Subject and Strategy

New content and reading selections are identified by an asterisk (*)

Preface for Students 
Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) Outcomes Statement
Preface for Instructors         
Thematic Contents   

*1. Reading Actively and Critically  

                *Reading Actively: Developing a Basic Understanding of the Essay         
                Step 1: Prepare Yourself to Read the Selection      
                Step 2: Read the Selection:
                Cherokee Paul McDonald, A View from the Bridge
                Step 3: Read the Selection a Second Time, Annotating the Text 
                An Example: Student Annotations for “A View from the Bridge”
                Student Reflection: Julie Dwire on Annotating a Reading 
                Step 4: Outline and Summarize the Selection
                An Example: Julie Dwire’s Summary of “A View from the Bridge”
                Step 5: Answer the Questions on Subject and Questions on Strategy
                An Example: Julie Dwire Answers Study Questions              
                Student Reflection: Julie Dwire on Answering Study Questions  
                *Reading Critically: Taking Your Analysis to Another Level
                Identifying the Thesis
                Identifying the Purpose
                Evaluating Evidence
                Identifying Tone
                Identifying Assumptions and Biases
                Evaluating the Overall Effectiveness of an Essay         
                *From Reading to Writing
                Reading Photographs and Visual Texts    

2. Writing 

                Developing an Effective Writing Process

                Step 1: Understand Your Assignment 
                Step 2: Gather Ideas and Formulate a Thesis  
                Step 3: Organize and Write Your First Draft 
                Step 4: Revise Your Essay 
                Step 5: Edit and Proofread Your Essay 
                A Student Essay in Progress
                Step 1: Keith’s Assignment 
                Step 2: Keith’s Ideas 
                Step 3: Keith’s First Draft 
                Step 4: Keith’s Revised Essay 
                Step 5: Keith’s Edited Essay 
                Keith Eldred, Secular Mantras (student essay)    

3. Writers on Writing

                *Jhumpa Lahiri, I Am, in Italian, a Tougher, Freer, Writer
                Russell Baker, Discovering the Power of My Words
                Anne Lamott, Shitty First Drafts
                Linda S. Flower, Writing for an Audience
                Stephen King, Reading to Write      

4. Narration

                Understanding Narration as a Writing Strategy
                Using Narration Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Narration
                Andrew Kauser, Challenging My Fears (student essay)
                Junot Díaz, The Terror
                David P. Bardeen, Not Close Enough for Comfort
                Toni Morrison, The Work You Do, The Person You Are
                *Ocean Vuong, Surrendering

5. Description

                Understanding Description as a Writing Strategy
                Using Description Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Description
                Jim Tassé, Trailcheck (student essay)
                Jeannette Walls, A Woman on the Street
                Robert Ramírez, The Barrio
                Maya Angelou, Sister Flowers
                *Rochelle Riley, Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Winter of Mine  

6. Illustration

                Understanding Illustration as a Writing Strategy
                Using Illustration Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Illustration
                Paula Kersch, Weight Management: More Than a Matter of Good Looks (student essay)
                Natalie Goldberg, Be Specific
                *Ben Crump, A Memorable Lesson
                Jennifer Ackerman, The Genius of Birds 
                *Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me

7. Process Analysis

                Understanding Process Analysis as a Writing Strategy
                Using Process Analysis Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Process Analysis
                William Peterson, Juggling Is Easier Than You Think (student essay)
                Mortimer Adler, How to Mark a Book
                Cody Cassidy and Paul Doherty, What Would Happen If You Were Attacked by a Great White Shark?
                Alicia Ault, How Do Spiders Make Their Webs?
                *Katherine Luck, How to Write Haiku

8. Comparison and Contrast

                Understanding Comparison and Contrast as a Writing Strategy
                Using Comparison and Contrast Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Comparison and Contrast
                Barbara Bowman, Guns and Cameras (student essay)
                Suzanne Britt, Neat People vs. Sloppy People
                *Kayann Short, Soil versus Dirt: A Reverie on Getting Down to Earth
                Andrew Vachss, The Difference between Sick and Evil
                *Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Exile in America

9. Division and Classification

                Understanding Division and Classification as a Writing Strategy
                Using Division and Classification Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Division and Classification
                Katie Angeles, The Forgotten Personality Type (student essay)
                Judith Viorst, The Truth about Lying
                Richard Lederer, All-American Dialects
                Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
                *Martin Luther King Jr., Three Ways of Meeting Oppression

10. Definition

                Understanding Definition as a Writing Strategy
                Using Definition Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Definition
                Howard Solomon Jr., Best Friends (student essay)
                Jo Goodwin Parker, What Is Poverty?
                Deborah M. Roffman, What Does Boys Will Be Boys Really Mean?
                Mark Peters, Virtue Signaling and Other Inane Platitudes
                *N. Scott Momaday, The Sacred Spell of Words

11. Cause and Effect Analysis

                Understanding Cause and Effect Analysis as a Writing Strategy
                Using Cause and Effect Analysis Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Cause and Effect Analysis
                Kevin Cunningham, Gentrification (student essay)
                Jon Katz, How Boys Become Men
                Michael Jonas, The Downside of Diversity
                *Illyanna Maisonet, Why Spam Guisada Is the Perfect Dish to Make Right Now
                *Anthony Abraham Jack, I Was a Low-Income College Student: Classes Weren’t the Hard Part

12. Argumentation

                Understanding Argumentation as a Writing Strategy
                Using Argumentation Across the Disciplines
                Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Argumentation
                *Mona Sablon, The Case for Art in the Time of a Pandemic (student essay)
                Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
                *Andrea Long Chu, My New Vagina Won’t Make Me Happy 
                *Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
                *Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Paranoid Style of American Policing
                *James Temple, Suppressing Fires Has Failed.  Here’s What California Needs to Do Instead
                ARGUMENT CLUSTER: Race and Privilege: How to Address A System of Bias? 
                *Ward Connerly, America Is Not a Racist Country
                *Rahawa Haile, Going It Alone
                *Marvin Blakely, A Long Road to Hope
                ARGUMENT CLUSTER: Individualism and Collectivism: Where Do We Find Ourselves? 
                *Robert Ginsburg, Collectivism and Individualism: Reflections from a Pandemic
                *Robert Reich, What Good Do We Have in Common?
                *Tegan Tallullah, Why We Can’t Rely on Individuals to Fix Climate Change

13. Writing with Sources

                What Does It Mean to Write with Sources? 
                Writing with Sources
                Learning to Summarize, Paraphrase, and Quote from Your Sources
                Avoiding Plagiarism
                Katherine Kachnowski, Skin Cancer Is Not Just for Grandparents: Dispelling Widespread                 Misconceptions about This Disease (student essay)
                *Lily Huang, What Climate Change Means to Glacier National Park
                *Daniel James Brown, Competitive Rowing
                *Donna Hicks, Activate Empathy

14. A Brief Guide to Researching and Documenting Essays

                Establishing a Realistic Schedule
                Finding and Using Sources
                Evaluating Your Sources
                Analyzing Your Sources
                Developing a Working Bibliography for Your Sources
                Taking Notes
                Documenting Sources
                In-Text Citations
                List of Works Cited

15. Editing for Grammar, Punctuation, and Sentence Style

                Run-Ons: Fused Sentences and Comma Splices
                Sentence Fragments
                Comma Faults
                Subject-Verb Agreement
                Unclear Pronoun References
                Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
                Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
                Faulty Parallelism
                Weak Nouns and Verbs
                Shifts in Verb Tense, Mood, and Voice
                Wordiness
                Sentence Variety

Glossary of Rhetorical Terms