Motives For Writing

Preface

Introduction: Writing for Your Life

The Rhetorical Situation

Author / Audience / Purpose / Topic / Occasion

The Writing Process

Finding a Topic

Chaotic Processes

Brainstorming / Freewriting / Mapping

Structured Processes

Classical Topics / Pentad / Journalist’ Questions / Varying Perspectives

Dealing with Writer’s Block / Planning

Discovery Drafts / Outlines

Lists and Jottings / Formal Outlines

Nutshells, Abstracts, and Capsules / Classic Oration

Drafting / Revising / Editing

1. Writing to Record a Memory

Edward Abbey, Death Valley

Marilyn Schiel, Levi’s

Dennis Covington, Snakes

David Mamet, The Watch

Maya Angelou, Finishing School

Itabari Nejeri, Life with Father

David Groff, Taking the Test

2. Writing to Explore Experience

Carol Lloyd, Cents and Sensibility

Joan Didion, On Keeping a Notebook

Annie Dillard, Living Like Weasels

Scott Russell Sanders, Grub

Barbara Kingsolver, Somebody’s Baby

Gloria Naylor, “Mommy, What Does `Nigger’ Mean?”

Mike Rose, I Just Wanna Be Average

3. Writing to Report Information

Ann Hodgman, No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch

Nina Siegel, Putting the Squeeze on Lemon Dealers

Jon g. Auerbach, Yiddish in the Air

Tim Rogers, Tough Break

Peter Stark, As Freezing Persons Recollect the Snow

Sidney Katz, The Importance of Being Beautiful

Jennifer Egan, The Thin Red Line

4. Writing to Interpret Information

Nicholas D. Kristof, In Japan, Nice Guys (and Girls) Finish Together

Nicholas Lemann, Rewarding the Best, Forgetting the Rest

Alan Dershowitz, Shouting “Fire!

Amy Cunningham, Why Women Smile

Stephen Jay Gould, Women’s Brains

Catherine R. Stimpson, Coming-of-Age

Catherine Dold, What Happened to the Anasazi?

5. Writing to Evaluate Something

Stephen Hunter, Titanic’s Unsinkable Saga

Dana Moskowitz, The Sad Comedy of Really Bad Food

Donald Kennedy, “How To Pay for a Good College”

Ralph De Toledano, The Greatness of Billie

Bob Nagy, Volkswagen’s New Beetle

Susanna Kaysen, My Diagnosis

Mark Twain, Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses

6. Writing to Move Others

Larry Carlat, You are Me

Charles, Earl Spencer, Eulogy for Princess Diana

Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream

George Orwell, A Hanging

Alice Walker, Am I Blue?

Dorothea Dix, On Behalf of the Insane Poor

Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

7. Writing to Persuade Others

Louis Barbash, Clean Up or Pay Up

Ellen Frankel Paul, Bared Buttocks and Federal Cases

Stephen L. Carter, Does Religion Matter?

Joshua Wolf Shenk, Why You Can Hate Drugs and Still Want to Legalize Them

Vicki Hearne, What’s Wrong with Animal Rights

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

8. Writing to Amuse Others

Patricia Volk, Technology Makes Me Mad

Jeff Foxworthy, It’s Nice Work if You Can Avoid It

Judith Rogola, Desperately Seeking a Dishwasher

John R. Alden, Breakfast at the FDA Cafe

Paul Reiser, Is This Kid Beautiful or What?

Dave Barry, MsPtato and RayAdverb

David Sedaris, Santa’s Little Helper

9. Writing to Experiment with Form

Ernest Hemingway, Monologue to the Maestro

Luc Sante, I Was Born

Judy Ruiz, Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy

Annie Dillard, The Deer at Providencia

George Orwell, Marrakech

Richard Selzer, How to Build a Slaughterhouse

10. Writing to Understand Reading

Toshio Mori, Abalone, Abalone, Abalone

Lon Otto, Winners

Pam Houston, Selway

Rita Dove, Daystar

Leslie Adrienne Miller, The Driving Range

Mark Doty, Tunnel Music

Rafael Campo, Defining Us

Audre Lorde, Power

Garret Hongo, Off from Swing Shift

Gary Soto, Black Hair

Alberto Rios, Nani

Henri Cole, 40 Days and 40 Nights

John O’Brien, Reclaiming the Walk

Gerald Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty

Susan Glaspell, Trifles

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