34 short essays and 20 sample paragraphs provide solid, realistic, and engaging models. Most essays are two to four pages, offering good discussion-starters that students will find both accessible to read and useful to emulate.
A student essay in each chapter (12 in total), presented with the same treatment as the professional essays, provides realistic examples to encourage and inspire students.
Each rhetorical chapter centers on an engaging theme that gives students something to write about, while demonstrating how to use the rhetorical methods to write more effectively. Annotated paragraph examples, informative headnotes, and chapter introductions help students make the connection between reading and writing.
A brief guide to reading and writing, detailed chapter introductions, and an appendix on working with sources serve as a mini-rhetoric, providing students with all the support they need. The four introductory chapters include a sample essay followed by a thorough analysis to illustrate critical reading, a student's response to the essay in multiple drafts, and ample coverage of the elements of effective writing, from thesis to word choice.
Helpful reading apparatus. Informative headnotes, provocative warm-up quotations, and journal prompts prime students to read more actively. Four kinds of questions -- on meaning, purpose and audience, method and structure, and language -- guide students through critical analysis, writing topics at the end of each chapter encourage them to explore questions and ideas generated by their readings.