Subject and Strategy A Writer's Reader

New content and reading selections are identified by an asterisk (*)

Preface for Students
Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) Outcomes Statement
Preface for Instructors
Thematic Contents

*1. Reading Actively and Critically

*Reading Actively: Developing a Basic Understanding of the Essay
Step 1: Prepare Yourself to Read the Selection
Step 2: Read the Selection:
Cherokee Paul McDonald, A View from the Bridge
Step 3: Read the Selection a Second Time, Annotating the Text
An Example: Student Annotations for “A View from the Bridge”
Student Reflection: Julie Dwire on Annotating a Reading
Step 4: Outline and Summarize the Selection
An Example: Julie Dwire’s Summary of “A View from the Bridge”
Step 5: Answer the Questions on Subject and Questions on Strategy
An Example: Julie Dwire Answers Study Questions
Student Reflection: Julie Dwire on Answering Study Questions
*Reading Critically: Taking Your Analysis to Another Level
Identifying the Thesis
Identifying the Purpose
Evaluating Evidence
Identifying Tone
Identifying Assumptions and Biases
Evaluating the Overall Effectiveness of an Essay
*From Reading to Writing
Reading Photographs and Visual Texts

2. Writing

Developing an Effective Writing Process

Step 1: Understand Your Assignment
Step 2: Gather Ideas and Formulate a Thesis
Step 3: Organize and Write Your First Draft
Step 4: Revise Your Essay
Step 5: Edit and Proofread Your Essay
A Student Essay in Progress
Step 1: Keith’s Assignment
Step 2: Keith’s Ideas
Step 3: Keith’s First Draft
Step 4: Keith’s Revised Essay
Step 5: Keith’s Edited Essay
Keith Eldred, Secular Mantras (student essay)

3. Writers on Writing

*Jhumpa Lahiri, I Am, in Italian, a Tougher, Freer, Writer
Russell Baker, Discovering the Power of My Words
Anne Lamott, Shitty First Drafts
Linda S. Flower, Writing for an Audience
Stephen King, Reading to Write

4. Narration

Understanding Narration as a Writing Strategy
Using Narration Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Narration
Andrew Kauser, Challenging My Fears (student essay)
Junot Díaz, The Terror
David P. Bardeen, Not Close Enough for Comfort
Toni Morrison, The Work You Do, The Person You Are
*Ocean Vuong, Surrendering

5. Description

Understanding Description as a Writing Strategy
Using Description Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Description
Jim Tassé, Trailcheck (student essay)
Jeannette Walls, A Woman on the Street
Robert Ramírez, The Barrio
Maya Angelou, Sister Flowers
*Rochelle Riley, Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Winter of Mine

6. Illustration

Understanding Illustration as a Writing Strategy
Using Illustration Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Illustration
Paula Kersch, Weight Management: More Than a Matter of Good Looks (student essay)
Natalie Goldberg, Be Specific
*Ben Crump, A Memorable Lesson
Jennifer Ackerman, The Genius of Birds
*Rebecca Solnit, Men Explain Things to Me

7. Process Analysis

Understanding Process Analysis as a Writing Strategy
Using Process Analysis Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Process Analysis
William Peterson, Juggling Is Easier Than You Think (student essay)
Mortimer Adler, How to Mark a Book
Cody Cassidy and Paul Doherty, What Would Happen If You Were Attacked by a Great White Shark?
Alicia Ault, How Do Spiders Make Their Webs?
*Katherine Luck, How to Write Haiku

8. Comparison and Contrast

Understanding Comparison and Contrast as a Writing Strategy
Using Comparison and Contrast Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Comparison and Contrast
Barbara Bowman, Guns and Cameras (student essay)
Suzanne Britt, Neat People vs. Sloppy People
*Kayann Short, Soil versus Dirt: A Reverie on Getting Down to Earth
Andrew Vachss, The Difference between Sick and Evil
*Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Exile in America

9. Division and Classification

Understanding Division and Classification as a Writing Strategy
Using Division and Classification Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Division and Classification
Katie Angeles, The Forgotten Personality Type (student essay)
Judith Viorst, The Truth about Lying
Richard Lederer, All-American Dialects
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
*Martin Luther King Jr., Three Ways of Meeting Oppression

10. Definition

Understanding Definition as a Writing Strategy
Using Definition Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Definition
Howard Solomon Jr., Best Friends (student essay)
Jo Goodwin Parker, What Is Poverty?
Deborah M. Roffman, What Does Boys Will Be Boys Really Mean?
Mark Peters, Virtue Signaling and Other Inane Platitudes
*N. Scott Momaday, The Sacred Spell of Words

11. Cause and Effect Analysis

Understanding Cause and Effect Analysis as a Writing Strategy
Using Cause and Effect Analysis Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Cause and Effect Analysis
Kevin Cunningham, Gentrification (student essay)
Jon Katz, How Boys Become Men
Michael Jonas, The Downside of Diversity
*Illyanna Maisonet, Why Spam Guisada Is the Perfect Dish to Make Right Now
*Anthony Abraham Jack, I Was a Low-Income College Student: Classes Weren’t the Hard Part

12. Argumentation

Understanding Argumentation as a Writing Strategy
Using Argumentation Across the Disciplines
Practical Advice for Writing an Essay of Argumentation
*Mona Sablon, The Case for Art in the Time of a Pandemic (student essay)
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
*Andrea Long Chu, My New Vagina Won’t Make Me Happy
*Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists
*Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Paranoid Style of American Policing
*James Temple, Suppressing Fires Has Failed. Here’s What California Needs to Do Instead
ARGUMENT CLUSTER: Race and Privilege: How to Address A System of Bias?
*Ward Connerly, America Is Not a Racist Country
*Rahawa Haile, Going It Alone
*Marvin Blakely, A Long Road to Hope
ARGUMENT CLUSTER: Individualism and Collectivism: Where Do We Find Ourselves?
*Robert Ginsburg, Collectivism and Individualism: Reflections from a Pandemic
*Robert Reich, What Good Do We Have in Common?
*Tegan Tallullah, Why We Can’t Rely on Individuals to Fix Climate Change

13. Writing with Sources

What Does It Mean to Write with Sources?
Writing with Sources
Learning to Summarize, Paraphrase, and Quote from Your Sources
Avoiding Plagiarism
Katherine Kachnowski, Skin Cancer Is Not Just for Grandparents: Dispelling Widespread Misconceptions about This Disease (student essay)
*Lily Huang, What Climate Change Means to Glacier National Park
*Daniel James Brown, Competitive Rowing
*Donna Hicks, Activate Empathy

14. A Brief Guide to Researching and Documenting Essays

Establishing a Realistic Schedule
Finding and Using Sources
Evaluating Your Sources
Analyzing Your Sources
Developing a Working Bibliography for Your Sources
Taking Notes
Documenting Sources
In-Text Citations
List of Works Cited

15. Editing for Grammar, Punctuation, and Sentence Style

Run-Ons: Fused Sentences and Comma Splices
Sentence Fragments
Comma Faults
Subject-Verb Agreement
Unclear Pronoun References
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
Faulty Parallelism
Weak Nouns and Verbs
Shifts in Verb Tense, Mood, and Voice
Wordiness
Sentence Variety

Glossary of Rhetorical Terms