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* indicates a chapter, section, or reading selection that is new to this edition.
Thematic Clusters
Introduction for Students
Part One: On Reading and Writing Well
Chapter 1: The Writing Process
Prewriting
Writing the First Draft
Revising
Editing
Proofreading
Writing a Narrative Essay: A Student Essay in Progress
*Mya Nunnally, Mixed Results (student essay)
Chapter 2: Reading Actively and Critically
Reading Actively: Getting a Basic Understanding of the Essay
*Celeste Headlee, Get Off the Soapbox
*Reading Critically: Taking Your Analysis to the Next Level
From Reading to Writing
Writing from Reading: A Sample Student Essay
Zoe Ockenga, The Excuse "Not To" (student essay)
Part Two: The Elements of the Essay
Chapter 3: Thesis
James Lincoln Collier, Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name
David Pogue, The End of Passwords
Julie Zhuo, Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt
Chapter 4: Unity
Thomas L. Friedman, My Favorite Teacher
Helen Keller, The Most Important Day
Jonathan Safran Foer, Against Meat
Chapter 5: Organization
Cherokee Paul McDonald, A View from the Bridge
*Tim Parks, Do We Write Differently on a Screen?
Dan M. Kahan, Shame Is Worth a Try
Chapter 6: Beginnings and Endings
Dick Gregory, Shame
Sean McElwee, The Case for Censoring Hate Speech
Omar Akram, Can Music Bridge Cultures and Promote Peace?
Chapter 7: Paragraphs
Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Rosetta
Donna Hicks, Independence
*Sarah Smarsh, Heartland
Chapter 8: Transitions
Dan Shaughnessy, Teammates Forever Have a Special Connection
*Pamela Paul, Let Children Get Bored Again
Richard Lederer, The Case for Short Words
Chapter 9: Effective Sentences
Erin Murphy, White Lies
*Pablo Casals, San Salvador
Langston Hughes, Salvation
Chapter 10: Writing with Sources
Tara Haelle, How to Teach Children That Failure Is the Secret to Success
*Markham Heid, We Need to Talk About Kids and Smartphones
Jake Jamieson, The English-Only Movement: Can America Proscribe Language with a Clear Conscience?
Part Three: The Language of the Essay
*Chapter 11: Voice
*Brooklyn White, A Pleasure to Burn: One Family's Hot-Sauce Heirloom
*Wilfred McClay, Curate
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
Chapter 12: Diction and Tone
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Maya Angelou, Momma, the Dentist, and Me
Robert G. Lake-Thom (Medicine Grizzly Bear), An Indian Father's Plea
Chapter 13: Figurative Language
Robert Ramirez, The Barrio
*Trish O'Kane, Of Fledglings and Freshmen
Audrey Schulman, Fahrenheit 59: What a Child's Fever Might Tell Us about Climate Change
Part Four: Types of Essays
Chapter 14: Illustration
Natalie Goldberg, Be Specific
Michael Gardner, Adventures of the Dork Police
*Priscilla Long, Old Things, Used Things
Chapter 15: Narration
Henry Louis Gates Jr., What's in a Name?
Misty Copeland, Life in Motion
*Grace Talusan, The Gentle Tasaday
Chapter 16: Description
Eudora Welty, The Corner Store
*David Jenemann, The Gloves of Summer
*Mia Schon, Look It Up!
Chapter 17: Process Analysis
Paul Merrill, The Principles of Poor Writing
Marie Kondo, Designate a Place for Each Thing
*Helen Czerski, Spiders' Legs Are Hydraulic Masterpieces
Chapter 18: Definition
*Brené Brown, What Is Shame?
Akemi Johnson, Who Gets to Be "Hapa"?
Eduardo Porter, What Happiness Is
Chapter 19: Division and Classification
Martin Luther King Jr., The Ways of Meeting Oppression
Mia Consalvo, Cheating Is Good for You
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
Chapter 20: Comparison and Contrast
Toby Morris, On a Plate
Bharati Mukherjee, Two Ways to Belong in America
*Tara Westover, Pygmalion
Chapter 21: Cause and Effect
Stephen King, Why We Crave Horror Movies
Brent Staples, Black Men and Public Space
*Melinda Wenner Moyer, Sexism Starts in Childhood
Chapter 22: Argument
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Becoming Disabled
Mary Sherry, In Praise of the F Word
*Farhad Manjoo, It's Time for "They"
*Is College Worth the Cost?
*Ellen Ruppel Shell, College May Not Be Worth It Anymore
*Logan Smith, Think for Yourself and Question the Benefits of Higher Education
*Peter Cappelli, Will College Pay Off?
*How Real Is the Automation Threat?
*Alissa Quart, Automation Is a Real Threat
*Lawrence Whittle, I, For One, Welcome Our Robot Overlords
*Hettie O'Brien, The Automation Delusion
Part Five: Guides to Research and Editing
Chapter 23: A Brief Guide to Writing a Research Paper
Establishing a Realistic Schedule
Finding and Using Sources
Conducting Keyword Searches
Evaluating Sources
Analyzing Sources for Position and Bias
Developing a Working Bibliography
Taking Notes
Documenting Sources
MLA-Style Documentation
APA-Style Documentation
Chapter 24: Editing for Grammar, Punctuation, and Sentence Style
Run-Ons: Fused Sentences and Comma Splices
Sentence Fragments
Subject-Verb Agreement
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Verb Tense Shifts
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Faulty Parallelism
Weak Nouns and Verbs
Academic Diction and Tone
ESL Concerns (Articles and Nouns)
Glossary of Useful Terms
Acknowledgments
Index
