The Brief Prose Reader Essays for Thinking, Reading, and Writing

by Flachmann, Kim; Flachmann, Michael; Benander, Kathryn; Smith, Cheryl

• ISBN13: 9780130494979
• ISBN10: 0130494976
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-26
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This brief reader helps users improve their ability to write on progressively more sophisticated levels by integrating learning tools that develop critical thinking and reading skills into every chapter. The selections are accompanied by clear, well-developed rhetorical introductions, sample essays, prewriting questions, and flexible writing assignments.Diversity is strongly emphasized through essays covering a broad range of contemporary topics portraying the universality of human experience as expressed through the viewpoints of men and women, many different ethnic and racial groups, and a variety of ages and social classes.For writers trying to compose professional pieces that express their feelings, thoughts, observations, and opinions.

Table of Contents

Chapters end with Chapter Writing Assignments.
Preface.
Introduction: Thinking, Reading, and Writing.

Thinking Critically. Reading Critically.

Preparing to Read. Reading. Rereading. Reading Inventory.

Writing Critically.

Preparing to Write. Writing. Rewriting. Writing Inventory.

Conclusion.

1. Description: Exploring Through the Senses.

Defining Description. Thinking Critically by Using Description. Reading and Writing Descriptive Essays. Student Essay: Description at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Description. Description in Review.

Summer Rituals, Ray Bradbury. Notes from the Country Club, Kimberly Wozencraft. The Pines, John Mcphee. The View from 80, Malcolm Cowley.

2. Narration: Telling a Story.

Defining Narration. Thinking Critically by Using Narration. Reading and Writing Narrative Essays. Student Essay: Narration at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Narration. Narration in Review.

For My Indian Daughter, Lewis Sawaquat. New Directions, Maya Angelou. The Saturday Evening Post, Russell Baker. Only daughter, Sandra Cisneros.

3. Example: Illustrating Ideas.

Defining Examples. Thinking Critically by Using Example. Reading and Writing Essays That Use Examples. Student Essay: Examples at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Examples. Example in Review.

The Baffling Question, Bill Cosby. Darkness at Noon, Harold Krents. Mother Tongue, Amy Tan. A Brother's Murder, Brent Staples.

4. Process Analysis: Explaining Step by Step.

Defining Process Analysis. Thinking Critically by Using Process Analysis. Reading and Writing Process Analysis Essays. Student Essay: Process Analysis at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Process Analysis. Process Analysis in Review.

Managing Your Time, Edwin Bliss. Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain, Jessica Mitford. How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words, Paul Roberts. E-mail: What You Should—and Shouldn't—Say, Mark Hansen.

5. Division/Classification: Finding Categories.

Defining Division/Classification. Thinking Critically by Using Division/Classification. Reading and Writing Division/Classification Essays. Student Essay: Division/Classification at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Division/Classification. Division/Classification in Review.

Memory: Tips You'll Never Forget, Phyllis Schneider. Why I Want a Wife, Judy Brady. Second Chances for Children of Divorce, Judith Wallerstein and Sandra Blakeslee. The Truth About Lying, Judith Viorst.

6. Comparison/Contrast: Discovering Similarities and Differences.

Defining Comparison/Contrast. Thinking Critically by Using Comparison/Contrast. Reading and Writing Comparison/Contrast Essays. Student Essay: Comparison/Contrast at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Comparison/Contrast. Comparison/Contrast in Review.

Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts, Bruce Catton. A Child Is Born, Germaine Greer. Japanese and American Workers: Two Casts of Mind, William Ouchi. The Politics of Muscle, Gloria Steinem.

7. Definition: Limiting the Frame of Reference.

Defining Definition. Thinking Critically by Using Definition. Reading and Writing Definition Essays. Student Essay: Definition at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Definition. Definition in Review.

When Is It Rape?, Nancy Gibbs. The Barrio, Robert Ramirez. Beliefs About Families, Mary Pipher. How to Find True Love: Or Rather, How It Finds You, Lois Smith Brady.

8. Cause/Effect: Tracing Reasons and Results.

Defining Cause/Effect. Thinking Critically by Using Cause/Effect. Reading and Writing Cause/Effect Essays. Student Essay: Cause/Effect at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Cause/Effect. Cause/Effect in Review.

Why We Crave Horror Movies, Stephen King. The Fear of Losing a Culture, Richard Rodriguez. Meet the Bickersons, Mary Roach. Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self, Alice Walker.

9. Argument and Persuasion: Inciting People to Thought or Action.

Defining Argument and Persuasion. Thinking Critically by Using Argument and Persuasion. Reading and Writing Persuasive Essays. Student Essay: Argument and Persuasion at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Argument and Persuasion. Argument/Persuasion in Review.

Arming Myself with a Gun Is Not the Answer, Bronwyn Jones. Take a Ticket, Peter Salins.

Opposing Viewpoints: Computers and Books.

The Demise of Writing, Geoffrey Meredith. Will We Still Turn Pages?, Kevin Kelly.

10. Documented Essays: Reading and Writing from Sources.

Defining Documented Essays. Reading and Writing Documented Essays. Student Essay: Documentation at Work. Some Final Thoughts on Documented Essays. Documented Essays in Review.

The Ecstasy of War, Barbara Ehrenreich. Appearance and Delinquency: A Research Note, Jill Leslie Rosenbaum and Meda Chesney-Lind.

11. Essays on Thinking, Reading, and Writing.

I Am Writing Blindly, Roger Rosenblatt. To Read Fiction, Donald Hall. The Rules of Writing Practice, Natalie Goldberg. Instantly Growing Up, John Greenwald. Writing as a Moral Act, Rita Mae Brown.

Glossary of Useful Terms.
Credits.
Index of Authors and Titles.

Excerpts

The Brief Prose Reader,like its full-length version, is based on the assumption that lucid writing follows lucid thinking, whereas poor written work is almost inevitably the product of foggy, irrational thought processes. As a result, our primary purpose in this book is to help students think more clearly and logically--both in their minds and on paper. Furthermore, we believe that college students should be able to think, read, and write on three increasingly difficult levels: Literal--characterized by a basic understanding of words and their meanings; Interpretive--consisting of a knowledge of linear connections between ideas and an ability to make valid inferences based on those ideas; and Critical--the highest level, distinguished by the systematic investigation of complex ideas and by the analysis of their relationship to the world around us. To demonstrate the vital interrelationship between reader and writer, our text provides students with prose models intended to inspire their own thinking and writing. Although studying rhetorical strategies is certainly not the only way to approach writing, it is a productive means of helping students become better writers. These essays are intended to encourage students to improve their writing through a partnership with some of the best examples of professional prose available today. Just as musicians and athletes richly benefit from studying the techniques of the foremost people in their fields, your students will grow in spirit and language use from their collaborative work with the excellent writers in this collection. HOW THE TEXT WORKS Each chapter of The Brief Prose Readerbegins with an explanation of a single rhetorical technique. These explanations are divided into six sections that progress from the effect of this technique on our daily lives to its integral role in the writing process. Also in each chapter introduction, we include a student paragraph and a student essay featuring the particular rhetorical strategy under discussion. The essay is highlighted by annotations and underlining to illustrate how to write that type of essay and to help bridge the gap between student writing and the professional selections that follow. After each essay, the student writer has drafted a personal note with some useful advice for other student writers. The essays that follow each chapter introduction are selected from a wide variety of well-known contemporary authors. Needless to say, "pure" rhetorical types rarely exist, of course, and when they do, the result often seems artificial. Therefore, although each essay in this collection focuses on a single rhetorical mode as its primary strategy, other techniques are always simultaneously at work. These selections concentrate on one primary strategy at a time in much the same way a well-arranged photograph highlights a certain visual detail, though many other elements function in the background to make the picture an organic whole. Before each reading selection, we offer some material to focus the students'' attention on a particular writer and topic before they begin reading the essay. This "prereading" segment begins with biographical information about the author and ends with a number of questions to whet the reader''s appetite for the essay that follows. This section is intended to help students discover interesting relationships among ideas in their reading and then anticipate various ways of thinking about and analyzing the essay. The prereading questions forecast not only the content of the essay, but also the questions and writing assignments that follow. The questions after each reading selection are designed as guides for thinking about the essay. These questions are at the heart of the relationship represented in this book among thinking, reading, and writing. They are divided into four interrelated sections that move students smoothly from a literal understanding of what they have just read, to interpretation, and finally to analysis. After students have studied the different techniques at work in a reading selection, specific essay assignments let them practice all these skills in unison and encourage them to discover even more secrets about the intricate and exciting details of effective communication. Prewriting questions, designed to help students generate new ideas, precede three "Ideas for Discussion/Writing" at the end of each chapter. Most of the writing assignments themselves specify a purpose and an audience so that your students can focus their prose as precisely as possible. The word essay(which comes from the Old French essai,meaning a "try" or an "attempt") is an appropriate label for these writing assignments, because they all ask students to wrestle with an idea or problem and then attempt to give shape to their conclusions in some effective manner. Such "exercises" can be equated with the development of athletic ability: The essay itself demonstrates that your students can put together all the various skills they have learned; it also proves they can actually succeed at the "sport" of writing. SOME UNIQUE FEATURES The Brief Prose Reader is organized according to the belief that our mental abilities are logically sequential. In other words, students cannot read or write analytically before they are able to perform well on the literal and interpretive levels. Accordingly, this book progresses from selections that require predominantly literal skills ( Description, Narration, and Example) through readings involving more interpretation ( Process Analysis, Division /Classification, Comparison/Contrast, and Definition) to essays that demand a high degree of analytical thought ( Cause/Effect and Argument/Persuasion). Depending on your curriculum and the caliber of your students, these rhetorical modes can, of course, be studied in any order. The Brief Prose Reader provides two Tables of Contents. First, the book contains a Rhetorical Table of Contents, which includes a one- or two-sentence synopsis of the selection so you can peruse the list quickly and decide which essays to assign. An alternate Thematic Table of Contents lists selections by academic discipline. The chapter introductions are filled with several types of useful information about each rhetorical mode. Each of the nine rhetorical divisions in the text is introduced by an explanation of how to think, read, and write in that particular mode. Although each chapter focuses on one rhetorical strategy, students are continually encouraged to examine ways in which other modes help support each essay''s main intentions. Two separate student writing samples are featured in each chapter introduction. The chapter introductions contain a sample student paragraph and a complete student essay that illustrate each rhetorical pattern. After each essay, the student writer has provided a thorough analysis, explaining the most enjoyable, exasperating, or noteworthy aspects of writing that particular essay. We have found that this combination of student essays and commentaries makes the professional selections easier for students to read and more accessible as models of thinking and writing. Each chapter includes user-friendly checklists at the end of its introduction. These checklists summarize the information in the chapter introduction and serve as references for students in their own writing tasks. Students should be directed to these lists as early in the course as possible. The prereading material encourages interactive reading. We precede each reading selection with thorough biographical information on t