Conversations: Reading For Writing

Rhetorical Contents                                                                                                                                                                  

Preface                                                                                                                                                                                       

Joining the Conversation: Reading, Research, and Writing                            

 

Part One: Conversations about Education                                              

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                            

 

Chapter 1: The Goals and Condition of Public Education                                    

E. B. John Taylor Gatto, "Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and Why"

*Ron Miller, "Review of John Taylor Gatto’s Dumbing Us Down"                                     

*John Taylor Gatto, "Response to Ron Miller"                                                                        

*Kathleen Anderson, "Reflections in Education: Considering the Impact of Schooling on the

    Learner"                                                                                                                                               

*Dennis Fermoyle, "Blog Posts and responses" From the Trenches of Public

    Education                                                                                                                          

*Laurie H. Rogers and Respondents to the Blog, "Betrayed--Why Public Education is

    Failing"                                                                                                                                       

Larry Cuban,  "Making Public Schools Business-like … Again "

Herb Childress, "A Subtractive Education"

 

Getting Into the Conversation 1                                                                             

The Goals and Condition of Public Education                                                                             

 

*ConversationS in CONTEXT 1:

*The Debate About Standardized Testing From a Nation at

    Risk                                                                                               

 

Chapter 2: What, and Who, is College For?                                               

Alice Walker, "Everyday Use: For Your Grandmama"                                                          

W. J. Reeves, "College  Isn’t For Everyone"

Garry B. Trudeau, "Doonesbury"

*Thomas Reeves, "College Isn’t for Everybody, and it’s a scandal that We Think It Is (and Blog Responses)"

*Paul Attwell and David E. Lavin, "What the Critics of “College for All” Say"

*Jay Matthews, "Multiplying Benefits of College for Everybody"

*Trent Batson, "Is College Necessary in a Knowledge-Drenched World?"

Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, "The Challenge of Liberty"

Ads for Hofstra University and York College

Clive Crook, "A Matter of Degrees: Why College Is Not an Economic Cure-All"

*Kathleen Waldron, "Access to College Means Access to Economic Mobility for America’s

    Underserved"                                                                                                                           

*Timothy Egan, "No Degree, No Way Back to the Middle"

 

Getting Into the Conversation 2

What, and Who, Is College for?                                                                                                                        

 

Extending the Conversation 1

Opportunities for Reading, Writing, and Research

 

Part Two: Conversations about Information and Technology

Introduction

 

Chapter 3: Information and Misinformation in New Media Journalism      

*Caryl Rivers," The New Media Politics of Emotion and Attitude"                                      

Matt Welch, "Blogworld and its Gravity"

David Weinberger, "Blogs and the Values of Journalism"

Frank Partsch, "Unbounded Misrepresentation"

Jeff Jarvis, "Response to Frank  Partsch"

Greg Gutfield, "Mad About You"

Moisés Naím, "The YouTube Effect"

*Steven Johnson,"How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live"

*Rian Van Der Meere, "Response to “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live”        

*Clive Thompson, "Clive Thompson on the New Literacy"                                                      

 

Getting Into the Conversation 3

Information and Misinformation in New Media Journalism                                                     

 

Conversations in Context 2 

What Good is Wikipedia?                                                                                                                                        

*Marshall Poe, The Hive                                                                                                        

 

Chapter 4: Is Technology Making Us Stupid?                                                

*Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"                                                               

*Pew Research Center, "Does Google Make Us Stupid?"

*Trent Batson, "Response to Nicholas Carr’s 'Is Google Making Us Stupid?'"

*W. Daniel Hillis, Kevin Kelly, Larry Sanger, George Dyson, Jaron Lanier, and Douglas Rushkoff, "What the Internet is Doing to Our

    Brains: Responses to Nicholas Carr"

*Katherine Allen, "Is Technology Making Us Dumb?"                                                               

*Jim Pinto, "Is Technology Making People Stupid?"                                                                

Edward Tufte,"Powerpoint Is Evil"                                                                                          

*Cliff Atkinson, "Five Experts Dispute Edward Tufte on PowerPoint"

 

Getting Into the Conversation 4

Is Technology Making Us Stupid?                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Extending the Conversation 2

Opportunities for Reading, Writing, and Research                                                                              

 

Part Three:  Conversations about Identity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity        

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                         

 

Chapter 5: Gender Identities                                                                          

Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman:

Sherry Kleinman, "Why Sexist Language Matters"

Scott Russell Sanders, "The Men We Carry In Our Minds"

*Michael Norman, "From Carol Gilligan’s Chair"                                                                  

*Christina Hoff Sommers, "Do Boys Need to Be Saved?"                                                          

Michael Kimmel, "A War Against Boys?"

Marshall Poe, ""The Other Gender Gap"                                                                                 

*Guy Garcia, "Samson Shorn"                                                                                                   

 

Getting Into the Conversation 5

Gender Identities                                                                                                                                                    

 

Conversations in Context 3

The Beauty Myth and Personal Identity                                                                            

Naomi Wolf, from "The Beauty Myth"

Virginia Postrel, 'The Truth About Beauty"

 

Chapter 6: Racial and Ethnic Identities                                                         

Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergyman

Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

*bell hooks, "Overcoming White Supremacy: A Comment"                                                      

Amitai Etzioni, "Leaving Race Behind"

*Richard Rodriguez, "The Third Man"                                                                                         

*Vickie Nam, ed.,  from "Yell-Oh Girls"                                                                                    

*Helen Zia, "From Nothing, a Consciousness"                                                                        

 

Getting Into the Conversation 6

Racial and Ethnic Identities                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Extending the Conversation 3

Opportunities for Reading, Writing, and Research                                                                          

 

Part Four  Conversations about Love Relationships and Marriage    

Introduction                                                                                                                                                                           

 

Chapter 7: Hooking Up: Relationships in the 21^st Century                             

Jillian Straus, "Lone Stars: Being Single

*Jessica Bennett, "The Only You. And You. And You."

*Sandra Barron, "R We D8Ting?"

*Theodore Stites, "Modern Love: Someone to Watch Over Me (On a Google Map)"

*Tom Wolfe, "Hooking Up: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the Second Millenium"

*Matt Sigl, "You Aught to Remember Blog Post"

*Laura Sessions Stepp, "The Unrelationship"

*Kathleen Bogle, "Hooking Up and Dating: A Comparison"

*Kate Harding, "Hookup Culture's Bad Rap"

 

Getting Into the Conversation 7

Hooking Up: Relationships in the 21^st Century                                                                                          

 

Conversations in Context 4

Loving Online                                                                                                                               

*Aaron Ben-Ze’ev, from Love Online: Emotions on the Internet                                               

 

Chapter 8: The Ideal and Real of Marriage

Margaret Mead, "Can Marriage Be For Life?"

Stephanie Coontz, "The Evolution of Matrimony: The Changing Social Context of Marriage"

*Caitlin Flanagan, "Is There Hope for American Marriage?"

*Sandra Tsing Loh, "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off"

*Amy Benfer, "When Date Night Is Not Enough"

*Amanda Fortini, "Why Your Marriage Sucks"

*Elizabeth Weil, "Married (Happily) with Issues"

 

Getting Into the Conversation 8

The Ideal and Real of Marriage

 

Extending the Conversation 4

Opportunities for Reading, Writing, and Research

 

Part Five: Conversations about Sustainability

Introduction

 

Chapter 9: Feeting the World: Towards Sustainable Foods

Eric Schlosser, "Fast Food Nation"

*Steve Ettinger, "Consider the Twinkie"

*James E. McWilliams, "From the Golden Age to the Golden Mean of Food Production

*Jeffrey Moussaif Masson, "The Only World We Have"

*Paul Roberts, "Food Fight"

*Michael Pollan, "The Industrialization of Eating"

*Lierre Keith, "To Save the World"

 

Getting Into the Conversation 9

Feeding the World: Toward Sustainable Foods

 

Conversations in Context 5

The Past and Future of Nuclear Energy

    *Steve Chu, "Small Modular Reactors Will Expand the Ways We Use Atomic Power"

    *Patrick Moore, "Going Nuclear; A Green Makes the Cause"

    *Steven Cohen, "Nuclear Power is Complicated, Dangerous, and Definitely Not the Answer"

 

Chapter 10: Sustaining Our Environment: Who Are the Best Guardians?

Patrick Moore, "Hard Choices for the Environmental Movement"

*Greenpeace International, "Statement on Patrick Moore"

*Patrick Moore, "How Sick Is That? Environmental Movement Has Lost Its Way"

Emma Marris, "In the Name of Nature"

Margery Kraus and Michael Brune, "Are Businesses Better Equipped Than Government to Address 21st Century Environmental

    Challenges? A Dialouge"

Marc Gunther, Doris Burke, Jia Lynn Yang, "The Green Machine"

Gregg Easterbrook, "Some Convenient Truths"

*Heather Rogers, "Green by Any Means"

 

Getting into the Converstaion 10

Sustaining Our Environment: Who Are the Best Guardians?

 

Extending the Conversations 5

Opportunities for Reading, Writing, and Research

 

A Guide to Incorporating Sources and Avoiding Plagarism

Credits

Author/Title Index