Texts and Contexts A Contemporary Approach to College Writing

Part I: WRITING FROM THE TOP DOWN. Practice in developing the ability to read critically and to summarize; learning the fundamentals of the academic writing process through writing a short report; shaping texts and sentences. 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. Introduction 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. Cases for reading and writing: pre-reading and post-reading; prewriting and drafting; sentence combining and proofreading. 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. John J. O''Connor, What Are TV Ads Selling to Children? Daniel Riffe, Helene Goldson, Kelly Saxton, and Yang-Chou Yu, Females and Minorities in TV Ads in 1987 Saturday Children''s Programs. Essay Assignment. Analyzing the Job Market. Reading Assignment. Robert B. Reich, U.S. Income Inequality Keeps on Rising. *Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Tomorrow''s Jobs. Essay Assignment. Learning What Our Magazines Tell About Us. Reading Assignment. Mary Kay Blakely, Help Or Hindrance? Women''s Magazines Offer Readers Little but Fear, Failure. Susan Dudash, Student, We''ve Come a Long Way, But Magazines Stayed Behind. Essay Assignment. How Do Advertisers Try to Manipulate Us? Reading Assignment. Jib Fowles, Advertising''s Fifteen Basic Appeals. Essay Assignment. The Writer''s Checklist. Sentence Combining. Joining Ideas to Show Basic Logical Relationships. Subordination Conjunction. Tradition words. 4. Learning by Comparing. Comparing and Contrasting to Discover. Organizing Essays Based on Comparison and Contrast. Assignments and Readings. Changing Tastes in Television: 1970 and Today. Reading Assignment. Network Prime-Time Programming. Essay Assignment. Comparing American Families in the Past and Present. Reading Assignment. Edmund S. Morgan, The Social Order in Colonial New England. Edmund S. Morgan and Louis B. Wright, The Role of Men and Women in Colonial New England. Edmund S. Morgan, The Role of Children in Colonial New England. Tamar Lewin, Men Assuming Bigger Share at Home, New Survey Shows. *Eric Schmitt, For First Time, Nuclear Families Drop Below 25% of Households. Essay Assignment. Examining American and Asian Educational Methods. Reading Assignment. *William S. Robinson, New Math-Science Study Rates U.S. Students Mediocre at Best. Barbara Vobejda, Why are U.S. Kids Poor in Math? James Kilpatrick, Japan''s School System. Kie Ho, We Should Cherish Our Children''s Freedom to Think. James Fallows, Strengths, Weaknesses, and Lessons of Japanese Education. Student Essay, School Here in the United States and There in Vietnam. Richard Morin, Some Public Schools Don''t Make the Grade. Essay Assignment. *The Health-Care Crisis: Examining Two Approaches to National Health. Reading Assignment. *Lauran Neergaard, U.S. Spends Most on Health, But France No. 1 in Treatment. *Michael Tanner, A Hard Lesson About Socialized Medicine. *David U. Himmelstein, M.D. and Steffie Woolhander, M.D., Why the U.S. Needs a Single Payer Health System. Essay Assignment. 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. Assignments and Readings. Deciding Carmen Herrera''s Future. Reading Assignment. Various Comments on Carmen''s Dilemma, her counselor, parents, boyfriend, employer, friend, sister, brother. Essay Assignment. Should High School Students Work? Reading Assignment. Dennis McLellan, Part-Time Work Ethic: Should Teens Go for It? Ben Wildavsky, McJobs. Amitai Etzoni, Why Fast-Food Joints Don''t Serve Up Good Jobs for Kids. Katherine Cress, Why Not Ask the Students? Urban Teenagers Make the Case for Working. Essay Assignment. Should People Keep Handguns at Home? Reading Assignment. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. E.G. Krug, K.E. Powell, and L.L. Dahlberg, Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High-and Upper-Middle-Income Countries. 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, Handgun Regulations, Crime, Assaults, and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities. Wayne LaPierre, Crime is the Basic Problem, Not Guns. Romesh Ratnesar, Should You Carry a Gun? A New Study Argues for Concealed Weapons. Neil A. Lewis, Taking Another Look at Right to Bear Arms. Gail Buchalter, Why I Bought a Gun Man Shoots Own Son. Essay Assignment. Censorship of High School Newspapers. Reading Assignment. Christine de Hass, Pregnancy at Hazelwood High. Shari Gordon, Divorce''s Impact on Kids May Have Lifelong Effects. Jean Seligmann and Tessa Namuth, A Limit on the Student Press. Jerry Carroll, High School Papers Grow Up. Fred M. Hechinger, High Court Gives A Civic Lesson. Jonathan Yardley, Censorship: A Fact of Life Students Are Forced to Face. Essay Assignment. Should English be the Official Language of the United States? Reading Assignment. S.I. Hayakawa, William Orozco and Stanley Diamond, Argument in Favor of Proposition 63. *Official English and English Plus: An Update. Andy Rooney, Liberty and Language for All. 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. Assignments and Readings. Who Should Care for the Children? Reading Assignment. Michael Ryan, Who''s Taking Care of the Children? Tammy Hansen, Home Day Care Providers Face Increasing Demand. *Anastasia Hendrix, High Staff Turnover Imperils Child Care, Researcher Says An Interview with Mary S. *Colin Nickerson, Canada Takes Steps Toward Universal Child Care. Marlise Simons, Child Care Sacred as France Cuts Back the Welfare State. Essay Assignment. Rating the Movies. Reading Assignment. The Motion Picture Production Code *NC-17 Replaces X in Movie Ratings. Lois P. Sheinfeld, The Big Chill. Peter Stack, Avoiding the Censors. Paul Attanasio, The Rating Game. Essay Assignment. Is Hate Speech Free Speech? Reading Assignment. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Charles R. Lawrence III, The Debate Over Placing Limits on Racist Speech Must Not Ignore the Damage It Does to Its Victims. Nat Hentoff, Free Speech on the Campus. Joseph S. Turman, Hate Speech on Campus. Ben Wildavsky, Rethinking Campus Speech Codes. Essay Assignment. Should College Athletics be Reformed? Reading Assignment. *Kate Zernike, Helping Top Athletes Meet Minimum Standards. NCAA Stirs Debate?Are SATs Racist? John Eisenberg, Cheers to John Thompson''s Empty Chair. Mona Charen, A Kinder, Gentler Racism. Douglas Lederman, The Ivy League at 30: A Model for College Athletics or an Outmoded Antique? 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 TimeRobinson, William S. is the author of 'Texts and Contexts A Contemporary Approach to College Writing', published 2002 under ISBN 9780155060715 and ISBN 0155060716.