Texts and Contexts: A Contemporary Approach to College Writing / Edition 7

by William S. Robinson, Stephanie Tucker, Jeffrey M. Gervasi

Overview

Take your writing to the next level—and give your college career a jump start—with TEXTS AND CONTEXTS: A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH TO COLLEGE WRITING, 7e. Contemporary readings from professional writers and students like you illustrate every step of the writing process, from generating ideas and writing drafts to revising, editing, and producing final drafts. Each step is supported with exercises and information designed to help you develop effective habits that you can apply to every subject throughout your academic career and beyond!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781413033458
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	01/02/2008
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Part I: WRITING FROM THE TOP DOWN. 1. THE WRITING PROCESS. Reading Actively and Efficiently. Writing Summaries. Steps in Writing a Summary. An Experienced Writer Writes a Summary. Analyzing and Evaluating Your Information. Organizing and Finding Your Point. Writing a Report. The Idea Draft. Later Drafts. Using Quotations. Paraphrasing. Sentence Combining. Shaping Sentences. Recognizing Verb Forms for Writing and Sentence Combining. Shaping Sentences with Adjectives and Verb Forms. Shaping Sentences with Prepositional Phrases. 2. THE SHAPE OF TEXTS. Introductions and Thesis Statements. Students at Work: Introductions. Paragraphs: Proving Your Points. Topic Sentences and the Organization Process. Students at Work: Paragraphs. Conclusions. Part II: DISCOVERING AND WRITING. 3. LEARNING BY SORTING IT OUT. An Important Thinking Tool: Making Inferences. Inferences and Guesses. Good Inferences and Bad Inferences. Classifying to Discover. Assignments and Readings. Analyzing Television for Children. Reading Assignment. "What Are TV Ads Selling to Children?" by John J. O'Connor. "Females and Minorities in TV Ads in 1987 Saturday Children's Programs," by Daniel Riffe, Helene Goldson, Kelly Saxton, and Yang-Chou Yu. Essay Assignment. Analyzing the Job Market. Reading Assignment. "U.S. Income Inequality Keeps on Rising," by Robert B. Reich. "Tomorrow's Jobs," by Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Department of Labor. "Benefits Dwindle Along with Wages for the Unskilled," by Peter Passell. Essay Assignment. Learning What Our Magazines Tell About Us. Reading Assignment. "Help or Hindrance? Women's Magazines Offer Readers Little but Fear, Failure," by Mary Kay Blakely. "We've Come a Long Way, but Magazines Stayed Behind," by Susan Dudash, student. Essay Assignment. How Do Advertisers Try to Manipulate Us? Reading Assignment. "Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals," by Jib Fowles. Essay Assignment. The Writer's Checklist. Sentence Combining. Joining Ideas to Show Basic Logical Relationships. Subordinating Conjunctions. Transition Words. 4. LEARNING BY COMPARING. Comparing and Contrasting to Discover. Organizing Essays Based on Comparison and Contrast. Assignments and Readings. Controlling Political Campaign Expenses. Or Not. Reading Assignment. "Political Reform Issues," by News Batch. "The Current State of Campaign Finance Laws," by Trevor Poetter. "The FEC: Administering and Enforcing Campaign Finance Law," by Thomas E. Mann. Canada Elections Act and Income Tax Act. "Revitalizing Democracy: Clean Election Reform Shows the Way Forward," by Marc Breslow, Janet Groat, and Paul Saba. "Who's Buying Whom: How Money in Politics Really Works," by Micah L. Sifry and Nancy Watzman. "Shut Up, They Explained," by David Frum. "Governor Raises $17 Million in 6 Months," by Matier and Ross. Essay Assignment. Comparing American Families in the Past and Present. Reading Assignment. "The Social Order in Colonial New England," by Edmund S. Morgan. "The Role of Men and Women in Colonial New England," by Edmund S. Morgan and Louis B. Wright. "The Role of Children in Colonial New England," by Edmund S. Morgan. "Men Assuming Bigger Share at Home, New Survey Shows," by Tamar Lewin. "For First Time, Nuclear Families Drop Below 25% of Households," by Eric Schmitt. Essay Assignment. Examining American and Asian Educational Methods. Reading Assignment. "New Math-Science Study Rates U.S. Students Mediocre at Best," by William S. Robinson. "Why Are U.S. Kids Poor in Math?" by Barbara Vobejda. "Japan's School System," by James Kilpatrick. "We Should Cherish Our Children's Freedom to Think," by Kie Ho. "Strengths, Weaknesses, and Lessons of Japanese Education," by James Fallows. "School Here in the United States and There in Vietnam," Student Essay. "Some Public Schools Don't Make the Grade," by Richard Morin. Essay Assignment. The Health-Care Crisis: Examining Two Approaches to National Health. Reading Assignment. "U.S. Spends Most on Health, but France No. 1 in Treatment," by Lauran Neergaard. "The Upward Drift of Health-Care Expenses in France," by Baudouin Bollaert. "The American Health Care Crisis," by Sara Collins. "Name-Brand Drug Costs Soar, Seniors Say," The Washington Post. "The Incredible Shrinking Health Care Debate," by Micah L. Sifry and Nancy Watzman. "Drug Companies Increase Spending on Efforts to Lobby Congress and Governments," by Robert Pear. "Why the U.S. Needs a Single Payer Health System," by David U. Himmelstein, M.D., and Steffie Woolhander, M.D. The Writer's Checklist. Sentence Combining. Joining Ideas to Show Contrast and Concession. What Is Concession? Summary of Comparison/Contrast Words. Using Joining Words to Show Emphasis. 5. ARGUING. Facts and Opinions. Evaluating Evidence and Shaping Your Argument. Deciding Carmen Herrera's Future. Reading Assignment. "Various Comments on Carmen's Dilemma by her counselor, parents, boyfriend, employer, friend, sister, brother." Essay Assignment. Should High School Students Work? Reading Assignment. "Part-Time Work Ethic: Should Teens Go for It?" by Dennis McLellan. "McJobs," by Ben Wildavsky. "Why Fast-Food Joints Don't Serve Up Good Jobs for Kids," by Amitai Etzioni. "Why Not Ask the Students? Urban Teenagers Make the Case for Working," by Katherine Cress. Essay Assignment. Should People Keep Handguns at Home? Reading Assignment. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle-Income Countries," by E. G. Krug, K. E. Powell, and L. L. Dahlberg. "Handgun Regulations, Crime, Assaults, and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities," by Drs. J. H. Sloan, A. L. Kellermann, D. T. Reay, J. A. Ferris, T. Koepsell, F. P. Rivara, C. Rice, L. Gray, and J. LoGerfo. "Crime Is the Basic Problem, Not Guns," by Wayne LaPierre. "Do Gun Laws Work? Study is Inconclusive," by Kristen Wyatt. "Of Killer Pens and AK-47s," by Micah Sifry and Nancy Watzman. "Why I Bought a Gun," by Gail Buchalter. "Man Shoots Own Son." Essay Assignment. Censorship of High School Newspapers. Reading Assignment. "Pregnancy at Hazelwood High," by Christine de Hass. "Divorce's Impact on Kids May Have Lifelong Effects," by Shari Gordon. "A Limit on the Student Press," by Jean Seligmann and Tessa Namuth. "High School Papers Grow Up," by Jerry Carroll. "High Court Gives a Civics Lesson," by Fred M. Hechinger. "Censorship: A Fact of Life Students Are Forced to Face," by Jonathan Yardley. Essay Assignment. Should English Be the Official Language of the United States? Reading Assignment. "Proposition 63." "Argument in Favor of Proposition 63," by S. I. Hayakawa, J. William Orozco, and Stanley Diamond. "Official English and English Plus: An Update." "Liberty and Language for All," by Andy Rooney. Essay Assignment. The Writer's Checklist. Sentence Combining. Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Appositives. Punctuating Noun Phrases in Sentences. Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Adjective Clauses. Special Rules. 6. DISCUSSING. Argument and Discussion in School and on the Job. Writing Discussion Essays. Who Should Care for the Children? Reading Assignment. "Who's Taking Care of the Children?" by Michael Ryan. "Home Day Care Providers Face Increasing Demand," by Tammy Hansen. "High Staff Turnover Imperils Child Care, Researcher Says," by Anastasia Hendrix. "An Interview with Mary S." "Canada Takes Steps Toward Universal Child Care," by Colin Nickerson. "Child Care Sacred as France Cuts Back the Welfare State," by Marlise Simons. Essay Assignment. Rating the Movies. Reading Assignment. "The Motion Picture Association Movie Rating System," by Jack Valenti. "The Big Chill," by Lois P. Sheinfeld. "The Rating Game," by Paul Attanasio. "Give Movie Raters a PG, for Pigheadedness," by Tom Shales. "A Major Studio Tests the (Sexy) Waters of NC-17," by Joel Topcik. Essay Assignment. Is Hate Speech Free Speech? Reading Assignment. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution. "The Debate Over Placing Limits on Racist Speech Must Not Ignore the Damage It Does to Its Victims," by Charles R. Lawrence III. "Free Speech on the Campus," by Nat Hentoff. "Hate Speech on Campus," by Joseph S. Tuman. "Rethinking Campus Speech Codes," by Ben Wildavsky. Essay Assignment. Should College Athletics Be Reformed? Reading Assignment. "Helping Top Athletes Meet Minimum Standards," by Kate Zernike. "Graduation Rates at Top-Tier Football Programs Poor," by Steve Wieberg. "2003 NCAA Tournament: Academics; Study Finds Top Teams Failing in the Classroom," by Frank Litsky. "Big Spenders on Campus Spending Your Money," by Selena Roberts. "NCAA Board of Directors Adopts Landmark Academic Reform Package Plan Creates Loopholes, Not Educated Athletes," by Marc Isenberg. "The Ivy League at 30: A Model for College Athletics or an Outmoded Antique?" by Douglas Lederman. Essay Assignment. The Writer's Checklist. Sentence Combining. Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Verbal Phrases. Shaping Sentences to Show Relationships: Parallelism. 7. WRITING THE IN-CLASS ESSAY. The Essay Exam. The Writing Test. Planning Your Time. Part III: PROOFREADING SKILLS WORKBOOK. Introduction. Proofreading Quiz. Identifying Subjects and Verbs. Agreement Between Subjects and Verbs. Past Tense and Past Participles. The Past-to-Present Tense (Present Perfect). The Past-Before-Past Tense (Past Perfect). Comma-Splice Errors. Sentence Fragments. Pronouns. Using A and An. Noun Plurals. Noncountable Nouns. Dropped Contractions of Is and Are. Forming Direct Questions. Forming Indirect Questions. Apostrophes to Show Possession. Homophones. Capitalization. Credits. Index. Index of Authors and Titles.

Editorial Reviews

"The chapters are organized, not according to traditional rhetorical modes, but according to thinking and writing strategies, allowing students to build on the skills they acquire and to practice the kinds of thinking and writing they need in academia."

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