Texts and Contexts A Contemporary Approach to College Writing

by Robinson, William S.; Tucker, Stephanie

• ISBN13: 9781413010459
• ISBN10: 1413010458
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-18
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Write better essays with TEXTS AND CONTEXTS: A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO COLLEGE WRITING! With high-interest readings, tips for writing good essays both in and out of class, and a comprehensive grammar review, this developmental English text provides you with the skills you need for college success. Readings cover compelling topics such as censorship of high school newspapers, rating movies, analyzing the job market, and whether or not college athletics should be reformed. Selections written by students give you realistic expectations for your own writing and help you build on your own skills.

Table of Contents

Preface: To the Student	xiii
Preface: To the Instructor	xvi
Part I Writing from the Top Down	1	(70)
Practice in developing the ability to read critically and to summarize; learning the fundamentals of the academic writing process through writing a short report; shaping texts and sentences.
Chapter 1 The Writing Process	3	(50)
Reading Actively and Efficiently	3	(8)
Writing Summaries	11	(1)
Steps in Writing a Summary	12	(1)
An Experienced Writer Writes a Summary	12	(11)
Analyzing and Evaluating Your Information	23	(1)
Organizing and Finding Your Point	24	(1)
Writing a Report	25	(6)
The Idea Draft	31	(2)
Later Drafts	33	(2)
Using Quotations	35	(2)
Paraphrasing	37	(3)
Sentence Combining	40	(13)
Shaping Sentences	40	(2)
Recognizing Verb Forms for Writing and Sentence Combining	42	(2)
Shaping Sentences with Adjectives and Verb Forms	44	(4)
Shaping Sentences with Prepositional Phrases	48	(5)
Chapter 2 The Shape of Texts	53	(20)
Introductions and Thesis Statements	53	(3)
Students at Work: Introductions	56	(3)
Paragraphs: Proving Your Points	59	(2)
Topic Sentences and the Organization Process	61	(3)
Students at Work: Paragraphs	64	(3)
Conclusions	67	(4)
Part II Discovering and Writing	71	(356)
Cases for reading and writing: pre-reading and post-reading; pre-writing and drafting; sentence combining and proofreading.
Chapter 3 Learning by Sorting It out	73	(70)
An Important Thinking Tool: Making Inferences	73	(2)
Inferences and Guesses	75	(1)
Good Inferences and Bad Inferences	75	(2)
Classifying to Discover	77	(3)
Assignments and Readings	80	(33)
Analyzing Television for Children	80	(1)
Reading Assignment	81	(1)
What Are TV Ads Selling to Children? by John J. O'Connor	81	(1)
Females and Minorities in TV Ads in 1987 Saturday Children's Programs by Daniel Riffe, Helene Goldson, Kelly Saxton, and Yang-Chou Yu	83	(3)
Essay Assignment	86	(1)
Analyzing the Job Market	87	(1)
Reading Assignment	88	(1)
U.S. Income Inequality Keeps on Rising by Robert B. Reich	89	(1)
Tomorrow's Jobs by Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor	95	(8)
Essay Assignment	103	(1)
Learning What Our Magazines Tell About Us	104	(1)
Reading Assignment	105	(1)
Help or Hindrance? Women's Magazines Offer Readers Little but Fear, Failure by Mary Kay Blakely	105	(1)
We've Come a Long Way, but Magazines Stayed Behind by Susan Dudash, Student	108	(4)
Essay Assignment	112	(1)
Assignments	113	(30)
How Do Advertisers Try to Manipulate Us?	113	(1)
Reading Assignment	113	(1)
Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals by Jib Fowles	114	(10)
Essay Assignment	124	(1)
The Writer's Checklist	125	(2)
Sentence Combining	127	(1)
Joining Ideas to Show Basic Logical Relationships	127	(1)
Subordinating Conjunctions	131	(1)
Transition Words	138	(5)
Chapter 4 Learning by Comparing	143	(107)
Comparing and Contrasting to Discover	143	(1)
Organizing Essays Based on Comparison and Contrast	144	(2)
Assignments and Readings	146	(91)
Controlling Political Campaign Expenses. Or Not.	146	(1)
Reading Assignment	147	(1)
Political Reform Issues by News Batch	148	(1)
The Current State of Campaign Finance Laws by Trevor Potter	152	(1)
The FEC: Administering and Enforcing Campaign Finance Law by Thomas E. Mann	159	(1)
Canada Elections Act and Income Tax Act in Force January 2004	164	(1)
Revitalizing Democracy: Clean Election Reform Shows the Way Forward by Marc Breslow, Janet Groat, and Paul Saba	165	(1)
Who's Buying Whom: How Money in Politics Really Works by Micah L. Sifry and Nancy Watzman	177	(1)
Shut Up, They Explained by David Frum	183	(1)
Governor Raises $17 Million in 6 Months by Matier and Ross	186	(2)
Essay Assignment	188	(1)
Comparing American Families in the Past and Present	188	(1)
Reading Assignment	189	(1)
The Social Order in Colonial New England by Edmund S. Morgan	190	(1)
The Role of Men and Women in Colonial New England by Edmund S. Morgan and Louis B. Wright	190	(1)
The Role of Children in Colonial New England by Edmund S. Morgan	192	(1)
Men Assuming Bigger Share at Home, New Survey Shows by Tamar Lewin	194	(1)
For First Time, Nuclear Families Drop Below 25% of Households by Eric Schmitt	196	(2)
Essay Assignment	198	(1)
Examining American and Asian Educational Methods	199	(1)
Reading Assignment	200	(1)
New Math-Science Study Rates U.S. Students Mediocre at Best by William S. Robinson	200	(1)
Why Are U.S. Kids Poor in Math? by Barbara Vobejda	202	(1)
Japan's School System by James Kilpatrick	203	(1)
We Should Cherish Our Children's Freedom to Think by Kie Ho	204	(1)
Strengths, Weaknesses, and Lessons of Japanese Education by James Fallows	206	(1)
School Here in the United States and There in Vietnam, Student Essay	211	(1)
Some Public Schools Don't Make the Grade by Richard Morin	212	(2)
Essay Assignment	214	(2)
The Health-Care Crisis: Examining Two Approaches to National Health	216	(1)
Reading Assignment	217	(1)
The American Health-Care System	218	(2)
The French Health-Care System	220	(1)
U.S. Spends Most on Health, but France No. 1 in Treatment by Lauran Neergaard	220	(1)
The Upward Drift of Health-Care Expenses in France by Baudouin Bollaert	221	(1)
The American Health Care Crisis by Sara Collins	223	(1)
Name-brand Drug Costs Soar, Senior Groups Say by Washington Post	226	(1)
The Incredible Shrinking Health Care Debate by Micah L. Sifry and Nancy Watzman	226	(1)
Drug Companies Increase Spending on Efforts to Lobby Congress and Governments by Robert Pear	230	(1)
Why the U.S. Needs a Single Payer Health System by David U. Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhander,	231	(4)
Essay Assignment	235	(1)
The Writer's Checklist	235	(2)
Sentence Combining	237	(13)
Joining Ideas to Show Contrast and Concession	237	(1)
What Is Concession?	238	(1)
Summary of Comparison/Contrast Words	239	(1)
Using Joining Words to Show Emphasis	239	(11)
Chapter 5 Arguing	250	(90)
Facts and Opinions	250	(3)
Evaluating Evidence and Shaping Your Argument	253	(5)
Assignments and Readings	258	(62)
Deciding Carmen Herrera's Future	258	(1)
Reading Assignment	258	(1)
Various Comments on Carmen's Dilemma by her counselor, parents, boyfriend, employer, friend, sister, brother	259	(1)
Essay Assignment	260	(1)
Should High School Students Work?	261	(1)
Reading Assignment	262	(1)
Part-Time Work Ethic: Should Teens Go for It? by Dennis McLellan	262	(1)
McJobs by Ben Wildavsky	266	(1)
Why Fast-Food Joints Don't Serve Up Good Jobs for Kids by Amitai Etzioni	270	(1)
Why Not Ask the Students? Urban Teenagers Make the Case for Working by Katherine Cress	274	(7)
Essay Assignment	281	(1)
Should People Keep Handguns at Home?	282	(1)
Reading Assignment	282	(1)
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution	283	(1)
Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High-and Upper-Middle-Income Countries by E.G. Krug, K.E. Powell, and L.L. Dahlberg	283	(1)
Handgun Regulations, Crime, Assaults, and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities by Drs. J.H. Sloan, A.L. Kellermann, D.T. Reay, J.A. Ferris, T. Koepsell, E.P. Rivara, C. Rice, L. Gray, and J. LoGerfo	290	(1)
Crime Is the Basic Problem, Not Guns by Wayne LaPierre	295	(1)
Do Gun Laws Work? Study is Inconclusive by Kristen Wyatt	297	(1)
Of Killer Pens and AK-47s by Micah Sifry and Nancy Watzman	298	(1)
Why I Bought a Gun by Gail Buchalter	300	(1)
Man Shoots Own Son	303	(1)
Essay Assignment	304	(1)
Censorship of High School Newspapers	305	(1)
Reading Assignment	306	(1)
Pregnancy at Hazelwood High by Christine de Hass	306	(1)
Divorce's Impact on Kids May Have Lifelong Effects by Shari Gordon	308	(1)
A Limit on the Student Press by Jean Seligmann and Tessa Namuth	309	(1)
High School Papers Grow Up by Jerry Carroll	311	(1)
High Court Gives a Civics Lesson by Fred M. Hechinger	313	(1)
Censorship: A Fact of Life Students Are Forced to Face by Jonathan Yardley	314	(4)
Essay Assignment	318	(1)
The Writer's Checklist	318	(2)
Sentence Combining	320	(20)
Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Appositives	320	(1)
Punctuating Noun Phrases in Sentences	321	(3)
Creating Noun Phrase Modifiers	324	(6)
Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Adjective Clauses	330	(2)
Special Rules	332	(8)
Chapter 6 Discussing	340	(82)
Argument and Discussion in School and on the Job	340	(1)
Writing Discussion Essays	341	(1)
Assignments and Readings	342	(62)
Who Should Care for the Children?	342	(1)
Reading Assignment	343	(1)
Who's Taking Care of the Children? by Michael Ryan	343	(1)
Home Day Care Providers Face Increasing Demand by Tammy Hansen	347	(1)
High Staff Turnover Imperils Child Care, Researcher Says by Anastasia Hendrix	348	(1)
An Interview with Mary S.	350	(1)
Canada Takes Steps Toward Universal Child Care by Colin Nickerson	351	(1)
Child Care Sacred as France Cuts Back the Welfare State by Marlise Simons	352	(4)
Essay Assignment	356	(1)
Rating the Movies	356	(1)
Reading Assignment	357	(1)
The Motion Picture Association Movie Rating System by Jack Valenti	358	(1)
The Big Chill by Lois P. Sheinfeld	362	(1)
The Rating Game by Paul Attanasio	365	(1)
Give Movie Raters a PG, for Pigheadedness by Tom Shales	367	(1)
A Major Studio Tests the (Sexy) Waters of NC-17 by Joel Topcik	368	(3)
Essay Assignment	371	(1)
Is Hate Speech Free Speech?	372	(1)
Reading Assignment	373	(1)
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution	373	(1)
The Debate Over Placing Limits on Racist Speech Must Not Ignore the Damage It Does to Its Victims by Charles R. Lawrence III	374	(1)
Free Speech on the Campus by Nat Hentoff	378	(1)
Hate Speech on Campus by Joseph S. Tuman	383	(1)
Rethinking Campus Speech Codes by Ben Wildavsky	385	(4)
Essay Assignment	389	(1)
Should College Athletics Be Reformed?	389	(1)
Reading Assignment	390	(1)
Helping Top Athletes Meet Minimum Standards by Kate Zernike	391	(1)
Graduation Rates at Top-Tier Football Programs Poor by Steve Wieberg	393	(1)
2003 N.C.A.A. Tournament: Academics; Study Finds Top Teams Failing in the Classroom by Frank Litsky	394	(1)
Big Spenders on Campus Spending Your Money by Selena Roberts	395	(1)
NCAA Board of Directors Adopts Landmark Academic Reform Package	396	(1)
Plan Creates Loopholes, Not Educated Athletes by Marc Isenberg	397	(1)
The Ivy League at 30: A Model for College Athletics or an Outmoded Antique? by Douglas Lederman	399	(3)
Essay Assignment	402	(1)
The Writer's Checklist	402	(2)
Sentence Combining	404	(18)
Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Verbal Phrases	404	(10)
Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Parallelism	414	(8)
Chapter 7 Writing the In-Class Essay	422	(6)
The Essay Exam	422	(2)
The Writing Test	424	(1)
Planning Your Time	425	(2)
Part III Proofreading Skills Workbook	427	(76)
Self-teaching assignments for common usage problems.
Introduction	428	(1)
Proofreading Quiz	429	(1)
1. Identifying Subjects and Verbs	432	(1)
2. Agreement Between Subjects and Verbs	437	(1)
3. Past Tense and Past Participles	444	(1)
4. The Past-to-Present Tense (Present Perfect)	449	(1)
5. The Past-Before-Past Tense (Past Perfect)	453	(1)
6. Comma-Splice Errors	458	(1)
7. Sentence Fragments	461	(1)
8. Pronouns	466	(1)
9. Using A and An	475	(1)
10. Noun Plurals	476	(2)
11. Noncountable Nouns	478	(1)
12. Dropped Contractions of Is and Are	479	(2)
13. Forming Direct Questions	481	(4)
14. Forming Indirect Questions	485	(1)
15. Apostrophes to Show Possession	486	(4)
16. Homophones	490	(6)
17. Capitalization	496	(7)
Credits	503	(6)
Index	509	(6)
Index of Authors and Titles	515