The Norton Sampler Short Essays for Composition

by Cooley, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780393978827
• ISBN10: 0393978826
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-02
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

The Norton Sampler is a collection of short essays for composition students. Like the cloth samplers that schoolchildren produced in colonial times to practice their stitches (and, at the same time, their ABCs), The Norton Sampler is based on the assumption that writing is a practical art that can be learned by studying some basic rhetorical patterns -- narration, description, comparison, and the like. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Thomas Cooley is professor of English at The Ohio State University

Table of Contents

Thematic Contents	xvii
Preface	xxv
Introduction	3	(1)
The Death of a Moth	4	(4)
Annie Dillard
How I Wrote the Moth Essay---and Why	8	(8)
Annie Dillard
The Processes of Writing	16	(1)
The Modes of Writing	16	(2)
Mixing the Modes	18	(3)
Description	21	(33)
Real Time Writing / Catalog Description	26	(2)
The Miss Dennis School of Writing	28	(9)
Alice Steinbach
A View from the Bridge	37	(5)
Cherokee Paul McDonald
No Rainbows, No Roses	42	(5)
Beverly Dipo
No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch	47	(7)
Ann Hodgman
Narrative	54	(39)
Real Time Writing / Obituary	58	(2)
The Ashen Guy: Lower Broadway, September 11, 2001	60	(5)
Thomas Beller
The Lion in Winter	65	(7)
Sebastian Junger
The Back of the Bus	72	(9)
Mary Mebane
None of this is Fair	81	(7)
Richard Rodriguez
Frank Sinatra's Gum	88	(5)
Kelly Simon
Example	93	(34)
Real Time Writing / Girl Scout Cookie Box	99	(2)
The Onion All Seven Deadly Sins Committed at Church Bake Sale	101	(5)
The Invisible Flying Cat	106	(4)
Malcolm Browne
English is a Crazy Language	110	(6)
Richard Lederer
Jazz: Music Beyond Time and Nations	116	(7)
Nat Hentoff
Homeward Bound	123	(4)
Janet Wu
Classification and Division	127	(36)
Real Time Writing / www.dailycandy.com	130	(2)
Mother Tongue	132	(8)
Amy Tan
The Color of Success	140	(6)
Eric A. Watts
What Do You Call a Platypus?	146	(8)
Isaac Asimov
Science, Guided by Ethics, Can Lift Up the Poor	154	(5)
Freeman J. Dyson
The Rise of the Blended American	159	(4)
Jeff Jacoby
Process Analysis	163	(37)
Real Time Writing / How to Make Razzleberry Lemonade	168	(2)
How to Fend Off a Shark	170	(4)
Joshua Piven
David Borgenicht
How Boys Become Men	174	(5)
Jon Katz
The Spider and the Wasp	179	(8)
Alexander Petrunkevitch
How to Write a Letter	187	(5)
Garrison Keillor
How to Get Out of a Locked Trunk	192	(8)
Philip Weiss
Comparison and Contrast	200	(41)
Real Time Writing / Baseball Stats	204	(2)
Grammy Rewards	206	(3)
Deborah Dalfonso
Body Imperfect	209	(3)
Debi Davis
Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts	212	(6)
Bruce Catton
Like Mexicans	218	(6)
Gary Soto
Gender in the Classroom	224	(9)
Deborah Tannen
Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa	233	(8)
David Sedaris
Definition	241	(35)
Real Time Writing / www.savethemanatee.org	244	(2)
Guys vs. Men	246	(8)
Dave Barry
In Praise of the Humble Comma	254	(6)
Pico Iyer
How Come the Quantum?	260	(5)
John Archibald Wheeler
Bop	265	(4)
Langston Hughes
If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?	269	(7)
Geeta Kothari
Cause and Effect	276	(38)
Real Time Writing / Outside Magazine Q&A	282	(2)
Climbing the Golden Arches	284	(6)
Marissa Nunez
Prison Man Considers Turkey	290	(5)
John Edwards
Who Killed Easter Island?	295	(8)
Jared Diamond
A Giant Step	303	(6)
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Wounds That Can't Be Stitched Up	309	(5)
Ruth Russell
Argument	314	(44)
Real Time Writing / Sign on an Old House	320	(2)
The Declaration of Independence	322	(6)
Thomas Jefferson
The Island of Plenty	328	(6)
Johnson C. Montgomery
The Price of Power: Living in the Nuclear Age	334	(6)
Kori Quintana
Being Prepared in Suburbia	340	(5)
Roger Verhulst
Safe-Sex Lies	345	(7)
Meghan Daum
Reply to the U.S. Government	352	(6)
Chief Seattle
Classic Essays	358	(59)
A Modest Proposal	362	(11)
Jonathan Swift
Politics and the English Language	373	(15)
George Orwell
Learning the River	388	(8)
Mark Twain
The Death of the Moth	396	(4)
Virginia Woolf
Once More to the Lake	400	(8)
E. B. White
On Keeping a Notebook	408	(9)
Joan Didion
Glossary	417	(8)
Permissions Acknowledgments	425	(6)
Index	431