While primarily comprising essays, the collection includes letters, newspaper articles, magazine articles, interviews, short stories, and poems. Averaging 4 - 7 pages, the various selections provide both accessibility and challenge. Emphasis on the interdependence of reading and writing . Extensive reading, thinking, discussion, and writing pedagogy throughout the text . Headnotes and pre-reading and journal writing suggestions precede each reading.
Many options encourage collaborative work.
Detailed coverage of research . Two photographs opening each chapter in Part II , encouraging students to make connections between the visual and the verbal. Alternate rhetorical table of contents . This alternate listing by different strategies of development is a resource for both students and instructors. 51 of the total 76 readings are new to this edition.