Models for Writers Short Essays for Composition

Models for Writers utilizes examples you can identify with, focusing on topics commonly covered in college, to help you to learn to write better and make your essays more impactful.

*new to this edition

Preface
Thematic Clusters
Introduction for Students

PART ONE: ON READING AND WRITING WELL

1 The Writing Process
Prewriting
Writing the First Draft
Revising
Editing
Proofreading
Writing an Expository Essay: A Student Essay in Progress
Jeffrey Olesky, Golf: A Character Builder (student essay)

2 From Reading to Writing
Reading Critically
Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
Rachel Carson, Fable for Tomorrow
Using Reading in the Writing Process
Writing from Reading: Three Sample Student Essays
A Narrative Essay: Trena Isley, On the Sidelines (student essay)
A Response Essay: Zoe Ockenga, The Excuse "Not To" (student essay)
An Argumentative Essay: James Duffy, One Dying Wish (student essay)

PART TWO: THE ELEMENTS OF THE ESSAY

3 Thesis
*Laura Lee, Lucy and Her Friends
*David Pogue, The End of Passwords
James Lincoln Collier, Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name

4 Unity
Thomas L. Friedman, My Favorite Teacher
Helen Keller, The Most Important Day
*Jonathan Safran Foer, Against Meat

5 Organization
Cherokee Paul McDonald, A View from the Bridge
Bruce Catton, Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
Julie Zhuo, Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt

6 Beginnings and Endings
Dick Gregory, Shame
Sean McElwee, The Case for Censoring Hate Speech
*Omar Akram, Can Music Bridge Cultures and Promote Peace?

7 Paragraphs
*Jamie Mackay, The Art of Communal Bathing
Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Rosetta
Jimmy Carter, The Home Place

8 Transitions
*Maya Wei-Haas, How Chuck Taylor Taught America How to Play Basketball
*Roland Merullo, The Phantom Toll Collector
*Dan Shaughnessy, Teammates Forever Have a Special Connection

9 Effective Sentences
Erin Murphy, White Lies
Langston Hughes, Salvation
*Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

10 Writing with Sources
*Tara Haelle, How to Teach Children That Failure Is the Secret to Success
Jake Jamieson, The English-Only Movement: Can America Proscribe Language with a Clear Conscience?
Terry Tempest Williams, The Clan of One-Breasted Women

PART THREE: THE LANGUAGE OF THE ESSAY

11 Diction and Tone
Robert Krulwich, How Do Plants Know Which Way Is Up and Which Way Is Down?
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Maya Angelou, Momma, the Dentist, and Me

12 Figurative Language
N Scott Momaday, Flight of the Eagles
Robert Ramirez, The Barrio
Anne Lamott, Polaroids

PART FOUR: TYPES OF ESSAYS

13 Illustration
Russell Baker, Becoming a Writer
Natalie Goldberg, Be Specific
*Jonah Berger, The Power of Conformity

14 Narration
Henry Louis Gates Jr., What’s in a Name?
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour
*Misty Copeland, Life in Motion

15 Description
Eudora Welty, The Corner Store
Carl T. Rowan, Unforgettable Miss Bessie
*Mara Wilson, My Late Mother’s Last Receipt

16 Process Analysis
Paul W. Merrill, The Principles of Poor Writing
*Marie Kondo, Designate a Place for Each Thing
Diane Ackerman, Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall

17 Definition
Gloria Naylor, The Meanings of a Word
*Akemi Johnson, Who Gets to Be ‘Hapa’?
Eduardo Porter, What Happiness Is

18 Division and Classification
Martin Luther King Jr., The Ways of Meeting Oppression
*Mia Consalvo, Cheating Is Good for You
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue

19 Comparison and Contrast
Mark Twain, Two Ways of Seeing a River
Christina Baker Kline, Taking My Son to College, Where Technology Has Replaced Serendipity
*Toby Morris, On a Plate
Bharati Mukherjee, Two Ways to Belong in America

20 Cause and Effect
Verlyn Klinkenborg, Our Vanishing Night
Stephen King, Why We Crave Horror Movies
Brent Staples, Black Men and Public Space

21 Argument
*Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Becoming Disabled
Mary Sherry, In Praise of the F Word
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
Richard Lederer, The Case for Short Words
Conflict: Using Language to Seek Resolution
*Donna Hicks, Independence
*Emily Badger, Tarring Opponents as Extremists Really Can Work
*Michael Gardner, Adventures of the Dork Police
Crime: Finding an Effective Punishment
June Tangney, Condemn the Crime, Not the Person
Dan M. Kahan, Shame Is Worth a Try
*Libby Marlowe, Shame: The Ultimate Clickbait

22 Combining Models
Robert G. Lake-Thom (Medicine Grizzly Bear), An Indian Father’s Plea
*Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, The Myth of the Catty Woman
Audrey Schulman, Fahrenheit 59: What a Child’s Fever Might Tell Us about Climate Change

PART FIVE: GUIDES TO RESEARCH AND EDITING

23 A Brief Guide to Writing a Research Paper
Establishing a Realistic Schedule
Finding and Using Sources
Conducting Keyword Searches
Evaluating Print and Online Sources
Analyzing Sources for Position and Bias
Developing a Working Bibliography
Taking Notes
Documenting Sources
MLA-Style Documentation
An Annotated Student MLA-Style Research Paper: Lesley Timmerman, An Argument for Corporate Responsibility
APA-Style Documentation
An Annotated Student APA-Style Research Paper: Laura DeVeau, The Role of Spirituality and Religion in Mental Health

24 Editing for Grammar, Punctuation, and Sentence Style
Run-ons: Fused Sentences and Comma Splices
Sentence Fragments
Sentence-Verb Agreement
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Verb Tense Shifts
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Faulty Parallelism
Weak Nouns and Verbs
Academic Diction and Tone
ESL Concerns (Articles and Nouns)

Glossary of Useful Terms

Index

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.