This rhetorically organized reader, maintains the best features of the earlier editions: lively reading selections supported by helpful apparatus to integrate reading and writing in college composition and reading courses. In working through the text, the student progresses from key aspects of the writing and reading processes to chapters on the essential patterns of writing and then to more rigorous forms of analysis and argument. Each chapter provides diverse and lively prose models suited for discussion, analysis, and imitation.

Table of Contents:
The Short Prose Reader 13/eContentsThematic ContentsPrefaceChapter 1 On WritingJennifer Lee: I Think, Therefore IMA journalist and author explains how text messaging, Weblogs, and e-mail are changing the ways students write—and driving some teachers to distraction. John Grisham: How to Write with StyleThe best-selling author tells of the various odd jobs and adventures he had on the way to a successful writing career.William Zinsser: SimplicityAccording to this writer-teacher, “clutter is the disease of American writing.” We must, Zinsser declares, simplify. Amy Tan: Mother Tongue (Mixing Patterns)Novelist Amy Tan explains how her writing style achieved both passion and simplicity when she learned to value the criticism of her mother, who said after reading her daughter’s novel, “So easy to read.” Summing Up: Chapter 1From Seeing to WritingChapter 2 On ReadingJudith Ortiz Cofer: VolarA Latina writer recalls how reading helped her overcome her childhood circumstances. Malcolm XPrison Studies “Reading had changed forever the course of my life,” writes Malcolm X, who explains movingly how reading is both an activity of love and a tool of power. Eudora Welty One Writer’s Beginnings(Mixing Patterns)One of America’s best fiction writers reveals a long-standing love affair—with books! “Long before I wrote stories,” she says,“I listened for stories.” Anna Quindlen: Turning the Page (Mixing Patterns)An acclaimed essayist and novelist declares that the future of reading is backlit and bright. Summing Up: Chapter 2From Seeing to WritingChapter 3 DescriptionBarry Lopez: Apologia Lopez brings the eye of a naturalist and the soul of a humanist to a driving trip along the western roads of America.Annie Dillard: In the JungleAn acclaimed nature writer discovers in the Ecuadorian jungle the depths of experience that can be found in “the middle of nowhere.” Maxine Hong Kingston: Catfish in the BathtubSquirming turtles, swimming catfish, pungent skunks, city pigeons: Why did Kingston’s mother bring the culture of China to their California kitchen? Suzanne Berne: My Ticket to the Disaster (Mixing Patterns)A novelist evokes a puzzling and emotional visit to the site of the destroyed World Trade towers. Summing Up: Chapter 3From Seeing to WritingChapter 4 NarrationElizabeth Wong: The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl In a narrative of her youth, a writer remembers her efforts to obtain “a cultural divorce” from the heritage into which she was born. Langston Hughes: Salvation One of America’s foremost poets tells of his childhood disillusionment as he struggled desperately to see Jesus. Andrew Lam Waterloo This Vietnamese-American short story writer and journalist visits a famous European battlefield, triggering thoughts about hisfamily’s fate.George Orwell: A Hanging (Mixing Patterns)The renowned author of Animal Farm and 1984 discovers how precious human life is as he tells of witnessing an execution in Burma. “It is curious,” he recalls, “but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” Summing Up: Chapter 4From Seeing to WritingChapter 5 Process AnalysisMark A. Shiffrin and Avi Silberschatz: Thumbs on the Wheel The writers have a number of ideas to prevent a major problem on the road: using a cellphone while driving.Nora Ephron: How to Foil a Terrorist Plot in Seven Simple Steps A popular essayist, novelist, and screenwriter offers a hilarious spoof on our preoccupation with terrorism and terrorists. Ernest Hemingway: Camping Out Avoiding insects. Getting a good rest. Cooking trout just right. This essay can make anyone’s next camping trip a success. Henry Louis Gates Jr.: In the Kitchen (Mixing Patterns)A prolific writer and winner of a 1989 National Book Award explores the politics of the hairdo by recalling his experiences as a child in his mother’s home beauty parlor. Summing Up: Chapter 5From Seeing to WritingChapter 6 IllustrationBrent Staples: Night WalkerAn avid “night walker” explains how his seemingly innocent habit has turned him into “an accomplice in tyranny.” Barbara Ehrenreich: What I’ve Learned from Men The feminist social critic discovers that there is something useful to be learned from men after all: how to be tough. Eleanor Bader: Homeless on Campus “Advocates for the homeless report countless examples of students sleeping in their cars and sneaking into a school gym to shower and change clothes.” Jared Diamond: Globalization Rocked the Ancient World Too (Mixing Patterns)Globalization, Diamond claims, is nothing new: Early farmers carried their genes, foods, technologies, cultures, and languages around the world. Summing Up: Chapter 6From Seeing to WritingChapter 7 Comparison and ContrastRachel Carson: A Fable for Tomorrow One of America’s most celebrated naturalists warns us of the future in a grim contrast between a flourishing environment and a destroyed landscape plagued by a mysterious curse. Dave Barry: Punch and Judy The newspaper humorist takes a close look at the war of the sexes and isn’t quite sure which side he should be on. Michele Ingrassia: The Body of the Beholder This writer focuses on a study that discovered why white girls dislike their bodies, but black girls are proud of theirs.” Deborah Tannen: Mom's Unforgiving Mirror A prominent professor of linguistics who frequently writes on gender issues reflects on the reasons her mother constantly focuses on her daughter’s slight imperfections. Summing Up: Chapter 7From Seeing to Writing Chapter 8 Cause-and-Effect AnalysisStephen King: Why We Crave Horror Movies The acknowledged master of horror shares his thoughts on why people love to be frightened. Elie Wiesel: The America I Love Holocaust survivor, author, and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel explains what prompted him to become an American citizen more than forty years ago and how he feels about his adopted country today. Bob Herbert: Tweet Less, Kiss More (Mixing Patterns) A columnist asks why we are so obsessed with our e-mail, cellphones, Kindles, and iPads.Katha Pollitt: Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls (Mixing Patterns)This well-known feminist analyzes the disconnect between the two sexes.Summing Up: Chapter 8From Seeing to WritingChapter 9 ClassificationAkbar Ahmed Mystics, Modernists, and LiteralistsAhmed believes that we cannot understand the Muslim people until we understand these classifications and what they mean for the members of each group. Jedediah Purdy: Shades of GreenA law professor takes a critical look at “several environmentalisms.” Amy Rashap: The American Dream for Sale: Ethnic Images in Magazines This writer claims that advertisements and other images in American magazines classify ethnic groups on the basis of prevailing stereotypes. James T. Baker: How Do We Find the Student in a World of Academic Gymnasts and Worker Ants? (Mixing Patterns)This gently satirical essay introduces a dozen student types that everyone knows and loves—among others, the performer, the jock, the lost soul, the worker ant, and finally, the student. Summing Up: Chapter 9From Seeing to WritingChapter 10 DefinitionDagoberto Gilb: Pride The popular Chicano writer takes a poetic approach to explaining how a common but complicated human emotion manifests itself in the deserts of Texas. Thomas L. Friedman: Generation Q Celebrated New York Times contributor and best-selling author Thomas Friedman takes pride in the current generation of college students. Karen Armstrong: Fundamentalism Is Here to Stay (Mixing Patterns) Fundamentalism, declares this acclaimed writer on religion, is “essentially a revolt against modern secular society.” Gloria Naylor: A Word’s Meaning (Mixing Patterns)Novelist and short fiction writer Gloria Naylor asserts that the meaning of a word goes beyond the dictionary—especially when it is the N-word. Summing Up: Chapter 10From Seeing to WritingChapter 11Argumentation and PersuasionArguments Pro and Con: Friend or Foe?John Lemuel: Why I Registered on Facebook A college professor fights his own inhibitions and joins the popular online social networking site. Ryan Singel: Facebook's Gone Rogue; It's Time for an Open Alternative A full-time blogger complains about Facebook’s betrayal of itsmembers.Perspectives on Ethnicity: Who Are We, and How AreWe Formed?John Edgar Wideman: The Seat Not taken A constantly empty seat beside him on regular train trips forces this writer to draw unpleasant conclusions. Manuel Muñoz: Leave Your Name at the Border (Mixing Patterns) This short story writer argues that different people and groups respond to his name—and the author himself—from clashing perspectivesRichard Rodriguez: The Great Wall of America (Mixing Patterns) A well-known writer on race and ethnicity argues that protective barriers do not make a nation safe. Ronald Takaki: The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority A leading scholar argues that not only is the idea of uniform Asian-American superiority a myth, but a myth that often veils racist sentiment directed at other groups. Perspectives on Political Rights: Are We Truly Free?Molly Ivins: Get a Knife, Get a Dog, But Get Rid of Guns A witty, sharp-tongued columnist and political critic argues that the Bill of Rights ought not to protect “gun nuts.” Martin Luther King Jr.: I Have a Dream In one of the great pieces of American oratory, King argues logically, emotionally, and ethically for equality of the races. Susan Cheever: Baby Battle A well-known novelist and nonfiction writer declares, “There is a war going on in the streets of New York City” between the Stay-at-Home Mothers and their adversaries, the Working Mothers and Women Without Children. Summing Up: Chapter 11From Seeing to WritingAPPENDIX: A GUIDE TO RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATIONWhat Are Research and Documentation?The Research ProcessPhase I: Choosing and Limiting a TopicPhase II: Gathering and Organizing MaterialPhase III: Writing the PaperPhase IV: Documenting SourcesSample Student Research PaperGLOSSARYCREDITSINDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES