Language Awareness Readings for College Writers

Language Awareness helps students understand that writing makes things happen in the world. This collection teaches students how language operates and how it evolves over time?and this understanding, in turn, helps students use language more effectively in their own writing. The supportive apparatus includes unique Language in Action activities, which connect the everyday and the academic by examining current language-related debates that deepen students understanding of each reading.

This beloved reader has stood the test of time and has been revised with feedback from instructors across the country. The new edition features a blend of classic and contemporary readings that examine a wide range of topics through the lens of language. New readings include a range of perspectives around current topics like fake news, gender-neutral pronouns, and the #MeToo movement.

PART 1

Chapter 1. Reading Critically
Getting the Most Out of Your Reading
Be Specific, Natalie Goldberg
Practice Reading, Annotating, and Analyzing
What's in a Name?, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Reading as a Writer

Chapter 2. Writing in College and Beyond
Developing an Effective Writing Process
The "Negro Revolt" in Me, Rebekah Sandlin (student essay)

Chapter 3. Writers on Reading and Writing
Reading to Write, Stephen King
Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott
The First Sentence, Iman Humaydan
The Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts, Donald M. Murray
How to Mark a Book, Mortimer Adler

Chapter 4. Writing with Sources
What Does It Mean to Write with Sources?
Write with Sources
Learn to Summarize, Paraphrase, and Quote from Your Sources
The "Official English" Movement: Can America Proscribe Language with a Clear Conscience?, Jake Jamieson (student essay)

Chapter 5. A Brief Guide to Writing a Research Paper
Establish a Realistic Schedule
Locate and Use Print and Online Sources
Evaluate Your Sources
Analyze Your Sources
Develop a Working Bibliography of Your Sources
Take Notes
Document Your Sources
MLA-Style Documentation
APA-Style Documentation

PART 2

Chapter 6. Understanding the Power of Language: How We Find Our Voices
Coming into Language, Jimmy Santiago Baca
The Day Language Came into My Life, Helen Keller
The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, Audre Lorde
Stupid Rich Bastards, Lauren Johnson Black
On and On: Appalachian Language and Academic Power, Meredith McCarroll
Address at the Youth Takeover of the United Nations, Malala Yousafzai

Chapter 7. Language Communities: Where Do We Belong?
Speech Communities, Paul Roberts
All-American Dialects, Richard Lederer
Sign of the Times, Sara Novic
Two Ways to Belong in America, Bharati Mukherjee
The Strange Persistence of First Languages, Julie Sedivy
Land of the Giants, Alex Tizon
Mother Tongue, Amy Tan

Chapter 8. Language Evolution: How and Why Does Language Change?
Words on the Move, John McWhorter
How New Words Are Born, Andy Bodle
What Does Latinx Mean? A Look at the Term That's Challenging Gender Norms, Yesenia Padilla
Textspeak Is Modernizing the Egnlish Language (*English), Lauren Collister
Smile, You're Speaking Emoji, Adam Sternbergh
The (Sometimes Unintentional) Subtext of Digital Conversations, Deborah Tannen

Chapter 9. Language That Manipulates: Politics, Advertising, and Doublespeak
Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled, Donna Woolfolk Cross
Selection, Slanting, and Charged Language, Newman P. Birk and Genevieve B. Birk
The Case of the Missing Perpetrator, Rebecca Solnit
Fighting Words, Judith Matloff
Fake News Starts with the Title, Benjamin Horne
Weasel Words: The Art of Saying Nothing at All, William Lutz
The Ways of Silencing, Jason Stanley

Chapter 10. The Language of Discrimination: Hate, Prejudice, and Stereotypes
What's So Bad About Hate?, Andrew Sullivan
The Language of Prejudice, Gordon Allport
The "F Word," Firoozeh Dumas
The Racist Trope That Won't Die, Brent Staples
The Fight Over the Words of Immigration, Jeff Gammage
Nobody Mean More to Me Than You, June Jordan

Chapter 11. Language and Gender: Power, Abuse, Equality
We're All Mad Here: Weinstein, Women, and the Language of Lunacy, Laurie Penny
The Careless Language of Sexual Violence, Roxane Gay
Happy Feminist, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
The Social Harms of "Bitch," Sheryl Kleinman, Matthew B. Ezzell, and A. Corey Frost
"Bros Before Hos": The Guy Code, Michael Kimmel
How to Refer to My Husband-Wife, Michelle Tea

Chapter 12. The Language of Lying: Ethics, White Lies, and Fraud
The Truth about Lying, Judith Viorst
Lying Words, James Pennebaker
Learning to Lie, Po Bronson
Is Lying Bad for Us?, Richard Gunderman
Psychology of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad Things, Chana Joffe-Walt and Alix Spiegel
Everybody Lies, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Chapter 13. The Language of Conflict Resolution: Dignity, Apology, De-escalation
Resolve Current and Future Conflicts with Dignity, Donna Hicks
Language and Conflict, Karol Janicki
Sorry, Regrets, and More, Edwin Battistella
Further Adventures of Flex Cop, Michael Gardner
Stalling for Time, Gary Noesner
Letting Go, Amy Westervelt

Chapter 14. Arguing about Language: Two Contemporary Debates
The Campus Free Speech Controversy
 The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
 Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces, John Palfrey
 What Campuses Can and Can't Do, Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman

The Great Gender-Neutral Pronoun Debate
 We Need the Singular "They," Stephanie Golden
 The Transgender Language War, Abigail Shrier
 Are Gender-Neutral Pronouns Actually Doomed?, Christen McCurdy

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.