About the Book
Widely praised for its superior teaching apparatus and thought-provoking readings, The Longman Reader (formerly titled The Macmillian Reader) remains the most successful rhetorically organized freshman composition reader.
The Seventh Edition offers fresh examples of professional essays that range widely in subject matter and approach, from the humorous to the informative, from personal meditation to argument. Each selection captures students' interest and clearly illustrates a specific pattern of development. The text also includes separate chapters on reading and writing, detailed introductions to the patterns of development, “before and after” student essays for each pattern, and more activities and assignments than any comparable reader.
Table of Contents:
Preface.
1. The Reading Process.
Stage 1: Get an Overview of the Selection.
First Reading: A Checklist.
Stage 2: Deepen Your Sense of the Selection.
Second Reading: A Checklist.
Stage 3: Evaluate the Selection.
Evaluating a Selection: A Checklist.
Ellen Goodman, Family Counterculture.
2. The Writing Process.
Stage 1: Prewrite.
Analyzing Your Audience: A Checklist.
Stage 2: Identify the Thesis.
Stage 3: Support the Thesis with Evidence.
Stage 4: Organize the Evidence.
Outlining: A Checklist.
Stage 5: Write the First Draft.
Turning Outline Into First Draft: A Checklist.
Stage 6: Revise the Essay.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
3. Description.
What Is Description?
How Description Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Description in an Essay.
Description: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Description.
Gordon Parks, Flavio's Home.
*Gary Soto, The Jacket.
Maya Angelou, Sister Flowers.
E.B. White, Once More to the Lake.
Judith Ortiz Cofer, A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood.
Additional Writing Topics.
4. Narration.
What Is Narration?
How Narration Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Narration in an Essay.
Narration: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Narration.
Audre Lorde, The Fourth of July.
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant.
Annie Dillard, The Chase.
Langston Hughes, Salvation.
*Adam Mayblum, The Price We Pay.
Additional Writing Topics.
5. Exemplification.
What Is Exemplification?
How Exemplification Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Exemplification in an Essay.
Exemplification: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Exemplification.
Charles Sykes, The “Values" Wasteland.
Alleen Pace Nilsen, Sexism and Language.
*Kay S. Hymowitz, Tweens: Ten Going on Sixteen.
Beth Johnson, Bombs Bursting in Air.
Barbara Ehrenreich, What I've Learned From Men.
Additional Writing Topics.
6. Division-Classification.
What Is Division-Classification?
How Division-Classification Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Division-Classification in an Essay.
Division-Classification: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Division-Classification.
*Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie.
William Zinsser, College Pressures.
William Lutz, Doublespeak.
Ann McClintock, Propaganda Techniques in Today's Advertising.
Deborah Tannen, But What Do You Mean?
Additional Writing Topics.
7. Process Analysis.
What Is Process Analysis?
How Process Analysis Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Process Analysis in an Essay.
Process Analysis: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Process Analysis.
Bill Bryson, Your New Computer.
Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death.
*Clifford Stoll, Cyberschool.
Paul Roberts, How to Say Nothing in 500 Words.
Caroline Rego, The Fine Art of Complaining.
Additional Writing Topics.
8. Comparison-Contrast.
What Is Comparison-Contrast?
How Comparison-Contrast Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Comparison-Contrast in an Essay.
Comparison-Contrast: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Comparison-Contrast.
Rachel Carson, A Fable for Tomorrow.
*Joseph H. Suina, And Then I Went to School.
Richard Rodriguez, Workers.
Dave Barry, The Ugly Truth About Beauty.
Stephen Chapman, The Prisoner's Dilemma.
Additional Writing Topics.
9. Cause-Effect.
What Is Cause-Effect?
How Cause-Effect Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Cause-Effect in an Essay.
Cause-Effect: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Cause-Effect.
Stephen King, Why We Crave Horror Movies.
Jacques D'Amboise, Showing What Is Possible.
Alice Walker, Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self.
*John M. Darley & Bibb Latané, Why People Don't Help in a Crisis.
*Jay Walljasper, Our Schedules, Our Selves.
Additional Writing Topics.
10. Definition.
What Is Definition?
How Definition Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Definition in an Essay.
Definition: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Definition.
K.C. Cole, Entropy.
James Gleick, Life as Type A.
Gloria Naylor, “Mommy, What Does `Nigger’ Mean?”
*Alexandra Robbins & Abby Wilner, What Is the Quarterlife Crisis?
William Raspberry, The Handicap of Definition.
Additional Writing Topics.
11. Argumentation-Persuasion.
What Is Argumentation-Persuasion?
How Argumentation-Persuasion Fits Your Purpose and Audience.
Suggestions for Using Argumentation-Persuasion in an Essay.
Using Rogerian Strategy: A Checklist.
Questions for Using Toulmin Strategy: A Checklist.
Argumentation-Persuasion: A Revision/Peer Review Checklist.
Student Essay.
Commentary.
Activities: Argumentation-Persuasion.
Mary Sherry, In Praise of the “F” Word.
Yuh Ji-Yeon, Let's Tell the Story of All America's Cultures.
*James Barszcz, Can You Be Educated from a Distance?
Mark Twain, The Damned Human Race.
Nat Hentoff, Free Speech on Campus.
Examining an Issue: Date Rape.
Camille Paglia, Rape: A Bigger Danger than Feminists Know.
Susan Jacoby, Common Decency.
Examining an Issue: Torture.
*Jonathan Alter, Time to Think About Torture.
*Henry Porter, Now the Talk Is About Bringing Back Torture.
Examining an Issue: Affirmative Action.
Roger Wilkins, Racism Has Its Privileges.
Shelby Steele, Affirmative Action: The Price of Preference.
Additional Writing Assignments.
12. Combining the Patterns.
The Patterns in Action: During the Writing Process.
The Patterns in Action: In an Essay.
Student Essay
Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth.
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Community or Chaos?
Martin Luther King, Jr., The World House.
Joan Didion, The Santa Ana.
*Joan Didion, Marrying Absurd.
Appendix A: A Concise Guide to Finding and Documenting Sources.
Using the Library to Find Books on Your Subject.
Using the Library to Find Reference Works on Your Subject.
Using the Library to Find Articles on Your Subject.
Using the Internet to Research Your Subject.
Focusing a Web Search: A Checklist.
Evaluating Internet Materials: A Checklist.
Documenting Sources.
What to Document.
How to Document.
Citing Sources: A Checklist.
List of Works Cited.
Appendix B: Avoiding Ten Common Writing Errors.
1. Fragments.
2. Comma Splices and Run-ons.
3. Faulty Subject-Verb Agreement.
4. Faulty Pronoun Agreement.
5. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers.
6. Faulty Parallelism.
7. Comma Misuse.
8. Apostrophe Misuse.
9. Confusing Homonyms.
10. Misuse of Italics and Underlining.
Glossary.
Acknowledgments.
Index.
