4: Narration

Maya Angelou, “Champion of the World”

Amy Tan, “Fish Cheeks”

Aaron Smith, “Rat Pack”

Annie Dillard, “The Chase”

Junot Díaz, “The Dreamer”

Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”

National Geographic, From the “Pine Ridge Community Storytelling Project”

National Geographic, From the “Pine Ridge Community Storytelling Project”

5: Description

Brad Manning, “Arm Wrestling with My Father”

Sarah Vowell, “Shooting Dad”

Elizabeth Gilbert, “The Best Pizza in the World”

Sven Birkerts, “Ladder”

Joyce Carol Oates, “Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942”

Joan Didion, “The Santa Ana”

Joan Didion, “The Santa Ana”

6: Example

Kellie Young, “The Undercurrent”

Michael Chabon, “XO9”

Anna Quindlen, “Homeless”

Juliet Lapidos, “That’s So Mysto: What Makes Slang Stick?”

Brent Staples, “Black Men and Public Space”

Luis Alberto Urrea, “Life on the Mississippi”

Luis Alberto Urrea, “Life on the Mississippi”

7: Comparison and Contrast

Suzanne Britt, “Neat People vs. Sloppy People”

Dave Barry, “Batting Clean-Up and Striking Out”

Andrea Roman, “We’re Not…”

Bruce Catton, “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”

David Sedaris, “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa”

Fatema Mernissi, “Size 6: The Western Woman’s Harem”

Fatawesome, “Cat-Friend vs. Dog-Friend”

Fatawesome, “Cat-Friend vs. Dog-Friend”

8: Process Analysis

Firoozeh Dumas, “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful”

June Melby, “How to Make a Sno-Cone”

Dan Koeppel, “Taking a Fall”

Linnea Saukko, “How to Poison the Earth”

Jessica Mitford, “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain”

Dove, “Evolution”

Dove, “Evolution”

9: Division or Analysis

Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, “Vampires Never Die”

James Parker, “Our Zombies, Ourselves”

Robert Lipsyte, “Jock Culture”

Francine Prose, “What Words Can Tell”

Laila Ayad, “The Capricious Camera”

Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”

Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”

10: Classification

Deborah Tannen, “But What Do You Mean?”

William Lutz, “The World of Doublespeak”

Russell Baker, “The Plot against People”

Ashley Herzog, “College Classes for Conservatives to Avoid”

Jeff Wise, “Deadly Mind Traps”

US Census Bureau, “America’s Foreign Born in the Last 50 Years”

US Census Bureau, “America’s Foreign Born in the Last 50 Years”

11: Cause and Effect

Chitra Divakaruni, “Live Free and Starve”

Marie Javdani, “Plato o Plomo: Silver or Lead”

Dan Ariely, “Why We Lie”

Christopher Beam, “Blood Loss”

Chris Anderson, “The Rise and Fall of the Hit”

Bonnie Berkowitz and Laura Stanton, “Roller Coasters: Feeling Loopy”

Bonnie Berkowitz and Laura Stanton, “Roller Coasters: Feeling Loopy”

12: Definition

Gloria Naylor, “The Meanings of a Word”

Christine Leong, “Being a Chink”

Meghan Daum, “Narcissist — Give It a Rest”

Barbara Kingsolver, Rural Delivery

Augusten Burroughs, “How to Identify Love by Knowing What It’s Not”

Schroeder Jones, “Dr. Carmella’s Guide to Understanding the Introverted”

Schroeder Jones, “Dr. Carmella’s Guide to Understanding the Introverted”

13: Argument and Persuasion

Linda Chavez, “Supporting Family Values”

Katha Pollitt, “What’s Wrong with Gay Marriage?”

Charles Colson, “Gay ‘Marriage’: Societal Suicide”

Nicholas Carr, “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty”

Jim Harper, “Web Users Get as Much as They Give”

Lori Andrews, “Facebook Is Using You”

Bill McKibben, “Waste Not, Want Not”

Derrick Jensen, “Forget Shorter Showers”

Margaret Lundberg, “Eating Green”

Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”

Reader’s Digest, “The Essay That Rocked the Internet”

Andrew Cohen, “‘Having It All’? How about ‘Doing the Best I Can’?”

Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”

Reader’s Digest, “The Essay That Rocked the Internet”

Andrew Cohen, “‘Having It All’? How about ‘Doing the Best I Can’?”

Part Three: Mixing the Methods

Sherman Alexie, “Superman and Me”

Judy Brady, “I Want a Wife”

Judith Ortiz Cofer, “The Cruel Country”

Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream”

Maxine Hong Kingston, “No Name Woman”

George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”

E. B. B. White, “Once More to the Lake”

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments