Table of Contents

Introduction

Section 1: A Rhetorical Modes Reader

Chapter One: The Narrative Modes

Introduction: Definition and Purposes of the Narrative Modes 

Narration and Reflection

1. 1. Barbara Ehrenreich, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America”
   2. Colson Whitehead, “The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found”

Cause and Effect

1. Diane Ackerman, “The Brain on Love”
2. Neil Postman, “Technology as Dazzling Distraction”

Process Analysis

1. Nikki Giovanni, “Campus Racism 101”
2. Robert Leamnson, “Learning (Your First Job)”
3. Brogan Sullivan, “Active Reading”  

 Chapter Two: The Expository Modes

Introduction: Definition and Purposes of the Expository Modes 

Comparison and Contrast

1. Susan Dominus, “Motherhood, Screened Off”
2. Chief Seattle, 1854 Oration
3. Brent Staples, “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space”

Division, Classification, and Definition

1. Louis Menand, “Live and Learn: Why We Have College”
2. Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”
3. Theophrastus, “Characters”
4. Michael Pollan, “Unhappy Meals”

Chapter Three: The Descriptive Mode

Introduction: Definition and Purposes of the Descriptive Mode

Description

1. Annie Dillard, “Living Like Weasels”
2. Maxim Gorky, “Coney Island”

Chapter Four: The Argumentative or Persuasive Mode

Introduction: Definition and Purposes of the Argumentative or Persuasive Mode

Argument/Persuasion

1. Bill McKibben, “A Modest Proposal to Destroy Western Civilization as We Know It”
2. Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

 Section 2: Conversing with Other Writers

 Chapter One: Developing a Response

Introduction: Definition and Purposes of the Response Essay

1. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
2. Joe Queenan, “Eight Reasons New York Is Better”

Chapter Two: Strategies for Close Reading and Literary Analysis

Introduction: Definition and Purposes of the Textual Analysis Essay

Chapter Three: Developing a Research Essay

Research Essay Module: Readings and Writing on Gentrification

Section 3: Conventions of Academic Writing

MLA Format

Teacher and Student Resource Readings

Teresa Thonney, “Teaching the Conventions of Academic Discours

Section 4: Resources for Writing and Teaching

Course and Class Planning
Sample Syllabi

Sample Assignments

Abridge a reading.

Literature Circles

Rhetorical precis

Paper Planning

Brainstorming

Making Connections

Planning Sheets

Purpose and Uses

Integrating Sources

Explanation

Practice

Teacher and Student Resource Readings

1. Joseph Bizup, “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing”
2. Karen Rosenberg, “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources”