This portable writing guide and reader presents five highly engaging chapters of readings from five disciplines (communication, psychology, sociology, health, marketing) and a brief writing guide that covers the skills of summary, critique, analysis, and synthesis.

Table of Contents:
Preface A Note to the Student I. HOW TO WRITE SUMMARIES, CRITIQUES, SYNTHESES, AND ANALYSES 1. Summary What is a Summary? Can a Summary Be Objective? Using the Summary The Reading Process How to Write Summaries Demonstration:  Summary Avoiding Plagiarism 2. Critical Reading and Critique Critical Reading Critique Demonstration: Critique Practice Critique 3. Synthesis What Is a Synthesis? Purpose Using Your Sources Types of Syntheses: Argument and Explanatory How to Write Syntheses The Argument Synthesis Demonstration: Developing a Source-Based Argument Synthesis Developing and Organizing Support for Your Arguments The Comparison-and-Contrast Synthesis The Explanatory Synthesis Summary 4. Analysis What Is an Analysis? Demonstration of Analysis How to Write Analyses Analysis: A Tool for Understanding   II. An Anthology of Readings SOCIOLOGY  5.Marriage and Family in America The Satisfactions of Housewifery and Motherhood/ Paradise Lost, Terry Martin Hekker The Radical Idea of Marrying for Love, Stephanie Coontz The State of Our Unions, David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead Debunking Myths about Marriage and Families, Mary Ann Schwartz and Barbara Marliene Scott A Debate on Gay Marriage, Andrew Sullivan / William Bennett Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path—to Motherhood, Louise Story What Yale Women Want, and Why It Is Misguided, Karen Stabiner A Marriage Agreement, Alix Kates Shulman The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be.  How It Was, Hope Edelman My Problem with Her Anger, Eric Bartels Synthesis Activities Research Activities   PSYCHOLOGY. 6. Obedience to Authority. Opinions and Social Pressure, Solomon E. Asch. The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram. Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience, Diana Baumrind. The Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip G. Zimbardo. Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem, Erich Fromm. Uncivil Disobedience: Violating the Rules for Breaking the Law, James L. Lopach and Jean A. Luckowski Synthesis Activities Research Activities    AMERICAN STUDIES 7. What's Happening at the Mall? Shopping for American Culture, James J. Farrell. A Brief History of Malls. Kenneth T. Jackson The Mall as Civic/Cultural Center, Victor Gruen and Larry Smith The Mall as Disneyland, Richard Francaviglia. The Mall as Prison, David Guterson. The Mall as Sacred Space, John Pahl The Mall as Setting for Authentic Life, Virginia Postrel The Mall as Refuge, George Lewis. The Mall as Threat to Democratic Values,  Lizabeth Cohen. Mallaise: How to Know If You Have It, William Kowinski Synthesis Activities Research Activities   BIOLOGY  8. To Sleep A Third of Life, Paul Martin Improving Sleep, Lawrence Epstein, MD, Editor America’s Sleep-Deprived Teens Nodding off at School, Behind the Wheel, National Sleep Foundation When Worlds Collide: Adolescent Need for Sleep vs. Societal Demands, Mary A. Carskadon Sleep Debt and the Mortgaged Mind, William C. Dement and Christopher Vaughan The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, D.J. Buysse How Sleep Debt Hurts College Students, June J. Pilcher and Amy S. Walters Starting Time and School Life, Patricia K. Kubow, Kyla L. Wahlstrom, and Amy Bemis Synthesis Activities Research Activities   BUSINESS/ COMMUNICATIONS 9. New and Improved: Six Decades of Advertising. Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals, Jib Fowles. Making the Pitch in Print Advertising, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, George P. Dovel, and Marian Burk Wood. Elements of Effective Layout, Dorothy Cohen. A Portfolio of Advertisements: 1945-2003. Synthesis Activities Research Activities    Appendix: A Quick Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism