How to Read an Essay.

How to Write an Essay.

I. GATHERING AND USING EXAMPLES.

Anna Quindlen, The Name Is Mine.
Bob Greene, Cut.
Leslie Heywood, One of the Girls.
Tina Kelley, Whales in the Minnesota River.
U.S. News and World Report, Plugging the Kegs.

II. NARRATION.

Langston Hughes, Salvation.
Maya Angelou, Sister Monroe.
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Marina.
Evans D. Hopkins, Lockdown.
Bert L. Vallee, Alcohol in the Western World.

III. DESCRIPTION.

Eric Liu, Po-Po.
Gordon Grice, Caught in the Widow's Web .
William Least Heat Moon, Nameless, Tennessee.
Terry Tempest Williams, The Village Watchman.
Scott Russell Sanders, The Inheritance of Tools.

IV. DIVISION AND CLASSIFICATION.

David Bodanis, What's in Your Toothpaste?
Susan Allen Toth, Cinematypes.
Barbara Ehrenreich, In Defense of Talk Shows.
Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria.
Bernard R. Berelson, The Value of Children: A Taxonomical Essay.
Robert Buderi, The Virus Wars.

V. COMPARISON AND CONTRAST.

William Zinsser, The Transaction: Two Writing Processes.
Mary Pipher, Academic Selves.
Suzanne Britt Jordan, That Lean and Hungry Look.
Bruce Catton, Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts.
Meghan Daum, Virtual Love.
Susan Faludi, Sold Out: From Team Booster to TV Backdrop.

VI. PROCESS.

Diane Ackerman, Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall.
Lars Eighner, My Daily Dives in the Dumpster.
Diane Cole, Don't Just Stand There.
Judith Viorst, How Books Helped Shape My Life.
Charlie Drozdyk, Into the Loop: How to Get the Job You Want After Graduation.
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, The Page Turner.

VII. CAUSE AND EFFECT.

E.M. Forster, My Wood.
Elizabeth Larsen, Buying Time.
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Origins of Anorexia Nervosa.
Jonathon Kellerman, The Scapegoat We Love to Hate.
Fox Butterfield, Why They Excel.
Kyle Pope, Network and Cable TV.

VIII. DEFINITION.

Bob Greene, Adults Only.
Judy Brady, I Want a Wife.
Gloria Naylor, A Word's Meaning Can Often Depend on Who Says It.
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue.
John Hollander, Mess.
Margaret Atwood, The Female Body.

IX. ARGUMENTATION AND PERSUASION.

Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream.
David Gelernter, What Do Murderers Deserve?
The New Yorker, Help for Sex Offenders.
Barbara Katz Rothman, The Potential Cost of the Best Genes Money Can Buy.
Aline D. Wolfe, Advertising and Children.
Richard Rodriquez, None of This Is Fair.
Gregg Easterbrook, Watch and Learn.

X. REVISING.

N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain.
Nora Ephron, Revision and Life: Take It from the Top—Again.
Brent Staples, Black Men and Public Space.
Revision Case Study: Gordon Grice, Journal Entries. The Black Widow. Caught in the Widow's Web. Revising “The Black Widow”: A Conversation with Gordon Grice.

APPENDIX. FINDING, USING, AND DOCUMENTING SOURCES.

Amy Rubens, Ecotourism: Friend or Foe?

GLOSSARY.

CREDITS.

INDEX.

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