These helpful checklists will guide you through the process
of writing an essay.
Questions about Your Purpose
14
Questions for Critical Reading
22
Reading Visual Texts
25
Setting Limits
30
Questions for Probing
32
Stating Your Thesis
45
Recognizing a Pattern
50
What Not to Do in an Introduction
53
Effective Support
56
What Not to Do in a Conclusion
60
Constructing a Formal Outline
61
Drafting
63
Revising
66
Guidelines for Peer Editing
69
Editing for Grammar
83
Editing for Punctuation
86
Editing for Sentence Style and Word Choice
89
Proofreading
90
Checking Your Paper’s Format
91
A note about the cover
Artists use patterns to give shape to their art and to guide the eye through the
elements of a visual work. In the same way, patterns in composition help to
shape a writer’s work and to create pathways for understanding it.
FOURTEENTH EDITION
Patterns for College Writing
A Rhetorical Reader and Guide
Laurie G. Kirszner
University of the Sciences, Emeritus
Stephen R. Mandell
Drexel University
For Peter Phelps, 1936–1990, with thanks
For Bedford/St. Martin’s
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Cover Design: John Callahan
Cover Art: Autumn Interior, Wheatley, Jenny; Private Collection/Bridgeman Images
Opener Banner Photo: JonnyDrake/Shutterstock
Composition: Lumina Datamatics, Inc.
Copyright © 2018, 2015, 2012, 2010 by Bedford/St. Martin’s.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as
may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.
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For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116
ISBN-13 978-1-319-12081-8 (EPUB)
Acknowledgments
Text acknowledgments and copyrights appear at the back of the book on pages 786–90, which constitute
an extension of the copyright page. Art acknowledgments and copyrights appear on the same page as
the art selections they cover.
Preface
Since it was first published, Patterns for College Writing has been used by
millions of students at colleges and universities across the United States. We
have been delighted by the overwhelmingly positive response to the first
thirteen editions of Patterns, and we continue to be gratified by positive
feedback from the many instructors who find Patterns to be the most
accessible and the most pedagogically sound rhetoric-reader they have ever
used. In preparing this fourteenth edition, we have worked hard to fine-tune
the features that have made Patterns the most popular composition reader
available today and to develop new features to enhance the book’s usefulness
for both instructors and students.
What Instructors and Students Like about Patterns
for College Writing
An Emphasis on Critical Reading
The Introduction, “How to Use This Book,” and Chapter 1, “Reading to
Write: Becoming a Critical Reader,” prepare students to become analytical
readers and writers by showing them how to apply critical reading strategies
to a typical selection and by providing sample responses to the various kinds
of writing prompts in the book. Not only does this material introduce students
to the book’s features, but it also prepares them to tackle reading and writing
assignments in their other courses.
Extensive Coverage of the Writing Process
The remaining chapters in Part One, “The Writing Process” (Chapters 2
through 5), comprise a “mini-rhetoric,” offering advice on drafting, writing,
revising, and editing as they introduce students to activities such as
freewriting, brainstorming, clustering, and journal writing. These chapters
also include numerous writing exercises to give students opportunities for
immediate practice.
Detailed Coverage of the Patterns of Development
In Part Two, “Readings for Writers,” Chapters 6 through 14 explain and
illustrate the patterns of development that students typically use in their
college writing assignments: narration, description, exemplification, process,
cause and effect, comparison and contrast, classification and division,
definition, and argumentation. Each chapter begins with a comprehensive
introduction that presents a definition and a paragraph-length example of the
pattern to be discussed and then explains the particular writing strategies and
applications associated with it. Next, each chapter analyzes one or two
annotated student essays to show how the pattern can be used in particular
college writing situations. Chapter 15, “Combining the Patterns,” illustrates
how the various patterns of development discussed in Chapters 6 through 14
can work together in an essay.
A Diverse and Popular Selection of Readings
Varied in subject, style, and cultural perspective, the sixty-eight
professional selections engage students while providing them with
outstanding models for writing. We have tried to achieve a balance between
classic authors (George Orwell, Jessica Mitford, E. B. White, Martin Luther
King Jr.) and newer voices (Bich Minh Nguyen, Zeynep Tufekci, Marina
Keegan) so that instructors have a broad range of readings to choose from.
More Student Essays than Any Comparable Text
To provide students with realistic models for improving their own writing,
we include eighteen sample student essays.
Helpful Coverage of Grammar Issues
Grammar-in-Context boxes in chapter introductions offer specific advice
on how to identify and correct the grammar, mechanics, and punctuation
problems that students are likely to encounter when they work with particular
patterns of development.
Apparatus Designed to Help Students Learn
Each professional essay in the text is followed by three types of questions.
These questions are designed to help students assess their understanding of
the essay’s content and of the writer’s purpose and audience; to recognize the
stylistic and structural techniques used to shape the essay; and to become
sensitive to the nuances of language. Each essay is also accompanied by a
Journal Entry prompt, Writing Workshop topics (suggestions for full-length
writing assignments), and Thematic Connections that identify related readings
in the text. Also following each essay is a Combining the Patterns feature that
focuses on different patterns of development used in the essay and possible
alternatives to these patterns. Each chapter ends with a list of Writing
Assignments and a Collaborative Activity. Many of these assignments and
activities have been updated to reflect the most current topics and trends.
Extensive Cultural and Historical Background for All Readings
In addition to a biographical headnote, each reading is preceded by a
headnote containing essential background information to help students make
connections between the reading and the historical, social, and economic
forces that shaped it.
An Introduction to Visual Texts
Every rhetorical chapter includes a visual text — such as a photograph, a
piece of fine art, or panels from a graphic novel — that provides an accessible
introduction to each rhetorical pattern. Apparatus that helps students discuss
the pattern in its visual form follows each image.
Thorough Coverage of Working with Sources
Part Three, “Working with Sources,” takes students through the process of
writing a research paper and includes a model student paper in MLA style.
(The Appendix addresses APA style and includes a model APA paper.)
What’s New in This Edition
Engaging New Readings
The twenty-five new professional essays treat topics of current interest.
Isabel Wilkerson explores the history of “Emmett Till and Tamir Rice, Sons
of the Great Migration.” Josh Barro explains “Why Stealing Cars Went Out of
Fashion.” Karen Miller Pensiero shows us the “Photos That Change History.”
In all cases, readings have been carefully selected for their high-interest
subject matter as well as for their effectiveness as teachable models for
student writing.
Argumentation Chapter Updated
The argument chapter has been revised to focus on issues of particular
importance to college students. It includes two new debates (“Should Public
Colleges Be Free?” and “Does It Pay to Study the Humanities?”) and one new
casebook (“Do College Students Need Trigger Warnings?”).
With Bedford/St. Martin’s, You Get More
At Bedford/St. Martin’s, providing support to teachers and their students
who use our books and digital tools is our top priority. The Bedford/St.
Martin’s English Community is now our home for professional resources,
including Bedford Bits, our popular blog with new ideas for the composition
classroom. Join us to connect with our authors and your colleagues at
community.macmillan.com, where you can download titles from our
professional resource series, review projects in the pipeline, sign up for
webinars, or start a discussion. In addition to this dynamic online community
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solutions, and value packages to support both you and your students. We are
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from Bedford/St. Martin’s, supported as always by the power of Macmillan
Learning. To learn more about or to order any of the following products,
contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative or visit the website at
macmillanlearning.com.
LaunchPad for Patterns for College Writing: Where Students Learn
LaunchPad provides engaging content and new ways to get the most out
of your book. Get an interactive e-Book combined with assessment tools in a
fully customizable course space; then assign and mix our resources with
yours.
Interactive Peer Review Worksheets allow students to type their
responses into a form that is easy to share with fellow students and their
instructor.
Reading Comprehension Quizzes for every selection in Patterns help
you quickly gauge your students’ understanding of the assigned
reading.
Diagnostics and Exercise Central provide opportunities to assess
areas for improvement and assign additional exercises based on
students’ needs. Eight diagnostic quizzes — pre- and post-tests on
sentence grammar, punctuation and mechanics, reading skills, and
reading strategies — offer visual reports that show performance by
topic, class, and student as well as comparison reports that track
improvement over time. Use these reports to target additional practice
by assigning quizzes from the Exercise Central question bank.
Pre-built units — including readings, videos, quizzes, discussion
groups, and more — are easy to adapt and assign by adding your own
materials and mixing them with our high-quality multimedia content
and ready-made assessment options, such as LearningCurve adaptive
quizzing.
LaunchPad also provides access to a gradebook that offers a clear
window on the performance of your whole class, individual students,
and even results of individual assignments.
Use LaunchPad on its own or integrate it with your school’s learning
management system so that your class is always on the same page.
LaunchPad for Patterns for College Writing can be purchased on its own or
packaged with the print book at a significant discount. An activation code is
required. To order LaunchPad for Patterns for College Writing with the print
book, use ISBN 978-1-319-13642-0. For more information, go to
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Choose from Alternative Formats of Patterns for College Writing
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students to choose the one that works best for them.
Paperback To order the paperback edition, use ISBN 978-1-319-056643.
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Add value to your text by packaging one of the following resources with
Patterns for College Writing. To learn more about package options for any of
the following products, contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative
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LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers allows students to work on
whatever they need help with the most. At home or in class, students learn at
their own pace, with instruction tailored to each student’s unique needs.
LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers features:
Pre-built units that support a learning arc. Each easy-to-assign unit
is composed of a pre-test check, multimedia instruction and assessment,
and a post-test that assesses what students have learned about critical
reading, writing process, using sources, grammar, style, and mechanics.
Dedicated units also offer help for multilingual writers.
Diagnostics that help establish a baseline for instruction. Assign
diagnostics to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement on
topics related to grammar and reading and to help students plan a
course of study. Use visual reports to track performance by topic, class,
and student as well as comparison reports that track improvement over
time.
A video introduction to many topics. Introductions offer an overview
of the unit’s topic, and many include a brief, accessible video to
illustrate the concepts at hand.
Twenty-five reading selections with comprehension quizzes. Assign
a range of classic and contemporary essays, each of which includes a
label indicating Lexile level to help you scaffold instruction in critical
reading.
Adaptive quizzing for targeted learning. Most units include
LearningCurve, game-like adaptive quizzing that focuses on the areas
in which each student needs the most help.
The ability to monitor student progress. Use our gradebook to see
which students are on track and which need additional help with
specific topics.
Additional reading comprehension quizzes. Patterns for College
Writing includes multiple-choice quizzes, which help you quickly
gauge your students’ understanding of the assigned reading. These are
available in LaunchPad Solo for Readers and Writers.
Order ISBN 978-1-319-14527-9 to package LaunchPad Solo for Readers and
Writers with Patterns for College Writing at a significant discount. Students
who rent or buy a used book can purchase access, and instructors may request
free access at macmillanlearning.com/readwrite.
Writer’s Help 2.0 is a powerful online writing resource that helps
students find answers whether they are searching for writing advice on their
own or as part of an assignment.
Smart search. Built on research with more than 1,600 student writers,
the smart search in Writer’s Help provides reliable results even when
students use novice terms, such as flow and unstuck.
Trusted content from our best-selling handbooks. Choose Writer’s
Help 2.0, Hacker Version, or Writer’s Help 2.0, Lunsford Version, and
ensure that students have clear advice and examples for all of their
writing questions.
Diagnostics that help establish a baseline for instruction. Assign
diagnostics to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement on
topics related to grammar and reading and to help students plan a
course of study. Use visual reports to track performance by topic, class,
and student as well as comparison reports that track improvement over
time.
Adaptive exercises that engage students. Writer’s Help 2.0 includes
LearningCurve, game-like online quizzing that adapts to what students
already know and helps them focus on what they need to learn.
Reading comprehension quizzes. Patterns for College Writing
includes multiple-choice quizzes, which help you quickly gauge your
students’ understanding of the assigned reading. These are available in
Writer’s Help 2.0.
Writer’s Help 2.0 can be packaged with Patterns for College Writing at a
significant discount. For more information, contact your sales representative
or visit macmillanlearning.com/writershelp2.
Macmillan Learning Curriculum Solutions
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English program contains a library of the most popular, requested content in
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considering creating a custom version of Patterns for College Writing or
incorporating our content with your own, we can adapt and combine the
resources that work best for your course or program. Some enrollment
minimums apply. Contact your sales representative for more information.
Instructor Resources
You have a lot to do in your course. Bedford/St. Martin’s wants to make it
easy for you to find the support you need — and to get it quickly.
Resources for Instructors Using Patterns for College Writing is available
as a PDF that can be downloaded from macmillanlearning.com. Visit the
instructor resources tab for Patterns for College Writing. In addition to
chapter overviews and teaching tips, the instructor’s manual includes sample
syllabi, suggestions for classroom discussion, and possible responses for
every question in the book.
NEW! A Student’s Companion for Patterns for College Writing
If your students need a little extra support, consider ordering A Student’s
Companion for Patterns for College Writing (ISBN 978-1-319-12674-2). This
text reinforces the most foundational elements in academic writing. While
recognizing and respecting students’ abilities, this supplement breaks down
the steps necessary to excel in college writing, tackling time management;
critical reading skills across print, digital and professional genres; the essaydrafting process; and the essentials of grammar. This companion, meant to
supplement the coverage in Patterns for College Writing, gives students the
additional support they need to get or stay on-level in the composition
classroom. It is an ideal solution for accelerated learning programs or corequisite courses, while the deep integration with Patterns makes it an ideal
resource for any instructor who wants students to build a strong foundation in
academic writing.
Acknowledgments
As always, friends, colleagues, students, and family all helped this project
along. Of particular value were the responses to the questionnaires sent to the
following instructors, who provided frank and helpful advice: Amelia
Magallanes Arguijo, Laredo Community College; Victoria Bryan, Cleveland
State Community College; Thomas Chester, Ivy Tech Community College;
Anne Dearing, Hudson Valley Community College; Jennifer Eble, Cleveland
State Community College; Marcus Embry, University of Northern Colorado;
Ulanda Forbess, North Lake College; Jan Geyer, Hudson Valley Community
College; Priscilla Glanville, State College of Florida; Scott Hathaway,
Hudson Valley Community College; Josh Miller, Cape Fear Community
College; Janet Minc, University of Akron Wayne College; Jennifer Ravey,
Lamar University; Cheryl Saba, Cape Fear Community College; Ana
Schnellmann, Lindenwood University; Dhipinder Walia, Lehman College;
and Coreen Wees, Iowa Western Community College. Additional thanks to
Cedric Burroughs at Marquette University for his valuable suggestions.
Special thanks go to Jeff Ousborne for his help with some of the apparatus
and for revising the headnotes and the Resources for Instructors.
Through fourteen editions of Patterns for College Writing, we have
enjoyed a wonderful working relationship with Bedford/St. Martin’s. We have
always found the editorial and production staff to be efficient, cooperative,
and generous with their time and advice. As always, we appreciate the
encouragement and advice of our longtime friend, Nancy Perry. In addition,
we thank Joan Feinberg, past president of Bedford/St. Martin’s, for her
support for this project and for her trust in us. During our work on this
edition, we have benefited from our productive relationship with John
Sullivan, Program Manager, Readers and Literature, who helped us make this
edition of Patterns the best it could be. We have been especially lucky to
work on this edition with our talented developmental editor, Sherry Mooney, a
real star. We are also grateful to Jessica Gould, senior content project
manager, and Lisa Kinne, managing editor, for their work overseeing the
production of this edition; John Callahan for the attractive new cover; and
associate editor Jennifer Prince for her invaluable help with tasks large and
small. We are fortunate to have enjoyed our long and fulfilling collaboration;
we know how rare a successful partnership like ours is. We also know how
lucky we are to have our families to help keep us in touch with the things that
really matter.
Laurie G. Kirszner
Stephen R. Mandell
Contents
Preface
Thematic Guide to the Contents
Introduction: How to Use This Book
Henry Louis Gates Jr., “What’s in a Name?”
Responding to an Essay
Responding to Other Kinds of Texts
PART ONE: The
1
Writing Process
Reading to Write: Becoming a Critical Reader
Understanding Critical Reading
Determining Your Purpose
CHECKLIST: Questions about Your Purpose
Previewing
Highlighting
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name)
Moisés Naím, The YouTube Effect
“Although international news operations employ thousands of
professional journalists, they will never be as omnipresent as millions
of people carrying cellphones that can record video.”
Annotating
CHECKLIST: Questions for Critical Reading
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name)
(with sample annotations)
Reading Visual Texts
CHECKLIST: Reading Visual Texts
2
Invention
Understanding Your Assignment
Setting Limits
Length
Purpose
Audience
Occasion
Knowledge
CHECKLIST: Setting Limits
Moving from Subject to Topic
Questions for Probing
CHECKLIST: Questions for Probing
Freewriting
A Student Writer: Freewriting
Finding Something to Say
Brainstorming
A Student Writer: Brainstorming
Journal Writing
A Student Writer: Journal Writing
Grouping Ideas
Clustering
A Student Writer: Clustering
Making an Informal Outline
A Student Writer: Making an Informal Outline
Understanding Thesis and Support
Developing a Thesis
Defining the Thesis Statement
Deciding on a Thesis
Stating Your Thesis
Implying a Thesis
A Student Writer: Developing a Thesis
CHECKLIST: Stating Your Thesis
3
Arrangement
Recognizing a Pattern
CHECKLIST: Recognizing a Pattern
Understanding the Parts of the Essay
The Introduction
CHECKLIST: What Not to Do in an Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
CHECKLIST: Effective Support
The Conclusion
CHECKLIST: What Not to Do in a Conclusion
Constructing a Formal Outline
CHECKLIST: Constructing a Formal Outline
A Student Writer: Constructing a Formal Outline
4
Drafting and Revising
Writing Your First Draft
CHECKLIST: Drafting
A Student Writer: Writing a First Draft
Revising Your Essay
Revising with an Outline
Revising with a Checklist
CHECKLIST: Revising
Revising with Your Instructor’s Written Comments
Revising in a Conference
Revising in a Peer-Editing Group
CHECKLIST: Guidelines for Peer Editing
Strategies for Revising
A Student Writer: Revising a First Draft
Peer Editing Worksheet
Points for Special Attention: First Draft
The Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
The Conclusion
A Student Writer: Revising a Second Draft
Points for Special Attention: Second Draft
The Introduction
The Body Paragraphs
The Conclusion
Working with Sources
The Title
A Student Writer: Preparing a Final Draft
SAMPLE STUDENT ESSAY: Laura Bobnak, The Price of Silence
(Student Essay)
5
Editing and Proofreading
Editing for Grammar
Be Sure Subjects and Verbs Agree
Be Sure Verb Tenses Are Accurate and Consistent
Be Sure Pronoun References Are Clear
Be Sure Sentences Are Complete
Be Careful Not to Run Sentences Together without Proper
Punctuation
Be Careful to Avoid Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Be Sure Sentence Elements Are Parallel
CHECKLIST: Editing for Grammar
Editing for Punctuation
Learn When to Use Commas — and When Not to Use Them
Learn When to Use Semicolons
Learn When to Use Apostrophes
Learn When to Use Quotation Marks
Learn When to Use Dashes and Colons
CHECKLIST: Editing for Punctuation
Editing for Sentence Style and Word Choice
Eliminate Awkward Phrasing
Be Sure Your Sentences Are Concise
Be Sure Your Sentences Are Varied
Choose Your Words Carefully
CHECKLIST: Editing for Sentence Style and Word Choice
Proofreading Your Essay
Check for Commonly Confused Words
Check for Misspellings and Faulty Capitalization
Check for Typos
CHECKLIST: Proofreading
Checking Your Paper’s Format
CHECKLIST: Checking Your Paper’s Format
PART TWO: Readings
6
for Writers
Narration
What Is Narration?
Using Narration
Planning a Narrative Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Including Enough Detail
Varying Sentence Structure
Maintaining Clear Narrative Order
Structuring a Narrative Essay
Revising a Narrative Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Narration
Editing a Narrative Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Avoiding Run-Ons
EDITING CHECKLIST: Narration
A Student Writer: Literacy Narrative
Erica Sarno, Becoming a Writer (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Narration
Tiffany Forte, My Field of Dreams (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER EDITING WORKSHEET: NARRATION
Visual Text: Marjane Satrapi, from Persepolis II (Graphic Fiction)
Junot Díaz, The Money
“The summer I was twelve, my family went away on a ‘vacation’ —
one of my father’s half-baked get-to-know-our-country-better-bysleeping-in-the-van extravaganzas — and when we returned to Jersey,
exhausted, battered, we found our front door unlocked… . The
thieves had kept it simple; they’d snatched a portable radio, some of
my Dungeons & Dragons hardcovers, and, of course, Mami’s
remittances.”
Ocean Vuong, Surrendering
“The task allowed me to camouflage myself; as long as I looked as
though I were doing something smart, my shame and failure were
hidden. The trouble began when I decided to be dangerously
ambitious. Which is to say, I decided to write a poem.”
Bonnie Smith-Yackel, My Mother Never Worked
“From her wheelchair she canned pickles, baked bread, ironed
clothes, wrote dozens of letters weekly to her friends and her ‘half
dozen or more kids,’ and made three patchwork housecoats and one
quilt.”
Martin Gansberg, Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the
Police
“For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding
citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three
separate attacks… . Not one person telephoned the police during the
assault; one witness called after the woman was dead.”
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
“But I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating his
bunch of grass against his knees, with the preoccupied grandmotherly
air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to
shoot him.”
Sherman Alexie, Indian Education (Fiction)
“The farm town high school I play for is nicknamed the ‘Indians,’ and
I’m probably the only actual Indian ever to play for a team with such
a mascot.”
Writing Assignments for Narration
Collaborative Activity for Narration
7
Description
What Is Description?
Using Description
Understanding Objective Description
CHECKLIST: Using Visuals Effectively
Understanding Subjective Description
Using Objective and Subjective Language
Selecting Details
Planning a Descriptive Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Organizing Details
Using Transitions
Structuring a Descriptive Essay
Revising a Descriptive Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Description
Editing a Descriptive Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Avoiding Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
EDITING CHECKLIST: Description
A Student Writer: Objective Description
Mallory Cogan, My Grandfather’s Globe (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Subjective Description
Mary Lim, The Valley of Windmills (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: DESCRIPTION
Visual Text: Ansel Adams,Jackson Lake (Photo)
Bich Minh Nguyen, Goodbye to My Twinkie Days
“For me, a child of Vietnamese immigrants growing up in Michigan
in the 1980s, Twinkies were a ticket to assimilation: the golden cake,
more golden than the hair I wished I had, filled with sweet white
cream. Back then, junk foods seemed to represent an ideal of
American indulgence.”
Suzanne Berne, Ground Zero
“Like me, perhaps, the people around me had in mind images from
television and newspaper pictures: the collapsing buildings, the
running office workers, the black plume of smoke against a bright
blue sky. Like me, they were probably trying to superimpose those
terrible images onto the industrious emptiness right in front of them.”
Marina Keegan, Stability in Motion
“My car was not gross; it was occupied, cluttered, cramped. It
became an extension of my bedroom, and thus an extension of
myself.”
Heather Rogers, The Hidden Life of Garbage
“There’s a reason landfills are tucked away, on the edge of town, in
otherwise untraveled terrain, camouflaged by hydroseeded, neatly
tiered slopes. If people saw what happened to their waste, lived with
the stench, witnessed the scale of destruction, they might start asking
difficult questions.”
E. B. White, Once More to the Lake
“Summertime, oh summertime, pattern of life indelible, the fadeproof lake, the woods unshatterable, the pasture with the sweetfern
and the juniper forever and ever …”
Kate Chopin, The Storm (Fiction)
“They did not hear the crashing torrents, and the roar of the elements
made her laugh as she lay in his arms. She was a revelation in that
dim, mysterious chamber; as white as the couch she lay upon.”
Writing Assignments for Description
Collaborative Activity for Description
8
Exemplification
What Is Exemplification?
Using Exemplification
Using Examples to Explain and Clarify
Using Examples to Add Interest
Using Examples to Persuade
Planning an Exemplification Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Providing Enough Examples
Choosing a Fair Range of Examples
Using Transitions
Structuring an Exemplification Essay
Revising an Exemplification Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Exemplification
Editing an Exemplification Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Using Commas in a Series
EDITING CHECKLIST: Exemplification
A Student Writer: Exemplification
Kristy Bredin, Job Application Letter (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Exemplification
Grace Ku, Midnight (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: EXEMPLIFICATION
Visual Texts: Four Tattoos: Charles Thatcher,“Alisha, Loretta”;
Carrie Villines, “Positive Outlook”; Anthony Bradshaw, “Bar
Code”; Guido Koppes, “Owl” (Photos)
Zeynep Tufekci, Why the Post Office Makes America Great
“Yes, I was told, in the United States, mail gets picked up from your
house, six days a week, free of charge. I told my friends in Turkey
about all this. They shook their heads in disbelief, wondering how
easily I had been recruited as a C.I.A. agent, saying implausibly
flattering things about my new country.”
Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl
Named Maria
“[Y]ou can leave the island, master the English language, and travel
as far as you can, but if you are a Latina, especially one like me who
so obviously belongs to Rita Moreno’s gene pool, the island travels
with you.”
Brent Staples, Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to
Alter Public Space
“It was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first
began to know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into — the ability
to alter public space in ugly ways.”
Deborah L. Rhode, Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of
Discrimination
“Among the key findings of a quarter-century’s worth of research:
Unattractive people are less likely to be hired and promoted, and they
earn lower salaries, even in fields in which looks have no obvious
relationship to professional duties.”
Maia Szalavitz, Ten Ways We Get the Odds Wrong
“And though emotions are themselves critical to making rational
decisions, they were designed for a world in which dangers took the
form of predators, not pollutants. Our emotions push us to make snap
judgments that once were sensible — but may not be anymore.”
Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (Fiction)
“[T]his is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is
how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and
if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up… .”
Writing Assignments for Exemplification
Collaborative Activity for Exemplification
9
Process
What Is Process?
Understanding Instructions
Understanding Process Explanations
Using Process
Planning a Process Essay
Accommodating Your Audience
Developing a Thesis Statement
Using Transitions
Structuring a Process Essay
Revising a Process Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Process
Editing a Process Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Avoiding Unnecessary Shifts
EDITING CHECKLIST: Process
A Student Writer: Instructions
Eric McGlade, The Search (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Process Explanation
Melany Hunt, Medium Ash Brown (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER EDITING WORKSHEET: PROCESS
Visual Text: National Geographic,Yellowstone Fires, Past and Future
(Illustrations)
Naomi Rosenberg, How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead
“You don’t make a phone call, you do not talk to the medical student,
you do not put in an order. You never make her wait. She is his
mother.”
Stanley Fish, Getting Coffee Is Hard to Do
“You will face a coordination problem if you are a general deploying
troops, tanks, helicopters, food, tents, and medical supplies, or if you
are the CEO of a large company juggling the demands of design,
personnel, inventory, and productions… . And these days, you will
face a coordination problem if you want to get a cup of coffee.”
Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, How to Build a Monster from
Spare Parts
“Wait for a lightning bolt to strike the rod, sending electricity surging
through the wires and galvanizing the creature’s nervous system into
first reflexive and then sustainable activity. That is: life. Life!”
Arthur Miller, Get It Right: Privatize Executions
“People can be executed in places like Shea Stadium before immense
paying audiences… . As with all sports events, a certain ritual would
seem inevitable and would quickly become an expected part of the
occasion.”
Jessica Mitford, The Embalming of Mr. Jones
“For those who have the stomach for it, let us part the formaldehyde
curtain.”
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery (Fiction)
“There was a great deal of fussing to be done before Mr. Summers
declared the lottery open. There were the lists to make up — of heads
of families, heads of households in each family, members of each
household in each family.”
Writing Assignments for Process
Collaborative Activity for Process
10 Cause and Effect
What Is Cause and Effect?
Using Cause and Effect
Understanding Main and Contributory Causes
Understanding Immediate and Remote Causes
Understanding Causal Chains
Avoiding Post Hoc Reasoning
Planning a Cause-and-Effect Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Arranging Causes and Effects
Using Transitions
Structuring a Cause-and-Effect Essay
Finding Causes
Describing or Predicting Effects
Revising a Cause-and-Effect Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Cause and Effect
Editing a Cause-and-Effect Essay
Avoiding “The reason is because”; Using
Affect and Effect Correctly
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
EDITING CHECKLIST: Cause and Effect
A Student Writer: Cause and Effect
Evelyn Pellicane, The Irish Famine, 1845–1849 (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: CAUSE AND EFFECT
Visual Text: Jeffrey Coolidge,Rube Goldberg Machine (Photo)
Josh Barro, Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion
“Old cars are easier to steal, and there are plenty of them still on the
road. But there’s an obvious problem with stealing them: They’re not
worth very much.”
Maggie Koerth-Baker, Why Rational People Buy into Conspiracy
Theories
“Perfectly sane minds possess an incredible capacity for developing
narratives, and even some of the wildest conspiracy theories can be
grounded in rational thinking, which makes them that much more
pernicious.”
Simon Cottee, What Motivates Terrorists?
“Sometimes people do what they do for the reasons they profess.
Sometimes not, because what they do is motivated by reasons that are
too dark, shameful, or bizarre to be openly acknowledged. Sometimes
people do things that are so morally contentious that when called to
account they are liable to excuse or justify, rather than to explain,
their actions. Terrorists unquestionably fall into this category.”
Linda M. Hasselstrom, A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries
a Gun
“People who have not grown up with the idea that they are capable of
protecting themselves — in other words, most women — might have
to work hard to convince themselves of their ability, and of the
necessity. Handgun ownership need not turn us into gunslingers, but
it can be part of believing in, and relying on, ourselves for
protection.”
Karen Miller Pensiero, Photos That Change History
“Though the issues have varied greatly over the decades, historians
point to other eras when photographs have resonated in the same
transformative way, creating new social awareness and spurring
changes in policy.”
Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note (Poetry)
“I apologize.
Tasks do not come easily.
Each failure, a glacier.
Each disapproval, a bootprint.
Each disappointment,
Ice above my river.”
Writing Assignments for Cause and Effect
Collaborative Activity for Cause and Effect
11 Comparison and Contrast
What Is Comparison and Contrast?
Using Comparison and Contrast
Planning a Comparison-and-Contrast Essay
Recognizing Comparison-and-Contrast Assignments
Establishing a Basis for Comparison
Selecting Points for Discussion
Developing a Thesis Statement
Structuring a Comparison-and-Contrast Essay
Using Subject-by-Subject Comparison
Using Point-by-Point Comparison
Using Transitions
Revising a Comparison-and-Contrast Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Comparison and Contrast
Editing a Comparison-and-Contrast Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Using Parallelism
EDITING CHECKLIST: Comparison and Contrast
A Student Writer: Subject-by-Subject Comparison
Mark Cotharn, Brains versus Brawn (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
A Student Writer: Point-by-Point Comparison
Maria Tecson, A Comparison of Two Websites on Attention Deficit
Disorder (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: COMPARISON AND CONTRAST
Visual Texts: Auguste Rodin,The Kiss, and Robert Indiana , LOVE
(Sculptures)
Bruce Catton, Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
“When Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in the parlor of a
modest house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9,
1865, to work out the terms for the surrender of Lee’s Army of
Northern Virginia, a great chapter in American life came to a close,
and a great new chapter began.”
Juan Williams, Songs of the Summer of 1963 … and Today
“The emotional uplift of the monumental march is a universe of time
away from today’s degrading rap music … that confuses and
depresses race relations in America now.”
Amy Chua, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
“Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight As. Western
parents can only ask their kids to try their best. Chinese parents can
say, “You’re lazy. All your classmates are getting ahead of you.” By
contrast, Western parents have to struggle with their own conflicted
feelings about achievement, and try to persuade themselves that
they’re not disappointed about how their kids turned out.”
Ellen Laird, I’m Your Teacher, Not Your Internet-Service Provider
“The honeymoon is over. My romance with distance teaching is
losing its spark.”
Deborah Tannen, Sex, Lies, and Conversation
“How can women and men have such different impressions of
communication in marriage? Why the widespread imbalance in their
interests and expectations?”
Isabel Wilkerson, Emmett Till and Tamir Rice, Sons of the Great
Migration
“Consider the story of two mothers whose lives bookend the
migration and whose family lines would meet similar, unimaginable
fates. The horrors they were fleeing would follow them in freedom
and into the current day.”
William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
(Poetry)
“But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st”
Writing Assignments for Comparison and Contrast
Collaborative Activity for Comparison and Contrast
12 Classification and Division
What Is Classification and Division?
Understanding Classification
Understanding Division
Using Classification and Division
Planning a Classification-and-Division Essay
Selecting and Arranging Categories
Developing a Thesis Statement
CHECKLIST: Establishing Categories
Using Transitions
Structuring a Classification-and-Division Essay
Revising a Classification-and-Division Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Classification and Division
Editing a Classification-and-Division Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Using a Colon to Introduce Your Categories
EDITING CHECKLIST: Classification and Division
A Student Writer: Classification and Division
Josie Martinez, What I Learned (and Didn’t Learn) in College
(Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: CLASSIFICATION AND DIVISION
Visual Text: Coffee Types (Chart)
Olga Khazan, The Three Types of Happiness
“Minimalism is hot, culturally, and for years science has assured us
that it was also the path to maximal bliss.”
Carolyn Foster Segal, The Dog Ate My Tablet, and Other Tales of
Woe
“With a show of energy and creativity that would be admirable if
applied to the (missing) assignments in question, my students persist,
week after week, semester after semester, year after year, in offering
excuses about why their work is not ready. Those reasons fall into
several broad categories: the family, the best friend, the evils of dorm
life, the evils of technology, and the totally bizarre.”
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
“I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of
language — the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a
complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade.
And I use them all — all the Englishes I grew up with.”
Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie
“We lie. We all do. We exaggerate, we minimize, we avoid
confrontation, we spare people’s feelings, we conveniently forget, we
keep secrets, we justify lying to the big-guy institutions.”
Henry Reed, Naming of Parts (Poetry)
“And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.”
Writing Assignments for Classification and Division
Collaborative Activity for Classification and Division
13 Definition
What Is Definition?
Understanding Formal Definitions
Understanding Extended Definitions
Using Definition
Planning a Definition Essay
Developing a Thesis Statement
Deciding on a Pattern of Development
Structuring a Definition Essay
Revising a Definition Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Definition
Editing a Definition Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Avoiding is when and is where
EDITING CHECKLIST: Definition
A Student Writer: Definition
Ajoy Mahtab, The Untouchable (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: DEFINITION
Visual Text: U.S. Census Bureau,U.S. Census 2010 Form
(Questionnaire)
Judy Brady, I Want a Wife
“My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?”
José Antonio Burciaga, Tortillas
“My earliest memory of tortillas is my Mamá telling me not to play
with them. I had bitten eyeholes in one and was wearing it as a mask
at the dinner table.”
Amy Wilentz, A Zombie Is a Slave Forever
“The zombie is a dead person who cannot get across to lan guinée.
This final rest — in green, leafy, heavenly Africa, with no sugarcane
to cut and no master to appease or serve — is unavailable to the
zombie. To become a zombie was the slave’s worst nightmare: to be
dead and still a slave, an eternal field hand.”
Richard Posner, On Plagiarism
“The public wants a good read, a good show, and the fact that a book
or a play may be the work of many hands — as, in truth, most art and
entertainment are — is of no consequence to it. The harm is not to the
reader but to those writers whose work does not glitter with stolen
gold.”
Emily Dickinson, “Hope” is the thing with feathers (Poetry)
“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers —
That perches in the soul —
And sings the tune without the words —
And never stops — at all — ”
Writing Assignments for Definition
Collaborative Activity for Definition
14 Argumentation
What Is Argumentation?
Understanding Argumentation and Persuasion
Planning an Argumentative Essay
Choosing a Topic
Developing a Thesis
Analyzing Your Audience
Gathering and Documenting Evidence
Dealing with the Opposition
Understanding Rogerian Argument
CHECKLIST: Guidelines for Using Rogerian Argument
Using Deductive and Inductive Arguments
Using Deductive Arguments
Using Inductive Arguments
Using Toulmin Logic
Recognizing Fallacies
Using Transitions
Structuring an Argumentative Essay
Revising an Argumentative Essay
REVISION CHECKLIST: Argumentation
Editing an Argumentative Essay
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Using Coordinating and Subordinating
Conjunctions
EDITING CHECKLIST: Argumentation
A Student Writer: Argumentation
Marta Ramos, Just Say No (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: ARGUMENTATION
Visual Text: StopTextsStopWrecks.org,You Don’t Want Them
Responding to Your Text (Ad)
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.”
Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure
“The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the
contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even
lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the
chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life
but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible.”
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of
every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always
meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished
jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”
◾ DEBATE: Should Public Colleges and Universities Be Free?
Aaron Bady, Public Universities Should Be Free
“Public education should be free. If it isn’t free, it isn’t public
education.”
Matt Bruenig, The Case against Free College
“Without a dramatic overhaul of how we understand student benefits,
making college more or entirely free would most likely boost the
wealth of college attendees without securing any important
egalitarian gains.”
◾ DEBATE: Does It Pay to Study the Humanities?
Leon Wieseltier, Perhaps Culture Is Now the Counterculture: A
Defense of the Humanities
“The technological mentality that has become the American
worldview instructs us to prefer practical questions to questions of
meaning — to ask of things not if they are true or false, or good or
evil, but how they work.”
Vinod Khosla, Is Majoring in Liberal Arts a Mistake for Students?
“[L]iberal arts education in the United States is a minor evolution of
eighteenth century European education. The world needs something
more than that.”
◾ CASEBOOK: Do College Students Need Trigger Warnings?
Geoffrey R. Stone, Free Expression in Peril
“Universities must educate our students to understand that academic
freedom is not a law of nature. It is not something to be taken for
granted. It is, rather, a hard-won acquisition in a lengthy struggle for
academic integrity.”
Sophie Downes, Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, and Free Speech,
Too
“Civic discourse in this country has become pretty ugly, so maybe it’s
not surprising that students are trying to create ways to have
compassionate, civil dialogue.”
Jennifer Medina, Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students
Squirm
“Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with
student requests for what are known as ‘trigger warnings.’”
Soraya Chemaly, What’s Really Important about “Trigger Warnings”
“Conversations about trigger warnings, however, seem more and
more like superficial proxies for ones about deeper problems on
campuses regarding diversity, equity, the corporatization of
education, and, the dreaded word, privilege.”
◾ CASEBOOK: Do Guns Have a Place on College Campuses?
Andrew Wilson, Why I Wouldn’t Go to the University of Texas Law
School
“How can professors teach courses or assign grades with the
possibility of violent retaliation one pull of the trigger away? How
can students engage one another if the fear of offense is now
informed by the fear of safety?”
Students for Gun-Free Schools, Why Our Campuses Are Safer
without Concealed Handguns
“The safest policy to limit potential violence is to prohibit students
and faculty from keeping handguns on campus and allow trained law
enforcement officers to provide for campus security.”
Students for Concealed Carry, Why Our Campuses Are Not Safer
without Concealed Handguns
“There is absolutely no verifiable evidence to suggest that allowing
concealed carry on college campuses makes campuses any less safe;
therefore, reason dictates that current school policies and state laws
against concealed carry on campus serve only to stack the odds in
favor of dangerous criminals who have no regard for school policy or
state law.”
Timothy Wheeler, There’s a Reason They Choose Schools
“School officials typically base violence-prevention policies on
irrational fears more than real-world analysis of what works. But
which is more horrible, the massacre that timid bureaucrats fear
might happen when a few good guys (and gals) carry guns on
campus, or the one that actually did happen despite Virginia Tech’s
progressive violence-prevention policy? Can there really be any more
debate?”
Writing Assignments for Argumentation
Collaborative Activity for Argumentation
15 Combining the Patterns
Structuring an Essay by Combining the Patterns
Combining the Patterns: Revising and Editing
GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT:
Agreement with Indefinite Pronouns
A Student Writer: Combining the Patterns
Michael Huu Truong, The Park (Student Essay)
Points for Special Attention
Focus on Revision
PEER-EDITING WORKSHEET: COMBINING THE PATTERNS
Lars Eighner, On Dumpster Diving
“I have learned much as a scavenger. I mean to put some of what I
have learned down here, beginning with the practical art of Dumpster
diving and proceeding to the abstract.”
David Kirby, Inked Well
“I used to think tattoos were for either lowlifes or those who wanted
to pretend they were, but my mind now stands changed by the
thoughtful, articulate people I talked to and the spectacular designs
that had been inked into their bodies. In a word, tattoos are now
officially OK by me.”
Donald Kagan, On Patriotism
“For Americans, as for citizens of any free country, there really is a
social contract like those imagined by the political philosophers, and
that contract provides legitimacy. People who tacitly accept that
contract have the moral obligation to defend and support the country
they have chosen as their own — that is, to be patriotic.”
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my
acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a
year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether
stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will
equally serve in fricassee or a ragout.”
Writing Assignments for Combining the Patterns
Collaborative Activity for Combining the Patterns
PART THREE: Working
with Sources
16 Finding and Evaluating Sources
Finding Information in the Library
Finding Information on the Internet
Finding Useful Information
Evaluating Sources
17 Integrating Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
Paraphrasing
Summarizing
Quoting
Integrating Source Material into Your Writing
Synthesizing
Avoiding Plagiarism
Avoiding Common Errors That Lead to Plagiarism
Avoiding Plagiarism with Online Sources
18 Documenting Sources: MLA
Parenthetical References in the Text
The Works-Cited List
Articles
Books
Internet Sources
Other Internet Sources
Other Nonprint Sources
Model Student Research Paper in MLA Style
Philip Lau, The Limitations of Wikipedia (Student Essay in MLA
Style)
Appendix: Documenting Sources: APA
Using Parenthetical References
Examples of APA Citations
Periodicals
Books
Internet Sources
Model Student Paper in APA Style
Philip Lau, The Limitations of Wikipedia (Student Essay in APA
Style)
Glossary
Index
Thematic Guide to the Contents
Family Relationships
Junot Díaz, The Money 111
Marina Keegan, Stability in Motion 178
E. B. White, Once More to the Lake 189
Kate Chopin, The Storm (Fiction) 196
Grace Ku, Midnight 213
Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (Fiction) 254
Naomi Rosenberg, How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead 277
Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note (Poetry) 364
Amy Chua, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior 402
Isabel Wilkerson, Emmett Till and Tamir Rice, Sons of the Great Migration
422
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue 458
Language
Henry Louis Gates Jr., “What’s in a Name?” 2
Ocean Vuong, Surrendering 116
Deborah Tannen, Sex, Lies, and Conversation 415
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue 458
Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie 466
Richard Posner, On Plagiarism 509
Reading and Writing
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name) 17
Ocean Vuong, Surrendering 116
Karen Miller Pensiero, Photos That Change History 356
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue 458
Richard Posner, On Plagiarism 509
David Kirby, Inked Well 691
Education
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name) 17
Laura Bobnak, The Price of Silence 76
Ocean Vuong, Surrendering 116
Sherman Alexie, Indian Education (Fiction) 140
Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note (Poetry) 364
Mark Cotharn, Brains versus Brawn 377
Ellen Laird, I’m Your Teacher, Not Your Internet-Service Provider 409
Josie Martinez, What I Learned (and Didn’t Learn) in College 440
Carolyn Foster Segal, The Dog Ate My Tablet, and Other Tales of Woe 452
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue 458
Richard Posner, On Plagiarism 509
Aaron Bady, Public Universities Should Be Free 575
Matt Bruenig, The Case against Free College 581
Leon Wiseltier, Does It Pay to Study the Humanities? 586
Vinod Khosla, Is Majoring in Liberal Arts a Mistake for Students? 594
Geoffrey R. Stone, Free Expression in Peril 609
Sophie Downes, Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, and Free Speech, Too 617
Jennifer Medina, Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students
Squirm 621
Soraya Chemaly, What’s Really Important about “Trigger Warnings” 626
Andrew Wilson, Why I Wouldn’t Go to the University of Texas Law School
634
Students for Gun-Free Schools, Why Our Campuses Are Safer without
Concealed Handguns 639
Students for Concealed Carry, Why Our Campuses Are Not Safer without
Concealed Handguns 648
Timothy Wheeler, There’s a Reason They Choose Schools 660
Business and Work
Bonnie Smith-Yackel, My Mother Never Worked 121
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant 131
Kristy Bredin, Job Application Letter 211
Grace Ku, Midnight 213
Zeynep Tufekci, Why the Post Office Makes America Great 220
Deborah L. Rhode, Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination 239
Naomi Rosenberg, How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead 277
Stanley Fish, Getting Coffee Is Hard to Do 283
Race and Culture
Henry Louis Gates Jr., “What’s in a Name?” 2
Marjane Satrapi, from Persepolis II (Graphic Fiction) 109
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant 131
Sherman Alexie, Indian Education (Fiction) 140
Mary Lim, The Valley of Windmills 164
Bich Minh Nguyen, Goodbye to My Twinkie Days 169
Marina Keegan, Stability in Motion 178
Four Tattoos: Charles Thatcher, “Alisha, Loretta”; Carrie Villines,
“Positive Outlook”; Guido Koppes, “Owl”; Anthony Bradshaw, “Bar
Code” (Photos) 218
Zeynep Tufekci, Why the Post Office Makes America Great 220
Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named
Maria 225
Brent Staples, Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter
Public Space 233
Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (Fiction) 254
Amy Chua, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior 402
Isabel Wilkerson, Emmett Till and Tamir Rice, Sons of the Great Migration
422
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue 458
Ajoy Mahtab, The Untouchable 489
José Antonio Burciaga, Tortillas 500
Amy Wilentz, A Zombie Is a Slave Forever 504
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail 558
Lars Eighner, On Dumpster Diving 676
Gender
Marjane Satrapi, from Persepolis II (Graphic Fiction) 109
Kate Chopin, The Storm (Fiction) 196
Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (Fiction) 254
Linda M. Hasselstrom, A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a
Gun 350
Deborah Tannen, Sex, Lies, and Conversation 415
Judy Brady, I Want a Wife 496
Nature and the Environment
Mary Lim, The Valley of Windmills 164
Heather Rogers, The Hidden Life of Garbage 184
E. B. White, Once More to the Lake 189
Kate Chopin, The Storm (Fiction) 196
Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure 550
Media and Society
Martin Gansberg, Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police 126
Zeynep Tufekci, Why the Post Office Makes America Great 220
Maia Szalavitz, Ten Ways We Get the Odds Wrong 245
Stanley Fish, Getting Coffee Is Hard to Do 283
Josh Barro, Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion 334
Maggie Koerth-Baker, Why Rational People Buy into Conspiracy Theories
338
Simon Cottee, What Motivates Terrorists? 344
Karen Miller Pensiero, Photos That Change History 356
Maria Tecson, A Comparison of Two Websites on Attention Deficit Disorder
382
Olga Khazan, The Three Types of Happiness 448
Juan Williams, Songs of the Summer of 1963 … and Today 397
David Kirby, Inked Well 691
History and Politics
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant 131
Suzanne Berne, Ground Zero 173
Arthur Miller, Get It Right: Privatize Executions 292
Evelyn Pellicane, The Irish Famine, 1845–1849 328
Bruce Catton, Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts 392
Josh Barro, Why Stealing Cars Went Out of Fashion 334
Simon Cottee, What Motivates Terrorists? 344
Karen Miller Pensiero, Photos That Change History 356
Isabel Wilkerson, Emmett Till and Tamir Rice, Sons of the Great Migration
422
Henry Reed, Naming of Parts 476
StopTextsStopWrecks.org, You Don’t Want Them Responding to Your Text
(Ad) 542
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence 550
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail 558
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal 706
Donald Kagan, On Patriotism 697
Ethics
Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name) 17
Laura Bobnak, The Price of Silence 76
Simon Cottee, What Motivates Terrorists? 344
Karen Miller Pensiero, Photos That Change History 356
Martin Gansberg, Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police 126
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant 131
Brent Staples, Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter
Public Space 233
Deborah L. Rhode, Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination 239
Arthur Miller, Get It Right: Privatize Executions 292
Jessica Mitford, The Embalming of Mr. Jones 297
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery (Fiction) 304
Carolyn Foster Segal, The Dog Ate My Tablet, and Other Tales of Woe 452
Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie 466
Richard Posner, On Plagiarism 509
StopTextsStopWrecks.org, You Don’t Want Them Responding to Your Text
(Ad) 542
Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure 550
Citizenship
Ocean Vuong, Surrendering 116
Suzanne Berne, Ground Zero 173
Zeynep Tufekci, Why the Post Office Makes America Great 220
Arthur Miller, Get It Right: Privatize Executions 292
U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census 2010 Form (Questionnaire) 494
Henry Reed, Naming of Parts 476
StopTextsStopWrecks.org, You Don’t Want Them Responding to Your Text
(Ad) 542
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence 544
Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure 550
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail 558
Donald Kagan, On Patriotism 697
Introduction: How to Use This
Book
Patterns for College Writing is a book of readings, but it is also a book
about writing. Every reading selection is followed by questions and exercises
designed to help you become a thoughtful and proficient writer. The study
questions that accompany the essays in this book encourage you to think
critically about writers’ ideas. Although some of the questions (particularly
those listed under Comprehension) call for fairly straightforward, factual
responses, other questions (particularly the Journal Entry assignments)
invite more complex responses that reflect your individual reaction to the
selections.
The essay that begins on the following page, “ ‘What’s in a Name?’ ” by
Henry Louis Gates Jr., is typical of those that appear in this book. It is
preceded by a headnote that gives readers information about the author’s life
and career. This headnote includes a background section that provides a
social, historical, and cultural context for the essay.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. “What’s in a Name?”
Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in 1950 in Keyser, West Virginia, and
grew up in the small town of Piedmont. Currently Alphonse Fletcher
University Professor and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for
African and African American Research at Harvard University, he has
edited many collections of works by African-American writers and
published several volumes of literary criticism. He is probably best known
as a social critic whose books and articles for a general audience explore a
wide variety of issues and themes, often focusing on race and culture. In
the following essay, which originally appeared in the journal Dissent,
Gates recalls a childhood experience that occurred during the mid-1950s.
Background on the civil rights movement In the mid-1950s, the first
stirrings of the civil rights movement were under way, and in 1954 and
1955, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down decisions declaring racial
segregation unconstitutional in public schools. Still, much of the country
— particularly the South — remained largely segregated until Congress
passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination
based on race, color, religion, or national origin in businesses (including
restaurants and theaters) covered by interstate commerce laws, as well as
in employment. This legislation was followed by the Voting Rights Act of
1965, which guaranteed equal access to the polls, and the Civil Rights Act
of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing and real estate. At the
time of the experience Gates recalls here — before these laws were
enacted — prejudice and discrimination against African Americans were
the norm in many communities, including those outside the South.
The question of color takes up much space in these pages,
but the question of color, especially in this country, operates
to hide the graver questions of the self.
— JAMES BALDWIN, 1961
… blood, darky, Tar Baby, Kaffir, shine … moor,
blackamoor, Jim Crow, spook … quadroon, meriney,
red bone, high yellow … Mammy, porch monkey, home,
homeboy, George … spearchucker, schwarze, Leroy,
Smokey … mouli, buck. Ethiopian, brother, sistah.
— TREY ELLIS, 1989
I had forgotten the incident completely, until I read Trey Ellis’s
1
essay “Remember My Name” in a recent issue of the Village Voice (June
13, 1989). But there, in the middle of an extended italicized list of the
bynames of “the race” (“the race” or “our people” being the terms my
parents used in polite or reverential discourse, “jigaboo” or “nigger” more
commonly used in anger, jest, or pure disgust), it was: “George.” Now the
events of that very brief exchange return to mind so vividly that I wonder
why I had forgotten it.
My father and I were walking home at dusk from his second job.
2
He “moonlighted” as a janitor in the evenings for the telephone company.
Every day but Saturday, he would come home at 3:30 from his regular job
at the paper mill, wash up, eat supper, then at 4:30 head downtown to his
second job. He used to make jokes frequently about a union official who
moonlighted. I never got the joke, but he and his friends thought it was
hilarious. All I knew was that my family always ate well, that my brother
and I had new clothes to wear, and that all of the white people in Piedmont,
West Virginia, treated my parents with an odd mixture of resentment and
respect that even we understood at the time had something directly to do
with a small but certain measure of financial security.
He had left a little early that evening because I was with him and I
3
had to be in bed early. I could not have been more than five or six, and we
had stopped off at the Cut-Rate Drug Store (where no black person in town
but my father could sit down to eat, and eat off real plates with real
silverware) so that I could buy some caramel ice cream, two scoops in a
wafer cone, please, which I was busy licking when Mr. Wilson walked by.
Mr. Wilson was a very quiet man, whose stony, brooding, silent
4
manner seemed designed to scare off any overtures of friendship, even
from white people. He was Irish, as was one-third of our village (another
third being Italian), the more affluent among whom sent their children to
“Catholic School” across the bridge in Maryland. He had white straight
hair, like my Uncle Joe, whom he uncannily resembled, and he carried a
black worn metal lunch pail, the kind that Riley* carried on the television
show. My father always spoke to him, and for reasons that we never did
understand, he always spoke to my father.
“Hello, Mr. Wilson,” I heard my father say.
5
“Hello, George.”
6
I stopped licking my ice cream cone, and asked my Dad in a loud
voice why Mr. Wilson had called him “George.”
7
“Doesn’t he know your name, Daddy? Why don’t you tell him
your name? Your name isn’t George.”
8
“Doesn’t he know your
name, Daddy? Why don’t
you tell him your name?
Your name isn’t George…
.”
For a moment I tried to think of who Mr. Wilson was mixing Pop
up with. But we didn’t have any Georges among the colored people in
9
Piedmont; nor were there colored Georges living in the neighboring towns
and working at the mill.
“Tell him your name, Daddy.”
10
“He knows my name, boy,” my father said after a long pause. “He
calls all colored people George.”
11
A long silence ensued. It was “one of those things,” as my Mom
12
would put it. Even then, that early, I knew when I was in the presence of
“one of those things,” one of those things that provided a glimpse, through
a rent curtain, at another world that we could not affect but that affected us.
There would be a painful moment of silence, and you would wait for it to
give way to a discussion of a black superstar such as Sugar Ray or Jackie
Robinson.
“Nobody hits better in a clutch than Jackie Robinson.”
13
“That’s right. Nobody.”
14
I never again looked Mr. Wilson in the eye.
15
•••
_______
* Eds. note — The lead character in the 1950s television program The Life of Riley, about a white
working-class family and their neighbors.
Responding to an Essay
The study questions that follow each essay will help you think critically
about what you are reading; they will help you formulate questions and draw
conclusions. (Critical thinking and reading are discussed in Chapter 1 of this
book.) Four types of questions follow each essay:
Comprehension questions help you assess your understanding of what
the writer is saying.
Purpose and Audience questions ask you to consider why, and for
whom, each selection was written and to examine the implications of
the writer’s choices in light of a particular purpose or intended
audience.
Style and Structure questions encourage you to examine the decisions
the writer has made about elements such as arrangement of ideas,
paragraphing, sentence structure, and imagery. One question in this
category, designated Vocabulary Project, focuses on word choice and
connotation.
Journal Entry assignments ask you to write a short, informal response
to what you read and to speculate freely about related ideas, perhaps by
exploring ethical issues raised by the selection or by offering your
opinions about the writer’s statements. Briefer, less polished, and less
structured than full-length essays, journal entries may suggest ideas for
more formal kinds of writing.
Following these sets of questions are three additional features:
Writing Workshop assignments ask you to write essays structured
according to the pattern of development explained and illustrated in the
chapter. Some of these assignments, designated Working with
Sources, will ask you to cite the essay or an outside source. In these
cases, you will be reminded to include parenthetical documentation and
a works-cited page that conform to MLA documentation style.
Combining the Patterns questions focus on the various patterns of
development — other than the essay’s dominant pattern — that the
writer uses. These questions ask why a writer uses particular patterns
(narration, description, exemplification, process, cause and effect,
comparison and contrast, classification and division, and definition),
what each pattern contributes to the essay, and what other choices the
writer might have had.
Thematic Connections identify other readings in this book that explore
similar themes. Reading these related works will enhance your
understanding and appreciation of the original work and perhaps give
you material to write about.
Following are some examples of study questions and possible responses,
as well as a Writing Workshop assignment and a list of Thematic
Connections, for “ ‘What’s in a Name?’ ” (page 2). The numbers in
parentheses after quotations refer to the paragraphs in which the quotations
appear.
Comprehension
1. In paragraph 1, Gates wonders why he forgot about the exchange between his father and Mr.
Wilson. Why do you think he forgot about it?
Gates may have forgotten about the incident simply because it was something that happened a
long time ago or because such incidents were commonplace when he was a child. Alternatively, he
may not have forgotten the exchange between his father and Mr. Wilson but pushed it out of his
mind because he found it so painful. (After all, he says he never again looked Mr. Wilson in the
eye.)
2. How is the social status of Gates’s family different from that of other African-American families in
Piedmont, West Virginia? How does Gates account for this difference?
Gates’s family is different from other African-American families in town in that they are treated
with “an odd mixture of resentment and respect” (2) by whites. Although other black people are not
permitted to eat at the drugstore, Mr. Gates is. Gates attributes this social status to his family’s
“small but certain measure of financial security” (2). Even so, when Mr. Wilson insults Mr. Gates,
the privileged status of the Gates family is revealed as a sham.
3. What does Gates mean when he says, “It was ‘one of those things,’ as my Mom would put it” (12)?
Gates’s comment indicates that the family learned to see such mistreatment as routine. In context,
the word things in paragraph 12 refers to the kind of incident that gives Gates and his family a
glimpse of the way the white world operates.
4. Why does Gates’s family turn to a discussion of a “black superstar” after a “painful moment of
silence” (12) such as the one he describes?
Although Gates does not explain the family’s behavior, we can infer that they speak of AfricanAmerican heroes like prizefighter Sugar Ray Robinson and baseball player Jackie Robinson to make
themselves feel better. Such discussions are a way of balancing the negative images of African
Americans created by incidents such as the one Gates describes and of bolstering the low selfesteem the family felt as a result. These heroes seem to have won the respect denied to the Gates
family; to mention them is to participate vicariously in their glory.
5. Why do you think Gates “never again looked Mr. Wilson in the eye” (15)?
Gates may have felt that Mr. Wilson was somehow the enemy, not to be trusted, because he had
insulted Gates’s father. Or, he may have been ashamed to look Wilson in the eye because he
believed his father should have insisted on being addressed properly.
Purpose and Audience
1. Why do you think Gates introduces his narrative with the two quotations he selects? How do you
suppose he expects his audience to react to these quotations? How do you react?
Gates begins with two quotations, both by African-American writers, written nearly thirty years
apart. Baldwin’s words seem to suggest that, in the United States, “the question of color” is a barrier
to understanding “the graver questions of the self.” That is, the labels black and white may mask
more fundamental characteristics or issues. Ellis’s list of names (many pejorative) for African
Americans illustrates the fact that epithets can dehumanize people; they can, in effect, rob a person
of his or her “self.” This issue of the discrepancy between a name and what lies behind it is central
to Gates’s essay. In a sense, then, Gates begins with these two quotations because they are relevant
to the issues he will discuss. More specifically, he is using the two quotations — particularly Ellis’s
shocking string of unpleasant names — to arouse interest in his topic and provide an intellectual and
emotional context for his story. He may also be intending to make his white readers uncomfortable
and his black readers angry. How you react depends on your attitudes about race (and perhaps about
language).
2. What is the point of Gates’s narrative? That is, why does he recount the incident?
Certainly Gates wishes to make readers aware of the awkward, and potentially dangerous,
position of his father (and, by extension, of other African Americans) in a small southern town in
the 1950s. He also shows us how names help to shape people’s perceptions and actions: as long as
Mr. Wilson can call all black men “George,” he can continue to see them as insignificant and treat
them as inferiors. The title of the piece suggests that the writer’s main focus is on how names shape
perceptions.
3. The title of this selection, which Gates places in quotation marks, is an allusion to act 2, scene 2, of
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” Why do you think Gates chose this title? Does he expect
his audience to recognize the quotation?
Because his work was originally published in a journal read by a well-educated audience, Gates
would have expected readers to recognize this allusion (and also to know a good deal about 1950s
race relations). Although Gates could not have been certain that all members of this audience would
recognize the reference to Romeo and Juliet, he could have been reasonably sure that if they did, it
would enhance their understanding of the selection. In Shakespeare’s play, the two lovers are kept
apart essentially because of their names: she is a Capulet and he is a Montague, and the two families
are involved in a bitter feud. In the speech from which Gates takes the title quotation, Juliet
questions the logic of such a situation. In her view, what a person is called should not determine how
he or she is regarded, which, of course, is Gates’s point as well. Even if readers do not recognize the
allusion, the title still foreshadows the selection’s focus on names.
Style and Structure
1. Does paragraph 1 add something vital to the narrative, or would Gates’s story make sense without
the introduction? Could another kind of introduction work as well?
Gates’s first paragraph supplies the context in which the incident is to be read; that is, it makes
clear that Mr. Wilson’s calling Mr. Gates “George” was not an isolated incident but part of a pattern
of behavior that allowed those in positions of power to mistreat those they considered inferior. For
this reason, it is an effective introduction. Although the narrative would make sense without
paragraph 1, the story’s full impact would probably not be as great. Still, Gates could have begun
differently. For example, he could have started with the incident itself (paragraph 2) and interjected
his comments about the significance of names later in the piece. He also could have begun with the
exchange of dialogue in paragraphs 5 through 11 and then introduced the current paragraph 1 to
supply the incident’s context.
2. What does the use of dialogue contribute to the narrative? Would the selection have a different
impact without dialogue? Explain.
Gates was five or six years old when the incident occurred, and the dialogue helps to establish the
child’s innocence as well as his father’s quiet acceptance of the situation. In short, the dialogue is a
valuable addition to the piece because it creates two characters, one innocent and one resigned to
injustice, both of whom contrast with the voice of the adult narrator: wise, worldly, but also angry
and perhaps ashamed, the voice of a man who has benefited from the sacrifices of men like Gates’s
father.
3. Why do you think Gates supplies the specific details he chooses in paragraphs 2 and 3? In
paragraph 4? Is all this information necessary?
The details Gates provides in paragraphs 2 and 3 help to establish the status of his family in
Piedmont; because readers have this information, the fact that the family was ultimately disregarded
and discounted by some white people emerges as deeply ironic. The information in paragraph 4 also
contributes to this irony. Here, we learn that Mr. Wilson was not liked by many white people, that
he looked like Gates’s Uncle Joe, and that he carried a lunch box — in other words, that he had no
special status in the town apart from that conferred by race.
4. Vocabulary Project. Consider the connotations of the words colored and black, both used by Gates
to refer to African Americans. What different associations does each word have? Why does Gates
use both — for example, colored in paragraph 9 and black in paragraph 12? What is your response
to his father’s use of the term boy in paragraph 11?
In the 1950s, when the incident Gates describes took place, the term colored was still widely
used, along with Negro, to designate Americans of African descent. In the 1960s, the terms AfroAmerican and black replaced the earlier names, with black emerging as the preferred term and
remaining dominant through the 1980s. Today, although black is preferred by some, African
American is used more and more often. Because the term colored is the oldest designation, it may
seem old-fashioned and even racist today; black, which connoted a certain degree of militancy in the
1960s, is probably now considered a neutral term by most people. Gates uses both words because he
is speaking from two time periods. In paragraph 9, re-creating the thoughts and words of a child in a
1950s southern town, he uses the term colored; in paragraph 12, the adult Gates, commenting in
1989 on the incident, uses black. The substitution of African American for the older terms might
give the narrative a more contemporary flavor, but it might also seem awkward or forced — and, in
paragraph 9, inappropriately formal. As far as the term boy is concerned, different readers are apt to
have different responses. Although the father’s use of the term can be seen as affectionate, it can
also be seen as derisive in this context since it echoes the bigot’s use of boy for all black males,
regardless of age or accomplishments.
Journal Entry
Do you think Gates’s parents should have used experiences like the one in
“ ‘What’s in a Name?’ ” to educate him about the family’s social status in the
community? Why do you think they chose instead to dismiss such incidents as
“one of those things” (12)?
Your responses to these questions will reflect your own opinions, based on
your background and experiences as well as on your interpretation of the
reading selection.
Writing Workshop
Write about a time when you, like Gates’s father, could have spoken out in
protest but chose not to. Would you make the same decision today?
By the time you approach the Writing Workshop assignments, you will
have read an essay, responded to study questions about it, discussed it in
class, and perhaps considered its relationship to other essays in the text.
Often, your next step will be to write an essay in response to one of the
Writing Workshop questions. (Chapters 2–4 follow Laura Bobnak, a first-year
composition student, through the process of writing an essay in response to
this Writing Workshop assignment.)
Combining the Patterns
Although narration is the pattern of development that dominates “
‘What’s in a Name?’ ” and gives it its structure, Gates also uses
exemplification, presenting an extended example to support his thesis. What
is this example? What does it illustrate? Would several brief examples have
been more convincing?
The extended example is the story of the encounter between Gates’s father
and Mr. Wilson, which compellingly illustrates the kind of behavior African
Americans were often forced to adopt in the 1950s. Because Gates’s
introduction focuses on “the incident” (1), one extended example is enough
(although he alludes to other incidents in paragraph 12).
Thematic Connections
“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” (page
225)
“ ‘Girl’ ” (page 254)
As you read and think about the selections in this text, you should begin to
see thematic links among them. Such parallels can add to your interest and
understanding as well as give you ideas for class discussion and writing.
For example, one related work is Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the
Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria.” Although Cofer is Latina, not
African American, she too faces the stigma of being seen as a stereotype
rather than as an individual; she is characterized as “Maria” just as Gates’s
father was characterized (and dismissed) as “George.” Because Cofer’s essay
was written in 1993 and discusses fairly recent events (in contrast to Gates’s
essay, which explores an event that took place in the 1950s), it provides a
more contemporary — and, perhaps, broader — context for discussing issues
of race and class.
Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “ ‘Girl,’ ” by an African-American writer,
also has some parallels with Gates’s autobiographical essay. Like Gates,
Kincaid’s protagonist seems to occupy a subservient position in a society
whose rules she must obey. The lessons in life skills that are enumerated in
the story are also similar to the lesson Gates learns from his father.
In the process of thinking about Gates’s narrative, discussing it in class, or
preparing to write an essay on a related topic (such as the one listed under
Writing Workshop on page 8), you might find it useful to read Cofer’s essay
and Kincaid’s story.
Responding to Other Kinds of Texts
The first selection in Chapters 6 through 14 of this book is a visual text. It
is followed by Reading Images questions, a Journal Entry, and a short list
of Thematic Connections that will help you understand the image and shape
your response to it.
The final selection in each chapter, a story or poem, is followed by
Reading Literature questions, a Journal Entry, and Thematic
Connections.
NOTE: At the end of each chapter, Writing Assignments offer additional
practice in writing essays structured according to a particular pattern of
development. Some of these assignments, designated Working with Sources,
will ask you to refer to one or more of the essays in the chapter (or to an
outside source). In these cases, you will be asked to include MLA
parenthetical documentation and a works-cited page. Finally, a Collaborative
Activity suggests an idea for a group project.
Part One
The Writing Process
Every reading selection in this book is the result of a struggle between a
writer and his or her material. If a writer’s struggle is successful, the finished
work is welded together without a visible seam, and readers have no sense of
the frustration the writer experienced while rearranging ideas or hunting for
the right word. Writing is no easy task, even for a professional writer. Still,
although there is no simple formula for good writing, some approaches are
easier and more productive than others.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “So what? What has this got to
do with me? I’m not a professional writer.” True enough, but during the next
few years, you will be doing a good deal of writing. Throughout your college
career, you will compose exams, reports, essays, and research projects. In
your professional life, you may write progress reports, proposals, business
correspondence, and memos. As diverse as these tasks are, they have
something in common: they can be made easier if you are familiar with the
stages of the writing process — a process that experienced writers follow
when they write.
The Writing Process
Invention (also called prewriting) During invention, you decide what to write about and gather
information to support or explain what you want to say.
Arrangement During arrangement, you decide how you are going to organize your ideas.
Drafting and revising During drafting and revising, you write several drafts as you reconsider
your ideas and their organization and refine your style and structure.
Editing and proofreading During editing, you focus on grammar and punctuation, as well as
on sentence style and word choice. During proofreading, you correct spelling, mechanical
errors, and typos and check your essay’s format.
Although the writing process is usually presented as a series of neatly
defined steps, that model does not reflect the way people actually write. Ideas
do not always flow easily, and the central idea you set out to develop does not
always wind up in the essay you ultimately write. In addition, writing often
progresses in fits and starts, with ideas occurring sporadically or not at all.
Surprisingly, much good writing occurs when a writer gets stuck or confused
but continues to work until ideas begin to take shape.
Because the writing process is so erratic, its stages overlap. Most writers
engage in invention, arrangement, drafting and revision, and editing
simultaneously — finding ideas, considering possible methods of
organization, looking for the right words, and correcting grammar and
punctuation all at the same time. In fact, writing is such an idiosyncratic
process that no two writers approach the writing process in exactly the same
way. Some people outline; others do not. Some take elaborate notes during
the invention stage; others keep track of everything in their heads.
The writing process discussed throughout this book reflects the many
choices writers make at various stages of composition. Regardless of writers’
different approaches, however, one thing is certain: the more you write, the
better acquainted you will become with your personal writing process and the
better you will learn how to modify it to suit various writing tasks.
Because much of your college writing will be done in response to texts
you read, Chapter 1 of this book introduces you to critical reading; then,
Chapters 2 through 5 discuss the individual stages of the writing process.
These chapters will help you define your needs as a writer and understand
your options as you approach writing tasks in college and beyond.
1
Reading to Write: Becoming a
Critical Reader
Chapter Outline
Understanding Critical Reading
Determining Your Purpose
Checklist Questions about Your Purpose
Previewing
Recognizing Visual Signals
Highlighting
Recognizing Verbal Signals
Brent Staples: Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name)
Exercise 1
Moisés Naím: The YouTube Effect
Annotating
Checklist Questions for Critical Reading
Exercise 2
Reading Visual Texts
Checklist Reading Visual Texts
Exercise 3
On a purely practical level, you will read the selections in this book to
answer study questions and to prepare for class discussions (and, often, for
writing). More significantly, however, you will also read to evaluate the ideas
of others, to form judgments, and to develop original viewpoints. In other
words, you will engage in critical reading.
By introducing you to new ideas and new ways of thinking about familiar
concepts, reading prepares you to respond critically to the ideas of others and
to develop ideas of your own. When you read critically, you can form
opinions, exchange insights with others, ask and answer questions, and
develop ideas that can be further explored in writing. For all these reasons,
critical reading is a vital part of your education.
Understanding Critical Reading
Reading is a two-way street. Readers are introduced to a writer’s ideas,
but they also bring their own ideas to what they read. After all, readers have
different national, ethnic, cultural, and geographic backgrounds and different
kinds of knowledge and experiences, so they may react differently to a
particular essay or story. For example, readers from an economically
homogeneous neighborhood may have difficulty understanding an essay
about class conflict, but they may be more objective than readers who are
struggling with such conflict in their own lives.
These differences in readers’ responses do not mean that every
interpretation is acceptable, or that an essay (or story or poem) may mean
whatever a reader wants it to mean. Readers must make sure they are not
distorting a writer’s words, overlooking (or ignoring) significant details, or
seeing things in an essay or story that do not exist. It is not important for all
readers to agree on a particular interpretation of a work. It is important,
however, for each reader to develop an interpretation that the work itself
supports.
When you read an essay in this book, or any text that you expect to
discuss in class, you should read it carefully, ideally more than once. If a text
is accompanied by a headnote or other background material, as those in this
book are, you should read this material as well because it will help you
understand the text. Keep in mind that some of the texts you read may
eventually be used as sources for writing. In these cases, it is especially
important that you understand what you are reading and can formulate a
thoughtful response to the writer’s ideas. (For information on how to evaluate
the sources you read, see Chapter 16.)
Reminder
Naming Your Files
As you take notes about your sources and save each new draft as a separate file, it’s
important to give each file an accurate and descriptive title so that you can find it when
you need it. Your file name should identify the class for which you’re writing and the
date you updated the file.
Comp-Plagiarism essay_9-25-17
Once you develop a system that works for you, you should use it consistently — for
example, always listing elements (class, assignment, date) in the same order for each
project. You can also create a separate folder for each class and then use subfolders for
each assignment, gathering together all your notes and drafts for an assignment. A
folder system will be particularly useful if you regularly use a remote storage site such
as Dropbox or Google Drive, where files can easily become confused or be overwritten.
CLOSE
VIEW
To get the most out of your reading, you should use active reading
strategies. In practical terms, that means actively participating in the reading
process: approaching an assigned reading with a clear understanding of your
purpose and marking the text to help you understand what you are reading.
Determining Your Purpose
Even before you start reading, you should consider some questions about
your purpose — why you are reading. The answers to these questions will
help you understand what kind of information you hope to get out of your
reading and how you will use this information.
Checklist
Questions about Your Purpose
Will you be expected to discuss what you are reading? If so, will you discuss it in
class? In a conference with your instructor?
Will you have to write about what you are reading? If so, will you be expected to
write an informal response (for example, a journal entry) or a more formal one (for
example, an essay)?
Will you be tested on the material?
Previewing
When you preview, you try to get a sense of the writer’s main idea, key
supporting points, and general emphasis. At this stage, you don’t read every
word; instead, you skim the text. You can begin by focusing on the title, the
first paragraph (which often contains a purpose statement or overview), and
the last paragraph (which may contain a summary of the writer’s main idea).
You should also look for clues to the writer’s message in the passage’s other
visual signals.
Recognizing Visual Signals
Look at the title.
Look at the opening and closing paragraphs.
Look at each paragraph’s first sentence.
Look for headings.
Look for italicized and boldfaced words.
Look for numbered lists.
Look for bulleted lists (like this one).
Look at any visuals (graphs, charts, tables, photographs, and so on).
Look at any information that is boxed.
Look at any information that is in color.
When you have finished previewing the passage, you should have a general
sense of what the writer wants to communicate.
As you read and reread, you will record your reactions in writing. These
notes will help you understand the writer’s ideas and your own thoughts about
those ideas. Every reader develops a different system of recording responses,
but many readers learn to use a combination of highlighting and annotating.
Highlighting
When you highlight, you mark the text. You might, for example,
underline (or double underline) important concepts, box key terms, number a
series of related points, circle an unfamiliar word (or place a question mark
beside it), draw a vertical line in the margin beside a particularly interesting
passage, draw arrows to connect related points, or star discussions of the
central issues or main idea.
At this stage, you continue to look for visual signals, but now, as you read
more closely, you also begin to pay attention to the text’s verbal signals.
Recognizing Verbal Signals
Look for phrases that signal emphasis (“The primary reason”; “The
most important idea”).
Look for repeated words and phrases.
Look for words that signal addition (also, in addition, furthermore).
Look for words that signal time sequence (first, after, then, next,
finally).
Look for words that identify causes and effects (because, as a result,
for this reason).
Look for words that introduce examples (for example, for instance).
Look for words that signal comparison (likewise, similarly).
Look for words that signal contrast (unlike, although, in contrast).
Look for words that signal contradiction (however, on the contrary).
Look for words that signal a narrowing of the writer’s focus (in fact,
specifically, in other words).
Look for words that signal summaries or conclusions (to sum up, in
conclusion).
LaunchPad
For more practice on critical reading strategies, see the LearningCurve on Critical Reading in
the LaunchPad for Patterns.
The following pages reprint a column by journalist Brent Staples that
focuses on the issue of plagiarism among college students. The column,
“Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name),” and the
accompanying headnote and background material have been highlighted by a
student.
Brent Staples: Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis
by (Insert Name)
Born in 1951 in Chester, Pennsylvania, Brent Staples is a writer and
member of the editorial board of the New York Times. He often writes
about culture, politics, race, and education. Staples has a B.A. in
behavioral science from Widener University and a Ph.D. in psychology
from the University of Chicago. Before joining the New York Times, he
wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Chicago Magazine,
and the jazz magazine Down Beat. His work has also appeared in
publications such as Ms. and Harper’s. Staples is the author of a memoir,
Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White (1994).
•••
The student who highlighted Staples’s column and its headnote was
preparing for a class discussion of a group of related articles on the problem
of academic cheating. To prepare for class, she began by highlighting the
essay to identify the writer’s key ideas and mark points she might want to
think further about. This highlighting laid the groundwork for the careful
annotations she would make when she reread the article.
Exercise 1
Preview the following essay. Then, highlight it to identify the writer’s main
idea and key supporting points. (Previewing and highlighting the article’s
headnote, including the background material provided, will help you
understand the article’s ideas.) You might circle unfamiliar words, underline
key terms or concepts, or draw lines or arrows to connect related ideas.
Moisés Naím: The YouTube Effect
A long-time journalist, professor, politician, and public intellectual,
Moisés Naím is the author and editor of several books, including Illicit:
How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global
Economy (2006) and The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields
and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be
(2013). His writing has appeared in many magazines, journals, and
newspapers. Educated at the Universidad Metropolitana in Venezuela and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technolo...
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