9780070459830

Preface

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Acknowledgments

xvii

Introduction "Learning to Write Is Learning to Think"

(32)

Four Methods of Brainstorming

(30)

1. Exploring Words

Betty Edwards

Left and Right "Words and phrases concerning concepts of left and right permeate our language and thinking."

Nancy Mairs

On Being a Cripple "`Cripple' seems to me a clean word, straightforward and precise."

(2)

2. Making Metaphors

Edward Hoagland

Turtles "Baby turtles in a turtle bowl are a puzzle in geometrics."

(2)

Annie Dillard

The Stunt Pilot "The plane moved every way a line can move, and it controlled three dimensions, so the line carved massive and subtle slits in the air like sculptures."

(3)

3. Observation and Inference

Ian Frazier

Making Marks "I look at what is under and around my feet more often than is common, probably because of all the time I spent as a boy searching for four-leaf clovers and arrowheads and rifle shells and golf balls."

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4. Abstract and Concrete

Joan Didion

On Morality "I have been trying to think . . . in some abstract way about `morality,' a word I distrust more every day, but my mind veers inflexibly toward the particular."

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Developing Ideas

(2)

Chapter 1 Narration

(58)

Elements of Narration

(4)

Choice of Detail

(1)

Duration

(2)

Clear Sense of Direction

(1)

Sequential Development

(1)

Elements of Literary Narrative

(3)

Point of View

(1)

Voice

(1)

Dialogue

Maya Angelou

Graduation "Finding my seat at last, I was overcome with a presentiment of worse things to come. Something unrehearsed, unplanned, was going to happen, and we were going to be made to look bad."

E. B. White

Once More to the Lake "I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death."

Judith Ortiz Cofer

American History "El Building was like a monstrous jukebox, blasting out salsas from open windows as the residents, mostly new immigrants just up from the island, tried to drown out whatever they were currently enduring with loud music. But the day Pre sident Kennedy was shot, there was a profound silence in El Building. . . ."

Maxine Hong Kingston

No Name Woman "Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strength to establish realities."

(12)

Thematic Pair: Giving in to Pressure

Langston Hughes

Salvation "Suddenly the whole room broke into a sea of shouting, as they saw me rise. Waves of rejoicing swept the place. Women leaped in the air. My aunt threw her arms around me. The minister took me by the hand and led me to the platform."

George Orwell

Shooting an Elephant "And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all: The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly."

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Chapter 2 Description

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Purposes

(1)

Objective and Subjective Description

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Steps in Writing Effective Description

Mary Gordon

More Than Just a Shrine: Paying Homage to the Ghosts of Ellis Island "The minute I set foot upon the island I could feel all that it stood for: insecurity, obedience, anxiety, dehumanization, the terrified and careful deference of the displaced."

N. Scott Momaday

A First American Views His Land "The Native American's attitudes towards this landscape have been formulated over a long period of time, a span that reaches back to the end of the Ice Age. The land, this land, is secure in his racial memory."

103

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Virginia Woolf

Death of a Moth "It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and decking it as lightly as possible with down and feathers, had set it dancing and zigzagging to show us the true nature of life."

113

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Gretel Ehrlich

Time on Ice "Here, at the top of the world. Clouds sweep down so low the landscape appears flattened, as if Earth were clamped by a vise. I sleep on water, walk on water, dream on water--albeit frozen."

117

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Thematic Pair: What We Wear

126

(1)

Jamaica Kincaid

Biography of a Dress "My skin was not the color of cream in the process of spoiling, my hair was not the texture of silk and the color of flax, my eyes did not gleam like blue jewels in a crown, the afternoons in which I sat watching my mother make me this dress were not cool, and verdant lawns and pastures and hills and dales did not stretch out before me. . . ."

James Agee

Overalls ". . .a new suit of overalls has among its beauties those of a blueprint: and they are a map of the working man."

137

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Chapter 3 Exemplification

143

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Examples Help Make Ideas Clear and Convincing

143

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Selecting Examples

145

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Organizing Examples

Ishmael Reed

America: The Multinational Society "When I heard a schoolteacher warn the other night about the invasion of the American educational system by foreign curriculums, I wanted to yell at the television set, `Lady, they're already here.'"

Michiko Kakutani

The Word Police "The politically correct lion becomes the `monarch of the jungle,' new-age children play `someone at the top of the heap,' and the Mona Lisa goes down in history as Leonardo's `acme of perfection.'"

152

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Ruth Schwartz Cowan

Less Work for Mother? "The vacuum cleaner, General Electric announced in 1918, is better than a maid: it doesn't quit, get drunk, or demand higher wages."

Alice Walker

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens "For these grandmothers and mothers of ours were not Saints, but Artists; driven to a numb and bleeding madness by the springs of creativity in them for which there was no release."

168

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Thematic Pair: Negotiating Public Space

Edward T. Hall

The Arab World ". . . most Americans follow a rule, which is all the more binding because we seldom think about it, that can be stated as follows: as soon as a person stops or is seated in a public place, there balloons around him a small sphere of pr ivacy which is considered inviolate."

179

(9)

Brent Staples

Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space "She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man--a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket--seemed menacingly close."

188

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Chapter 4 Definition

195

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Lexical Definitions

196

(1)

Stipulative Definitions

197

(1)

Extended Definitions

Herbert Gans

The Underclass "America has a long history of insults for the `undeserving' poor. In the past they were bums, hoboes, vagrants and paupers; more recently they have been culturally deprived and the hard-core poor. Now they are the `underclass.'"

Thomas Sowell

We're Not Really "Equal" "`Equality' is one of the great undefined terms underlying much current controversy and antagonism. This one confused word might even become the rock on which our civilization is wrecked. It should be worth defining."

204

(4)

Perri Klass

Ambition "Especially in women, ambition has often been seen as a profoundly dislikable quality; the word `ambitious' linked to a `career woman' suggested that she was ruthless, hard as nails, clawing her way to success on top of the bleeding bodies of her friends."

Nancy Gibbs

When Is It Rape? "In court, on campus, in conversation, the issue turns on the elasticity of the word `rape,' one of the few words in the language with the power to summon a shared image of a horrible crime."

213

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Thematic Pair: Language and Prejudice

Gloria Naylor

A Question of Language "I was later to go home and ask the inevitable question that every black parent must face--`Mommy, what does `nigger' mean?'"

Alleen Pace Nilsen

Sexism in Language "Most parents are amused if they have a daughter who is a tomboy, but they are genuinely distressed if they have a son who is a sissy."

231

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Chapter 5 Classification

239

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When to Use Classification

240

(1)

How to Use Classification

241

(1)

Partition/Binary Classification

242

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Classification as Structure

Judith Viorst

Friends, Good Friends--and Such Good Friends "There are medium friends, and pretty good friends, and very good friends indeed, and these friendships are defined by their level of intimacy."

Russell Baker

The Plot Against People "Inanimate objects are classified into three major categories--those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost."

David Cole

Five Myths about Immigration "Growing up, I was always taught that we will be judged by how we have treat others. If we are collectively judged by how we have treated immigrants--those who appear today to be `other' but will in a generation be `us'--w e are not in very good shape."

253

(5)

Donald Hall

Four Kinds of Reading "It is worth asking how the act of reading became something to value in itself, as opposed for instance to the act of conversation or the act of taking a walk."

258

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Thematic Pair: Understanding Human Behavior

Desmond Morris

Territorial Behavior "In the broadest sense, there are three kinds of human territory: tribal, family, and personal."

John Holt

Three Kinds of Discipline "We hear constantly that children will never do anything unless compelled to by bribes or threats. But in their private lives, or in extracurricular activities in school. . . . they often submit themselves willingly and wholeheartedly to very intense disciplines, simply because they want to learn to do a given thing well."

273

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Chapter 6 Comparison and Contrast

279

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Determining a Basis for Comparison

280

(1)

Selecting Points of Comparison

281

(1)

Establishing a Main Idea

282

(1)

Planning an Essay of Comparison

282

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Developing an Essay of Comparison: Three Methods

Bruce Catton

Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts "They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision."

Suzanne Britt

Neat People versus Sloppy People "I've finally figured out the difference between neat people and sloppy people. The distinction is, as always, moral."

Karen Horney

Fear and Anxiety "When a mother is afraid that her child will die when it has only a pimple or a slight cold we speak of anxiety; but if she is afraid when the child has a serious illness we call her reaction fear."

E. J. Dionne, Jr.

How Liberals and Conservatives Are Failing America "We are suffering from a false polarization in our politics, in which liberals and conservatives keep arguing about the same things when the country wants to move on."

297

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Thematic Pair: Language and Gender

Deborah Tannen

How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently "The classroom is a different environment for those who feel comfortable putting themselves forward in a group than it is for those who find the prospect of doing so chastening, or even terrifying."

308

(7)

John Mack Faragher

Pioneer Diaries of Women and Men "Despite similarity in content, there was a notable difference in the style of men's and women's writing."

315

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Chapter 7 Analogy and Extended Metaphor

323

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Explaining by Means of Analogy

324

(1)

The Visual Impact of Analogy

325

(1)

Analogy as a Means of Discovery

Lewis Thomas

The Attic of the Brain "Forget whatever you feel like forgetting. From time to time, practice not being open, discover new things not to talk about, learn reserve, hold the tongue."

Mark Twain

Reading the River "Now when I had mastered the language of this water, and had come to know every trifling feature that bordered the great river as familiarly as I knew the letters of the alphabet, I had made a valuable acquisition. But I had lost some thing, too."

332

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Plato

The Allegory of the Cave "And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened. . . ."

Katha Pollitt

Feminism at the Crossroads "So perhaps the real way feminism will resolve its indecisiveness at the crossroads is that it will continue to debate and hesitate and try both roads at once until one day it sees that in fact the crossroads has disappeared. disappeared."

341

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Thematic Pair: Television as a Drug

Marie Winn

TV Addiction "Let us consider television viewing in the light of the conditions that define serious addictions."

Pete Hamill

Crack and the Box "Why, for God's sake? Why do so many millions of Americans of all ages, races, and classes choose to spend all or part of their lives stupefied?"

353

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Chapter 8 Cause and Effect

361

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Four Ways to Organize a Cause-and-Effect Essay

362

(2)

Seven Common Errors

Amy Cunningham

Why Women Smile "Despite all the work we American women have done to get and maintain full legal control of our bodies, not to mention our destinies, we still don't seem to be fully in charge of a couple of small muscle groups in our faces."

Laurence Steinberg

Bound to Bicker "Even in the closest of families, parents and teenagers squabble and bicker surprisingly often--so often, in fact, that we hear impassioned recountings of these arguments in virtually every discussion we have with parents or teenagers."

Stephen Jay Gould

Of Crime, Cause, and Correlation "Have a healthy respect for simple answers; the world is not always a deep conundrum fit only for consideration by certified scholars."

Patricia Williams

Hate Radio "As I listened to a range of such programs what struck me as the most unifying theme was not merely the specific intolerance on such hot topics as race and gender, but a much more general contempt for the world, a verbal stoning of anything different."

387

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Thematic Pair: The Global Future

Sir Frederick Hoyle

The Next Ice Age "The conclusion is that the present sequence of ice ages has scarcely begun. There are hundreds of ice ages still to come."

Carl Sagan

The Warming of the World "The solution to these problems requires a perspective that embraces the planet and the future. We are all in this greenhouse together."

404

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Chapter 9 Process Analysis

411

(42)

Two Kinds of Process Analysis

411

(3)

Steps in Process Analysis

414

(1)

Three Stages in the Writing Process

Michael Anania

Starting "There is something intimate, however painful, about trying to start your car on a bitter cold morning."

Ernest Hemingway

When You Camp Out, Do It Right "Men have always believed that there was something mysterious and difficult about making a pie. Here is a great secret. There is nothing to it."

Yogi Ramacharaka

The Complete Breath "Avoid a jerky series of inhalations, and strive to attain a steady continuous breath."

Lars Eighner

On Dumpster Diving "I learned to scavenge gradually, on my own. Since then I have initiated several companions into the trade. I have learned that there is a predictable series of stages a person goes through in learning to scavenge."

429

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Thematic Pair: On the Writing Process

Kurt Vonnegut

How to Write with Style "The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child."

Donald M. Murray

The Maker's Eye "Writers must learn to be their own best enemy. They must accept the criticism of others and be suspicious of it; they must accept the praise of others and be even more suspicious of it."

447

(6)

Chapter 10 Argument and Persuasion

453

(82)

The Difference Between Argument and Persuasion

453

(1)

Argument

453

(8)

Claims

455

(1)

Reasoning Pattern

456

(4)

Organization: Constructing an Argument

460

(1)

Persuasion

461

(5)

What is Persuasion?

461

(1)

The Three Types of Persuasion

462

(1)

Identifying with Your Audience

463

(3)

Five Classics

Jonathan Swift

A Modest Proposal "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or broiled. . . ."

Thomas Jefferson

The Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. . . ."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. . . ."

481

(5)

John F. Kennedy

On Being Inaugurated President of the United States "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

486

(5)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

491

(5)

Three Brief Arguments on Current Issues: Free Speech on Campus

Nat Hentoff

Should This Student Have Been Expelled? "Anyway, there was no physical combat. Just words. Awful words, but nothing more than speech. (Nor were there any threats.)"

Vartan Gregorian

Free Speech? Yes. Drunkenness? No. "The day when drunkenness was romanticized, when racial or sexual harassment could be winked at, condoned or considered merely in poor taste has long passed."

502

(5)

Gun Control

Sandra S. Froman

Armed and Safe "No matter how many gun control laws are enacted, criminals will always get guns."

508

(3)

Senator Campbell's Rebuttal

Tom Campbell

Armed and Dangerous "Would it seriously be argued that seat belts are a bad idea because they don't prevent all traffic deaths?"

514

(3)

Ms. Froman's Rebuttal

517

(4)

The Death Penalty

Edward I. Koch

Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life "The execution of a lawfully condemned killer is no more an act of murder than is legal imprisonment an act of kidnapping."

David Bruck

The Death Penalty: A Response to Edward I. Koch "He suggests that we trivialize murder unless we kill the murderers. By that logic, we also trivialize rape unless we sodomize rapists."

528

(7)

Glossary

535

(8)

Permissions Acknowledgments

543

(6)

Index

549