Integrated text chapters and readings: Readings on a cross-curricular theme end each strategy chapter so students can use the readings to apply the strategy. These thematically linked selections represent a range of disciplines on topics of great current interest--the changing definition of intelligence, child poverty in the United States, the construction of guilt or innocence in the law, immigration patterns, primate research and what it reveals about language and behavior, and the relation between literature and cultural politics.
52 new readings (half of the total). While still academic and truly cross-disciplinary, the readings are interesting, accessible, and relatively brief (most are 3-7 pages).
Essay-length model readings for each strategy that show students how professional writers use the strategy.
More help for students with substantially revised and expanded apparatus. All of the Opening Problems that start each chapter are new, 40% of the writing assignments are new or revised, and new sets of Further Assignments (which ask students to connect readings and do some research) conclude each chapter. In addition, there is more explanation and guidance throughout the book, including headnotes for all the readings that point out notable features of the writing.
Substantially revised field research assignments that help students apply the strategies to observe and analyze material from different types of sources, including the Internet. In "What's Funny?," for example, students can gather information from cartoons, comic strips, greeting cards, TV sitcoms, movies, and comedy clubs to draw conclusions about how comedy works. "Exploring the Discourse of Your Major" sends students out on campus to look at readings in their major, classroom lectures, college catalogs, textbooks, and other sources so they can understand the way their major uses language to communicate.