Patterns for College Writing : A Rhetorical Reader and Guide

by Kirszner, Laurie G.; Mandell, Stephen R.

• ISBN13: 9780312676841
• ISBN10: 0312676840
• Edition: 12th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-22
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, authors with nearly thirty years of experience teaching college writing, know what works in the classroom and have a knack for picking just the right readings. In Patterns for College Writing, they provide students with exemplary rhetorical models and instructors with class-tested selections that balance classic and contemporary essays. Along with more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patternshas the most comprehensive coverage of active reading, research, and the writing process, with a five-chapter mini-rhetoric; the clearest explanations of the patterns of development; and the most thorough apparatus of any rhetorical reader, all reasons why Patterns for College Writingis the best-selling reader in the country. And the new edition includes exciting new readings and expanded coverage of critical reading, working with sources, and research. It is now available as an interactive Bedford e-book and in a variety of other e-book formats that can be downloaded to a computer, tablet, or e-reader.

Author Biography

During their longstanding collaboration, Laurie Kirszner and Stephen
Mandell have produced a number of best-selling college texts for
Bedford/St. Martin’s, including Foundations First: Sentences and Paragraphs,
Writing First: Practice in Context, and Focus on Writing. Laurie Kirszner
teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at the University of
the Sciences. Stephen Mandell is the founder and former director of the basic
writing program at Drexel University, where he teaches composition, literature,
and technical and business writing.

Table of Contents

Preface

Thematic Guide to the Contents

 

Introduction: How to Use This Book    

     Henry Louis Gates Jr., “What’s in a Name?”

     Responding to an Essay

 

PART ONE: THE WRITING PROCESS

 

1 Reading to Write: Becoming a Critical Reader

     Understanding Critical Reading

     Determining Your Purpose

     Previewing

     Highlighting

* Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name)

* Maria Hinojosa, A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught up to Me

     Annotating

* Brent Staples, Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis by (Insert Name) (with sample annotations)

     Reading Visual Texts

 

2 Invention

Understanding Your Assignment

Setting Limits

Moving from Subject to Topic

Finding Something to Say

Brainstorming

Journal Writing

Grouping Ideas

Understanding Thesis and Support

Developing a Thesis

 

3 Arrangement

Recognizing a Pattern

Understanding the Parts of the Essay

 

4 Drafting and Revising

Writing Your First Draft

Revising Your Essay

Points for Special Attention: First Draft

Points for Special Attention: Second Draft

Laura Bobnak, The Price of Silence (Student Essay)

 

5 Editing and Proofreading

Editing for Grammar

Editing for Punctuation

Editing for Sentence Style and Word Choice

Proofreading your Essay

Checking Manuscript Format

 

PART TWO: READINGS FOR WRITERS

 

6 Narration

What is Narration?

Using Narration

Planning a Narrative Essay

     Developing a Thesis Statement

     Including Enough Detail

     Varying Sentence Structure

     Maintaining Clear Narrative Order

Structuring a Narrative Essay

Revising a Narrative Essay

REVISION CHECKLIST: Narration

Editing a Narrative Essay

GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT: Avoiding Run-on Sentences
EDITING CHECKLIST: Narration

A Student Writer: Narration

Tiffany Forte, My Field of Dreams (Student Essay)

     Points for Special Attention

     Focus on Revision

PEER EDITING WORKSHEET: Narration

Visual Text: Marjane Satrapi, The Socks (Graphic Fiction)

Sandra Cisneros, Only Daughter

*Mark Edmundson, The Pink Floyd Night School

Bonnie Smith-Yackel, My Mother Never Worked

Martin Gansberg, Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police

George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant

Sherman Alexie, Indian Education (Fiction)

Writing Assignments for Narration

Collaborative Activity for Narration

 

N.B. Chapters 7-14 follow the same structure as Chapter 6; subheadings have been omitted for brevity.

 

7 Description
Mallory Cogan, My Grandfather’s Globe (Student Essay)

Mary Lim, The Valley of Windmills (Student Essay)

Visual Text: Mary Hoover Aiken, Café Fortune Teller (Painting)

* Jhumpa Lahiri, Rice

* Ann Hodgman, No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch

Suzanne Berne, Ground Zero

Heather Rogers, The Hidden Life of Garbage

E. B. White, Once More to the Lake

Kate Chopin, The Storm (Fiction)

 

8 Exemplification
Kristy Bredin, Job Application Letter (Student Essay)

Grace Ku, Midnight (Student Essay)

Visual Texts: Four Tattoos: Alex Williams, “Lisa, Karen”; Joel Gordon, “Rose”; Bob Daemmrich , “Jiminy Cricket”; and Charles Gatewood, “Body Art” (Photos)

David J. Birnbaum, The Catbird Seat
Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria
Brent Staples, Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space
* Deborah L. Rhode, Why Looks Are the Last Bastion of Discrimination
* Zev Chafets, Let Steroids into the Hall of Fame
* Jamaica Kincaid, Girl

 

9 Process
Eric McGlade, The Search (Student Essay)

Melany Hunt, Medium Ash Brown (Student Essay)
* Visual Text: Matt McKeon, The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook (Graphs)
Malcolm X, My First Conk
Stanley Fish, Getting Coffee Is Hard to Do
* Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht, Jennifer Worick, How to Decorate Your Room When You're Broke
Arthur Miller, Get It Right: Privatize Executions
Jessica Mitford, The Embalming of Mr. Jones
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery (Fiction)

 

10 Cause and Effect
Evelyn Pelicane, The Irish Famine, 1845–1849 (Student Essay)
Visual Text: Louis Requena, Major League Baseball Brawl (Photo)
Norman Cousins, Who Killed Benny Paret?
* Stan Cox, The Case against Air Conditioning
Lawrence Otis Graham, The “Black Table” Is Still There
Linda M. Hasselstrom, A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun
* Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, Why Vampires Never Die
Janice Mirikitani, Suicide Note (Poetry)

 

11 Comparison and Contrast
Mark Cotharn, Brains versus Brawn (Student Essay)
Maria Tecson, A Comparison of Two Web Sites (Student Essay)
Visual Texts: Auguste Rodin, The Kiss, and Robert Indiana, LOVE (Sculptures)
Bruce Catton, Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
* Paul H. Rubin, Environmentalism as Religion
Bharati Mukherjee, Two Ways to Belong in America
* Amy Chua, Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
Ellen Laird, I’m Your Teacher, Not Your Internet-Service Provider
Deborah Tannen, Sex, Lies, and Conversation
Gwendolyn Brooks, Sadie and Maud (Poetry)

 

12 Classification and Division
Josie Martinez, What I Learned (and Didn’t Learn) in College (Student Essay)
Visual Text: Ellis Island Immigration Museum/NPS, Key to Chalk Marks Designating Medical Conditions of Immigrants, Ellis Island (Chart)

William Zinsser, College Pressures

Carolyn Foster Segal, The Dog Ate My Disk, and Other Tales of Woe

Amy Tan, Mother Tongue

Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie

* Billy Collins, Aristotle

 

13 Definition

Ajoy Mahtab, The Untouchable (Student Essay)

Visual Text: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Census 2010 Form (Questionnaire)

Judy Brady, I Want a Wife

José Antonio Burciaga, Tortillas

Meghan Daum, Fame-iness

Gayle Rosenwald Smith, The Wife-Beater

* Amanda Brown, Love and Other Catastrophes

 

14 Argumentation

Matt Daniels, An Argument Against the Anna Todd Jennings Scholarship (Student Essay)

Visual Text: American Civil Liberties Union, Thanks to Modern Science . . . (Ad)

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

* DEBATE: Are Internships Fair to Students?

* Anya Kamenetz, Take This Internship and Shove It

* Jennifer Halperin, No Pay? Many Interns Say, “No Problem”

* DEBATE: Should American Citizenship Be a Birthright?

* Linda Chavez, The Case for Birthright Citizenship

* George F. Will, An Argument to Be Made about Immigrant Babies and Citizenship

* CASEBOOK: What Can Be Done about the Shortage of Organ Donors?

* Alex Tabarrok, The Meat Market

* Scott Carney, The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation

* Charles Krauthammer, Yes, Let’s Pay for Organs

* Virginia Postrel, The Surgery Was Simple; the Process Is Another Story

* CASEBOOK: Should the Government Fight Obesity by Taxing Sugary Drinks?

* Richard F. Daines, A Tax That Invests in Our Health

* David Leonhardt, Fat Tax

* Daniel Engber, Let Them Drink Water!

 

15 Combining the Patterns

Michael Huu Truong, The Park (Student Essay)

Lars Eighner, On Dumpster Diving

* Barbara Ehrenreich, The Shame Game

David Kirby, Inked Well

Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

 

* PART THREE: WORKING WITH SOURCES

 

16 Finding and Evaluating Sources

     Finding Information in the Library

     Finding Information on the Internet

     Evaluating Sources

 

17 Integrating Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

     Paraphrasing

     Summarizing

     Quoting

     Integrating Source Material Into Your Writing

     Synthesizing Sources

     Avoiding Plagiarism

     Avoiding Common Errors that Lead to Plagiarism

     Avoiding Plagiarism with Online Sources

 

18 Documenting Sources: MLA
     Parenthetical References in the Text

     The Works-Cited List

Philip Lau, The Limitations of Wikipedia (Student Essay in MLA Style)

 

*Appendix: Documenting Sources: APA

     Using Parenthetical References

     Preparing a Reference List

     Examples of APA Citations

*Sample Student Essay in APA Style: Philip Lau, The Limitations of Wikipedia

Glossary

Index