50 Essays

            
Preface for Instructors 
Alternative Tables of Contents
     By Rhetorical Mode 
     By Purpose 
     By Theme 
     By Clusters and Paired Readings 
     By Chronological Order 
     By Lexile Level 
Sentence Guides 
MLA Documentation Guide 
Introduction for Students: Active Reading, Critical Thinking, and the Writing Process 

*Maya Angelou, Graduation
Gloria Anzaldúa, How to Tame a Wild Tongue 
Barbara Lazear Ascher, On Compassion 
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son 
William F. Buckley, jr., Why Don’t We Complain? 
*Danny Chau, The Burning Desire for Hot Chicken 
*Sandra Cisneros, Only Daughter 
*Eli Claire, Clearcut: Explaining the Distance 
Ta-​Nehisi Coates, The Paranoid Style of American Policing 
Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María 
Joan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook 
Frederick Douglass, Learning to Read and Write 
Barbara Ehrenreich, Serving in Florida 
Lars Eighner, On Dumpster Diving 
Stephanie Ericsson, The Ways We Lie 
Jen Gann, Wrongful Birth 
Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted 
*Jonathan Gold, What Is a Burrito? A Primer 
*Rahawa Haile, Going It Alone 
*Jenine Holmes, When Pink Ballet Slippers Won’t Do 
Langston Hughes, Salvation 
Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me 
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence 
Jamaica Kincaid, The Ugly Tourist 
Stephen King, Reading to Write 
Verlyn Klinkenborg, Our Vanishing Night 
Audre Lorde, The Fourth of July 
Nancy Mairs, On Being a Cripple 
*Matthew J. X. Malady, The Ghosts in Our Machines 
Bharati Mukherjee, Two Ways to Belong in America 
*Tommy Orange, Indian Heads 
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant 
Plato, The Allegory of the Cave 
Mike Rose, “I Just Wanna Be Average” 
*Carl Sagan, Does Truth Matter? 
*Maria Michela Sassi, The Sea Was Never Blue 
*David Sedaris, I Like Guys 
Brent Staples, Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space 
*Gloria Steinem, Sex, Lies & Advertisting 
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal 
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue 
henry david thoreau, Civil Disobedience 
*Calvin Trillin, Last Days of the Rickshaw 
*Mark Twain, The Lowest Animal 
*Ai Weiwei, The refugee crisis isn’t about refugees. It’s about us. 
E.B.White, Once More to the Lake 
*Walt Whitman, Slang in America 
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women 
*Hanya Yanigahara, A Pet Tortoise Who Will Outlive Us All 
Dave Zirin, Pre-​Game 
 
Glossary of Writing Terms 
Index of Authors and Titles