Fluent Essays

write a point in each page about the textual elements: 1. choice of words 2. meaning of words - denotation  (from dictionary ) - connotation (what it means to certain people) 3. elements of cohesive Trio (from page 5 to 9) INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS СОК READING i CORE READING 2 CORE READING 3 MAKING CI ADDITIONAL READING 1 ADDITIONAL READING 2 ADDITIONAL READING 3 ADDITIONAL READING 4 ADDITIONAL READING 5 mtercultural Communication 2 A Writers Technique: Main Ideas and Supporting Details American Values and Assumptions Gary Althen 4 Where Do We Stand? Lisa Davis 18 Time Talks, with an Accent Robert Levine 26 SECTIONS 35 Polite but Thirsty Yaping Tang 36 Friends and Strangers Margaret K. (Omar) Nydell 40 A Coward Premchand 44 The Blind Men and the Elephant John Godfrey Saxe 51 Humor 53 ESSAY TOPICS 55 Education 56 A Writers Technique: Purpose and Audience CORE READING i School Is Bad for Children John Holt 58 CORE READING 2 How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students 67 Research Papers David Rothenberg An Opposing View Richard Cummins 71 CORE READING 3 Multiple Intelligences and Emotional Intelligence 76 David Miller Sadker & Myra Pollack Sadker MAKING CONNECTIONS 87 ADDITIONAL READING 1 The Teacher Who Changed My Life Nicholas Gage 88 ADDITIONAL READING 2 Lets Tell the Story of All Americas Cultures 92 Ji-Yeon Mary Yuhfill ADDITIONAL READING 3 Coyote and the Crying Song Harold Courlander 95 ADDITIONAL READING 4 First Grade - Standing in the Hall Cheryl Savageau 98 ADDITIONAL READING 5 Humor 99 ESSAY TOPICS 101 iv READING 1 Computers and the Pursuit of Happiness David Gelernter 136 An Opposing View Winn. F Martin 143 READING 2 Weve Got Mail - Always Andrew Leonard 148 READINGS Propaganda Techniques in Todays Advertising Ann McClintock 157 Mass Media and Technology A Writers Technique: Figures of Speech CORE READING 1 Sex Roles Hamilton McCubbin & Barbara Blum Dahl J 88 CORE READING 2 Boys Will Be Boys Barbara Kantrowitz & Claudia Kalb 200 CORE READINGS Sex, Sighs, and Conversation DeborahTannen 210 MAKING CONNECTIONS 218 ADDITIONAL READING 1 Women Have What It Takes Carol Barkalow 219 An Opposing View Bill Norton 222 ADDITIONAL READING 2 The Androgynous Male Noel Perrin 223 ADDITIONAL READING 3 The Princess and the Admiral Charlotte Pomerantz 227 ADDITIONAL READING 4 The Greater God Rakesh Ratti 233 ADDITIONAL READING 5 Humor 235 ESSAY TOPICS 237 CORE READING 1 The New American Dreamers RuthSidel 240 CORE READING 2 Someone Is Stealing Your Life Michael Ventura 250 CORE READING 3 Our Schedules, Our Selves Jay Walljasper 259 «KING CONNECTIONS 268 ADDITIONAL READING 1 The Rage to Know Horace Freeland Judson 269 ADDITIONAL READING 2 Los Pobres Richard Rodriguez 274 ADDITIONAL READING 3 Action Will Be Taken Heinrich Boll 278 ADDITIONAL READING 4 To Be of Use Marge Piercy 282 ADDITIONAL READING 5 Humor 284 ESSAY TOPICS 286 VI CREDITS 288 INDEX 292 Audience New Directions: Reading, Writing, and Critical Thinking is written for students who are studying, or preparing for study, at an English-speaking college or university. It may be used by advanced ESL or EFL students in courses that stress the connection between reading and writing, by native English speakers in developmental writing and expository writing classes at the college level, or by anyone wishing to improve his or her reading, writing, and critical thinking skills for personal or professional purposes. Overview New Directions is a thematically based, interactive reader designed to help students meet the demands of reading and writing assignments in college and university classes. To this end, the text offers a number of challenging reading and writing activities that encourage the higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, interpretation, evaluation, and application necessary for academic success. Through integrated reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities, students learn to generate hypotheses, argue, analyze critically, interpret a writers meaning inferentially as well as literally, discriminate between opinion and fact, detect fallacies in reasoning, reach conclusions and judgments based on supportable criteria, and propose new ideas. The book also stresses the development of students academic vocabulary. Writing Skills New Directions takes students through the major stages of the writing process (assessing the writing situation, exploring and planning, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading). The book teaches strategies that will help learners compose expository and argumentative essays and use sources effectively in researched writing. It provides many opportunities for formal and informal writing, including journal entries, freewriting, summaries, reports, and personal narratives. A number of activities, often overlooked in other textbooks, focus on how writers employ tone, take into account purpose and audience, and use figurative language. The Readings New Directions contains 35 readings of varying length and difficulty, though all are appropriate for the college level. The selections are interdisciplinary and include excerpts from college texts and nonfiction books, newspaper and magazine articles, personal essays, letters, short stories, folktales, fables, and poems. Provocative and challenging, the readings are diverse in subject matter, aim, voice, style, and rhetorical technique and represent a balance of descriptive, narrative, expository, INTRODUCTION and argumentative writing. All of the readings are original and unadapted, though some have been abridged. They are written by authors from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Accompanying many of the readings are sidebars that contain short high-interest texts or content-related graphs, charts, and tables. The diverse selections and graphic material engage students in important social issues and promote a stimulating context for developing reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Structure of the Book New Directions is divided into five thematically based chapters. An informational section on writing skills, titled The Essentials of Writing, is placed between Chapters 2 and 3. The Thematic Chapters The five chapter themes in the book were selected because of their relevance and interest to students. The themes and activities in New Directions are not sequenced, allowing the chapters to be taught in any order. Besides the thematic content, each of the five chapters also focuses on an important writing technique. The five chapters and the five writing techniques are: Chapter 1: Intercultural Communication Main Ideas and Supporting Details Chapter 2: Education Purpose and Audience Chapter 3: Mass Media and Technology Figures of Speech Chapter 4: Gender Roles Summarizing and Paraphrasing Chapter 5: Work Tone The Essentials of Writing This writing section appears between Chapters 2 and 3. It is printed in a second color so that it may be easily located at any time in the course. It contains no tasks, only essential information about writing and plentiful examples. Students are encouraged to go to the information whenever they have a writing assignment. The writing section is in three parts. Part One: The Structure of an Essay The Introduction, Body Paragraphs, The Conclusion Part Two: The Writing Process Assessing the Writing Situation, Exploring and Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Proofreading Part Three: Writing with Sources Types of Sources, Locating Sources, Evaluating Sources, Taking Notes from Sources, Documenting Sources INTRODUCTION The Organization of a Chapter Each chapter has an opening activity that raises students awareness of the chapter theme; a series of core readings, with pre- and post-reading activities; an activity that requires students to synthesize information and make connections among the core readings; several additional readings, with a pre- and post-reading activity for each; and a final activity with essay topics based on the theme of the chapter. Unit Opener Each chapter begins with a brief introduction describing the major theme of the chapter, followed by a list of questions and quotations relating to the readings. To raise awareness of, and interest in, the chapter topic, students discuss the questions and quotations in a small group and share personal opinions and experiences. Each chapter has three core readings containing a balance of academic and personal writing. The core readings have a full range of pre- and post-reading activities. (For details of the reading activities, see Activities Accompanying the Core Readings on the next page.) Making Connections This section may be used as the basis of a writing or discussion activity. The questions help students to synthesize the information presented in the core readings - to combine facts, ideas, and beliefs to form their own opinions and judgments about issues. Students compare and contrast the authors ideas and writing techniques, imagine how the authors might respond to each other, and apply concepts discussed in one reading to another. Additional Readings Each chapter contains five additional readings (two prose pieces, a story, a poem, a joke) and a cartoon. These readings have only a few accompanying tasks. Instructors may choose to study these readings in class or simply assign them as extra reading to be done out of class. The additional material allows students to explore issues in greater depth, to apply the writing technique learned earlier in the chapter, and to practice their intensive and extensive reading skills. This concluding section of each chapter presents five essay topics that require students to use various rhetorical strategies, such as compare and contrast, cause and effect, and division and classification, and higher-order thinking skills, especially synthesis, interpretation, and application. The assignments include expository, argumentative, and narrative writing. For each assignment, students support their ideas with references to the chapter readings, library and Internet sources, and personal experience. INTRODUCTION ix Activities Accompanying the Core Readings The core readings have a full set of pre- and post-reading activities, which are described below. The additional readings have only one pre-reading activity, a note-taking activity, and a post-reading activity. Journal Writing - Students write journal entries about topics relating to the readings, focusing on personal opinions and experiences. They are often asked to respond to a brief quotation, agree or disagree with a statement, or make a prediction about an issue raised in the reading. In their journal writing, students also practice the pre-writing techniques that are discussed in the writing section (brainstorming, freewriting, clustering, the journalists questions). Previewing the Topic In a small group, students discuss an issue or perform a task relating to the topic of the reading and then share their opinions and experiences with the rest of the class. Similar to journal writing, this activity encourages students to examine personal and cultural beliefs, helping them better understand, analyze, and take issue with perspectives reflected in the reading. Agreeing and Disagreeing Students indicate the extent to which they agree with statements relating to the topic of the selection and then compare their responses with those of several classmates. This activity encourages students to express their opinions clearly and to reach conclusions and judgments based on supportable criteria. Taking Notes While You Read While reading the selection, students are asked to underline, highlight, and annotate ideas in the piece, often indicating points of agreement and disagreement and relationships to their own culture and experience. Taking notes actively engages students with the texts, provides practice with an important academic skill, and helps with the reading, writing, and critical thinking activities that follow. Reading Journal After reading a selection, students write an entry in their reading journal. These entries include discussions of specific topics relating to the reading, interpretations, points of agreement and disagreement with the author, likes and dislikes, and personal experiences. Main Ideas This section helps students understand the main ideas in the reading, while referring to the notes they took when reading the selection. The final question asks students to summarize the main idea of the reading in one or two sentences. X INTRODUCTION Reflecting on Content Students think critically about major issues raised in the reading, relating them to their own knowledge and experience. In contrast to the more literal focus of the previous section, these questions help students develop the skills of analysis, synthesis, evaluation, interpretation, inference, and application needed to fully appreciate a writers ideas. A Writers Technique Students learn about the major writing technique introduced in the chapter, focusing on the ways in which the author of the reading uses the strategy. Students think critically about such aspects of writing as main ideas, supporting details, purpose, audience, and tone. Vocabulary This is the first of two vocabulary exercises. The vocabulary focus of each exercise varies from chapter to chapter and from reading to reading. Some exercises turn students attention to multi-word items, such as phrasal verbs, idioms, and collocations; others examine the denotations and connotations of words; and still others work on determining meaning through the analysis of word parts (prefixes, roots, suffixes), and the study of context clues, including synonyms and antonyms. Vocabulary In Context Students determine the meaning of vocabulary items from their context in the reading and then think of an example or situation that illustrates each word or idiom. Through this content-based approach, students actively develop their vocabulary by using words and idioms in personalized contexts. Discussion These collaborative activities encourage students to search for connections between the ideas in the selections and their own lives, to take issue with the opinions expressed by the authors and their classmates, and to interact with sources of knowledge outside the classroom. The activities focus on cross-cultural similarities and differences. They include group discussions, debates, presentations, and community-related projects, such as interviews, surveys, and trips to stores and museums. The last discussion activity for each core reading involves a Web or library task, such as conducting research, filling out a questionnaire, or listening to a broadcast on National Public Radio. Writing Follow-up These short writing tasks are paired with the discussion activities and include summaries, reports, letters, and case studies. Students also practice the writing technique introduced in the chapter. These varied activities, some of which are collaborative, encourage different rhetorical strategies and modes of writing (description, narration, exposition, argumentation) and focus students attention on content, purpose, audience, tone, and other important aspects of composition. INTRODUCTION xi • Changes in the Second Edition This new edition of New Directions represents a substantial revision of the first edition, while retaining the integrated approach to reading, writing, and critical thinking. Major changes in the second edition include the following: • A new chapter on the mass media and technology • An increased development of writing skills, with new sections to accompany the core readings - A Writers Technique and Writing Follow-up • A major new section in the middle of the book - The Essentials of Writing - that can be used as a handy reference tool for all writing assignments • Many new and updated readings • Sidebars within the readings, presenting varied points of view and additional information • A notetaking task that students engage in while reading • A humor section for each chapter, with a thematically related joke and cartoon • Internet and library activities to develop students language and research skills • One Web-based activity per chapter in which students practice listening comprehension skills • More charts, graphs, and tables for practice in understanding numerical presentation of information Xii INTRODUCTION The second edition of New Directions would not have been possible without the help and support of many people. I would like to thank my colleagues Sally Blazar, Walter Harp, Sheila Katz, Joe Coroniti, Doug Kohn, and Leslie Greffenius for their friendship and encouragement during the long birth of this project. My thanks also go to Berklee College of Music for providing me with the sabbatical time necessary to undertake an extensive revision; Charles Combs, Chair of the General Education Department and Lawrence McClellan, Dean of the Professional Education Division, for their continued support; Chee-Ping Ho, Professional Education Division Technology Coordinator, for his assistance with technical matters; and my many students, whose insightful responses to the readings and activities helped shape the final form of the book. I am grateful to the following reviewers for their thoughtful criticism: Lida Baker, American Language Center, University of California, Los Angeles; Jon Beesing, American Language Institute, New York University; Wayne Conrad, El Centra College, Dallas, Texas; Carolyn M. Heard, American Language Institute, New York University; Barbara Hockman, The City College of San Francisco; April Muchmore-Vokoun, English Language Institute, University of Florida; and Cynthia Zeki, Roosevelt University, Chicago. For the editing and production of the book, I would like to thank Susan Joseph, freelance copyeditor, for her sharp eye and pedagogical suggestions and Don Williams for his creative typesetting. I am particularly indebted to the editors and staff at Cambridge University Press: Ann Garrett and Helen Lee, project editors, for their guidance; Mary Sandre, Editorial Controller, and Pam Harris, Assistant Editor, for their help with the permissions process; and, especially, Joe McVeigh, development editor, for his judgment, comradeship, and keen use of Occams razor; and Bernard Seal, commissioning editor, for his counsel, wit, and unfailing ability to detect infelicities. I am ever grateful to my parents - to my mother, for her enthusiasm, compassion, and good cheer and to my father, whose artistic passion and insight into human nature inform every aspect of my teaching. I am also thankful to my daughters, Claire and Renee, for sustaining me with their energy, laughter, and curiosity and for helping me hear the mermaids sing. Finally, my special thanks to Clotilde Raemy-Gardner, my wife, for her honesty, forbearance, and moral support. Without her help, this book would not have been completed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XIII Intercultural Communication A WRITERS TECHNIQUE Main Ideas and Supporting Details In this chapter, you will explore cultural differences in values, beliefs, and behaviors and the intercultural problems that sometimes result from these differences. You will consider how people from diverse cultures regard time, express themselves verbally and nonverbally, and interact successfully. Questions Raised in Chapter One Working with a partner or in a small group, discuss two or three of the following questions. 1 Are there more similarities or more differences among people around the world in the way they think, behave, and communicate? 2 What are the most important social and cultural values influencing your own beliefs and behavior? 3 What are the major obstacles to intercultural communication? How can they be reduced? 4 If you live in another culture for an extended period of time, should you embrace the proverb When in Rome, do as the Romans do? 5 Do you think that when you live in a new culture your values, opinions, or behavior change in any way? Brief Quotations The following quotations deal with intercultural issues considered in this chapter. Working with a partner or in a small group, choose two or three quotations and discuss them. 1 There never were, in the world, two opinions alike, no more than two hairs, or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity. (Montaigne, French essayist) 2 There is no longer division between what is foreign and what is domestic — the world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world arms race - they affect us all. (William Jefferson Clinton, U.S. president) 3 All people are the same. It is only their habits that are different. (Confucius, Chinese philosopher) 4 Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones. (Charlotte Bronte, English writer) 5 I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist, and Confucian. (Mohandas Gandhi, Indian nationalist and spiritual leader) 6 No object is mysterious. The mystery is in your eye. (Elizabeth Bowen, U.S. author) CORE READING 1 American Values and Assumptions Journal Writing In your journal, write for ten to fifteen minutes about one or two cultural differences youve noticed while living in a foreign country or in a place that is culturally different from where you grew up. Then share your thoughts with several classmates. Previewing the Topic Read the first paragraph of American Values and Assumptions, in which the author discusses the concept of values. Then write a list of three or four major values in your culture. Discuss your list in a small group and then write a list of all the cultural values on the board. Agreeing and Disagreeing To what extent do you agree with the following statements? Fill in each blank with SA (strongly agree), A (agree), U (undecided), D (disagree), or SD (strongly disagree). Then share your responses with several classmates. ____ 1 Its usually better to do things by yourself than to accept help from other people. ___ 2 Not everyones opinions are equally valid and worthy of consideration. ____ 3 People do not have control over their own destinies. ____ 4 Nature should be controlled and used in the service of human beings. ___ 5 When young people are eighteen years old, they should be encouraged to move away from home. ____ 6 Competition is a strong value in my culture. ____ 7 If someone does something that bothers you, you should express your feelings openly and directly to the person. ___ 8 When living in a foreign country, you should try to assimilate by embracing the nations customs and practices. ____ 9 People in my culture are quite informal in their personal and professional relationships. ____10 Its better to focus on the future than to think too much about your cultures past - its customs, traditions, and heritage. CHAPTER ONE Intercultural Communication Taking Notes While You Read As you read the selection, underline or highlight the passages that identify major U.S. values. Then, in the margin next to a marked passage, indicate how prominent the value is in your culture by writing very strong, strong, not very strong, or weak. American Values and Assumptions ^ Gary Althen Gary Althen was a foreign student adviser at the University of Iowa for many years. He has written several books based on his experiences living in Peru and Malaysia and on his extensive work with students, immigrants, and other visitors to the United States. This reading is taken from a chapter in American Ways: A Guide for Foreigners in the United States, second edition (2003). People who grow up in a particular culture share certain values and assumptions. 1 That does not mean they all share exactly the same values to exactly the same extent. It does mean that most of them, most of the time, agree with each others ideas about what is right and wrong, desirable and undesirable, and so on. They also agree, mostly, with each others assumptions about human nature, social relationships, and so on. . . . Notice that the values and assumptions discussed below overlap with and support 2 each other. In general, they agree with each other. They fit together. A culture can be viewed as a collection of values and assumptions that go together to shape the way a group of people perceives and relates to the world around them. INDIVIDUALISM The most important thing to understand about Americans is probably their з devotion to individualism. They are trained from very early in their lives to consider themselves as separate individuals who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destinies. Theyre not trained to see themselves as members of a close-knit interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or any other collectivity. You can see it in the way Americans treat their children. One day I was at a local 4 shopping mall, waiting in line to buy an Orange Julius. (An Orange Julius is a cool drink made in a blender with orange juice, ice, and some other ingredients.) Behind me in the line was a woman with two children, a boy who was about three years old and a girl who was about five. The boy had his hand in the pocket of his blue jeans, and I could hear that he had some coins in there. The boy asked his mother, Can I get an Orange Julius? 5 No, she said to him. You dont have enough money left for an Orange Julius. 6 Remember you bought that cookie a while ago. You do have enough money for a hot dog. So you could get a hot dog now if you want to. Or, you could save your money, and sometime later when you have enough money, we could come back here and you could get an Orange Julius. CORE READING 1 American Values and Assumptions 5 When I tell this story to people from other countries, they usually react with 7 disbelief. The idea that a child so young would even have his own money to spend, let alone be expected to decide how to spend it, seems beyond their comprehension. Here is a young child whose own mother is forcing him to make a decision that affects not just his situation at the moment - whether or not to get a hot dog - but that will affect him at some unspecified time in the future, when he will have more money. But when Americans hear the story, they usually understand it perfectly well. This 8 mother is helping her son learn to make his own decisions and to be accountable for his own money. Some American parents might not expect a three-year-old to make a decision about how to spend money, but they certainly understand what the mother is doing. She is getting her son ready for a world in which he will be responsible for his choices and their consequences. Even his own mother wont be helping him later in life, and he needs to be ready for that. This particular mother may or may not have owned a copy of Dr. Benjamin 9 Spocks famous book, Dr. Spocks Baby and Child Care, to which millions of American parents have long turned for information and advice on raising their children. The most recent version of the book makes this observation: In the United States . . . very few children are raised to believe that their personal destiny is to serve their family, their country, their God [as is the practice in some other countries]. Generally children [in the United States] are given the feeling that they can set their own aims and occupation in life, according to their inclinations. Were raising them to be rugged individualists ____ (1998; p. 7) While it has become more acceptable in light of changing economic circumstances ю (especially higher housing costs) for young adults to live in their parents house, the ideal of independence after high school graduation remains. If it is economically feasible for them to do so, young adult Americans are expected to live apart from their parents, either on their own or in college, or risk being viewed as immature, tied to their mothers apron strings, or otherwise unable to lead a normal, independent life. . . . Americans are trained to conceive of themselves as separate individuals, and 11 they assume everyone else in the world is too. When they encounter a person from abroad who seems to them excessively concerned with the opinions of parents, with following traditions, or with fulfilling obligations to others, they assume that the person feels trapped or is weak, indecisive, or overly dependent. They assume all people must resent being in situations where they are not free to make up their own …