Synopses & Reviews
Develop your writing skills using the 87 eclectic essays and 90 visual texts on themes as diverse as "Human Relations" and "Big Brother" included in the READING LIFE: A WRITER'S READER.
Review
"The themes included in the reader have a lot to offer. These subjects definitely speak to the interests of our students. At the same time, the essays, a number of which I recognize, seem sophisticated enough to challenge students. All of the clusters apparently have the potential to provoke the intellectual curiosity of our students and to motivate them to write enthusiastically. I'm really interested in Appetites and Addictions, a category I've not seen in readers."
Review
"The chapters written by the authors are readable. Their voice and tone are engaging and not condescending. That's quite a feat when you're writing in the imperative."
Synopsis
87 eclectic essays and 90 visual texts range across themes as diverse as "Human Relations" and "Big Brother" to accommodate a range of teaching and learning styles.
About the Author
Gabrielle Gautreaux, former writing program coordinator at the University of New Orleans, and Inge Fink are long-time colleagues. Both Gabrielle and Inge are active presenters and attendees to the Conference on College and Composition Communication (4C¿s). Gabrielle Gautreaux, former writing program coordinator at the University of New Orleans, and Inge Fink are long-time colleagues. Both Gabrielle and Inge are active presenters and attendees to the Conference on College and Composition Communication (4C¿s).
Table of Contents
Part I: A Writers Guide. 1. GETTING STARTED. 2. WRITING ANALYTICALLY. B&W images: William Hogarth, "Beer Street". William Hogarth, "Gin Lane". 3. WRITING PERSUASIVELY. 4. DETERMINING STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES. 5. WRITING WITH SOURCES. 6. A WRITER AT WORK. 7. A QUICK GUIDE TO STYLE. 8. WRITING ABOUT IMAGES. Color images: Norman Rockwell, "After the Prom". Part II: A Writers Reader. 9. HUMAN RELATIONS. William C. Brisick, "The Steep Cliffs of Life". Anndee Hochman, "Growing Pains: Beyond One Big Happy Family ". Caroline Hwang, "The Good Daughter". Elizabeth Joseph, "Polygamy Now!" C. S. Lewis, "We Have No Right to Happiness". Laura Pfefferle, "On Marriage: Lessons from a Work-in-Progress". Marge Piercy, "A Work of Artiface". Melanie Thernstrom, "The Inheritance That Got Away". Cornel West, "On Black Fathering". E. B. White, "Once More to the Lake". Color images: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, "Wedding Dress". Richard Ellis, "Closeup: James Carville.." Annie Leibowitz, "Jerry Hall and Gabriel Jagger, Model and Her Son". B and W images: Brown Brothers "A Musician and Filmaker with Their Children". Danny Lyon, "Visting Room, Walls". Patrick Tehan, "B.T. and Minnie Winkle". Jay Ullal, "Bridal Couple in Beirut, 1983". Dixie D. Vereen, "Man and Child". 10. BODY POLITICS. Atul Gawande, "Final Cut". Stephen S. Hall, "The Bully in the Mirror". Natalie Kusz, "Ring Leader". Nancy Mairs, "Carnal Acts". Keith D. Mano, "Plastic Surgery". Anna Quindlen, "Stretch Marks". Roy Selby, Jr. "A Delicate Operation". Alice Walker, "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self". Color images: Arthur Grace, "Workout". Lauren Greenfield, "Ashleigh". Annie Leibowitz. "Lenda Murray, Ms. Olympia 1990-1995". B and W images: Annie Leibowitz. "Cheryl Haworth". Annie Leibowitz, "Sidney Silver". Norman Rockwell, "Girl at the Mirror". Spoof ad, "Reality for Men". Spoof ad, "Obsession for Women". 11. APPETITES AND ADDICTIONS. Billy Collins, "Osso Buco". Laurie Colwin, "How to Fry Chicken". Renee Graham, "Can Hollywood Kick the Habit?" "Passed By a Hair". Stanton Peele, "Running Scared". Scott Russell Sanders, "Under the Influence". Eric Schlosser, from Fast Food Nation (Introduction). Calvin Trilllin, "Missing Links". Color images: Chris Jones, "Shopping for Meat". Stephanie Maze, "Lunch at Uncle Antonios". Kerri McCaffety, "Bourbon Street, New Orleans". B and W images: "I need Smokes more than any thing else". "Shopping Spree". Eugene Richards, "Crack For Sale". Carrie Mae Weems, "Jim, if you choose to accept, the mission is to land on your own two feet". 12. LEARNING MATTERS. Toni Cade Bambara, "The Lesson". Roberta Borkat, "A Modest Proposal". Robert Coles, "Ruby Bridges and a Painting". Cathy Davidson, "From the Best of Japanese Families". John Taylor Gatto, "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher". Langston Hughes, "Theme for English B". Jacob Neusner, "The Speech the Graduates Didnt Hear". Joe Queenan, "Matriculation Fixation". Mike Rose, "I Just Wanna Be Average". Color images: Steve Liss, "Homework". Norman Rockwell, "The Problem We All Live With". B and W images: "Graduation Day". Elliott Erwitt, "Three Children". University of Louisville, "Golden Rules". "German Schoolboys Salute". 13. FUTURE SHOCK. Ian Frazier, "Dearly Disconnected". Nancy Gibbs, "If We Have It, Do We Use It?" Ellen Goodman, "Beauty on the DNA Auction Block". Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark". "Joystick Jihad". Paul Keegan, "Culture Quake". Leigh Turner, "The Media and the Ethics of Cloning". Ellen Ullman, "The Museum of Me". Color images: Max Aguilera-Hellweg, "Reaching for Help". Boris Artzybasheff, "The Computer in Society". Volker Hinz, "Three Mile Island Power Station". B and W images: "Multiples." Doug Menuez, "Nuclear Lane". "World Trade Center". 14. TALK THE TALK. Annie Dillard, "Singing with the Fundamentalists". Lewis Lapham, "Audible Silence". George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language". Jonathan Rauch, "In Defense of Prejudice". David Sedaris, "Me Talk Pretty One Day". Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue". Deborah Tannen, "Marked Women". John Tierney, "Playing the Dozens". Color images: Inge Fink, "Talk the Talk". Annie Leibowitz, "Rebecca Denison". Norman Rockwell, "The Gossips." B and W images: Dana Fineman, "Abortion Activist". Garrit Fokkema, "Ku Klux Klan". Ruth Orkin, "American Girl in Italy". 15. BIG BROTHER. Michel Foucault, from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Molly Ivins, "How 1984 and 2002 Add Up to Trouble". Thomas Jefferson, "Declaration of Independence". Adnan R. Khan, "Bordering on Panic: Post-9/11, Muslims Like Me Are Suffering Close Encounters with U.S. Immigration". Michael Kinsley, "Orwell Got It Wrong". Charles Krauthammer, "The Case for Profiling: Why Random Searches of Airline Travellers Are a Useless Charade". Lewis Lapham, "Regime Change". Farhad Manjoo, "Everything Is Watching You". Anna Quindlen, "Getting Rid of the Sex Police". Anton Scalia, "Dissent to Lawrence et al. versus Texas". Deborah Sontag, "Fierce Entanglements". Color images: "Information Awareness Office Logo". Office of Emergency Management, "Hes Watching You". B and W images: Dorothea Lange, "Pledge of Allegiance". Danny Lyon, "Against the Wall, Punishment, Ramsey". 16. TO MARKET, TO MARKET . . .. G. Beate, "Marketing: The Critics of Corporate Propaganda Co-opt Its Best Weapon". Lisa Belkin, "Prime-Time Pushers". Matthew Blakeslee, "Madison Avenue and Your Brain". Gloria Borger, "Barbies Newest Values". John Caples, "Layouts and Illustrations That Attract the Most Readers". Jack Hitt, "The Hidden Life of SUVs". Arianna Huffington, "The Coming SUV Wars". William Lutz, "Weasel Words". Julie Schlosser, "Scandal 101: Lessons from Ken Lay". Color images: Daniel Aubry, "Big Bucks". Crown Royal, "When your hearts are in the same place". MetLife Financial Services, "Dreams are for passing on to your children. Not to the IRS". Phoenix Wealth Management, "Money. Its just not what it used to be". Friends of Animals, "ONE fur coat. B and W images: Francis Miller, "Bring Home the Bacon". Ruth Orkin, "Lady Buys Tomatoes". Spoof ad, "Absolute on Ice". Spoof ad, "Hitler Wore Khakis". 17. SPECTACLES AND SPECTATORS. Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling". Jeremiah Creedon, "The Greening of Tony Soprano". Barbara Ehrenreich, "Spudding Out". Jonah Goldberg, "Ozzie Without Harriet: What The Osbournes Tells Us About Drugs". Terry Golway, "Life in the 90s". Katherine Mansfield, "Miss Brill". Rebecca Mead, "Man-Child in Lotusland". Steven Reiss and James Wiltz, "Why America Loves Reality TV". Katie Roiphe, "Profiles Encouraged". Color images: Alan Berner, "Man Photographing John DeAndreas Linda ". Neil Leifer, "Cassius Clay Beats Sonny Liston". Norman Rockwell, "Abstract and Concrete". B and W images: L. Blandford, "Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile". "Billie Holiday". Ralph Morse, "Transfixing Experience". 18. GENUS: GENIUS. Joan Didion, "Everywoman.com". Malcolm Gladwell, "The Physical Genius". Dave Hickey, "A Rhinestone as Big as the Ritz". Joan Morgan, "The Bad Boy". Dennis Overbye, "Hes Still Ready for His Close-Up". Richard Selzer, "Imelda". Gary Smith, "The Chosen One". Color images: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. "Be it Ever So Humble". Ernest Hamlin Baker, "Albert Einstein". Walter Ioss, Jr. "Michael Jordan". Annie Leibowitz, " Liberace and Scott Thorson". B and W images: Frederique Herel, "Bill Gates".