE AND EFFECT      Getting ready to write           What is cause and effect?           Why do you write a cause-and-effect analysis?           How do you choose a subject?           How do you evaluate cause and effects?      Writing           How do you structure a cause-and-effect essay?      Revising           How do you revise a cause-and-effect essay?                Retesting your subject                Concentrating on the important                Checking for logical organization                Beginning and ending                     Student essay:     Cathy Ferguson, “The Influence of Televised Violence on Children”      Some things to remember about writing cause and effect      Seeing cause and effect in other contexts                          Literary:         Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll”                          Reading:         www.emedicinehealth.com, “What Causes Migraine Headaches?”                          Visual:     Photograph      Additional writing suggestions for cause and effect        E. M. Forster, “My Wood”        “What is the effect of property upon the character?”      Joan Jacob Brumberg, “The Origins of Anorexia Nervosa”        “By returning to its origins, we can see anorexia nervosa for what it is: a dysfunction in the bourgeois family system.”          Andres Martin, “On Teenagers and Tattoos”         “Tattoos and piercing have become a part of our everyday landscape.”      Brent Staples, “Black Men and Public Space”         “My first victim was a woman–white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties.”      Veronica Chambers, “Dreadlocked”         “Hairdressers despaired like cowardly lion tamers at the thought of training my kinky hair. `This is some hard hair,’ they would say. I knew that I was not beautiful and I blamed it on my          hair.”      Natalie Angier, “Drugs, Sports, Body Image and G.I. Joe”         “The extra muscle bulk that comes from steroid use may drag an athlete down without compensating for the added weight through better performance.”   CHAPTER EIGHT: DEFINITION      Getting ready to write           What is definition?           What is the difference between denotation and connotation?           How much do you include in a definition?      Writing           How do you structure a definition essay?      Revising           How do you revise a definition essay?                Paying attention to your audience                Checking organization                Beginning and ending                     Student essay:     Sherry Heck, “Infallible”      Some things to remember about writing definition      Seeing definition in other contexts                          Literary:         Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”                          Reading:         ColumbiaElectronic Encyclopedia, “Definition of ADHD”                          Visual:     Photograph      Additional writing suggestions for definition        Ellen Goodman, “Our Do-It-Yourself Economy”         “You and I, my fellow Americans, have become the unpaid laborers of a do-it-yourself economy.”      Judy Brady, “I Want a Wife”          “I belong to that classification of people known as wives. I am A Wife.”      Robin D. G. Kelley, “The People in Me”          “`So what are you?’ I don’t know how many times people have asked me that. `Are you Puerto Rican? Dominican? Indian or something? You must be mixed.’”      Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”        “Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all–all the Englishes I grew up with.”      Diane Ravitch, “You Can’t Say That”        “To judge by the magazines we read, the programs we watch or the music lyrics we hear, it would seem that almost anything goes, these days, when it comes to verbal expression. But          that is not quite true.”      Margaret Atwood, “The Female Body”         “I agree it’s a hot topic. But only one? Look around, there’s a wide range.”       CHAPTER NINE: ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION      Getting ready to write           Where do you begin when you want to argue or persuade?           What is the difference between arguing and persuading?           What do you already know about arguing and persuading?           How do you analyze your audience?           What does it take to convince a reader?      Writing           How do you connect your thesis and your evidence in an argument?           How do you make sure that your argument is logical?           How do you structure an argument?      Revising           How do you revise an argumentative or persuasive essay?                Understanding and respecting your opposition                Remembering where you are: being honest and fair                Ending forcefully                     Student essay:     Beth Jaffe, “Lowering the Cost of a College Education”      Some things to remember about writing argument and persuasion      Seeing argument and persuasion in other contexts                          Literary:         Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”                          Reading:         www.teenadvice.about.com, “Top 5 Reasons Youth Should Vote”                          Visual:     World War I recruiting poster      Additional writing suggestions for argument and persuasion        DEBATE: Is a College Education Worth the Cost?      Katherine Porter, “The Value of a College Degree”       “Many wonder whether the high cost of tuition, the opportunity cost of choosing college over full-time employment, and the accumulation of thousands of dollars of debt is, in the        long run, worth the investment.”      Linda Lee, “The Case Against College”        “America is obsessed with college.”        DEBATE: Impact of Outsourcing Jobs      Claudia O’Keefe, “The Traveling Bra Salesman’s Lesson”        “Those mythic decades, during which The American Dream was considered our natural right, are over. We need to wake from our state of denial, accept this golden era’s passing, and get         on with life.”      Bruce Raynor, “Protect Workers’ Rights”        “A prosperous economy requires that workers be able to buy the products that they produce.”            DEBATE: Water–Public or Private?      Fredrik Segerfeldt, “The Private Sector Can Get Water Flowing to the Poor”        “Worldwide, 1.1 billion people, mainly in poor countries, do not have access to clean, safe water.”          Joshua Ortega, “Water Wars: Bottling Up the World’s Supply of H20"        “Water corporations exist to make profits–not to preserve water’s quality or affordability.”        Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream”        “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”      Richard Rodriguez, “None of This Is Fair”        “It’s all very simple this year. You’re a Chicano. And I am a Jew. That’s the only real difference between us.”       CHAPTER TEN: COMBINATIONS AT WORK      Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”        “A healthy young child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.”      E. B. White, “Once More to the Lake”       “It seemed to me, as I kept remembering all this, that those times and those summers has been infinitely precious and worth saving.”      Peter Singer, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”       “The formula is simple: whatever money you’re spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away.”   CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE RESEARCH PAPER      Getting ready to write           What is the freshman research paper?           If all papers require research, what is different about a research paper?           Why are you asked to write a research paper?           How much of my research paper is direct quotation from my sources?           How do you find a research paper topic?                STUDENT WRITERS: Selecting a topic           What is the difference among subject, topic, and thesis?           Do you always start with a thesis?            Starting your research           How do you plan a search strategy?                Searching by author and title                     Searching by a subject heading                Searching by keywords           How do you locate books on your subject?                Using reference books as a starting place                CAUTION: Using Wikipedia as a source                Finding books in your school’s library catalog                Browsing the library’s book shelves           How do you locate online sources about your subject and topic?                Choosing a search engine                    TIPS FOR STARTING A WEB SEARCH ON GOOGLE                Learning how to search the Web                USING OPERATORS IN YOUR WEB SEARCH           How do you evaluate the sources you find on the Web?           How do you find sources published in magazines, journals, and newspapers?           Where do you start your search for periodical sources?           How do you locate government documents relevant to your topic?           How do you interview people for a research paper?           How do you evaluate your print sources?      Writing            How does researching help you write your paper?                STUDENT WRITER: DRAFTING           How do you integrate sources into your paper?           How do you shorten a quotation using ellipses?           Why do you need to acknowledge and document your sources?           Why do you need documentation if some of your sources from popular magazines and newspapers did not provide them?           What documentation system do you use in your paper?           Can you find software programs to help with documentation?           How do you work quotations into your text?            Revising                STUDENT WRITERS: REVISING           When you review your research paper a final time, to what should you pay attention?           How do you prepare a “list of works cited” or “references” page?   STUDENT RESEARCH PAPERS   Kristen LaPorte, “Music as a Healing Power: A Look into the Effect of Music Therapy on Alzheimer’s Patients”        Bailey Kung, “Graffiti: Art or Vandalism”             GLOSSARY AND READY REFERENCE   CREDITS   INDEX