English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition Front Matter Praise for English Skills with Readings, 7 th Edition and English Skills, 9 th Edition Readings Listed by Rhetorical Mode To the Instructor About the Author Front Matter Page 1 of 1 English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition iii Praise for English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition and English Skills, 9th Edition “I would describe English Skills with Readings as the ‘complete package.’ It is a text that will foster better student writing—one of the best texts for teaching English that I have seen in a long time!” —Cedric Burden, Lawson State Community College “ English Skills with Readings captures the perfect balance of technique and practice, example and exercise, modeling and prompting. The student can digest and integrate the focused, essential principles of writing for clear, effective, and error-free written communication.” —Spencer Belgarian, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising “An excellent book for students who need plenty of practice in the basics of writing.” —Su Senapati, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College “The best developmental writing text around.” —Mib Garrard, Grayson County College “Changing to this textbook is the single factor which has renewed my desire to teach this course.” —Anneliese Homan, State Fair Community College “There can be no legitimate comparison between John Langan’s McGraw-Hill developmental composition text series and any other texts available. Other texts are simply not as clear, precise, interesting, or comprehensive as English Skills. ” —Candace C. Mesa, Dixie College “I love Langan’s tone and style—direct and not condescending.” —Jeanne Grandchamp, Bristol Community College “It is an outstanding text, good for discussion, individual work, or collaborative activities.” —Patsy Krech, University of Memphis iii Praise for English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition Page 1 of 1 and English Skills, 9th Edition English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition xii Readings Listed by Rhetorical Mode Note: Some selections are listed more than once because they illustrate more than one rhetorical method of development. EXEMPLIFICATION All the Good Things Sister Helen Mrosla 628 Joe Davis: A Cool Man Beth Johnson 649 What Good Families Are Doing Right Delores Curran 662 Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name James Lincoln Collier 686 “Extra Large,” Please Diane Urbina 718 How They Get You toDo That Janny Scott 701 Dealing with Feelings Rudolph F. Verderber 711 Rudeness at the Movies Bill Wine 740 The Most Hateful Words Amy Tan 726 The Storyteller H. H. Munro (“Saki”) 732 PROCESS Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name James Lincoln Collier 686 Let’s Really Reform Our Schools Anita Garland 693 COMPARISON OR CONTRAST Rowing the Bus Paul Logan 634 Joe Davis: A Cool Man Beth Johnson 649 The Fist, the Clay, and the Rock Donald Holland 657 “Extra Large,” Please Diane Urbina 718 The Most Hateful Words Amy Tan 726 xii xiii DEFINITION What Good Families Are Doing Right Delores Curran 662 Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name James Lincoln Collier 686 Readings Listed by Rhetorical Mode Page 1 of 3 English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition The Storyteller H. H. Munro (“Saki”) 732 The Fist, the Clay, and the Rock Donald Holland 657 DIVISION-CLASSIFICATION Dealing with Feelings Rudolph F. Verderber 711 The Fist, the Clay, and the Rock Donald Holland 657 DESCRIPTION Rowing the Bus Paul Logan 634 Joe Davis: A Cool Man Beth Johnson 649 Rudeness at the Movies Bill Wine 740 From Father to Son, Last Words to Live by Dana Canedy 747 CAUSE AND EFFECT The Scholarship Jacket Marta Salinas 642 Joe Davis: A Cool Man Beth Johnson 649 “Extra Large,” Please Diane Urbina 718 Do It Better! Ben Carson, M.D., with Cecil Murphey 676 Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name James Lincoln Collier 686 Let’s Really Reform Our Schools Anita Garland 693 How They Get You to Do That Janny Scott 701 Dealing with Feelings Rudolph F. Verderber 711 The Most Hateful Words Amy Tan 726 Rudeness at the Movies Bill Wine 740 A Drunken Ride, a Tragic Aftermath Theresa Conroy and Christine M. Johnson 753 xiii xiv NARRATION All the Good Things Sister Helen Mrosla 628 Rowing the Bus Paul Logan 634 The Scholarship Jacket Marta Salinas 642 Readings Listed by Rhetorical Mode Page 2 of 3 English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition From Father to Son, Last Words to Live by Dana Canedy 747 Do It Better! Ben Carson, M.D., with Cecil Murphey 676 The Most Hateful Words Amy Tan 726 The Storyteller H. H. Munro (“Saki”) 732 A Drunken Ride, a Tragic Aftermath Theresa Conroy and Christine M. Johnson 753 ARGUMENT The Scholarship Jacket Marta Salinas 642 Joe Davis: A Cool Man Beth Johnson 649 Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name James Lincoln Collier 686 Let’s Really Reform Our Schools Anita Garland 693 Rudeness at the Movies Bill Wine 740 “Extra Large,” Please Diane Urbina 718 Readings Listed by Rhetorical Mode Page 3 of 3 English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition xv To the Instructor Key Features of the Book English Skills with Readings will help students learn and apply the basic principles of effective composition. It will also help them master essential reading skills. It is a nuts-and-bolts book based on a number of assumptions or beliefs about the writing process: • First of all, English Skills with Readings assumes that four principles in particular are keys to effective writing: unity, support, coherence, and sentence skills. These four principles are highlighted on the inside back cover and reinforced throughout the book. Part One focuses on the first three principles and to some extent on sentence skills; Part Five serves as a concise handbook of sentence skills. The four principles are applied in different types of paragraph development (Part Two) and in several-paragraph essays (Part Three). Part Four discusses research skills. Part Six presents seventeen reading selections. The ongoing success of English Skills with Readings is evidence that the four principles are easily grasped, remembered, and followed by students. • The book also reflects a belief that, in addition to these four principles, there are other important factors in writing effectively. The second chapter discusses prewriting, rewriting, and editing. Besides encouraging students to see writing as a process, the chapter asks students to examine their attitude toward writing, to write on what they know about or can learn about, to consider keeping a writing journal, and to make outlining a part of the writing process. • English Skills with Readingsassumes that the best way to begin writing is with personal experience. After students have learned to support a point by providing material from their own experience, they are ready to develop an idea by drawing on their own reasoning abilities and on information in reports, articles, and books. In Parts Two and Three, students are asked to write on both experiential and objective topics. xv xvi • The book also assumes that beginning writers are more likely to learn composition skills through lively, engaging, and realistic models than through materials remote from the common experiences that are part of everyday life. For example, when a writer argues that proms should be banned, or catalogs ways to harass an instructor, or talks about why some teenagers take drugs, students will be more apt to remember and follow the writing principles that are involved. • A related assumption is that students are especially interested in and challenged by the writing of their peers. After reading vigorous papers composed by other students and understanding the power To the Instructor Page 1 of 8 English Skills with Readings, 7th Edition that good writing can have, students will be more encouraged to aim for similar honesty, realism, and detail in their own work. • Another premise of English Skills with Readings is that mastery of the paragraph should precede work on the several-paragraph essay. Thus Part One illustrates the basic principles of composition writing using paragraph models, and the assignments in Part Two aim at developing the ability to support ideas within a variety of paragraph forms. The essential principles of paragraph writing are then applied to the several-paragraph essays in Part Three. • The grammar, punctuation, and usage skills that make up Part Five are explained clearly and directly, without unnecessary technical terms. Here, as elsewhere, abundant exercise material is provided, especially for the mistakes that are most likely to interfere with clear communication. • A final assumption is that, since no two people will use an English text in exactly the same way, the material should be organized in a highly accessible manner. Because each of the six parts of the book deals with a distinct area of writing, instructors can turn quickly and easily to the skills they want to present. At the same time, ideas for sequencing material are provided in a section titled “Using This Text” at the end of Chapter 1. And a detailed syllabus is provided in the Instructor’s Manual. I am very grateful for the ongoing popularity of English Skills with Readings. Instructors continue to say that the four bases really do help students learn to write effectively. And they continue to comment that students find the activities, assignments, model passages, and reading selections especially interesting and worthwhile. xvi xvii The Readings • The seventeen selections in Part Six have been chosen for their content as much as for rhetorical mode. They are organized thematically into