The Prose Reader: Essays for Thinking, Reading, and Writing

The Prose Reader promotes the skills of thinking, reading, and writing, enabling the user to think more clearly and logically—both in his/her mind and on paper. Prose models are intended to inspire, encouraging improved writing with a partnership with some of the best examples of professional prose available today. Each chapter begins with an explanation of a single technique, with essays that follow each chapter introduction selected from a wide variety of well-known contemporary authors. It helps readers discover various ways of thinking about and analyzing the essay. The book progresses from selections that require literal skills (Description, Narration, and Example) through readings involving more interpretation (Process Analysis, Division/Classification, Comparison/Contrast, and Definition) to essays that demand a high degree of analytical thought (Cause/Effect and Argument/Persuasion). An excellent and demanding reader for anyone interested in building their reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Based on the assumption that lucid thinking, reading, and writing are so closely interwoven as to be one process, this reader helps students improve their abilities to think, read, and write on progressively more sophisticated levels by providing a collection of 56 provocative, interesting, rhetorically organized essays accompanied by a dynamic, unique pedagogical apparatus that includes clear, well-developed rhetorical introductions, sample student essays, and carefully sequenced prereading and prewriting questions, comprehension questions, and flexible writing assignments. The essays cover a broad range of contemporary topics and portray the universality of human experience as expressed through the viewpoints of men and women, many different ethnic and racial groups, and a variety of ages and social classes.