The Contemporary Reader (with MyCompLab), 8/E
Gary Goshgarian, Northeastern University

ISBN-10: 0321323629
ISBN-13: 9780321323620

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2005
Format: Paper Bound with PIN; 576 pp
Published: 11/22/2004

Suggested retail price: $68.60
Not available for purchase at this time.

A best-selling popular culture reader, The Contemporary Reader offers more than 70 reading selections focused on current cultural issues and organized around ten engaging, provocative topics that engage students to read and write critically.

 

This reader includes more contemporary selections than any other popular culture reader on the market with over 90% of the readings written in the last five years. The text's ten tightly focused thematic chapters cover a range of writing on interesting issues familiar to students and relevant to our times.


  • Readings are organized around a variety of appealing, thought-provoking themes such as “Fashion and Flesh: The Images We Project,” “Advertising: Wanting It, Selling It,” “On the Cutting Edge of Science: Human Cloning and Genetic Engineering,” “Making the Grade: Education Today,” “Gender Perceptions,” and “The American Experience.”
  • Essays reflect a wide range of writing styles and genres, including academic essays and dialogues by today's best writers and featuring the work of numerous women and minority authors. Notable authors include: Randall Kennedy, Shelby Steele, Stephanie Coontz, Susan Faludi, William Lutz, Elaine Showalter, Andrew Sullivan, Bill McKibben, and many others.
  • “Viewpoints” readings sections in every chapter feature two or three readings that present different points of view on important issues of the day.
  • An introduction to critical reading and the writing process offers a step-by-step analysis of a sample essay and includes a review of the writing process, with coverage of pre-writing, audience-awareness, developing a thesis, documenting sources, drafting, editing, revising, and proofreading.
  • “Critical Thinking” prompts before each reading, encourage students to begin thinking about the issues that will be raised in the reading.
  • “Freewriting” prompts after each reading encourage students to begin responding immediately to the reading, and take note of their initial ideas and questions.
  • Each reading selection is accompanied by helpful pedagogical elements—including an author headnote, “Critical Reading” questions, “Critical Writing” assignments which include “Research and Analysis,” “Exploratory Writing,” and “Persuasive Writing” questions and writing assignments.
  • “Group Projects” encourage working collaboratively inside and outside of the classroom with a special emphasis on writing that is community-oriented.
  • A Companion Website includes links to additional online readings for each chapter, a guide to researching popular culture issues, and much more. See www.ablongman.com/goshgarian
  • "Topical Considerations" questions tie together the readings in each chapter. At the end of each chapter, students are directed to find these questions on website for The Contemporary Reader.

  • This edition features more than 50 new readings from a variety of sources.
  • The most popular themes from the Seventh Edition return, along with five new high-interest thematic chapters: Chapter 5, “On the Cutting Edge of Science: Human Cloning and Genetic Engineering,” Chapter 6, “Making the Grade: Education Today,” Chapter 7, “Gender Perceptions,” Chapter 9, “Racial Profiling and Racial Stereotyping,” and Chapter 10, “The American Experience.”
  • A new section “Approaching Visuals Critically” guides students in their study of visuals by including helpful questions that suggest ways visual arguments can be examined.
  • Eight all new full-color and several black-and-white advertisements from various sources are included in Chapter 2. Each ad is supported by study questions that ask students to examine the visual arguments in the ads.
  • Key Value Pack—The Contemporary Reader, 8/e + MyCompLab, ISBN 0321280113.

New readings are marked with an asterisk.

Preface.

Introduction: How to Read and Write Critically.

 
What Is Critical Thinking?

Why Read Critically?

How to Read Critically.

Sample Essay for Analysis: “"Now, Cut that Out!,” John Leo.

Keep a Journal on What You Read.

Annotate What You Read.

Outline What You Read.

Summarize What You Read.

Question What You Read.

Analyze What You Read.

What is Critical Writing?

Developing Ideas.

Narrowing the Topic.

Identifying Your Audience.

Developing a Thesis.

Understanding Your Paper's Objective.

Researching.

Selecting Sources for Your Paper.

Documenting Sources.

Organizing Your Paper.

Drafting Your Essay.

Writing Your Introduction.

Developing Paragraphs and Making Transitions.

Concluding Well.

Editing and Revising.

Using Active Voice.

Grammar and Punctuation.

Proofreading Effectively.
 
Approaching Visuals Critically.


1. Fashion and Flesh: The Images We Project.

 
“Never Too Buff,” John Cloud.

* “What I Think About the Fashion World,” Liz Jones.

* Visuals: NEDA Ad.

* “Weighing In,” Sandra Hurtes.

“My Hips, My Caderas,” Alisa Valdes.

* “Scar,” Cythia Audet.

* “The Skinny on Small,” Diane Sepanski.

“The Bald Individualist,” Ptolemy Tompkins.

“The Ugly Truth About Beauty,” Dave Barry.


Viewpoints.

 
“A Man's Guide to Slimming Couture,” Scott McKeen.

“Why Do We Get To Laugh at Fat Guys?” Catherine Lawson.


Research Issue.

 
“The Beauty of Symmetry,” Elizabeth Snead.


2. Advertising: Wanting it, Selling it.

 
“Targeting a New World,” Joseph Turow.

* “Advertising and the Invention of Postmodernity,” Ken Sanes.

* “Lunchbox Hegemony,” Dan Cook.

* “A Brand by Any Other Name,” Douglas Rushkoff.

* “A (Mild) Defense of Luxury,” James Twitchell.


Viewpoints.

 
“With These Words, I Can Sell You Anything,” William Lutz.
 
“The Language of Advertising,” Charles A. O'Neill.
 

Research Issue.

 
“Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies,” Damien Cave.
 
A Portfolio of Advertisements.


3. Television: For Better or For Worse.

 
“Can Television Improve Us?” Jane Rosenzweig.

“The Man Who Counts the Killings,” Scott Stossel.

* “TV's War of Words,” Deborah Tannen.

* “The Great TV Debate,” Jason Kelly.

* “Window on Reality,” Elaine Showalter.

* “TV News: All the World in Pictures,” Neil Postman and Steve Powers.


Viewpoints.

 
“TV Can Be a Good Parent,” Ariel Gore.

“American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement”


Research Issues.

 
“Television and African Americans,” Kate Tuttle.


4. The Family in Flux: Love and Marriage.

 
“Family: Idea, Institution, and Controversy,” Betty G. Farrell.

“The New Nostalgia,” Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers.

* “Are the Conservatives Right?” Alex Kotlowitz.

* “Nostalgia as Ideology,” Stephanie Coontz.

“Did I Miss Something?” Lowell Putnam.

* “Unmarried Bliss,” Marshall Miller and Dorian Solot.

* “What's Love Got to Do With It?” Anjula Razdan.


Viewpoints.

 
* “Unveiled,” Andrew Sullivan.
 
“The Danger of Same Sex Marriage.” Jeff Jacoby.

Visual: Wasserman's View: Assault on Family Values (cartoon).


Research Issue.

 
“Cohabitating Is Not the Same as Commitment,” Karen S. Peterson.


* 5. Humans, Inc.: Cloning and Our Genetic Future.

 
* “Baby, It's You and You and You,” Nancy Gibbs.

* “Designer Babies,” Sharon Begley.
 
Human Genome cartoon.

* “The Last Human,” Gregory Stock.

* “Enough,” Bill McKibben.

“Yuppie Eugenics,” Ruth Hubbard and Stuart Newman.


* Viewpoints.

 
* “Should Human Cloning Be Permitted?” Patricia Baird, M.D.

* “Yes, Human Cloning Should Be Permitted,” Chris MacDonald.


Research Issue.

 
“The Genetic Bill of Rights.”


* 6. Making the Grade: Education Today.

 
* “Turning Schools into Profit Centers,” Peter Sacks.

* “Letter to a Test Scorer,” Stephen Kramer.

* “Forget Fads–The Old Way Works Best,” Evan Keliher.

* “A Real Education,” Christina Asquith.

“ ‘L’ is for Lawsuit,” Janelle Brown.

“Learning While Black,” Jodie Morse.

“When Brevity Rules the Syllabus, ‘Ulysses’ is Lost,” James Shapiro.


* Viewpoints.

 
* “Bilingualism in America: English Should Be the Only Language,” S. I. Hayakawa.

* “Let's Not Say Adios to Bilingual Education,” Lourdes Rovira.


Research Issue.

 
“Interview with Linda Darling Hammond.”


* 7. Gender Perceptions: Has Anything Changed? 

 
* “My Most Attractive Adversary,” Madeleine Begun Kane.

“Male Bashing on TV,” Michael Abernethy.

“The Men We Carry in Our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders.

* “Girls: We Really Are Our Own Worst Enemies,” Lyz Baranowski.

“The New Sexual Stone Age,” Andre Mayer.

“Three Cheers for Patriarchy!,” Christine Rosen.


* Viewpoints.

 
* “Revisionist Feminism,” Susan Faludi and Karen Lehrman, Slate MSN.


Research Issue.

 
* “An Identity Reduced to a Burka,” Laila Al-Marayati and Semeen Issa.


8. Sports Culture: Notjust a game.

 
“Unpaid Professionals,” Andrew Zimbalist.

“A Whole New Ball Game?” Skip Rozin, with Susan Zegel.

“Sports Centered,” Jay Weiner.

“Where are the Heroes?” Ed Siegel.

Point/Counterpoint: Title IX: Battle of the Sexes Continues,” Mary Ann Cooper.

“Narrowing the Gender Gap,” Carl Bailik.


* Viewpoints.

 
“Just Say No to Random Drug Testing” David Rocah.

“Naïve Court Did Not Go Far Enough With Drug Testing,” Claude Lewis.


Research Issue.

 
“Lighten Up, Parents!” Michael L. Sachs.


* 9. Stereotyping and Profiling: Looking Beyond Race.

 
“The Nature of the Problem of Racial Profiling,” Deborah Ramirez, Jack McDevitt, Amy Farrell.

* “Racial Profiling Goes Beyond Black and White,” Shasha Polakow-Suransky.

* “Three Days in a New York City Jail,” Byronn Bain.

* “Hailing While Black,” Shelby Steele.

* “Are you a Terrorist, or do you Play one on TV?” Laura Fokkena.


* Viewpoints.

 
* “You Can't Judge a Crook by His Color,” Randall Kennedy.

* “In Defense of Racial Profiling,” John Derbyshire.


Research Issue.

 
“Rag Time, My Time,” Alton Fitzgerald White.


* 10. The American Experience: One Nation, Many Faces.

 
* “The Return of the Melting Pot,” Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

* “Forging a New Version of America's Melting Pot,” Gregory Rodriguez.

* “A New Generation Is Leading the Way,” Donna Jackson Nakazawa.

* “People Like Us,” David Brooks.

* “When Fair Is Foul,” Suzanne Fields.

“Please Ask Me ‘Who,’ Not ‘What’ I Am,” Jordan Lite.

“Ending Poem,” Aurora Levins Morales.


* Viewpoints.

 
* “How to Be a Patriot,” Sam Smith.

“What is Patriotism?” Charley Reese.


Research Issue.

 
“How to Turn More Immigrants into Americans,” Tamar Jacoby.

    A best-selling text, The Contemporary Reader offers highly engaging readings about current cultural issues. This accessible, wide-ranging, and current essay collection is designed to stimulate strong student response in class and in writing.

    Over 90% of the readings have been written in the last five years. The text's ten tightly focused thematic chapters cover a range of writing on interesting issues familiar to students and relevant to our times.

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    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    A best-selling popular culture reader, The Contemporary Reader offers more than 70 readings taken from today’s headlines to inspire students to write on topics that really matter to them. 

     

    This collection offers over 70 current, well-written, provocative readings that students can relate to–readings that stimulate class discussion, critical thinking, and writing.  Over 90% of the readings were written within the last five years–more than any other popular culture reader on the market.  The text's ten tightly focused thematic chapters provide balanced readings with multiple perspectives on issues that students care about.

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    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

For First-Year Composition - Reader


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