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Table of Contents

Contents
Preface 
Contents by Theme 
Contents by Discipline 
[* = New to this edition]

1   Academic Habits of Mind: From Reading Critically to Writing Well  
Joining the Academic Conversation 
■ ACTIVITY 1: Exploring Your Habits of Mind 
Ben Greenman, The Online Curiosity Killer 
Arjun Shankar and Mariam Durrani, Curiosity and Education: A White Paper
Mario Livio, Curious, from Why? What Makes Us Curious? 
Susan Engel, The Case for Curiosity 
■ ACTIVITY 2: Honing Ideas through Discussion 
■ ACTIVITY 3: Developing Your Rhetorical Sensitivity 
■ ACTIVITY 4: Pulling It All Together 
*Understanding Multimodality             
From Reading Critically to Writing Well 
The Writing Process 
One Student’s Writing Process 
■ Brainstorming 
■ Outlining 
■ Peer Review Feedback 
■ Instructor Feedback 
■  Revised Outline 

2  A Catalog of Reading Strategies   
Annotating 
Martin Luther King Jr., An Annotated Sample from “Letter from Birmingham Jail” 
Taking Inventory 
Outlining 
Mapping 
Summarizing 
Paraphrasing 
Skimming 
Synthesizing 
Analyzing Assumptions 
Contextualizing 
Exploring the Significance of Figurative Language 
Analyzing Visuals 
*Analyzing Data Visualizations
Looking for Patterns of Opposition 
Reflecting on Challenges to Your Beliefs and Values 
Comparing and Contrasting Related Readings 
Lewis H. Van Dusen Jr., Legitimate Pressures and Illegitimate Results 
Evaluating the Logic of an Argument 
Recognizing Logical Fallacies 
Recognizing Emotional Manipulation 
Judging the Writer’s Credibility 
Reading Like a Writer 

3  Autobiography and literacy narratives      
Rhetorical Situations for Autobiographies and Literacy Narratives 
■ THINKING ABOUT AUTOBIOGRAPHY and Literacy Narratives 
A GUIDE TO READING AUTOBIOGRAPHY and literacy narratives 
Annie Dillard, An American Childhood (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
READINGS 
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Molly Montgomery, Literacy Narrative: In Search of Dumplings and Dead Poets 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
*Elissa Washuta, Wednesday Addams Is Just Another Settler 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Contextualizing in Order to Reflect on Challenges to Your Beliefs and Values 
Rhea Jameson, Mrs. Maxon (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  WRITING TO LEARN AUTOBIOGRAPHY and Literacy Narratives 
A GUIDE TO WRITING AUTOBIOGRAPHY and Literacy narratives 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

4  Reflection      
Rhetorical Situations for Reflections 
■ THINKING ABOUT REFLECTION 
A GUIDE TO READING REFLECTIVE ESSAYS 
Brent Staples, Black Men and Public Space (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
READINGS 
Jacqueline Woodson, The Pain of the Watermelon Joke 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Manuel Muñoz, Leave Your Name at the Border 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Maya Rupert, I, Wonder: Imagining a Black Wonder Woman 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Samantha Wright, Starving for Control (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Comparing and Contrasting Related Readings to Recognize Emotional Manipulation 
■ WRITING TO LEARN REFLECTION 
A GUIDE TO WRITING REFLECTIVE ESSAYS 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON REFLECTION 

*5  Understanding Through Inquiry       
Rhetorical Situations for Inquiry-Driven Writing 
■ THINKING ABOUT INQUIRY 
A GUIDE TO READING: INQUIRY-DRIVEN WRITING 
*Tyler Stiem, Statue Wars: What Should We Do with Troublesome Monuments? (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
READINGS 
*Marion Winik, What Are Friends For? 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
*Angelica Puzio, Why Is There Such a Gender Gap in COVID-19 Vaccination Rates? 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like A Writer 
*Alex Samuels, Juneteenth Challenges a Narrative about American History
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Contextualizing in Order to Compare and Contrast Related Readings 
*Maya Gomez, Should Kidney Donors Be Compensated? (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like A Writer 
A Guide To Writing Inquiry-Driven Essays
The Writing Assignment
Writing Your Draft
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON OBSERVATION
           
6  Explaining Concepts
Rhetorical Situations for Concept Explanations 
■ THINKING ABOUT CONCEPT EXPLANATION 
A GUIDE TO READING CONCEPT EXPLANATIONS 
Susan Cain, Shyness: Evolutionary Tactic? (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
READINGS 
John Tierney, Do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue? 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Jeff Howe, The Rise of Crowdsourcing 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Synthesizing Information from Sources to Support Claims and Provide Context 
*Lesley Wexler and Jennifer K. Robbennolt, #MeToo and Restorative Justice 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
*Rosa Alexander, The Meme-ing of Trigger Warnings (Student Essay)  
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■ WRITING TO LEARN CONCEPT EXPLANATION 
A GUIDE TO WRITING ESSAYS EXPLAINING CONCEPTS 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON CONCEPT EXPLANATION 

7  Evaluation
Rhetorical Situations for Evaluations 
■ THINKING ABOUT EVALUATION 
A GUIDE TO READING EVALUATIONS 
Amitai Etzioni, Working at McDonald’s (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
READINGS 
Matthew Hertogs, Typing vs. Handwriting Notes: An Evaluation of the Effects of Transcription Method on Student Learning 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Ian Bogost, Brands Are Not Our Friends 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Christine Rosen, The Myth of Multitasking 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Comparing and Contrasting Related Readings to Judge a Writer’s Credibility 
Christine Romano, Jessica Statsky’s “Children Need to Play, Not Compete”: An Evaluation (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■ WRITING TO LEARN EVALUATION 
A GUIDE TO WRITING EVALUATIONS 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON EVALUATION 

8  Arguing for a Position
Rhetorical Situations for Position Arguments 
■ THINKING ABOUT POSITION ARGUMENT 
A GUIDE TO READING ESSAYS ARGUING FOR A POSITION 
*David Wallace-Wells, People Don’t Trust Public-Health Experts Because Public-Health Experts Don’t Trust People (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer
READINGS 
*Scott Nolen, The Seatbelt  Approach to the Opioid Crisis 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
*Samantha Allen, The Rainbow Will Always Mean Pride 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Daniel J. Solove, Why Privacy Matters Even If You Have “Nothing to Hide” 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Jessica Statsky, Children Need to Play, Not Compete (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Comparing and Contrasting to Analyze Visuals 
■ WRITING TO LEARN POSITION ARGUMENT 
A GUIDE TO WRITING POSITION ARGUMENTS 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON POSITION ARGUMENT 

9  Speculating About Causes or Effects
Rhetorical Situations for Speculating about Causes or Effects 
■ THINKING ABOUT SPECULATIONS ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS 
A GUIDE TO READING ESSAYS SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS 
*Kim Wong-Shing, How Horror Movies Can Help Mental Health, According to Science (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer
READINGS 
Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Patterns of Death in the South Still Show the Outlines of Slavery 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
C Thi Nguyen, Escape the Echo Chamber 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Nicholas Carr, Is Google Making Us Stupid? 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Contextualizing in Order to Analyze Visuals 
Clayton Pangelinan, #socialnetworking: Why It’s Really So Popular (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■  WRITING TO LEARN SPECULATIONS ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS 
A GUIDE TO WRITING ESSAYS SPECULATING ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON SPECULATIONS ABOUT CAUSES OR EFFECTS 

10  Proposal to Solve a Problem
Rhetorical Situations for Proposals 
■ THINKING ABOUT PROPOSALS 
A GUIDE TO READING PROPOSALS 
Alice Wong, The Last Straw (Annotated Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer
READINGS 
Maryanne Wolf, Skim Reading Is the New Normal 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■ COMBINING READING STRATEGIES: Looking for Patterns of Opposition to Analyze Assumptions 
*Ben Miller, Graduate School Debt 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
Neva Goodwin, Meaningful Work — A Radical Proposal 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
*Patrick O’Malley, More Testing, More Learning (Annotated Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer 
■ WRITING TO LEARN PROPOSALS 
A GUIDE TO WRITING PROPOSALS 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON PROPOSALS TO SOLVE A PROBLEM 

11 Multi-Genre Writing: Pulling It All Together     
Rhetorical Situations for Multi-Genre Writing 
■ THINKING ABOUT multi-genre writing 
A GUIDE TO READING multi-genre essays 
Atul Gawande, The Heroism of Incremental Care 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer: Explaining Concepts 
Reading Like a Writer: Reflection 
Reading Like a Writer: Arguing for a Position
Reading Like a Writer: The Rhetorical Situation in Multi-Genre Writing 
READINGS 
Wesley Morris, Who Gets to Decide What Belongs in the “Canon”? 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer: Speculating about Causes and Effects 
Reading Like a Writer: The Rhetorical Situation in Multi-Genre Writing 
Tajja Isen, How Can We Expand the Way We Write about Our Identities? 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer: Proposal to Solve a Problem 
Reading Like a Writer: The Rhetorical Situation in Multi-Genre Writing 
*Laura Beth Nielsen, The Case for Restricting Hate Speech
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer: Evaluation 
Reading Like a Writer: The Rhetorical Situation in Multi-Genre Writing 
Aru Terbor, A Deeper Look at Empathetic and Altruistic Behavior (Student Essay) 
Reading for Meaning 
Reading Like a Writer: Arguing for a Position 
Reading Like a Writer: The Rhetorical Situation in Multi-Genre Writing 
■ WRITING TO LEARN Multi-Genre Essays 
A GUIDE TO WRITING multi-genre essays 
■ THE WRITING ASSIGNMENT 
Writing Your Draft 
Reviewing and Improving the Draft 
A PEER REVIEW GUIDE 
TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR DRAFT 
■ REFLECTING ON WRITING MULTI-GENRE ESSAYS 

12  Strategies for Research and Documentation
PLANNING A RESEARCH PROJECT 
Analyzing Your Rhetorical Situation and Setting a Schedule 
Choosing a Topic and Getting an Overview
Focusing Your Topic and Drafting Research Questions 
Establishing a Research Log 
Creating a Working Bibliography 
Annotating Your Working Bibliography 
Taking Notes on Your Sources 
FINDING SOURCES 
Searching Library Catalogs and Databases 
Searching for Government Documents and Statistical Information 
Searching for Websites and Interactive Sources
CONDUCTING FIELD RESEARCH 
Conducting Observational Studies 
Conducting Interviews 
Conducting Surveys 
EVALUATING SOURCES 
Choosing Relevant Sources 
Choosing Credible Sources 
USING SOURCES 
Synthesizing Sources 
Acknowledging Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism 
Using Information from Sources to Support Your Claims 
CITING AND DOCUMENTING SOURCES IN MLA Style 
Using In-Text Citations 
■ DIRECTORY TO IN-TEXT CITATION MODELS 
Creating a List of Works Cited 
■ DIRECTORY TO WORKS-CITED-LIST MODELS 
CITING AND DOCUMENTING SOURCES IN APA Style 
Using In-Text Citations 
■ DIRECTORY TO IN-TEXT CITATION MODELS 
Creating a List of References 
■ DIRECTORY TO REFERENCE-LIST MODELS 

Index to Methods of Development 
Index of Authors, Titles, and Terms 

Authors

Rise B. Axelrod

Rise B. Axelrod is McSweeney Professor of Rhetoric and Teaching Excellence, Emeritus, at the University of California, Riverside, where she was also director of English Composition. She has previously been professor of English at California State University, San Bernardino; director of the College Expository Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and assistant director of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego. She is the co-author, with Charles R. Cooper, of the best-selling textbooks The St. Martin's Guide to Writing and The Concise St. Martin's Guide to Writing, as well as Reading Critically, Writing Well.

Charles R. Cooper

Charles R. Cooper, was emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego until his passing in 2017. He served as coordinator of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego, and co-director of the San Diego Writing Project, one of the National Writing Project Centers. He advised the National Assessment of Educational Progress writing study and coordinated the development of California's first statewide writing assessment. He taught at the University of California, Riverside; the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the University of California, San Diego. Co-editor, with Lee Odell, of Evaluating Writing and Research on Composing: Points of Departure, and he was co-author, with Rise Axelrod, of the best-selling textbooks The St. Martin's Guide to Writing and The Concise St. Martin's Guide to Writing, as well as Reading Critically, Writing Well.

Ellen Carillo

Ellen C. Carillo is a Professor of English at the University of Connecticut and the writing program coordinator at its Waterbury Campus where she teaches writing and literature courses. She is the author of Securing a Place for Reading in Composition: The Importance of Teaching for Transfer; A Writer’s Guide to Mindful Reading; Teaching Readers in Post-Truth America; The Hidden Inequities in Labor-Based Contract Grading; and the MLA Guide to Digital Literacy, as well as the editor or co-editor of several collections.

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