Chapter 1 An Introduction to Rhetoric: Using the "Available Means"


Key Elements of Rhetoric

The Rhetorical Triangle

Appeals to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

Visual Rhetoric

Rhetoric in Literature

Patterns of Development

When Rhetoric Misses the Mark



CHAPTER 2 Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Analysis


Analyzing Style

Talking with the Text

    Annotation

    Dialectical Journal

    Graphic Organizer

Close Reading a Visual Text

From Analysis to Essay: Writing about a Close Reading

Glossary of Selected Tropes and Schemes



CHAPTER 3 Synthesizing Sources: Entering the Conversation


Types of Support

Writers at Work

The Relationship of Sources to Audience

The Synthesis Essay

Conversation Focus on Community Service

    Identifying the Issues: Recognize Complexity

    Formulating Your Position

    Incorporating Sources: Inform Rather than Overwhelm



CHAPTER 4 Education

To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?


Central Essay Francine Prose, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read

Classic Essay Ralph Waldo Emerson, Education

Sherman Alexie, Superman and Me

Margaret Talbot, Best in Class

James Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers

Kyoko Mori, School

    Kyoko Mori on Writing

Billy Collins, The History Teacher (poetry)

Sandra Cisneros, Eleven (fiction)

Visual Text NEA, from Reading at Risk (tables)

Conversation Focus on the American High School

    Horace Mann, from Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education 

    Leon Botstein, High School, an Institution Whose Time Has Passed

    Todd Gitlin, from The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut

    David S. Broder, A Model for High Schools

    Floyd Norris, U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills (includes table)

    Norman Rockwell, Spirit of Education (painting)

Student Writing Argument: Using Personal Experience as Evidence

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Appositives

Suggestions for Writing Education



CHAPTER 5 Work

How does our work shape or influence our lives?


Central Essay Barbara Ehrenreich, from Serving in Florida

   Barbara Ehrenreich on Writing

Classic Essay Booker T. Washington, from The Atlanta Exposition Address

Richard Selzer, The Surgeon as Priest

Thomas Carlyle, Labour

Claudia O’Keefe, The Traveling Bra Salesman’s Lesson

Annie Dillard, The Stunt Pilot

Ellen Goodman, In Praise of a Snail’s Pace

Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing (fiction)

Jean Toomer, Harvest Song (poetry)

Visual Text J. Howard Miller, We Can Do It! (poster)

Visual Text Jeff Parker, The Great GAPsby Society (cartoon)

Conversation Focus on Working Parents

    Marilyn Gardner, More Working Parents Play Beat the Clock

    Claudia Wallis, The Case for Staying Home

    Christopher Mele, Sick Parents Go to Work, Stay Home When Kids Are Ill

    Amelia Warrne Tyagi, Why Women Have to Work

    Kimberly Palmer, My Mother, Myself, Her Career, My Questions

    Buzz McClain, Don’t Call Me Mr. Mom

Student Writing Close Reading: Analyzing Style in Paired Passages

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Short Simple Sentences and Fragments

Suggestions for Writing Work



CHAPTER 6 Community
What is the relationship of the individual to the community?


Central Essay Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Eight Alabama Clergymen, Public Statement

Classic Essay Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived for

Jane Howard, In Search of the Good Family

Amitai Etzioni, The New Community

Anna Quindlen, from Being Perfect: Commencement Speech at Mt. Holyoke College

Lori Arviso Alvord, Walking the Path between Worlds

Edwidge Danticat, New York Day Women (fiction)

    Edwidge Danticat on Writing

Aurora Levins Morales, Child of the Americas (poetry)

Visual Text Lee Teter, Reflections (painting)

Visual Text Frederick Hart, Three Servicemen (sculpture)

Conversation Focus on the Individual’s Responsibility to the Community

    Bertrand Russell, The Happy Life

    Peter Singer, The Singer Solution to World Poverty

    Garrett Hardin, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor 

    John Betjeman, In Westminster Abbey (poetry)

Student Writing Synthesis: Incorporating Sources into a Revision

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Parallel Structures

Suggestions for Writing Community



CHAPTER 7 Gender
What is the impact of gender roles that society creates and enforces?


Cental Essay Stephen Jay Gould, Women’s Brains

Classic Essay Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women

John and Abigail Adams, Letters

Gretel Ehrlich, About Men

Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman

    Judith Ortiz Cofer on Writing

Paul Theroux, Being a Man

Stephen Lewis, Aids Has a Woman’s Face

Deborah Tannen, There Is No Unmarked Woman

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat (fiction)

Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll (poetry)

Visual Text Cathy Guisewite, Cathy (cartoon)

Visual Text Bill Broadway, New and Newer Versions of Scripture (table)

Conversation Focus on Defining Masculinity

    Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky, Why Johnny Won’t Read

    Ann Hulbert, Boy Problems (includes table)

    David Brooks, Mind over Muscle

    Rebecca Walker, Putting down the Gun

Student Writing Argument: Supporting an Assertion

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Pronouns

Suggestions for Writing Gender



CHAPTER 8 Sports and Fitness
How do the values of sports affect the way we see ourselves?


Central Essay Gay Talese, The Silent Season of a Hero

Classic Essay Theodore Roosevelt, The Proper Place for Sports

John McMurtry, Kill ‘Em, Crush ‘Em, Eat ‘Em Raw

Kris Vervaecke, A Spectator’s Notebook

Frances Willard, from How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle

Rick Reilly, The Real New York Giants

Samuel G. Freedman, For Fasting and Football, A Dedicated Game Plan

    Samuel G. Freedman on writing

John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player (poetry)

Maxine Kumin, Prothalamion (poetry)

Visual Text Edward Koren, Untitled (cartoon)

Conversation Focus on Body Image

    Donna Britt, A Unique Take on Beauty

    Sports Illustrated, Little Sister, Big Hit (cover)

    Natalie Angier, Drugs, Sports, Body Image and G.I. Joe

    American College of Sports Medicine, Disordered Eating and Body Image Disturbances May Be Underreported in Male Athletes

    Pennsylvania State University Health Services, Enhancing Male Body Image

Student Writing Rhetorical Analysis: Comparing Strategies

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Precise, Direct, and Active Verbs

Suggestions for Writing Sports and Fitness



CHAPTER 9 Language and Culture
How does the language we use reveal who we are?


Central Essay Richard Rodriguez, Aria

Classic Essay George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

Amy Tan, Mother Tongue

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, from Decolonising the Mind

Marjorie Agosin, Always Living in Spanish

Peter Berkowitz and Michael McFaul, Studying Islam, Strengthening the Nation

S.I. Hayakawa, Bilingualism in America: English Should Be the Official Language

Lan Cao, from Monkey Bridge (fiction)

Chang-Rae Lee, from Native Speaker (fiction)

Naomi Shihab Nye, For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15 and Why I Could Not Accept Your Invitation (poetry)

    Naomi Shihab Nye on Writing

Visual Text Mike Twohy, Rumors, Lies, Innuendo (cartoon)

Visual Text James Crawford, Census Data on Language Use in America (table)

Conversation Focus on Current Language Usage

    Geoffrey Nunberg, How Much Wallop Can a Simple Word Pack?

    Daniel Okrent, The War of Words: A Dispatch from the Front Lines

    Letters to the Editor in response to Okrent

    Courtland Milloy, Pride to One Is Prejudice to Another

    Ray Magliozzi, Help Us Overthrow the Tall and Short Mafia

Student Writing Reflection: Reflecting on "Different Englishes"

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Concise Diction

Suggestions for Writing Language



CHAPTER 10 Science and Technology
How are advances in science and technology affecting the way we define our humanity?


Central Essay Loren Eiseley, The Bird and the Machine

Classic Essay Thomas Henry Huxley, The Method of Scientific Investigation

Jacob Bronowski, The Reach of Imagination

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, The Future of Happiness

Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate

    Steven Pinker on Writing

Ursula Franklin, Silence and the Notion of the Commons

Sven Birkerts, Into the Electronic Millennium

Elizabeth Royte, Transsexual Frogs

Edgar Allan Poe, Sonnet – to Science (poetry)

Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (poetry)

Brian Aldiss, Supertoys Last All Summer (fiction)

Visual Text Carl Sagan, The Cosmic Calendar (tables)

Visual Text Gahan Wilson, Food Fight (cartoon)

Conversation Focus on The Ethics of Applied Genetics

    Lewis Thomas, On Cloning a Human Being

    Philip M. Boffey, Fearing the Worst Should Anyone Produce a Cloned Baby

    David Ewing Duncan, DNA as Destiny

    Rick Weiss, Pet Clones Spur Call for Limits

    Marilynn Marchione and Lindsey Tanner, More Couples Screening Embryos for Gender

Student Writing Counterargument: Responding to a Newspaper Column

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Coordination in the Compound Sentence

Suggestions for Writing Science and Technology



CHAPTER 11 Popular Culture
To what extent does pop culture reflect our society’s values?


Central Essay David Denby, High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies

Classic Essay Mark Twain, Corn-pone Opinions

Brent Staples, Godzilla vs. the Giant Scissors: Cutting the Antiwar Heart Out of a Classic

    Brent Staples on Writing

Vine Deloria Jr., We Talk, You Listen

Danyel Smith, Dreaming America

Scott McCloud, Show and Tell (graphic essay)

Teresa Wiltz, Popular Culture in the Aftermath of September 11 is a Chorus without a Hook, A Movie without an Ending

Hans Ostrom, Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven (poetry)

Nikki Giovanni, Sanctuary: For Harry Potter the Movie (poetry)

Visual Text Mark Tansey, The Innocent Eye Test (painting)

Conversation Focus on Television

    Steven Johnson, Watching TV Makes You Smarter

    Corbett Trubey, The Argument against TV

    Julia Scott, He Doesn’t Like to Watch

    Anthony DiVivo, TV Turnoff Week (detail from poster)

    George Gerbner and Todd Gitlin, Is Media Violence Free Speech? (debate)

Student Writing Visual Rhetoric: Interpreting a Painting

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Modifiers

Suggestions for Writing Pop Culture



CHAPTER 12 Nature
What is our responsibility to nature?


Central Essay Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring

Classic Essay Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature

Terry Tempest Williams, The Clan of One-Breasted Women

Chief Seattle, Message to President Franklin Pierce

Wendell Berry, An Entrance to the Woods

Wangari Muta Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Speech

Joyce Carol Oates, Against Nature

William Wordsworth, The Tables Turned (poetry)

Visual Text Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits (painting)

Visual Text Royal Dutch Shell, Cloud the Issue or Clear the Air (advertisement)

Conversation Focus on Climate Change

    Bill McKibben, It’s Easy Being Green

    Richard Conniff, from Counting Carbons (includes visual)

    E.O. Wilson, from The Future of Life

    Daniel Glick, GeoSigns: The Big Thaw

        Daniel Glick on Writing

Student Writing Visual Rhetoric: Analyzing a Political Cartoon

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences

Suggestions for Writing Nature



CHAPTER 13 Politics
What is the nature of the relationship between the citizen and the state?


Central Essay Jamaica Kincaid, On Seeing England for the First Time

Classic Essay Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

Chris Hedges, from The Destruction of Culture

    Chris Hedges on Writing

Oliver Goldsmith, National Prejudices

Virginia Woolf, Thoughts on Peace during an Air Raid

Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Wole Soyinka, Every Dictator’s Nightmare

Tim O’Brien, On the Rainy River (fiction)

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Conversation with an American Writer (poetry)

Visual Text Pablo Picasso, Guernica (painting)

Visual Text The New Yorker, March 17, 2003 (cover)

Visual Text Harper’s, April, 2003 (cover)

Conversation Focus on the politics of imperialism

    George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant

    Chinua Achebe, The Empire Fights Back

    National Park Service, Christiansted: Official Map and Guide (travel brochure)

    Eavan Boland, In Which the Ancient History I Learn Is Not My Own (poetry)

    Bombay Furniture Co., What Part of You Lives in Bombay? (advertisement)

Student Writing Argument: Responding to a Quotation

Grammar as Rhetoric and Style Subordination in the Complex Sentence

Suggestions for Writing Politics