Table of Contents
* Notes a new selection to this edition.
Preface.
Introduction: Thinking and Reading Critically.
What Is Critical Thinking?Why Read Critically.How to Read
Critically.Critical Reading in Action—Sample Essay for
Analysis.“The Selling of Rebellion” by John Leo.Logical
Fallacies.Exploring the Language of Visuals.
1. Breaking
Silences.
Beginnings: Moving From Silence Into Language.“Language and
Thought,” Susanne K. Langer.“A Brief History of English,” Paul
Roberts.“The Story of Writing,” C.M. Millward.“Another Language for
the Deaf,” Margalit Fox.Exploring the Language of Visuals: “Lessons
in SignWriting” Valerie Sutton.Personal Recollections: Coming to
Language.“Homemade Education,” Malcolm X.“A Word for Everything,”
Helen Keller.Exploring the Language of Visuals: Sign Language.“The
Language of Silence,” Maxine Hong Kingston.“The Jellyfish,” Susan
Kinsolving.“Spanish Lessons,” Christine Marín.Speaking Out:
Language that Inspired Change.“Seneca Falls Declaration,” Elizabeth
Cady Stanton.“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King
Jr.“Aren't I a Woman?” Sojourner Truth.“The Struggle for Human
Rights, ” Eleanor Roosevelt.Visual: Margaret Sanger
(silenced).
2. Writers Writing: Words in Contexts.
The Writing Process.“Writing for an Audience,” Linda Flower.“The
Maker's Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts,” Donald M.
Murray.“Getting Started,” Anne Lamott.“What My Students Have Taught
Me About Writing,” Pamela Childers.“How I Write,” Evan Miller
(student essay).Finding the Right Words.“The Case for Short Words,”
Richard Lederer.“Saying is Believing,” Patricia T. O'Conner.“How To
Write With Style,” Kurt Vonnegut.“Clichè's Anyone?” James
Issacs.“The Financial Media’s 25 Worst Clichés,” Jonathan
Clemens.
3. Politically Speaking.
Political Word Play.“How to Detect Propaganda,” The Institute for
Propaganda Analysis.“Politics and the English Language,” George
Orwell.“The Pep Talk,” Hugh Rank.“Doubts About Doublespeak,”
William Lutz.Language and the Presidency.“The Rhetorical
Presidency,” Robert E. Denton Jr., and Dan F. Hahn.“Dubya and Me:
We've Got No Idea,” Ian Frazier.“The Making of the Speech,” D.T.
Max.“Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American
People,” George W. Bush.Case Study: Terrorism and the War of
Worlds..“Semantics of Murder,” Amir Taheri.“A True Jihad?” Jim
Guirard.“Fighting Words: The War Over Language,” John Hooten.“A Lot
to Learn,” David Brudnoy.“Self Evident,” Ani Defranco.“Nameless
Event,” William Safire.
4. The Art of Conversation.
He Says, She Says: Differences in Discourse.“Women Talk Too
Much,”Janet Holmes.“No Detial is Too Small for Girls Answering a
Simple Question,” Tony Kornheiser.“Sex Differences,” Ronald
Maculay.“I'll Explain It to You: Lecturing and Listening,”Deborah
Tannen.Exploring the Language of Visuals: “Men Are from Belgium,
Women Are from New Brunswick.”“Nonverbal Behavior: Culture, Gender,
and the Media,” Teri Kwal Gamble and Michael Gamble.Let's Talk
About It: Conversation In Action.“The Social Basis of Talk,” “Some
Friends and I Started Talking: Conversation and Social Change,”
Ronald Wardhaugh.“A Few of My Friends Started Talking,”Margaret J.
Wheatley.“Like, Uptalk?,” James Gorman.“The Other Side of E-Mail,”
Robert Kuttner.“Come in CQ: The Body on the Wire,” Ellen
Ullman.
5. The Language of Humor: What Makes Us Laugh.
“Outsiders/Insiders,”Joseph Boskin.“ Excerpt from the La La
Awards,” Latins Anonymous.“In Answer to the Question, Have You Ever
Considered Suicide?” Kate Rushin.“Mr. Language Person Takes A
Hammer to Grammer,”Dave Barry.Case Study: Political and Editorial
Cartoons. “Editorial Cartoonists - An Endangered Species?”Doug
Marlette.“What Is A Cartoon?”Mort Gerberg.“Defiantly Incorrect:
Humor of John Callahan,”Timoghy Egan.Exploring the Language of
Visuals: Cartoon by John Callahan, “wheelchair posse.”“When
Cartoonists Were at Their Wits' End,” James Ricci.Exploring the
Language of Visuals: Editorial Cartoons from September 11.
6. The
Language of Mass Media and Advertising.
As Seen On TV.TV News: “All the World in Pictures,”Neil Postman and
Steve Powers.“Oh, the Profanity!”Paul Farhi.“Is Bad Language
Unacceptable on TV?” BBC Online “Talking Point Forum.”“Taking a
'War of Words' Too Literally,” Deborah Tannen.“The Entertained
Culture,”Tom Shachtman.Exploring the Language of Visuals: Inset:
Two-Headed Monsters.The Language of Advertising. “With These Words
I Can Sell You Anything,” William Lutz.“The Language of
Advertising,” Charles A. O'Neill.“Language Abuse,”Herschell Gordon
Lewis.“Selling America,” Sandra Silberstein.*Exploring the Language
of Visuals: American's Stand United, AAI Advertisement*Exploring
the Language of Visuals: Two Sample Ads for SUVs
7. Censorship
and Free Speech.
Censorship and Books.“The Freedom to Read,” The American Library
Association.Exploring the Language of Visuals: (inset) The 100 Most
Frequently Challenged Books of 2000.“Book Banning, Real and
Imaginary,”Jeff Jacoby.“Is Harry Potter Evil?” Judy Blume.Exploring
the Language of Visuals: Huckleberry Finn Banned! “Author's
Afterword from Fahrenheit 451,” Ray Bradbury.Case Study: Censorship
on Campus.“The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses,” Alan C.
Kors.“Regulating Racist Speech on Campus,”Charles Lawrence
III.“There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing,
Too,” Stanley Fish.Speech codes at Harvard Law School.“Muzzling
Free Speech,” Harvey A. Sillverglate.“Difficult Conversations,”
Dorothy Rabinowitz.“Censor This?” Austin Bramwell.
8. Political
Correctness and Hate Speech.
Politically Correct Language.Exploring the Language of Visuals:
Lady Liberty Gagged.“Hate Speech,” Robin Tomach Lakoff.“Bias-Free
Language: Some Guidelines,”Rosalie Maggio.“The Word Police,”
Michiko Kakutani.“Beware the Advozealots: Mindless Good Intentions
Injure the Handicapped,” Bernard Rimland.Case Study: Words that
Hurt.“'Nigger': The Meaning of a Word,” Gloria Naylor.“Some Notes
on the Word `Nigger.’“The Etymology of the International Insult,”
Charles F. Berlitz.“The 'R' Word: How Do You Avoid Saying
'Retarded?'” John Cook.“Queer,” Lillian Faderman.“Crimes Against
Humanity,” Ward Churchill.“Discrimination at Large,” Jennifer A.
Coleman.“Where Heaven and Earth Touch: A National 'Speak No Evil
Day',”Joseph Telushkin.
9. Language and the USA.
What Is 'Standard English'? “Why Good English Is Good for You,”
John Simon.“Everyone Has An Accent but Me, ” John Esling.“Label
Babel,” Richard Liebmann-Smith.“Good English and Bad,” Bill
Bryson.English Only or Bilingualism? “Bilingualism in America:
English Should Be the Only Language,” S.I. Hayakawa.Exploring the
Language of Visuals: “Please Do Not Feed the Pigeons.”“Let's Not
Say Adios to Bilingual Education,” Lourdes Rovira.“A Nation Divided
by One Language,” James Crawford.“My Spanish Standoff,” Gabriella
Kuntz.
Promotional Information
Now in its tenth edition, this market-leading language reader
continues to feature thought-provoking readings that explore the
various interconnections between language and American society. For
over 25 years, this engaging reader has challenged students to
critically examine how language affects and constructs culture and
how culture constructs and affects language. This tenth edition
maintains the integrity of past editions, while reflecting the new
and fascinating language issues that exist in today's culture.
Provocative selections are organized around nine major language
areas, and then broken into stimulating sub-themes like political
correctness, hate speech, language and the presidency, and
censorship on campus, inviting students to debate current social
and cultural issues that are inseparable from language.