English

Part of the Longman Topics reader series, Writing Places encourages students to examine the locations that define their past, present and future. As students begin to think critically and to write about these places, they realize that location is an enormous part of identity — both personally and academically.

 

This collection of readings offers a poignant and, oftentimes, moving variety of essays from writers of all ages, styles, and backgrounds. It is designed to be flexible to any teaching method and any composition class. The text is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction for both instructors and students to the concept of writing about place. The middle three chapters divide the essays by the period of time represented in the author’s work. The last chapter provides valuable instruction from start to finish for the writing process. It focuses specifically on how to better understand the meaning of place in life and writing. 

“Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• Half the size and cost of typical readers, “Longman Topics” can be used alone or paired with other texts.
• Selections represent a diversity of perspectives ranging from professional to student with a variety of styles and backgrounds.
• Selections focus on the pertinence of inquiry into place as it influences our identity in the past, present and future. 
• Each article is followed by a set of questions, which encourage analysis and evaluation of the author’s points and methods.
• Each chapter provides suggestions for further investigation.
• Introductions to each chapter start with questions and discussion about place, which encourage the student to associate their own experiences with the material.
• The final chapter of the book provides an excellent resource of exercises and tools to help students observe, interview and research local places.

Table of Contents

 

Topical Contents                                                                                                                              ix

Preface for Instructors                                                                                                                    xiii

Acknowledgements                                                                                                                          xv

Preface for Students                                                                                                                        xvii

 

 

CHAPTER 1  Where Are We From?                                                                  1

 

                Kimberly Wheaton, Mom and the Kitchen                                                                           4

 

                Catherine Black, The Joy of Mud                                                                                       8

 

Virginia Di Tata, A Bridge Between Two Cultures                                                             14

 

                Blaine Harden, A History in Concrete                                                                                18

 

Tim Lindgren, On Being From Fargo                                                                                  24

 

                David Sedaris, Our Perfect Summer                                                                                  30

 

                Andrea Casassa, The Coffee Shop                                                                                   38

 

Gian-Karlo Casimiro, Get Off at 161^st and Transfer To the Truth                                     44

 

Felicia Madlock, Where I’m From                                                                                        48

 

Matthew O’Conner, Circles                                                                                                 51

 

 

CHAPTER 2    Where Are We?                                                                         57

 

                Derek Owens, Where I’m Writing From                                                                         61

 

Gabriela de la Huerta, En Mi Cucina/In My Kitchen                                                            75

 

                Emily Keane, Structured Chaos                                                                                          77

 

                Ron Fletcher, By Dawn’s Early Light                                                                                  81

 

                Ray Gonzalez, Hazardous Cargo                                                                                      85

 

                Rose Arrieta, A Nation Divided                                                                                           92

 

                Mathew Dudley, The Dope on Head Shops                                                                     102

 

                Ian Frazier, Someplace in Queens                                                                                   107

 

Robin Dunn, King’s Chapel and Burying Ground                                                              116

 

                Shawn McGrath, Punk Isn’t Dead, But the Fans

                Just Might Kill It                                                                                                                  122

 

                Rebecca Solnit, The Silence of the Lambswool

                Cardigans                                                                                                                           130

 

                Julia Corbett, Robotic Iguanas                                                                                           134

 

                Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Becoming Native                                                                             139

 

CHAPTER 3   Tools for Getting Places                                                            147

 

                Rodney Rothman, My Fake Job                                                                                  150

 

Sonny Fabbri, Scientific Applications                                                                                 166

 

Eric Schlosser, On the Range                                                                                           171

 

Chiori Santiago, The Flavor of Hope                                                                                 186

 

Rebecca Solnit, The Orbits of Earthly Bodies                                                                   190

 

Marcus Renner, The People’s Freeway                                                                           193

 

Bill McKibben, Serious Wind                                                                                              203

 

Erin Komada, Auburn Renewals                                                                                       207

 

Stephan Doheny-Farina, Virtual Vermont: The Rise

Of the Global and the Decline of the Local                                                                       212

 

William McDonough and Michael Braungart, A New

Geography of Hope                                                                                                          225

 

 

CHAPTER 4   Tools for Getting Places                                                           239

 

                Getting Oriented                                                                                                               239

 

                Interviewing                                                                                                                      240

 

                Taking Notes as You Observe a Place                                                                           244

 

                Responding to Classmates’ Essays on Place                                                                 245

 

                Locating Aerial and Topographical Photos                                                                      246

 

                Bioregional Quizzes                                                                                                         247

 

                Accessing Webcams                                                                                                       248

 

                Letterboxing                                                                                                                     249

 

                Neighborhood Writing Groups                                                                                         249

 

                Chambers of Commerce, Historical Societies,

                                And Colleges or University Archives                                                               249

 

                Online Databases                                   

                                                                                                                                                         250

 

                Credits                                                                                                                             000

First-Year Composition - Reader  [THEMATIC READERS --- SINGLE-THEME]   (Composition)

Exam Copy
Mathieu
©2006 | Longman | Paper; 272 pp | Out of Stock
ISBN-10: 032133874X | ISBN-13: 9780321338747

Analyzing Literature: A Guide for Students (Valuepack item only), 2/E
McGee
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Building Bridges: The Allyn & Bacon Student Guide to Service-Learning
Hamner
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ISBN-10: 0205319742 | ISBN-13: 9780205319749
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Diagnostic and Editing Tests and Exercises for 2007 English Handbooks, 9/E
Longman
©2007 | Longman | Paper; 224 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321415248 | ISBN-13: 9780321415240
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Diagnostic and Edition Tests and Exericises for 2009 English Compositon Handbooks, 6/E
Zimmerman
©2009 | Longman | Paper; 258 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 020565536X | ISBN-13: 9780205655366
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Essential Study Card for Grammar and Documentation
Longman
©2007 | Longman | Study Card; 10 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321463137 | ISBN-13: 9780321463135

InterWrite PRS RF (Personal Response System)
InterWrite PRS & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
©2005 | Longman | Electronic Supplement | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205436951 | ISBN-13: 9780205436958

Literacy Library Series: Academic Literacy, 2/E
Neeley
©2005 | Longman | Paper; 216 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321183193 | ISBN-13: 9780321183194
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Literacy Library Series: Workplace Literacy (Valuepack item only), 2/E
Spilka
©2003 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321127374 | ISBN-13: 9780321127372

Longman Composition Study Site (Open Access)
Longman
©2007 | Longman | Website | Instock
ISBN-10: 0205518281 | ISBN-13: 9780205518289
URL:  http://www.longmancomposition.com

Longman Researcher's Journal, The (Valuepack item only)
Markus
©2002 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321095308 | ISBN-13: 9780321095305

Merriam Websters College Dictionary with CD-ROM, 11/E

©2007 | Longman | Paper Bound w/CD-ROM | Instock
ISBN-10: 0877798095 | ISBN-13: 9780877798095

Model Research Papers from Across the Disciplines, 5/E
Lester
©1999 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 032104603X | ISBN-13: 9780321046031
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New American Webster Handy College Dictionary, The, 3/E
Penguin
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ISBN-10: 0451181662 | ISBN-13: 9780451181664

OXFORD AMERICAN DESK DICTIONARY&THESAURUS
OXFORD
©2003 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0425180689 | ISBN-13: 9780425180686

OXFORD ESSENTIAL THESAURUS
NONE
©2003 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0425164217 | ISBN-13: 9780425164211

Public Literacy, 2/E
Ervin
©2003 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321129989 | ISBN-13: 9780321129987
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Real Visual: A Guide to Composing and Analyzing with Images (Valuepack item only)
Anderson, Cooper, Lupton & Meeks
©2007 | Longman | CD-ROM Only | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321423089 | ISBN-13: 9780321423085

ResearchNavigator.com Guide: English (Valuepack item only)
Branscomb & Trim
©2007 | Longman | Paper; 80 pp | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321496019 | ISBN-13: 9780321496010

Study Card for Grammar and Documentation
Longman
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ISBN-10: 0321292030 | ISBN-13: 9780321292032
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Teaching in Progress: Theories, Practices, and Scenarios, 3/E
Moore
©2003 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321085647 | ISBN-13: 9780321085641

Test Gen Diagnostic and Editing Tests and Exercises to accompany 2009 Handbooks, 6/E
Zimmerman
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ISBN-10: 0205655351 | ISBN-13: 9780205655359
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TestGen Computerized Test Bank for Diagnostic and Editing Tests and Exercises for 2006 English Handbooks
Longman
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TestGen Computerized Test Bank for Diagnostic and Editing Tests and Exercises for 2007 English Handbooks, 2/E
Longman
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The Pearson Editing Exercises Answer Key, 2/E
Ingalls & Moody
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Using Portfolios
McClelland
©2001 | Longman | Paper | Instock
ISBN-10: 0321084128 | ISBN-13: 9780321084125
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What Every Student Should Know About Creating Portfolios
Eyman
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iClicker Classroom Response System
iClicker & Allyn & Bacon/Longman
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For First-Year Composition - Reader

Argument: A Prentice Hall Pocket Reader
Desmet, Houff & Miller
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Literature: A Prentice Hall Pocket Reader, 3/E
Balkun
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Patterns: A Prentice Hall Pocket Reader
Minor
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Themes: A Prentice Hall Pocket Reader, 7/E
Moneyhun
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Writing Across the Curriculum: A Prentice Hall Pocket, 7/E
Brown
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ISBN-10: 0131565818 | ISBN-13: 9780131565814

This title is a member of the The Longman Topics Series Series, which also contains the titles below . You can also visit the Longman Topics Series Series page.

• 
  American Dreams (Longman Topics Reader)
  Juchartz, Stolarek & Rishoi
  ©2009 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0205520790 | ISBN-13: 9780205520794
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  American Dreams explores the evolution and multiple meanings of “the American Dream,” inviting students to consider how the concept has changed over time, which groups have—and have not—been included in the dream, and how rhetoric has enabled the dreams of a few to be shared by millions.

   

  Through essays, memoirs, songs, speeches, letters, and political and literary documents, this inexpensive reader explores the evolving nature of the American Dream and considers whether it has been equally available to everyone. 

   

• 
  Body and Culture (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Lyons
  ©2006 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321317424 | ISBN-13: 9780321317421
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the Longman Topics reader series, Body and Culture is not simply about the impact of our society on our physical appearance. Rather, it almost ignores the physicality of the body and, instead, treats it as a medium through which a person can express his or her culture.

   

  This collection of readings explores the ideas and ethics behind the choices made in reacting to and expressing culture. It is also important to understand the consequences of culture’s toll on the body. The text includes six chapters, which break up the essays according to the aspect of culture affecting the body. These influences include a wide range such as psychology, media, and dance. Each chapter includes a section entitled ‘Topics for Exploration and Writing’ that is designed to aid in introducing students to approaching and considering an essay topic.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Chican@s in the Conversations (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Kessler & Perrin
  ©2008 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321394178 | ISBN-13: 9780321394170
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  This brief, affordable reader takes a provocative look at critical issues facing the Chican@ communities today and provides thought-provoking questions and writing topics for each reading.

   

  Chican@s in the Conversation presents contemporary essays about some of the most important challenges facing Mexican-Americans today, including health, education, identity, and cultural concerns.  The wide range of authors includes both contemporary and classic nonfiction and serves not only to introduce these often unfamiliar writers but also to encourage the recognition of Chican@ writers as model essayists.

• 
  Citizenship Now (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Ford & Ford
  ©2004 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321117670 | ISBN-13: 9780321117670
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the Longman Topics reader series Citizenship Now examines the meaning of citizenship in our changing society and encourages student participation in revitalizing our communities.

  This brief collection of readings focuses on the crucial role of the citizen in the democratic process. Thought-provoking selections ask students to think about timely and relevant issues, such as civil liberties vs. increased national security, consumerist values and environmental responsibility, and immigration and the need for educational reform. Divided into five chapters, each features six or seven essays of varying lengths. Brief apparatus helps students write more thoughtfully in response to the selections and think more critically about their roles as citizens.

  Longman Topics are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling, topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  College Culture, Student Success (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Anderson
  ©2008 | Longman | Paper; 224 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 032143305X | ISBN-13: 9780321433053
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  College Culture, Student Success helps students develop reading, writing, and thinking skills as well as become familiar with the common customs, underlying assumptions, and strategies for success associated with being a college student.

   

  This brief, flexible, and contemporary reader explores topics familiar to many of today’s college students, including being a first-generation college student, balancing college and work, recognizing different learning styles, taking responsibility for one’s education, and experiencing campus life.  Students will become more knowledgeable about the larger community they are joining and better understand some of the experiences of their peers even as they reflect on their own experiences, assumptions, and motivation.

   

  Apparatus that invites students to bring their own experiences to an interpretation, recognize how authors make use of rhetorical techniques, make thematic connections across multiple readings, and conduct research on the Web ensures that College Culture, Student Success is particularly effective in composition courses.

• 
  Considering Cultural Difference (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Uchmanowicz
  ©2004 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Out of Stock
  ISBN-10: 0321115813 | ISBN-13: 9780321115812
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, Considering Cultural Difference features multiethnic writing from contemporary U.S. authors centered around issues of ritual, representation, and rights.

  This brief collection of readings examines cultural identity and difference with respect to race, class, gender, and nationality. Thought-provoking selections ask students to think about timely and relevant issues: integration in schools; affirmative action in the workplace, women in sports; living in a multilingual society. Three main sites of cultural difference are addressed: Ritual, Representation, and Rights, each divided into two chapters of five or six essays apiece. Brief apparatus helps students write more thoughtfully in response to the selections.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling, topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Counterculture Reader, The (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Swingrover
  ©2004 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321145623 | ISBN-13: 9780321145628
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, The Counterculture Reader provides a fascinating look at American culture in the 60's.

  This brief collection of readings presents an engaging and informed overview of the counterculture movement, challenging students to understand “what happened and why.” Featuring writings from the Beats, the literary counterculture, feminists, gays, and rock musicians, the themes discussed include: the women's movement; black power; and gay pride. Divided into seven parts, each features five or more essays of varying lengths. Brief apparatus helps students read and write more thoughtfully about the idea of counterculture and think critically about its effects on contemporary culture.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling, topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  CyberReader, Abridged Edition (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Vitanza
  ©2005 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321272498 | ISBN-13: 9780321272492
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, CyberReader, Abridged Edition, explores the increasingly important role that new technologies play in society and looks at some of today's hottest topics including virtual reality, racial and sexual politics, and digital piracy.

  The selections range from the scholarly to the popular and include a broad range of authors with a variety of viewpoints. In this Abridged Edition, CyberReader has been revised to fit the format of the Longman Topics series.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Discovering Popular Culture (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Tomasino
  ©2007 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321355962 | ISBN-13: 9780321355966
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  From “The Simpsons” to the “Sopranos,” “American Beauty” to Victoria’s Secret, from malls to theme parks, advertising to sports, slang to blogging, this book contains an accessible, balanced, variety of readings on popular culture that will both keep readers interested and encourage critical thinking about the culture in which we are immersed.

   

  This brief, inexpensive reader covers a wide range of topics that will keep readers interested and engaged.  From gender studies to linguistics, psychology to sociology, political science to music, art to literature, Discovering Popular Culture introduces topics covered in writing courses that emphasize writing across the curriculum and also represents the variety of genres typically included in those courses:  academic articles, excerpts from scholarly and popular books, journalistic articles from popular newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times and The New Yorker, personal essays by well known composition favorites–Richard Rodriguez, Brent Staples, Barbara Ehrenreich, congressional testimony, and others.  The timely and timeless selections in this book are engaging, relevant, intellectually challenging, accessible–and, fun!   The perfect reader for students who don’t usually have time for reading.

• 
  Diversity: Strength and Struggle (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Calabrese & Tchudi
  ©2006 | Longman | Paper; 240 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321317319 | ISBN-13: 9780321317315
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the Longman Topic Series, this brief reader encourages an examination of diversity in America, in order to understand what both enriches and threatens the country’s core values “of liberty and justice for all.”

   

  This collection of readings  provides opportunities for students to examine the impact “racial” and “ethnic” identity have on diverse groups, some of them challenging the notion of race as a meaningful category for thinking about human identity. Authors included in this collection write about the personal and political aspects of racial and ethnic identity in a variety of ways including describing experiences of exclusion, satirizing stereotyping, analyzing the sources of alienation, and arguing for changes that will ensure inclusion.

   

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling topic. These volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Education Matters (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Gresham & McCage
  ©2008 | Longman | Paper; 240 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321338995 | ISBN-13: 9780321338990
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Education Matters explores how–and how well–American public education works by focusing on such critical issues as class, gender, the promise of education, and how we can make it better. 

   

  This inexpensive reader engages students by exploring a variety of issues that they will clearly understand and relate to, including whether or not American education keeps the promises it makes to students.  Education Matters offers multiple views about the central challenges of education today–class, gender, the cost of educating every student–to offer students models of personal, journalistic, and academic writing.

• 
  Essays on Writing (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Bryant & Clark
  ©2009 | Longman | Paper; 224 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0205521444 | ISBN-13: 9780205521449
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Essays on Writing explores social and cultural facets of writing as well as practices of writing in a brief, flexible, and inexpensive reader.

   

  Designed for instructors who want to keep the discourse in the writing classroom on writing as well as students who want to connect the writing they do in their composition course to literacy outside of the academic environment, Essays on Writing  focuses on such issues as our attitudes toward writing, the impact of technology on writing, and the impact of writing outside academia in business and civic contexts.

   

  Readings by canonical authors such as bell hooks, Donald Murray, Williams Zissner, and Anne Lamott are balanced by contemporary works on the topics of instant messaging, online paper mills, peer tutoring, and some of the consequences of spectacularly poor writing in legal and business settings.  Focused apparatus encourages students to think critically about their attitudes toward writing as they analyze pieces rhetorically and synthesis ideas in their own writing.

• 
  Ethics in the 21st Century (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Trent
  ©2005 | Longman | Paper; 240 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321243331 | ISBN-13: 9780321243331
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, Ethics in the 21st Century Workplace: Voices Across the Professional Disciplines provides a comprehensive exploration of ethical issues in today's workplace.

  This engaging collection contains a broad range of readings that raise questions of ethics pertaining to a variety of issues including ethics in the classroom, the media, law and humanities, the business world, and medical and scientific research.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Hip Hop Reader, The (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Strode & Wood
  ©2008 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321385128 | ISBN-13: 9780321385123
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Composition and hip hop may seem unrelated, but the connection isn’t hard to make: Hip hop and rap rely on a complex of narrative practices that have clear ties to some of the best American essay writing.  The Hip Hop Reader brings together work by important writers about this cultural phenomenon and provides lively selections that represent a variety of styles and interests.

   

  This unique reader provides an insight into the history, culture, music and lyrics of one of today’s most important cultural forms, always looking at these through the lens of composition.  The range of readings included explore hip hop’s dexterity and originality–its sensitivity to diction, penchant for puns and other verbal play, and its inherent belief in the power of words to transform reality and empower in the face of sometimes oppressive circumstances.  Reading and talking about hip hop allows instructors to bring issues into the composition classroom that sometimes feel too raw or sensitive to address without a specific cultural or theoretical context.

• 
  International Views: America and the Rest of the World (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Gumery
  ©2007 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 032138881X | ISBN-13: 9780321388810
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  International Views presents international perceptions of the U.S.’s relationship to the world, as well as views of that relationship from inside the United States, offering opportunities for students to examine the lines of political, ideological, and cultural conflict that can both enrich our international experience and threaten our understanding of America’s place in the world.

   

  In the post-9/11 world, we have become aware of massive shifts in feeling toward the United States around the world.  But are these really shifts–or are we only now becoming aware of the root causes of both hostility and admiration that have existed for a long time?  This brief, inexpensive, single-theme reader encourages students to explore how the rest of the world sees America and American culture.  Is the influence of the U.S.A. visible in the lives of people in — for example — Asia, Australia, or Germany?  Is globalization the same thing as Americanization?  Is the expansion of U.S. influence–both practical and cultural–around the globe a bad thing or a good thing?  If the hearts and minds of nations are set against American influence, should they be coerced into accepting it in the cause of furthering democracy and liberty–or left alone to live as they choose?  Do they even have an option to be independent of U.S. influence, and is the terrorism that has become so visible in the last ten years the only practical response that the USA should expect?  This book does not take a stance on this subject, but offers a variety of opinions and ideologies that inform, contradict and intellectually challenge each other.  Each section has a comprehensive introduction, and each individual essay presents details about the author, gives a sense of who the audience for the essay was intended to be, and includes questions for discussion and writing.  Students may be asked to focus on rhetorical strategies, to conduct research about details mentioned in the essay, or to compare and contrast the views in a specific essay with those in other readings from the chapter.

• 
  Issues of Gender (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Friedman & Marshall
  ©2004 | Longman | Paper; 272 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321108795 | ISBN-13: 9780321108791
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” series, Issues of Gender explores how gender roles operate in and through work, sexuality, popular culture, family, and across global perspectives.

  This brief collection of non-fiction and fiction essays examines constructions of femininities and masculinities and foregrounds intersections of race, class, and sexual preference as both shaping and shaped by gender. The selections highlight various perspectives on complex issues such as gender and global perspectives, gender and popular culture, and gender and family.

  Divided into five chapters, each features six to eight essays of varying lengths. Brief apparatus encourages students to think critically about the ideas raised and challenges them to reconsider personal perspectives on gender issues in light of the readings.

  “Longman Topics” are brief attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Language and Prejudice (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Valentine
  ©2004 | Longman | Paper; 272 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321122364 | ISBN-13: 9780321122360
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, The Language of Prejudice examines the effects language has on societal biases.

  This brief collection of readings focuses on the way language influences and prejudices society's view on race, gender, age, disabilities, and sexual preferences. Thought-provoking selections ask students to think about timely and relevant issues such as: racial slurs and other offensive language, anti-feminist discourse, and verbal assaults on homosexuals. Divided into seven chapters, each features six or more essays of varying lengths. Brief apparatus helps students write more thoughtfully in response to the selections and to think more critically about the importance of choosing language wisely.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling, topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Laughing Matters ( A Longman Topics Reader)
  Diogenes
  ©2009 | Longman | Paper; 288 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321434900 | ISBN-13: 9780321434906
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  Laughing Matters showcases how a range of contemporary writers including Jon Stewart and David Sedaris craft persuasive arguments, using humor to make their case while entertaining the reader.

   

  Many cultural commentators note that we live in an age of comedy.  Staples of comic rhetoric–irony, sarcasm, and various forms of lampoon and caricature–have become dominant forms of public discourse, readily available through both traditional print forms and the electronic medis that drive public culture.  Contemporary comedy helps define public issues and delivers critical perspectives on courses of action, judgments on the morality and effectiveness of policy decisions, and praise and blame for elected leaders.  Given this cultural moment, a guide to analyzing how comic arguments are made–and to crafting such arguments using the rhetorical strategies particular to comedy–seems timely.

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  Legends, Lore, and Lies: A Skeptic's Stance (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Calabrese
  ©2007 | Longman | Paper; 246 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321439244 | ISBN-13: 9780321439246
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  Legends, Lore, and Lies presents critical readings in five sections–urban legends, alternative medicine, the media’s role in public gullibility, psychics and the paranormal,  and pseudo science–to demonstrate the importance of critical examination and the differences between an opinion or assertion and a supported claim.

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  Listening to Earth: A Reader (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Hallowell & Levy
  ©2005 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321195159 | ISBN-13: 9780321195159
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  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, Listening to Earth explores nature and environmental conflict in the United States from personal and thematic perspectives.

  Focusing on today's environmental issues, this engaging collection contains a wide range of readings that cover a variety of topics, attitudes, and rhetorical styles. It presents essays, articles, and fiction that probe the contradictions surrounding environmental issues in the United States today and presents arguments for using, conserving, preserving, and finding pleasure, beauty, and spirituality in land.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling, topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Music and Culture (Longman Topics Reader)
  Tomasino
  ©2005 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321194837 | ISBN-13: 9780321194831
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, Music and Culture explores social and cultural issues through music—its personalities, business aspects, diversity, and the sounds themselves—and is intended to promote critical thinking and writing through its selections.

  This engaging collection contains an accessible, balanced variety of reading selections on music and culture. It includes a great diversity of musical genres, including hip-hop, rock, rap, classical, country, punk, heavy metal, and jazz, and a variety of topics for class discussion, including morality, violence, sexuality, gender, consumerism, race, censorship, copyright, music on the Web, global music, sampling, creativity, and lyrics as literature.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Peace, War, and Terrorism (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Okerstrom
  ©2006 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321292308 | ISBN-13: 9780321292308
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  Part of the Longman Topics reader series, Peace, War, and Terrorism examines the complexities of the political and ethical issues surrounding war, peace, and terrorism and encourages reflective, informed writing.
  
  This collection of readings from across the political spectrum focuses on the changing meanings of peace and war while critically examining the phenomenon of terrorism in modern life.  This collection of 39 essays provides students with background on issues such as preemptive war, terrorism, technology and war, the home front, and prospects for future peace.  This reader is divided into five chapters with six to eight selections in each.   Each chapter begins with a debate established through a pair of essays that represent opposing views.   Each debate is followed by a variety of articles that provide further information for student writing. 

• 
  People and Promise of California, The (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Field & Kennedy
  ©2008 | Longman | Paper; 288 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321434897 | ISBN-13: 9780321434890
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  The People and Promise of California uses an exciting collection of readings focusing on the unique, diverse, and cutting edge culture of California to help students understand the strategies and skills of good writing.

   

  This inexpensive reader includes famous essayists as well as new, diverse voices whose work reflects both the culture, economics, and demographics of “the final frontier,” as well as the intimate experiences of individuals coping with one of the world’s most intense experiments in diversity.  Challenging topics include everything from gang culture and casinos to labor’s contributions and the various geographic regions that make up California–the deserts, mountains, coastline, and valleys, and the newly defined “Third California.”  This flexible text will prove useful not only in composition courses, but also in sociology, political science, cultural anthropology, and many other disciplines.

• 
  Reading City Life (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Bruch & Marback
  ©2005 | Longman | Paper; 224 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321235169 | ISBN-13: 9780321235169
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the Longman Topics reader series City Life examines social and cultural issues embedded in urban life and encourages reflective public writing.

  This brief collection of readings focuses on the struggle over the meanings of cities and city life in contemporary society. Thought-provoking selections ask students to think about timely and relevant issues, such as: suburbanization, representations of crime, the significance of neighborhoods, the meanings of urban citizenship, and the challenges of race. Divided into five chapters, each chapter features five or six essays of varying lengths. Brief apparatus helps students write more thoughtfully in response to the selections and engage actively the civic consequences of writing.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Religion in the 21st Century ( A Longman Topics Reader)
  Cullick
  ©2009 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0205567797 | ISBN-13: 9780205567799
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  The compelling readings in Faith and Religion in the 21^st Century reflect the wide variety of ways in which people use writing to think and communicate about issues of religion–a timely topic in 21^st century America.

   

  This brief, affordable reader examines how faith and religion are written about in many kinds of texts–personal, sacred, and academic–as well as in the public square and in popular culture. Readers are encouraged to explore the rhetorical strategies used in writing about faith by looking at how faith shapes writing and how writing shapes faith, how we talk and write about faith, and how language shapes the way we engage with faith.

• 
  Science and Society (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Grinnell
  ©2007 | Longman | Paper; 272 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321318110 | ISBN-13: 9780321318114
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of Longman’s successful Topic’s Reader series, Science and Society is a brief thematic reader that touches on the nature of science and various scientific issues and controversies.

   

  Science and Society features readings based on several compelling and provocative issues from a number of well-known writers. This reader is an ideal supplement to any course that focuses on writing about science-based subject matter.

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  Sports Talk (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Beckelhimer
  ©2009 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0205583377 | ISBN-13: 9780205583379
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Sports infiltrate nearly every aspect of our society–mass media, the economy, our bonds with friends and strangers, our language, politics, industry, and international relations–and this lively anthology provides a foundation for critical discussions and good writing on a wide range of contemporary issues centered around sports.  

   

  Analyzing sports goes far beyond keeping up with players’ and teams’ statistics, and even beyond reading books or magazines about sports or athletes. This reader is intended to give students the apparatus to analyze sports and sportswriting in a more critical context.  The readings and discussion questions prompt a variety of thinking and writing skills including research, comparison, analysis, reflection, argument, and synthesis–skills that will be helpful to students in college and in the work force.

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  The Changing World of Work (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Ford
  ©2006 | Longman | Paper; 240 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 032127332X | ISBN-13: 9780321273321
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  The Changing World of Work is a collection of stimulating and diverse readings that ask students to think about the meaning of work in today’s world, and how it impacts our daily lives. 

   

  Readings touch on such diverse topics as: what influences a person’s work ethic, inequalities in American work culture, how technology has impacted today’s workplace, the ways that men and women strive to balance work and family life, and more.

• 
  Translating Tradition (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Beardslee
  ©2004 | Longman | Paper; 224 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 032110577X | ISBN-13: 9780321105776
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the “Longman Topics” reader series, Translating Tradition examines how we engage in traditions as family and community members to connect with the past, negotiate the present, and envision the future.

  This brief collection of readings focuses on the value of tradition's role in shaping our lives. Thought-provoking selections ask students to think about relevant themes: handing down family heirlooms and family legacies; preserving family and community history through story; and exploring cross cultural traditions. Featuring a dual organization, readings in each chapter model a particular rhetorical mode as well as explore a specific theme. Brief apparatus helps students write more thoughtfully in response to the selections and think more critically about the role of tradition in society.

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single complex, but compelling, topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  World of the Image, The (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Smoke & Robbins
  ©2007 | Longman | Paper; 246 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321388828 | ISBN-13: 9780321388827
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Everywhere we look in today’s world, images are pervasive; we are immersed in a world of images–and we are relying more and more on images to understand ourselves and our world.  This brief, focused reader explores our reliance on images and the tools of analysis and description that we have to understand what we see.

   

  Images tell us how we live in societies, as humans and as citizens; they tell us how to look, how to behave, what to buy, and to which groups we should belong.  The mirror of the media reflects back to us–accurately or not–our values, fears, dreams, and anxieties.  This unique reader brings together selections by authors representing a wide range of fields–art history, psychology, anthropology, biology, and semiotics, among others.  These intriguing readings will prompt discussion and further writing as they help students understand the power of the image.

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  Writing Places (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Mathieu, Grattan, Lindgren & Shultz
  ©2006 | Longman | Paper; 272 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321316851 | ISBN-13: 9780321316851
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Part of the Longman Topics reader series, Writing Places encourages students to examine the locations that define their past, present and future. As students begin to think critically and to write about these places, they realize that location is an enormous part of identity — both personally and academically.

   

  This collection of readings offers a poignant and, oftentimes, moving variety of essays from writers of all ages, styles, and backgrounds. It is designed to be flexible to any teaching method and any composition class. The text is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction for both instructors and students to the concept of writing about place. The middle three chapters divide the essays by the period of time represented in the author’s work. The last chapter provides valuable instruction from start to finish for the writing process. It focuses specifically on how to better understand the meaning of place in life and writing. 

  “Longman Topics” are brief, attractive readers on a single, complex, but compelling topic. Featuring about 30 full-length selections, these volumes are generally half the size and half the cost of standard composition readers.

• 
  Youth Subcultures: Exploring Underground America (A Longman Topics Reader)
  Greenberg
  ©2007 | Longman | Paper; 256 pp | Instock
  ISBN-10: 0321241940 | ISBN-13: 9780321241948
  Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

  

  Youth Subcultures uses a cultural studies lens to explore contemporary American youth subcultures such as skateboarding, punk, Goth, and raves in a brief, flexible, and inexpensive reader.

   

  Part of the Longman Topics reader series, this collection of lively essays on controversial subcultures helps students think critically about contemporary culture and issues such as class, race, and gender as well as language, identity, and ritual.  Youth Subcultures also contains a variety of writing genres that range from personal creative non-fiction to interviews to traditional research and argumentative essays.  Rather than write about topics beyond their experience, students can examine their own experiences critically as they engage an exciting and accessible scholarly field.

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