Changes in the Ninth Edition
In this edition, we have taken instructors’ advice and revised the text to make it an even more effective teaching tool.
Streamlined and redesigned Part One chapters provide more visual cues for students who learn visually, more “easy-reference” features for students who need help navigating a lengthy text, and more “ways in” to each assignment for students whose writing processes don’t conform to an imaginary norm.
The Basic Features of each chapter’s genre of writing are now introduced at the start of the chapter, to lay the groundwork for students’ understand- ing of the genre and to prepare them for their work with that chapter’s readings.
A new color-coding system calls out the Basic Features in the annotated stu- dent essay, the post-reading apparatus, and throughout the Guide to Writing, helping students see the connections among the chapter’s various parts and more easily grasp what makes a successful example of a given genre.
New “Beyond the Traditional Essay” sections illustrate and discuss ex- amples of that chapter’s genre of writing drawn from advertising, blogs, museums — even public parks.
New easy-reference charts in each Guide to Writing — “Starting Points” and “Troubleshooting Your Draft” — help students self-assess and efficiently find the advice and models they need for overcoming individual writing challenges.
Newly designed Invention activities highlight different paths through the processes of generating and shaping material.
Chapter 5, newly revised as “Finding Common Ground,” now teaches students how to analyze opposing positions and find “common ground” between them — a key step in analyzing and synthesizing sources and in con- structing academic as well as civic arguments.
New material brings the book up-to-date and teaches students what they’ll need to succeed at academic writing.
To help students understand and evaluate the visual data that increas- ingly dominate our culture, we have added a new Chapter 20, “Analyzing Visuals,” which provides clear guidance on how to critically read and write about photos, ads, works of art, and other image-based texts. The chapter also offers a multi-stage model of a student’s analysis of a photo by Gordon Parks, as well as exercises in visual analysis that students can do in class or on their own.
x PREFACE FOR INSTRUCTORS
To help them cope with information overload while doing research, we have added a new Chapter 25, “Annotated Bibliographies and Literature Reviews,” which offers detailed guidance on these important elements of the research process.
To help them make useful connections between their previous writing ex- periences and the writing they will do in college, Chapter 1 now focuses on the literacy narrative, encouraging students to reflect on their own literacy experiences in preparation for the reading and writing challenges they’ll en- counter in the course.
Fifteen new readings, with at least one new reading in every Writing Assignment chapter, introduce compelling topics, multicultural perspectives, and fresh voices, including Trey Ellis on a family member’s battle with AIDS, Saira Shah on finding her roots in Afghanistan, and Amy Goldwasser on what kids learn online — and why it matters.