Motives For Writing

by MILLER ROBERT KEITH

• ISBN13: 9780767416832
• ISBN10: 076741683X
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-14
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

This collection of primarily contemporary readings is organized around the varied purposes that motivate writers and includes a detailed guide to writing for each motive. The book's fourth edition puts greater emphasis on academic writing and research, and offers, among other changes, a new chapter on analyzing images.

Table of Contents

* New to this edition

Introduction: Writing for Your Life

1. Writing to Understand Experience

Levi’s, Marilyn Schiel

Grub, Scott Russell Sanders

Life with Father, Itabari Njeri

"Mommy, What Does ‘Nigger’ Mean?" Gloria Naylor

Earth’s Eye, Edward Hoagland

Living Like Weasels, Annie Dillard

Sweet Chariot, Mark Doty

2. Writing to Report Information

As Feezing Persons Recollect the Snow, Peter Stark

* The New Gold Ruch, Rebecca Solnit

* Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good, Eric Schlosser

Tough Break, Tim Rogers

* Uncharted Territory, Elizabeth Kolbert

The Thin Red Line, Jennifer Egan

* The Nanking Safety Zone, Iris Chang

3. Writing to Interpret Information

In Japan, Nice Guys (and Girls) Finish Together, Nicholas D. Kristof

Shouting "Fire!" Alan M. Dershowitz

* What Does the Bible Say about Women, Peter Gomes

Women’s Brains, Stephen Jay Gould

What Happened to the Anasazi? Catherine Dold

* The Joys of Perils of Victimhood, Ian Burma

* Hitler and the Occult: The Magical Thinking of Adolf Hitler, Raymond L. Sickinger

4. Writing to Evaluate Something

* It’s Only Water, Right? Consumer Reports

The Sad Comedy of Really Bad Food, Dara Moskowitz

* Bing Crosby, The Unsung King of Song, Gary Giddens

* Reach Out and Annoy Someone, Johnathan Rowe

* She: Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body, Cynthia Ozick

My Diagnosis, Sysanna Kaysen

Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses, Mark Twain

5. Writing to Analyze Images

* NeXT: Understanding a Corporate Logo, Steven Heller and Karen Pomerov

* Designing a Web Page, Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton

* Images of Women in European Art, John Berger

* Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body, Susan Bordo

* Falling in Love with Food, Jean Kilbourne

* Conveying Atrocity in Image, Barbie Zelizer

6. Writing to Move Others

You Are Me, Larry Carlat

I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Hanging, George Orwell

Am I Blue? Alice Walker

On Behalf of the Insane Poor, Dorothea Dix

* The State of the Union, George W. Bush

A Modest Proposal, Johnathan Swift

7. Writing to Persuade Others

Clean Up or Pay Up, Louis Barbash

* Flunk the Electoral College, Pass Instant Runoffs, John B. Anderson

* Racial Profiling: The Liberals are Right, Stuart Taylor, Jr.

Why You Can Hate Drugs and Still Want to Legalize Them, Joshua Wolf Shenk

* Privacy, the Workplace and the Internet, Seumas Miller and John Weckert

The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson

Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.

8. Writing to Amuse Others

Technology Makes Me Mad, Patricia Volk

It’s Nice Work, If You Can Avoid It, Jeff Foxworthy

Breakfast at the FDA Cafe, John R. Alden

* How I’m Doing, David Own

* Eleventh Hour Bride, Sandra Tsing Loh

* The Young Man and the Sea, Henry Alford

* The Learning Curve, David Sedaris

9. Writing to Experiment with Form

Monologue to the Maestro, Ernest Hemingway

The Deer at Providencia, Annie Dillard

Marrakech, George Orwell

* If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I? Geeta Kothari

I Was Born, Luc Sante

Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy, Judy Ruiz

10. Writing to Understand Reading

Abalone, Abalone, Abalone, Toshio Mori

Winners, Lon Otto

Daystar, Rita Dove

The Driving Range, Leslie Adrienne Miller

* If This is Paradise, Dorianne Laux

* Big Black Car, Lynn Emanuel

* Wearing Indian Jewelry, Heid Erdrich

Defining Us, Rafael Campo

* Sherbet, Cornelius Eddy

Power, Audre Lorde

Off from Swing Shift, Garret Hongo

* Execution, Edward Hirsch

40 Days and 40 Nights, Henri Cole

Reclaiming the Walk, John F. O’Brien

* Visitation, Mark Doty

Trifles, Susan Glaspell