Top reader compiled by two leaders in the field of composition features works by distinguished essayists. This rhetorically arranged reader contains 71 selections representing diverse voices and views from some of the most respected professional essayists working in the English language, along with short stories and student examples. Carefully developed apparatus, including headnotes and post-reading material, analyzes each reading in a context that helps students better understand the craft of writing and then apply what they learn to their own writing. Expanded treatment of the writing process offers more guidance in planning, drafting, and revising. Visual texts, including one photograph per chapter and an eight-page color photo essay, emphasize the power of images to evoke insights and ideas and encourage new ways for students to create writing topics based on what they see. A thematic unit on "Discoveries" features eight selections, one for each rhetorical method plus a short story, by such writers as John Fleischman, Witold Rybczynski, H.W. Ruslander, Dava Sobel, Andrew Sullivan, and Arthur C. Clarke.