Reading Critically, Writing Well A Reader and Guide

With more critical reading coverage than any other composition reader, Reading Critically, Writing Well helps students read for meaning and read like a writer, and it guides them to use what they've learned in their writing. Each of the book’s 8 assignment chapters includes a specific guide to reading that challenges students to analyze the authors’ techniques as well as a step-by-step guide to writing and revising that helps them apply these techniques to their own essays.

Now with more readings in each chapter, including 17 provocative new professional selections and student models covering a range of disciplines, this new edition features hands-on activities for critical analysis and invention, helpful reading and research strategies (including 2016 MLA coverage), and multiple opportunities for summary and synthesis. Accessible instruction, engaging readings, and effective writing assignments make Reading Critically, Writing Well ideal for instructors who want the support and readings to demonstrate effective rhetorical choices that students can make in their own writing.

Rise B. Axelrod is McSweeney Professor of Rhetoric and Teaching Excellence, Emeritus, at the University of California, Riverside, where she was also director of English Composition. She has previously been professor of English at California State University, San Bernardino; director of the College Expository Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and assistant director of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego. She is the co-author, with Charles R. Cooper, of the best-selling textbook The St. Martin's Guide to Writing as well as The St. Martin's Concise Guide to Writing.　 Charles R. Cooper is an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego. He served as coordinator of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego, and co-director of the San Diego Writing Project, one of the National Writing Project Centers. He advised the National Assessment of Educational Progress writing study and coordinated the development of California's first statewide writing assessment. He taught at the University of California, Riverside; the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the University of California, San Diego. He is co-editor, with Lee Odell, of Evaluating Writing and Research on Composing: Points of Departure, and he is co-author, with Rise Axelrod, of the best-selling textbook The St. Martin's Guide to Writing as well as The Concise St. Martin's Guide to Writing.　

Alison M. Warriner is professor of English emerita at California State University, East Bay, where she was the Coordinator of Composition and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum. Previously she was Director of Communications at Sacred Heart University. She is co-author of Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California's Public Colleges and Universities (2002) and of the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC 2005-present) that is currently adopted as Senior English in many California public high schools

Contents by Theme

Contents by Discipline

CHAPTER 1 ACADEMIC HABITS OF MIND: FROM READING CRITICALLY TO WRITING WELL

Joining the Academic Conversation

     Developing Curiosity

     Analyzing Ideas

     Developing Rhetorical Sensitivity

Exploring the Rhetorical Situation

From Reading Critically to Writing Well

The Writing Process

CHAPTER 2 A CATALOG OF READING STRATEGIES

Annotating

Martin Luther King Jr., "An Annotated Sample from "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Taking Inventory

Outlining

Summarizing

Paraphrasing

Synthesizing

Analyzing Assumptions

Contextualizing

Exploring the Significance of Figurative Language

Analyzing Visuals

Looking for Patterns of Opposition

Reflecting on Challenges to Your Beliefs and Values

Comparing and Contrasting Related Readings

Lewis H. Van Dusen Jr., "Legitimate Pressures and Illegitimate Results"

Evaluating the Logic of an Argument

Recognizing Logical Fallacies

Recognizing Emotional Manipulation

Judging the Writer’s Credibility

CHAPTER 3 AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Rhetorical Situations for Autobiographies

A GUIDE TO READING AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Annie Dillard, "An American Childhood"

*David Sedaris, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (Annotated Essay)

Tom Ruprecht, "In Too Deep"

Saira Shah, "Longing to Belong"

Jenée Desmond-Harris, "Tupac and My Non-Thug Life"

Brad Benioff, "Rick" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 4 OBSERVATION

Rhetorical Situations for Observations

A GUIDE TO READING OBSERVATIONS

The New Yorker, "Soup"

*Leslie Jamison, "The Immortal Horizon" (Annotated Essay)

John T. Edge, "I’m Not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing"

Gabriel Thompson, "A Gringo in the Lettuce Fields"

Amanda Coyne, "The Long Goodbye: Mother's Day in Federal Prison"

Brian Cable, "The Last Stop" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING OBSERVATIONAL ESSAYS

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 5 REFLECTION

Rhetorical Situations for Reflections

A GUIDE TO READING REFLECTIVE ESSAYS

Brent Staples, "Black Men and Public Space"

Dana Jennings, "Our Scars Tell the Stories of Our Lives" (Annotated Essay)

*Marina Keegan, "Stability in Motion"

*Jacqueline Woodson, "The Pain of the Watermelon Joke"

*Manuel Muñoz, "Leave Your Name at the Border"

Katherine Haines, "Whose Body Is This?" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING REFLECTIVE ESSAYS

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 6 EXPLAINING CONCEPTS

Rhetorical Situations for Concept Explanations

A GUIDE TO READING ESSAYS EXPLAINING CONCEPTS

Susan Cain, "Shyness: Evolutionary Tactic?"

*John Tierney, "Do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue?" (Annotated Essay)

*Alexis C. Madrigal, "The Machine Zone"

*Melanie Tannenbaum, "The Problem When Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly"

*Michael Pollan, "Altered State: Why 'Natural' Doesn't Mean Anything"

Linh Kieu Ngo, "Cannibalism: It Still Exists" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING ESSAYS EXPLAINING CONCEPTS

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 7 EVALUATION

Rhetorical Situations for Evaluations

A GUIDE TO READING EVALUATIONS

Amitai Etzioni, "Working at McDonald’s"

*Molly McHugh, "This App Digitally Curates Your Messiest Relationships. Yay?" (Annotated Essay)

*Emily Nussbaum, "The Aristocrats: The Graphic Arts of Game of Thrones"

Malcolm Gladwell, "What College Rankings Really Tell Us"

Christine Rosen, "The Myth of Multitasking"

Christine Romano, "Jessica Statsky’s ‘Children Need to Play, Not Compete’: An Evaluation" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING EVALUATIONS

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 8 ARGUING FOR A POSITION

Rhetorical Situations for Position Arguments

A GUIDE TO READING ESSAYS ARGUING FOR A POSITION

Brian Greene, "Put a Little Science in Your Life"

*David Z. Hambrick and Christopher Chabris, "Yes, IQ Really Matters" (Annotated Essay)

Sherry Turkle, "The Flight from Conversation"

Daniel J. Solove, "Why Privacy Matters Even If You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’"

*Miya Tokumitsu, "In the Name of Love"

Jessica Statsky, "Children Need to Play, Not Compete" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING ESSAYS ARGUING FOR A POSITION

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 9 SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS

Rhetorical Situations for Speculating about Causes or Effects

A GUIDE TO READING ESSAYS SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS

Stephen King, "Why We Crave Horror Movies"

*Eve Fairbanks, "How Did Sleep Become So Nightmarish?" (Annotated Essay)

Shankar Vedantam, "The Telescope Effect"

Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

*Sendhil Mullainathan, "The Mental Strain of Making Do with Less"

*Clayton Pangelinan, #socialnetworking: Why It’s Really So Popular" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING ESSAYS SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

CHAPTER 10 PROPOSAL TO SOLVE A PROBLEM

Rhetorical Situations for Proposals

A GUIDE TO READING PROPOSALS

David Bornstein, "Fighting Bullying with Babies"

*Harold Meyerson, "How to Raise Americans’ Wages" (Annotated Essay)

*Naomi Rose, "Captivity Kills Orcas"

William F. Shughart II, "Why Not a Football Degree?"

Kelly D. Brownell and Thomas R. Frieden, "Ounces of Prevention—The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages"

Patrick O’Malley, "More Testing, More Learning" (Student Essay)

A GUIDE TO WRITING PROPOSALS

Writing Your Draft

Reviewing and Improving the Draft

APPENDIX: STRATEGIES FOR RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION

Planning a Research Project

     Analyzing Your Rhetorical Situation and Setting a Schedule

     Choosing a Topic and Getting an Overview

     Focusing Your Topic and Drafting Research Questions

     Establishing a Research Log

     Creating a Working Bibliography

     Annotating Your Working Bibliography

     Taking Notes on Your Sources

Finding Sources

     Searching Library Catalogs and Databases

     Searching for Government Documents and Statistical Information

     Searching for Websites and Interactive Sources

Conducting Field Research

     Conducting Observational Studies

     Conducting Interviews

     Conducting Surveys

Evaluating Sources

     Choosing Relevant Sources

     Choosing Reliable Sources

Using Sources to Support Your Ideas

     Synthesizing Sources

     Acknowledging Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

     Using Information from Sources to Support Your Claims

Citing and Documenting Sources in MLA Style

     Using In-Text Citations

     Creating a List of Works Cited

Citing and Documenting Sources in APA Style

     Using In-Text Citations

     Creating a List of References