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| Preface | |
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| On Writing | |
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| I Think, Therefore IM | |
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| A journalist and author explains how text messaging, Weblogs, and e-mail are changing the ways students write-and driving some teachers to distraction | |
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| How to Write with Style | |
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| The best-selling author tells of the various odd jobs and adventures he had on the way to a successful writing career | |
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| Simplicity | |
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| According to this writer-teacher, "clutter is the disease of American writing." We must, Zinsser declares, simplify | |
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| Mother Tongue (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| Novelist Amy Tan explains how her writing style achieved both passion and simplicity when she learned to value the criticism of her mother, who said after reading her daughter's novel, "So easy to read." | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 1 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| On Reading | |
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| Volar | |
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| A Latina writer recalls how reading helped her overcome her childhood circumstances | |
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| Prison Studies | |
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| "Reading had changed forever the course of my life," writes Malcolm X, who explains movingly how reading is both an activity of love and a tool of power | |
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| One Writer's Beginnings (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| One of America's best fiction writers reveals a long-standing love affair-with books! "Long before I wrote stories," she says,"I listened for stories." | |
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| Turning the Page (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| An acclaimed essayist and novelist declares that the future of reading is backlit and bright | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 2 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Description | |
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| Apologia | |
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| Lopez brings the eye of a naturalist and the soul of a humanist to a driving trip along the western roads of America | |
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| In the Jungle | |
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| An acclaimed nature writer discovers in the Ecuadorian jungle the depths of experience that can be found in "the middle of nowhere." | |
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| Catfish in the Bathtub | |
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| Squirming turtles, swimming catfish, pungent skunks, city pigeons: Why did Kingston's mother bring the culture of China to their California kitchen? | |
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| My Ticket to the Disaster (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| A novelist evokes a puzzling and emotional visit to the site of the destroyed World Trade towers | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 3 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Narration | |
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| The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl | |
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| In a narrative of her youth, a writer remembers her efforts to obtain "a cultural divorce" from the heritage into which she was born | |
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| Salvation | |
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| One of America's foremost poets tells of his childhood disillusionment as he struggled desperately to see Jesus | |
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| Andrew Lam Waterloo | |
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| This Vietnamese-American short story writer and journalist visits a famous European battlefield, triggering thoughts about his family's fate | |
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| A Hanging (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| The renowned author of Animal Farm and 1984 discovers how precious human life is as he tells of witnessing an execution in Burma. "It is curious," he recalls, "but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man." | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 4 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Process Analysis | |
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| Thumbs on the Wheel | |
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| The writers have a number of ideas to prevent a major problem on the road: using a cellphone while driving. | |
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| How to Foil a Terrorist Plot in Seven Simple Steps | |
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| A popular essayist, novelist, and screenwriter offers a hilarious spoof on our preoccupation with terrorism and terrorists | |
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| Camping Out | |
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| Avoiding insects. Getting a good rest. Cooking trout just right. This essay can make anyone's next camping trip a success | |
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| In the Kitchen (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| A prolific writer and winner of a 1989 National Book Award explores the politics of the hairdo by recalling his experiences as a child in his mother's home beauty parlor | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 5 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Illustration | |
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| Night Walker | |
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| An avid "night walker" explains how his seemingly innocent habit has turned him into "an accomplice in tyranny." | |
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| What I've Learned from Men | |
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| The feminist social critic discovers that there is something useful to be learned from men after all: how to be tough | |
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| Homeless on Campus | |
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| "Advocates for the homeless report countless examples of students sleeping in their cars and sneaking into a school gym to shower and change clothes." | |
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| Globalization Rocked the Ancient World Too (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| Globalization, Diamond claims, is nothing new: Early farmers carried their genes, foods, technologies, cultures, and languages around the world | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 6 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Comparison and Contrast | |
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| A Fable for Tomorrow | |
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| One of America's most celebrated naturalists warns us of the future in a grim contrast between a flourishing environment and a destroyed landscape plagued by a mysterious curse | |
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| Punch and Judy | |
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| The newspaper humorist takes a close look at the war of the sexes and isn't quite sure which side he should be on | |
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| The Body of the Beholder | |
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| This writer focuses on a study that discovered why white girls dislike their bodies, but black girls are proud of theirs." | |
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| Deborah Tannen: Mom's Unforgiving Mirror | |
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| A prominent professor of linguistics who frequently writes on gender issues reflects on the reasons her mother constantly focuses on her daughter's slight imperfections | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 7 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Cause-and-Effect Analysis | |
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| Why We Crave Horror Movies | |
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| The acknowledged master of horror shares his thoughts on why people love to be frightened | |
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| The America I Love | |
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| Holocaust survivor, author, and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel explains what prompted him to become an American citizen more than forty years ago and how he feels about his adopted country today | |
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| Tweet Less, Kiss More (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| A columnist asks why we are so obsessed with our e-mail, cellphones, Kindles, and iPads | |
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| Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| This well-known feminist analyzes the disconnect between the two sexes | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 8 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Classification | |
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| Akbar Ahmed Mystics, Modernists, and Literalists | |
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| Ahmed believes that we cannot understand the Muslim people until we understand these classifications and what they mean for the members of each group | |
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| Shades of Green | |
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| A law professor takes a critical look at "several environmentalisms." | |
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| The American Dream for Sale: Ethnic Images in Magazines | |
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| This writer claims that advertisements and other images in American magazines classify ethnic groups on the basis of prevailing stereotypes | |
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| How Do We Find the Student in a World of Academic Gymnasts and Worker Ants? (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| This gently satirical essay introduces a dozen student types that everyone knows and loves-among others, the performer, the jock, the lost soul, the worker ant, and finally, the student | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 9 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Definition | |
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| Pride | |
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| The popular Chicano writer takes a poetic approach to explaining how a common but complicated human emotion manifests itself in the deserts of Texas | |
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| Generation Q | |
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| Celebrated New York Times contributor and best-selling author Thomas Friedman takes pride in the current generation of college students | |
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| Fundamentalism Is Here to Stay (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| Fundamentalism, declares this acclaimed writer on religion, is "essentially a revolt against modern secular society." | |
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| A Word's Meaning (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| Novelist and short fiction writer Gloria Naylor asserts that the meaning of a word goes beyond the dictionary-especially when it is the N-word | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 10 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Argumentation and Persuasion | |
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| Arguments Pro and Con: Friend or Foe? | |
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| Why I Registered on Facebook | |
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| A college professor fights his own inhibitions and joins the popular online social networking site | |
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| Facebook's Gone Rogue; It's Time for an Open Alternative | |
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| A full-time blogger complains about Facebook's betrayal of its members | |
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| Perspectives on Ethnicity: Who Are We, and How Are | |
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| We Formed? | |
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| The Seat Not taken | |
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| A constantly empty seat beside him on regular train trips forces this writer to draw unpleasant conclusions | |
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| Leave Your Name at the Border (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| This short story writer argues that different people and groups respond to his name-and the author himself-from clashing perspectives | |
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| The Great Wall of America (Mixing Patterns) | |
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| A well-known writer on race and ethnicity argues that protective barriers do not make a nation safe | |
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| The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority | |
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| A leading scholar argues that not only is the idea of uniform Asian-American superiority a myth, but a myth that often veils racist sentiment directed at other groups | |
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| Perspectives on Political Rights: Are We Truly Free? | |
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| Get a Knife, Get a Dog, But Get Rid of Guns | |
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| A witty, sharp-tongued columnist and political critic argues that the Bill of Rights ought not to protect "gun nuts." | |
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| I Have a Dream | |
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| In one of the great pieces of American oratory, King argues logically, emotionally, and ethically for equality of the races | |
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| Baby Battle | |
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| A well-known novelist and nonfiction writer declares, "There is a war going on in the streets of New York City" between the Stay-at-Home Mothers and their adversaries, the Working Mothers and Women Without Children | |
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| Summing Up: Chapter 11 | |
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| From Seeing to Writing | |
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| Appendix: A Guide to Research and Documentation | |
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| What Are Research and Documentation? | |
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| The Research Process | |
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| Phase I: Choosing and Limiting a Topic | |
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| Phase II: Gathering and Organizing Material | |
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| Phase III: Writing the Paper | |
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| Phase IV: Documenting Sources | |
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| Sample Student Research Paper | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Credits | |
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| Index of Authors and Titles | |