About the Book
Writing Choices is a composition reader that recognizes that writing instructors and writing students read in different ways.
While students read for content comprehension and focus on what is presented, instructors often focus on how the writing itself conveys the writer's ideas —the how and the why of the content presentation.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part shows students how the choices that writers make help convey their ideas to an audience. The second part organizes readings in seven thematic clusters and guides students in understanding how the interaction between readers and writers is established and how to use questions to make strategic choices in their own writing.
Table of Contents:
Preface.
Introduction: Connecting Readers and Writers.
I.WRITING CHOICES.
1.Framing the Context.
The Writer's Relationship to the Subject.
The Writer's Relationship to the Reader/Audience.
The Reader's Relationship to the Subject.
The Relationship of the Writer and the Reader to the Purpose.
Reading Critically: The Rhetorical Context.
On Your Own: Analyzing the Writer's Choices.
2.Determining Point of View.
The Problem.
Creating Levels of Distance.
Reading Critically: Determining Point of View.
On Your Own: Analyzing the Writer's Choices.
3.Shaping Ideas.
Choosing a Structure.
Chronological Structures.
Sequential Structures.
Spatial Structures.
Strategies for Choosing Structures.
Reading Critically: Shaping Ideas.
On Your Own: Analyzing the Writer's Choices.
4.Choosing a Voice.
Stylistic Features Affecting Voice.
Choosing a Voice to Reveal a Point of View.
Reading Critically: Choosing a Voice.
On Your Own: Analyzing the Writer's Choices.
5.Establishing Credibility.
Choices in Creating Ethos.
Constructing Credibility.
Reading Critically: Constructing Credibility.
On Your Own: Analyzing the Writer's Choices.
II.READINGS.
6.Choosing Heroes.
Alan Edelstein, No More Heroes.
Alex Melendez, A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Not So Far Away.
Richard Reynolds, Living in the New Middle Ages.
Barbara Ehrenreich, Great Women, Bad Times.
Andrew Bernstein, The Soul of a Champion: A Letter to Michael Jordan.
William M. Daley, Environmental Heroes.
Eric Peterson, Integrity on Trial.
Joan Didion, Georgia O'Keeffe.
Alex Hagedorn, Do Heroes Exist?
Sojourner Truth, Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association.
7.Finding Community.
Amitai Etzioni, The New Community.
Geoph Kozeny, Intentional Communities: Lifestyles Based on Ideals.
Milana McLead, With HFH Belfast as a Catalyst, a Divided Community Joins Hands to Build Peace and Unity.
William Least Heat-Moon, Nameless, Tennessee.
Amy Harvey, Legacy of the River Children.
Steven Levy, Working in Dilbert's World.
George D. Kuth, Ernest T. Pascarella, and Henry Weschler, The Questionable Value of Fraternities.
Sherry Turkle, Who Are We?
Matthew Peters, Beta Life.
Michael Norman, Introduction to The Wall.
8.Exploring Cyberspace.
Ellen Goodman, Justifiable Homicide: Frustrated PCers Cheer.
Karen Olsson, Adrift on the Digital Sea.
Michael Apple, The New Technology: Is It Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem in Education?
Lisa Drier, Desperately Seeking E-Mail.
Doris Bloodsworth, Surgery on the Internet.
Vincent Kiernan, Use of `Cookies' in Research Sparks a Debate Over Privacy.
Kelli Ryan, Looking for Love Where My Mother Never Could.
Bonne Bucqueroux, Cyberstalking: Don't Gamble Your Safety Online.
Michael Krantz, Censor's Sensibility.
Nick Tannis, Technology in the Classroom: Changing First Days Everywhere.
9.Making Health Decisions.
Bill Tonelli, Steak in the Heart.
Kari Watson, The Brain's Balancing Act.
Jim Thornton, Filtering the Flood.
Michael D. Lemonick, Designer Babies.
Dorothy Nelkin and Lori B. Andrews, Whose Genes Are They, Anyway?
Natalie Angier, Drugs, Sports, Body Image, and G.I. Joe.
Harvard Health Publications, Eating Disorders.
Kathy Gay, Journey of a Latent Vegetarian.
Jill Kramer, Dialing Up Angels.
Stacey Mihm, Hospitals Were Made for Recovery.
10.Re-Viewing Media.
Corbett Trubey, The Argument against TV.
Paul Levinson, Millenial McLuhan: Clues for Deciphering the Digital Age.
Joel Brinkley, Who Will Build Your Next Television?
James Poniewozik, Will Real Audio Kill the Radio Star?
Ellen Goodman, Culture of Thin Bites Fiji Teens.
Hoag Levins, How Newspapers Don't Get It about Cyberspace.
Michael Mattis, Your Wireless Future.
Greg Lindsay, Hey Kids, Let's Put on a Show.
netaid.org, WWW Helps War on Poverty.
Neil Postman, Future Schlock.
11.Defining Environmental Ethics.
Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Out of the Garden: The Land.
Rachel Carson, The Obligation to Endure.
Bailus Walker, Jr., Toward Environmental Equity.
Wangari Maathai, Foresters without Diplomas.
Martin Kaufman, Recycling Yourself.
Dan Cray, Navajo vs. Navajo.
Dave Foreman, From `Confessions of an Eco-Warrior.'
Kate Santich, Life in a Tree.
Barry Lopez, Gone Back into the Earth.
Brian Burke, The Dusky Seaside Sparrow.
12.Speculating on the New Century.
Jeff Kunerth, Are You Ready for a Whole New World at Work?
Bruce Agnew, Will We Be One Nation, Indivisible?
Kenneth J. Gergen, Social Saturation and the Populated Self.
Doug Bailey, Politics on the Internet.
Kathryn Brown, Smart Stuff.
Robert McGarvey, Found in Space.
Susan Moran and Justin Kitch vs. Steve Jurvetson, MBA.com: Do MBAs Really Matter?
Katharine Fulton, A Tour of Our Uncertain Future.
Daniel Radosh, The Y1K Problem.
Sven Birkerts, CODA: The Faustian Pact.
