Introduction: Writing for Your Life

1. Writing to Understand Experience

Levi’s, Marilyn Schiel

Grub, Scott Russell Sanders

The Meaning of a Word, Gloria Naylor

Life with Father, Tabari Njeri

Count Me Out of Hard Labor, Rick Marin

Companion Text: "I Dated Rick Marin," Sandy Fernandez

Living Like Weasels, Annie Dillard

Lavender, Andre Aciman

2. Writing to Report Information

As Freezing Persons Recollect the Snow, Peter Stark

Thomas Jefferson and the Environment, Peter Ling

Why McDonald’s Fries Taste So Good, Eric Schlosser

Uncharted Territory, Elizabeth Kolbert

Companion Text: "Charter School Results Repeatedly Delayed," American Federation of Teachers

Tough Break, Tim Rogers

The Best Job in Town, Katherine Boo

3. Writing to Explain Information

Photo Exorcism, Wes Pitts

In Japan, Nice Guys (and Girls) Finish Together, Nicholas D. Kristof

What Happened to the Anasazi?, Catherine Dold

Bet on It, Gary Riven

Women’s Brains, Stephen Jay Gould

Same-Sex Sexuality, Joan Roughgarden

Companion Text: “An Interview with Joan Roughgarden,” Debrah Solomon

4. Writing to Evaluate Something

Reach Out to Annoy Someone,” Jonathan Rowe

Companion Text: "Saved, and Enslaved, by the Cell," Ken Belson

Sweet and Lowdown, YiLing-Chen

The Sad Comedy of Really Bad Food, Dara Moskowitz

God’s Lonely Man, Francis Davis

My Diagnosis, Susanna Kaysen

Companion Text: "Borderline Personality Disorder," APA

High-Tech Bibliophila, Paul Goldberger

She: The Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body, Cynthia Ozick

5. Writing to Analyze Images

Falling in Love with Food, Jean Kilbourne

Beauty (Re)discovers the Male body, Susan Bordo

Next: Understanding a Corporate Logo, Steven Heller and Karen Pomerov

The Re-rebranding of Berlin, Annie Bourneuf

Conveying Atrocity in Image, Barbie Zelizer

Regarding the Torture of Others, Susan Sontag

Companion Text: “Torture Incarnate, Propped Up on a Pedestal,” Sarah Boxer

6. Writing to Analyze Texts

Core Text: The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin. Presented as an insert.

Feminine Double Consciousness in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Angelyn Mitchell

Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” Lawrence I. Berkove

Core Text: Genesis 9:18-27

Noah’s Nakedness and he Curse of Canaan: A Case of Incest? F.W. Bassett

The Curse That Never Was, Gene Rice

Core Text: Bill of Rights

Groh v. Ramirez, John Paul Stevens

Groh v. Ramirez, Clarence Thomas

7. Writing to Persuade Others

Majoring in Debt, Adolph Reed

Flunking the NCAA, Sally Jenkins

Racial Profiling: The Liberals Are Right, Stuart Taylor, Jr

The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson

Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King

Privacy and the U.S. Military, Aaron Belkin and Melissa S. Ember-Herbert

8. Writing to Inspire Others

You Are Me, Larry Carlat

I Have a Dream, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Democratic Bedrock, Garrison Keillor

I Know a Child, Ron Reagan

Companion Text: Speech by Nancy Reagan

The State of Our Union, George Bush

A Hanging, George Orwell

Am I Blue?, Alice Walker

9. Writing to Amuse Others

Technology Makes Me Mad, Patricia Volk

Breakfast at the FDA Café, John R. Alden

The Learning Curve, David Sedaris

Relationship Reruns, Cindy Chupach

Vacations: His and Hers, Jill Conner Browne

Companion Text: "Jill Conner Browne Tells All," Lynette Hanson

Would Hemingway Get Into Harvard?, Jonathan Katzman/Andy Lutz, and Erik Olson

10. Writing to Experiment with Form

Et in Arcadia Ego, John Berger

The Deer at Providencia, Annie Dillard

Marrakech, George Orwell

If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?, Geeta Kothari

I Was Born, Luc Sante

Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy, Judy Ruiz

Appendix: Writing from Sources