A reader for college writers rhetorical methods and models (2nd ed )

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title:

A Reader for college writers Includes index 1 College readers 2 English language—Rhetoric 1 Loewe, Ralph E PE1417.R35 1985 808'.0427 84-18324 ISBN 0-13-753641-0 (pbk.)

To Bess, Deborah and Pradip, and Ron and Carla

Editorial/production supervision and interior design: Hilda Tauber Cover design: Diane Saxe

Manufacturing buyer: Harry P Baisley

Printed in the United States of America 1098765 4321

ISBN O-13-753b42-0 O1

PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London

PRENTICE-HALL OF AusTRALiA Pry Limirep, Sydney EDITORA PRENTICE-HALL bO BRASIL, Lrpa., Rio de Janeiro

PRENTICE-HALL CaNnaDaA Inc., Toronto

PRENTICE-HALL HISPANOAMERICANA, § A., Mexico

PRENTICE-HALL OF ÍNDIA PRIVATE LIMITEb, Nứ@ Dalhi PRENTICE-HALL OF ]APAN, ỨNG.,- Tolyo

PRENTICE-HALL OF SOUTHEAST ASIA PTE L/TP., $og4ore

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Contents Preface: To the Student ix To the Teacher x Thematic Contents xử

READING WELL TO WRITE WELL 7,

The Quick-Reading Process 2 The Writing Process 3 Not Enough and Too Much 4 Style 5 Simplicity and Style 7 The Crime Called “Plagiarism” 7 2 section 2A section 2B NARRATION 9

A Joke: INSIDE OUT 70 A Hottentot Folk Tale: THE ORIGIN OF DEATH 10 A Buddhist Myth: THE BIRTH OF BUDDHA 77 A Legal Brief: TIMMS VERSUS ONDEGO ELECTRIC 72 Two News Stories 72 A Case History: MIKE, F Red! and D Wineman 14 An Interview: HARRY TRUMAN GOES TO WORK, Merle Miller 16 A Historic Episode: A FISTFUL OF SALT, L Collins and D Lapierre 17 UNIVERSITY DAYS, James Thurber 20 IN BUSINESS, Piri Thomas 22

CONFESSIONS OF A WORKING STIFF, Patrick Fenton 24 Further Readings 27 Review of Narration 27

Writing Narration Papers 28 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 29

3

section 3A

DESCRIPTION 34

“Wanted Poster 35 Personals 36 Real Estate and Situation-Wanted Ads 37 Product Advertisements 38 Technical Descriptions: THE HEART 39

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section 3B

section 3C

Places and Things: HOUSES ARE LIKE SENTINELS, N Scott Momaday 42 THE UNIVERSAL WAITING ROOM, William K Zinsser 42 THE SEWING ROOM, Mary McCarthy 43 A SORROWFUL ROOM, Edgar Allan Poe 43 THE COTTAGE, Catherine Drinker Bowen 44 — THE KITCHEN, Alfred Kazin 44 MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD: UNCLE JOHN'S FARM, Samuel L Clemens 46 REMINISCENCES OF CHILDHOOD, Dylan Thomas 48

DINTY MOORE, Shana Alexander 50 GEORGE FOREMAN, Norman Mailer 57 A KIOWA GRANDMOTHER, WN Scott Momaday 51 THOMAS GRADGRIND, Charles Dickens 52 DINOSAUR, Michael Swift 52 MEGGIE CLEARY’S BIRTHDAY, Colleen McCullogh 55

Further Readings 58 Review of Description 58

Writing Description Papers 58 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 59

INTRODUCTION TO EXPOSITION 64

Terminology 64 Outlining 66 Summarizing 68 Introductions and Conclusions 68 — Study-Reading Expository Writing 69 Writing

Exposition 77 Three Examples of Analogy: THE RIDERS AND THE RIDDEN, Edward Bellamy 71 THE ATOM AND THE SHILLELAGH, Stephen Leacock 73 WAR IS CANCER OF MANKIND, Sydney J, Harris 74 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 76 5 " section 5A section 5B section 5C EXAMPLES 87

JUST A TAD DIFFERENT, Time editors 82 THE ART OF LOVE, Ovid 83 -_THE-CASE-FOR.CONCISENESS, John_A Trimble._.84 POSSESSED_BY

A FEAR OF DEATH, Gordon Parks 87

KENNEDY, Theodore Sorensen 89 BITTER MEDICINE, Russell Baker 97 THE ENVIRONMENT OF LANGUAGE, Norman Cousins 94 THE UGLIEST WORD, H Allen Smith 97

TALES WITH A POINT OF VIEW, Merlin Stone 99 THE EMERGING PLASTIC IMAGE OF MAN, Vance Packard 103

Further Readings 106 Review of Development by Example 106 Writing Example Papers 106 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 108 vi 6 section 6A section 6B section 6C CONTENTS CLASSIFICATION = 772

POPULAR MECHANICS, Table of Contents 113 THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, Best Sellers List 174 PLL HAVE ONE OF EACH, L K Engel and D Houlgate 116 THREE TYPE THEORY, Robert J Ringer 116 THE EVILS OF CONSISTENCY, Kenneth Roberts 117

TYPES OF WHALES, Rachel L Carson 118 TYPES OF CORAL REEFS, F D Ommanney 119 FOUR TYPES OF STUDENTS, Thomas Fuller 120

MOSQUITO REPORT, M R Montgomery 121 THE FINE ART OF MARITAL

FIGHTING, Shana Alexander 123 WEASEL WORDS: GOD'S LITTLE HELPERS,

Paul Stevens 125

“WINNING” AND “LOSING” AT WORK, Michael Maccoby 132 Further Readings 798 Review of Classification” 738

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7 section 7A section 7B section 7C COMPARISON/CONTRAST 147

BIG FROG IN SMALL POND OR ? Peter F Drucker 148 UNIVERSITIES AND ATHLETES, Harold W, Stoke 149 THE NATURAL SUPERIORITY OF WOMEN, Ashley Montagu 149 HITLER AND MUSSOLINI, S B Clough et al 150 ANTS AND MEN, Norbert Wiener 150 MACHIAVELLI AND GUICCIARDINI, Luigi

Barzini 151 THE WASHINGTON AND CROCKETT MYTHS, Daniel J Boorstin 152 COMIC STRIPS NOW SHOW THE STATE OF OUR SOCIETY, Cari T Rowan 154

UNDERCOVER DISCOVERIES IN THE WORLD OF FASHION, Andy Rooney 156

WITCHDOCTORS AND THE UNIVERSALITY OF HEALING, E Fuller Torrey 158 CAN MAN SURVIVE? William Safire 160 BRAINS VERSUS COMPUTERS, W T Wiliams 162

ORWELL'S 1984 A GRIM REALITY, Helen Worthington 165 ORWELL'S 1984 BLISSFULLY IRRELEVANT, Amnon Rubinstein 167 PICTURES OF WAR,

Gilbert Highet 170

Further Readings 174 Review of Comparison/Contrast Patterns 175

Writing Comparison/Contrast Papers 775 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 176 8 section 8A section 8B section 8C PROCESS ANALYSIS 783

HOW WE BREATHE 7184 FORMATION OF THE EARTH, Rachel L

Carson 184 HOW PLYWOOD iS MADE 185 UNCLOGGING A DRAIN, Bernard Gladstone 185

HOW BREAD HAS BEEN TURNED INTO SAWDUST, John Hess 187 HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT SEX AND BIRTH, Anne C Bernstein 190 THE MONASTIC WAY OF DEATH, Matthew Kelty 192 TO DISPEL FEARS OF LIVE BURIAL, Jessica Mitford 194 THE FIRST APPENDECTOMY, Wiliam A

Nolen 199 THE BALDNESS EXPERIMENT, George De Leon 203

HOW | DESIGNED AN A-BOMB IN MY JUNIOR YEAR AT PRINCETON, J A Phillips and D Michaelis 207 STARFOLK: A FABLE, Carl Sagan 212

Further Readings 217 Review of Process Analysis, 277

Writing Process Analysis Papers 217 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 218 vii 9 section 9A section 9B section 9C CONTENTS DEFINITION 222

WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? §=223 WHAT IS DEATH? 9224 CATCH-22, Joseph Heller 225 WHAT iS INTELLIGENCE, ANYWAY? Isaac Asimov 226 BORES, E.V.Lucas 227 WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HICCUP MY PAT? William Spooner Donald 229 THE MEANING OF CLICHE, Bergen and Cornelia Evans 237 “HAPPINESS”: ONE GREEK’S DEFINITION, Herodotus 233 THE EUPHEMISM: TELLING IT LIKE ITISN’T 235 INSTRUMENTS OF POWER: NAMING AND DEFINING, Haig Bosmajian 238

THE JOY OF SPORTS, Michael Novak 244 SPORTSWORLD: AN AMERICAN

DREAMLAND, Robert Lipsyte 248

Further Readings 252 Review of Definitions 252

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10 section 10A secbon 10B section 10C CAUSE/EFFECT 256

THE START OF THE NUCLEAR RACE 257 THE BIRTH OF LAKE

ERIE 257 “LIFE” ON DEATH ROW 268 — THE CRIME OF PUNISHMENT, Kari

Menninger 259 THE GRIZZLY THEY “SHOT” TOO OFTEN, Peggy Lucas

Bond 260

STUDYING UP, Laura Nader 262 “LEARNING” TO GIVE UP, Albert

Rosenfeld 263 THE CRIMINAL TYPE, Jessica Mitford 267 WHO KILLED BENNY PARET? Norman Cousins 271 THE DEATH OF BENNY PARET, Norman

Mailer 272

THE HUMANITIES CAN IRRIGATE DESERTS, Edwin J Delattre 277 MY SEARCH

FOR SOBRIETY, Blair Fuller 280 THE NIGHT THE BED FELL, James Thurber 285

Further Readings 287 Review of Cause/Effect Development 288 Writing Cause/Effect Papers 289 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 289 section 11A section LIB vill 11 CONTENTS ARGUMENTATION/PERSUASION 297

How We Make up Our Minds: Inference, Induction, Deduction 299

A PLEA FOR WORLD PEACE 303 LET THEM EAT DOG, The Plain Dealer editorial 305 PADDLING JUSTICE, New York Times editorial 306 SPARE ROD, SPOIL LAW, dames J Kilpatrick 307 A GOOD WORD FOR BAD WORDS, John Leo 309 FOUR-LETTER WORDS CAN HURT YOU, Barbara

Lawrence 317 SOJOURNER TRUTH: AND A’N’T | A WOMAN? Frances D, Gage 314

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: AN EYE FOR AN EYE, Time editors 317 DEATH TO THE ~RILLERS; Mike Royko~-318 ~ THE-DEATH-PENALTY-1S-A-STEP-BAGK;-Goretta-Scott King 320 REVIVE THE DEATH PENALTY: “YES"—interview with Professor Walter Berns 321 "NO”’—interview with Patrick V, Murphy 323 CREATIONISM IN

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: SHOULD CREATIONISM BE TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Cindy Schweich 326 CREATIONISTS GET THEIR DAY IN COURT, Christianity Today editors 327 CREATIONISM: A CASE FOR EQUAL TIME,.Norman L Geisler 318 ALAW TO LIMIT THE OPTIONS, George M Marsden 332 WHY

WE SHOULD NOT TEACH CREATIONISM IN THE SCHOOLS, Clyde Freeman

Herreidll 335 SHOULD CREATION SCIENCE BE TAUGHT? Michael Ruse 336 Further Readings 338 Review of Argumentation/Persuasion 339

‘Writing Argumentation- Papers 339 DEMONSTRATION ASSIGNMENT 339

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ix CONTENTS

TO THE STUDENT

Some people say that words are cheap and that actions speak louder

And it’s true that most of the thousands of words we see and hear each

day are cheap and meaningless Yet negotiators may argue for days

about the words in a contract, diplomats often spend months on the wording of a treaty; and judges must know the letter of the law before they can invoke the death penalty

Language is a much more powerful instrument than most people realize Throughout the world, mastery of the written language is a major factor in upward social and economic mobility In India riots occurred when an attempt was made to impose one national language, Hindi, on a country where many languages and hundreds of dialects are spoken People fear that those who already know Hindi well will have a

distinct advantage in gaining entrance to colleges and in the job market In Quebec the French Canadians have been insisting on the primacy of

the French language In countries like India, China, and the U.S.S.R

English is important as a second language because it is the language of

international trade and finance and of advanced, technology and science In North America who can succeed in business or industry without mas- tering English?

This book is meant to help you improve your skills in reading and writing the kind of English used in the college and business worlds De- veloping these skills takes patience and practice-—and the critical evalua- tion of your instructor Reading provides the material to write about; it broadens your vocabulary and gives you a feeling for the rhythms of your language and the many forms in which ideas can be expressed Reading sharpens your critical faculties, makes you aware of counterfeit thinkers, and introduces you to men and women with wit, humor, insight, and wisdom Not many people become professional writers, but the writing skills you learn in this course will help you express your ideas

more effectively—a quality that will contribute to both your professional

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x PREFACE

I hope that you will have some mind-expanding experiences and a great deal of pleasure as you read, discuss, and write about the various selections in this book, The best education, after all, prepares a student not just to make a living, but also to live a rich and fruitful life

TO THE TEACHER

New to this edition are:

ing techniques and to the expository writing process

subject, outline, summarize, write introductions and conclusions, credit

sources, write rough drafts, and produce finished papers

A READER FOR COLLEGE WRITERS is designed to entice the

student who is disinclined to read and write, and to challenge the avid

reader and willing but inexperienced writer Few would argue that students who don’t read usually have little to write about That’s why, chapter by chapter, this edition focuses first on the reading process and then on the writing process Each chapter sets objectives for both reading and writing Each starts with easy material and builds to more difficult and provocative ‘selections, allowing instructors to tailor their courses to’the needs of individual students and to adapt the material to various kinds

of classes

End-of-Chapter Questions Most of the many and varied questions

in the text are designed to encourage students to think inductively Some require students to write their own thesis statements, topic sen-

tences, outlines, or summaries, because these kinds of assigaments pro-

vide excellent tests of their understanding of structure as well as meaning

Vocabulary Words.To spur students to build their vocabularies and

to develop an interest in words, vocabulary words to be defined are pro-

vided throughout the text Another vocabulary-building technique

might be to ask students to make their own lists and to avoid using the dictionary until they have first tried to define the words in context

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xi PREFACE

related to reading and writing description and narration Chapter 4 introduces the reading and writing of exposition and is followed by six

chapters which illustrate the major methods of development: example, classification, comparison/contrast, process analysis, definition, and cause/effect The special problems attending argumentation/persuasion are dealt with separately in Chapter 11 There we examine inductive and deductive thinking, unfair tactics, and logical fallacies

Rhetorical or Thematic? Should a reader be rhetorically or thematically focused? The answer is, of course, both This book attempts to stimulate ideas while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of organization and development The wide variety of subjects found in the rhetorically classified chapters are listed for convenient use in the The- matic Contents The combination provides the best of both worlds

“Ground Rules” for Student Papers An important aspect of judging student papers is the ground rules under which they are written The themes used in this text are representative of papers written in class in 50

minutes Classes discussed the subject (or subjects) of the themes in ad-

vance, and the instructor critiqued the outlines of students who required help He encouraged students to write rough drafts at home, but they could bring only topic outlines and dictionaries to class During the class period following the writing of the themes, they were allowed an additional 15 minutes for proofreading The requirement to write the final draft in class helps insure fairness in grading by limiting outside help

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For their help in producing this textbook, sincere thanks are due to editor Phil Miller and production editor Hilda Tauber; to my sharp-

pencilled friend and chief devil's advocate Norman Prange; and to Bess,

my wife, who helped at every stage of the writing process

Thanks also to the following manuscript reviewers who helped shape this second edition: Hilda P Barrow, Lenoir Community College, Kinston, N.C.; Richard Bolton, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, Maine; Dr Louis E Murphy, Bucks County Community College,

Newton, Pa.; David J Rennie, professor emeritus, Portland Community

College, Portland, Oregon; and Judith Stanford, Merrimack College,

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Thematic Contents

business and work

HARRY TRUMAN GOES TO WORK, Merle Miller 15 IN BUSINESS, Pir Thomas 22 CONFESSIONS OF A WORKING STIFF, Patrick

Fenton 24 THREE TYPE THEORY, Robert J Ringer 116 Ý “WINNING” AND “LOSING” AT WORK, Michael Maccoby 132 BIG FROG IN A SMALL POND OR, ? Peter F Drucker 148 TO DISPEL FEARS OF LIVE BURIAL, Jessica Mitford 194 “WORK (student) 254 ° AN INSIDER TELLS ABOUT BLACK UNEMPLOYMENT (student) 293

childhood memories

consumerism

~.IN-BUSINESS, PiriThomas 22 HARRY TRUMAN GOES TO.WORK, Merle Miller 18 | POPCORN, HOT DOGS, AND LOOP-THE-LOOPS (student) 32 THE SEWING ROOM, Mary McCarthy 43 THE COTTAGE, Catherine Drinker Bowen 44 THE KITCHEN, Alfred Kazin 44 | UNCLE JOHN'S FARM, Samuel L Clemens 46 / REMINISCENCES OF CHILDHOOD, Dylan Thomas 48 ~MEGGIE CLEARY'S BIRTHDAY, Colleen McCullogh 55 POSSESSED BY A FEAR OF

DEATH, Gordon Parks 87 | AM NOT AFRAID OF DEATH (student) 170 THE NIGHT THE BED FELL, James Thurber 285

BITTER: MEDICINE; Russell Baker ~97 VLL-HAVE-ONE-OF EACH; L:-K: Engel and D, Houlgate 116 WEASEL WORDS: GOD'S LITTLE HELPERS, Pau!

Stevens 125 HOW BREAD HAS BEEN TURNED INTO SAWDUST, John Hess 187

crime and punishment

TIMMS VERSUS ONDEGO ELECTRIC 12 “LIFE” ON DEATH ROW 258 THE CRIME OF PUNISHMENT, Kari Menninger 2659 STUDYING UP, Laura

Nader 262 THE CRIMINAL TYPE, Jessica Mitford 267 WHO KILLED BENNY PARET? Norman Cousins 271 THE DEATH OF BENNY PARET, Norman

Mailer 272 PADDLING JUSTICE 306 SPARE ROD, SPOIL LAW, James J Kilpatrick 307 AN EYE FOR AN EYE 377 DEATH TO THE KILLERS, Mike Royko 318 THE DEATH PENALTY IS A STEP BACK, Coretta S

King 320 REVIVE THE DEATH PENALTY? Walter Berns and Patrick V Murphy 321 and 323

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death

THE ORIGIN OF DEATH 9 POSSESSED BY A FEAR OF DEATH, Gordon Parks 87 KENNEDY, Theodore Sorensen 89 1AM NOT AFRAID OF DEATH (student) 770 THE MONASTIC WAY OF DEATH, Matthew Kelty 192 TO DISPEL FEARS OF LIVE BURIAL, Jessica Mitford 194 WHAT IS

DEATH? 224 “HAPPINESS”: ONE GREEK'S DEFINITION, Herodotus 233 “LIFE” ON DEATH ROW 258

education and raising children

history

humor

language

UNIVERSITY DAYS, James Thurber 20 IN BUSINESS, Piri

Thomas 22 THOMAS GRADGRIND, Charles Dickens 52 TALES WITH A

POINT OF VIEW, Merlin Stone 99 FOUR TYPES OF STUDENTS, Thomas

Fuller 120 PARENTS COME IN ALL SIZES (student) 144 UNIVERSITIES AND

ATHLETES, Harold W Stoke 149 HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT SEX AND BIRTH, Anne C Bernstein 190 HOW 1 DESIGNED AN A-BOMB IN MY

JUNIOR YEAR AT PRINCETON, J A Phillips and D Michaelis 207 PADDLING JUSTICE 306 SPARE ROD, SPOIL LAW, James J Kilpatrick 307 DON’T BEAT THE STUDENTS (student) 342 (See also Religion for creationism versus evolution articles.)

TWO NEWS STORIES 72 KENNEDY, Theodore Sorensen 89 THE EVILS OF CONSISTENCY, Kenneth Roberts 117 HITLER AND MUSSOLINI, S B

Clough 160 MACHIAVELLI AND GUICCIARDINI, Luigi Barzini 157 ORWELLS

1984-—A GRIM REALITY, Helen Worthington 165 ORWELL’S 1984-—-BLISSFULLY IRRELEVANT, Amnon Rubinstein 167 | PICTURES OF WAR, Gilbert

Highet 170 “HAPPINESS": ONE GREEK’S DEFINITION,

Herodotus 233 SOJOURNER TRUTH: AND A'N'T | A WOMAN? Frances D Gage 314

INSIDE OUT 70 UNIVERSITY DAYS, James Thurber 20 UNCLE JOHN'S FARM, Samuel L Clemens 68 JUST A TAD DIFFERENT 82 THE ART OF LOVE, Ovid 83 BITTER MEDICINE, Russell Baker 91 THE UGUIEST WORD, H Allen Smith 97 MOSQUITO REPORT, M.A Montgomery 127 THE FINE ART OF MARITAL FIGHTING, Sharia Alexander 123 COMIC STRIPS NOW SHOW THE STATE OF OUR SOCIETY, Carl T Rowan 154 UNDERCOVER

DISCOVERIES IN THE WORLD OF FASHION, Andy Rooney 156 THE BALDNESS

EXPERIMENT, George De Leon 203 HANG IT ALL or HOW | PAPERED MY

ROOM (student) 220 CATCH-22, Joseph Heller 225 WHAT 1S INTELLIGENCE, ANYWAY? isaac Asimov 226 BORES, £ V Lucas 227 WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HICCUP MY PAT? William Spooner Donald 229 THE NIGHT THE BED

FELL, James Thurber 285

JUST A TAD DIFFERENT 82 THE CASE FOR CONCISENESS, John R Trimble 84 THE ENVIRONMENT OF LANGUAGE, Norman Cousins 94 THE UGLIEST WORD, H Allen Smith 97 WEASEL WORDS: GOD'S LITTLE HELPERS, Paul Stevens 125 WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HICCUP MY PAT? William Spooner Donald 229 THE MEANING OF CLICHE, Bergen and Cornelia Evans 231 THE EUPHEMISM: TELLING IT LIKE ITISN'T 235 INSTRUMENTS OF POWER: NAMING AND DEFINING, Haig Bosmajian 238 A GOOD WORD FOR BAD WORDS, John Leo 309 FOUR-LETTER WORDS CAN HURT YOU, Barbara Lawrence 311

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love, marriage, sexism

personalities

DINOSAUR, Michael Swift 52 MIKE AND ME AND THE MAPLE TREE

(student) 78 THE ART OF LOVE, Ovid 83 TALES WITH A POINT OF VIEW,

Merlin Stone 99 THE FINE ART OF MARITAL FIGHTING, Shana

Alexander 123 PARENTS COME IN ALL SIZES (student) 144 THE NATURAL

SUPERIORITY OF WOMEN, Ashley Montagu 149 HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT SEX AND BIRTH, Anne C Bernstein 190 FOUR-LETTER WORDS

CAN HURT YOU, Barbara Lawrence 311 SOJOURNER TRUTH: AND A’N'T} A WOMAN, Frances D Gage 314

MIKE, 14 A FISTFUL OF SALT, L Collins and D Lapierre 17 DINTY MOORE, Shana Alexander 50 GEORGE FOREMAN, Norman Mailer 51 A KIOWA GRANDMOTHER, N Scott Momaday 51 THOMAS GRADGRIND, Charles Dickens 82 DINOSAUR, Michael Swift 52 STEVE—THE GREASER (student) 67 KENNEDY, Theodere Sorensen 89 THREE TYPE THEORY, Robert J, Ringer 116 FOUR TYPES OF STUDENTS, Thomas Fuller 120 “WINNING” AND “LOSING” AT WORK, Michael Maccoby, 132

BORES, £ V Lucas 227 WILL SOMEONE PLEASE HICCUP

MY PAT? William Spooner Donaid 229 SOJOURNER TRUTH: AND A’N’T I A WOMAN? Frances D Gage 314

politics and society psychology

religion

A FISTFUL OF SALT, L Collins and D Lapierre 17 THE RIDERS AND THE RIDDEN, Edward Bellamy 71 WAR IS CANCER OF MANKIND, Sydney J Harris 74 TALES WITH A POINT OF VIEW, Merlin Stone 99 THE EMERGING PLASTIC IMAGE OF MAN, Vance Packard, 103 ANTS AND MEN, Norbert

“Wiener 150” COMIC STRIPS SHOW THE STATE OF OUR SOCIETY, Car T Rowan 154 CAN MAN SURVIVE? William Safire 160 LET THEM EAT

DOG 305 (See also History for Orwell listings, and selections under Crime and Punishment.)

MIKE 374 THE FINE ART OF MARITAL FIGHTING, Shana Alexander 123

“WINNING” AND “LOSING” AT WORK, Michael

Maccoby 132 WITCHDOCTORS AND THE UNIVERSALITY OF HEALING, £ Fuller Torrey 158 HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT SEX AND BIRTH, Anne C Bernstein 190 THE BALDNESS EXPERIMENT, George De Leon 203

CATCH-22, Joseph Heller 225 “LEARNING” TO GIVE UP, Albert Rosenfeld 263 MY SEARCH FOR SOBRIETY, Blair Fuller 280

THE BIRTH OF BUDDHA 17 TALES WITH A POINT OF VIEW, Merlin

Stone 99 “HAPPINESS”: ONE GREEK’S DEFINITION, Herodotus 233 THE

JOY OF SPORTS, Michael Novak 244 SHOULD CREATIONISM BE TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS? Cindy Schweich 326 CREATIONISTS GET THEIR DAY IN COURT 327 CREATIONISM: A CASE FOR EQUAL TIME, Norman L

Geisler 328 A LAW TO LIMIT THE OPTIONS, George M Marsden 332

WHY WE SHOULD NOT TEACH CREATIONISM iN THE SCHOOLS, Clyde F

Herreid 1 335 SHOULD CREATION SCIENCE BE TAUGHT? Michael Ruse 336

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sclence

THE HEART 56 THE ATOM AND THE SHILLELAGH, Stephen

Leacock 73 THE EMERGING PLASTIC IMAGE OF MAN, Vance

Packard 103 ANTS AND MEN, Norbert Wiener 150 WITCHDOCTORS AND THE UNIVERSALITY OF HEALING, & Fuller Torrey 158 BRAINS VERSUS

COMPUTERS, W T Williams 162 HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT SEX

AND BIRTH, Anne C Bernstein 790 THE FIRST APPENDECTOMY, William A

Nolen 799 | THE BALDNESS EXPERIMENT, George De Leon 203 HOW! DESIGNED AN A-BOMB IN MY JUNIOR YEAR AT PRINCETON, J A Phillips and D

Michaelis 207 STARFOLK: A FABLE, Cari Sagan 212 THE GRIZZLY THEY “SHOT’TOO OFTEN, Peggy L Bond 260 (See also evolution versus creationism

atticles listed under Religion.)

sports

UNIVERSITY DAYS, James Thurber 20 UNIVERSITIES AND ATHLETES, Harold W Stoke 149° THE HEAVEN AND HELL OF SPORTS (student) 180 THE JOY OF SPORTS, Michael Novak 244 SPORTSWORLD: AN AMERICAN DREAMLAND,

Robert Lipsyte 248 = WHO KILLED BENNY PARET? Norman Cousins 277

THE DEATH OF BENNY PARET, Norman Mailer 272

war and peace

WAR IS CANCER OF MANKIND, Sydney J, Harris 74 | PICTURES OF WAR, Gilbert Highet 170 THE START OF THE NUCLEAR RACE 257° APLEAFOR WORLD PEACE 303

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True ease in writing comes from art, not chance As those move easiest who have learned to dance

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to Write Well

You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing’s vile hard reading

——RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN

Good writing, as Sheridan suggests, is hard work Having struggled

through many English courses over the years, you have probably long

been aware of that By now, however, you know a great deal about writing as well as reading, and this text will help you build on that

knowledge

This chapter introduces the reading and writing aids provided throughout the book and offers a number of special sections: “The Quick-Reading Process,” “The Writing Process,” “Not Enough and Too Much,” “Style,” “Simplicity and Style,” and “The Crime Called

an

‘Plagiarism’

READING AIDS

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impor-tance of individual words Under the heading Further Readings you will

find suggestions for other enjoyable reading materials that are relevant

Two additional tools will deepen your reading comprehension:

outlining and summarizing When you can’t quite pin down the main idea

of an article after reading it several times, outlining can provide the solu-

tion It helps you isolate the main thrust of the article and see the rela- tionship of the parts to the whole Similarly, summarizing helps you to test your understanding of what you have read and to memorize it when necessary For this reason, both techniques are discussed in this and later chapters, and both are included in the exercises

WRITING AIDS

You read for knowledge and enjoyment, but as you read this text keep

in mind that your purpose is to improve your writing Everything in the

chapters ahead is geared toward that end The many reading selections were carefully chosen from the mainstream of American writing instead of from exclusively literary sources There is, to be sure, much good writing here that provides a variety of models for you to emulate There is also some bad writing, which is included as examples of what to avoid

While outlining helps you understand what you read, it also helps

you plan what you write For this reason outlining is considered to be an intrinsic part of the writing process throughout the text

The Quick-Reading-Process

2

The quick-reading process will swiftly acquaint you with the purpose

and direction of assigned material before you get down to the nitty-

gritty of study-reading Tips for study-reading are provided in each of the chapters ahead

1, Quick-reading the whole beok (applicable to all textbook read-

ing) Examine particular parts to see what you have bought The book is your “take-home” ‘instriictor

scope and intent, and sometimes gives an insight into the author’s philosophy

Some are so detailed they can be used as study guides when reviewing

for tests This book has, in addition to a rhetorical table of contents,

one that organizes the material thematically Your instructor may pre-

fer to use a course outline that doesn’t follow the order of the book

questions? Is there an index, a glossary, a bibliography? Knowing what your textbook offers can save you hours in the library looking

for material you already have

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2 Quick-reading the whole chapter (in this text) Survey the chapter much as you did the book to learn what the chapter contains overall before examining its particulars

3 Quick-reading the longer articles Since reading techniques differ for different kinds of writing, the appropriate techniques will be discussed as we deal with the various rhetorical methods However, follow the suggestions below when reading all selections:

© Read the title Keep it in mind as you read Sometimes it’s there just to catch attention Sometimes it states the main idea of the selection © Note the author's name If you have read anything else by this writer, it

may serve as a hint of what to expect Perhaps you recognize the writer as a satirist, a radical, or a very conservative politician

right date will tell you whether it’s up-to-date or out-of-date De- pending on the subject matter, the date may or may not be pertinent

The Writing Process

3

Listed below are the major steps to take in any kind of writing Specific directions for writing narration, description, exposition, and argumentation will be found in the respective chapters

1 You've read and understood the reading selections and outlined or summarized when necessary You’ve studied the selections for organization, content, and style

2 You know the type of rhetorical development that you’re supposed to follow and have recognized how that pattern works in the sample selections

3 You've studied the Writing Focus at the end of the chapter and read the student theme

4 Now, start writing

a The worst thing to do is to do nothing Jot Scribble Draw funny faces Think about what you’ve read Think about your own experiences Gradually ideas will come Play with them

b Analyze the jottings and scribblings and try to find some center of interest

c Write a tentative thesis statement

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5 Test the thesis by asking these questions:

a Do I have enough ideas to support this thesis? b Can it be developed into the type of paper assigned?

c Is it limited enough for a good 300- to 500-word essay instead of a book?

d Will it be interesting?

6 Test the thesis by writing an outline The outline should provide an-

swers to the above questions (At this point you might also be getting ideas of what you want to say in the introduction and conclusion Jot them down.)

7 Following your outline, write a rough draft If changes come to mind as your write, change the outline If the changes require you

to revise the thesis statement, do that Be sure, however, that you

don’t get off the subject

8 Edit the rough draft for stylistic improvements 9 Write the final draft

10 Proofread the final draft

Not Enough and Too Much

4

Using the writing process described above should provide a foolproof

method of developing a good paper, but two aspects of the method need

.further consideration

Not Enough If you've tried the process and still don’t have enough

to write about, consider these suggestions:

If it’s a take-home assignment, read more about the subject, discuss it with others to get new ideas, or, as a last resort, change the subject to one you know more about

If it’s an in-class paper, call on your life experience for ideas and

use more examples, comparisons, or whatever rhetorical method of de-

velopment you have been assigned

Don’t just-add words-to fill space-or-repeat or-reword previously stated ideas Remember that bologna is bologna no matter how you slice it, and most instructors are masters of bologna detection

Too Much Many students suffer from the opposite problem— having too many ideas and letting them get out of control Even the simplest of subjects usually has more aspects than you expect Take apples, for example At first glance it may appear that there is nothing much to say about apples They're red, green, or yellow, good to eat, and sometimes harbor worms But when one really thinks about apples, the questions come thick and fast:

How many kinds of apples are there? Where do they grow? How are they marketed and shipped? What is their nutritional value? What diseases do apple trees get, and how are they treated? How does one cultivate the best apples? What are apples used for besides raw fruit? What economic value do apples have? What company produces the most applesauce? How are apples processed and canned?

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How does one go about setting up an applesauce factory? Do they really keep the doctor away?

Once you start thinking about apples, you can end up with a lot of applesauce

How, then, do you limit the subject? You start with a good thesis statement For example, a manageable thesis about apples might be “Ap- ples do help keep the doctor away” or “I fight the apple worms, and they fight back.”

The thesis statement sets the limits of the subject, the outline tests the thesis statement, and editing the rough draft allows you to weed out extraneous subject matter In writing narration you have to think about limiting the time span covered and the amount of detail to include In

writing description you must decide how big a picture to paint and how

detailed to make it Sometimes it’s better to describe one chair in great detail than to attempt to picture a whole room

Grappling with too broad a subject can leave you in mid-essay with too many words to write and too little time to write them in Style In the beginning was the Word —[OHN 1:1 Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannonballs EMERSON Proper words in proper places make the true definition of a style —]ONATHAN SWIT

Style expresses a writer’s individuality It includes word choice, tone, sentence structure, and voice

Worp Cuorce Many words have two kinds of meaning, denotative and connotative

Denotative meanings are dictionary definitions: A mother is a fe- male who has given birth to an offspring A wart is a “circumscribed hy- pertrophy of the outer regions of the corium.”

Connotative meanings derive from the ways in which words are used over a period of time and their association with certain ideas Mother brings to mind warmth, gentleness, love; dog makes many people think of faithfulness, protection, something to cuddle Consider the dif- ferences in the connotative meanings of the following words: pater, father, male parent, dad, pop; house, home, shack, pad; beautiful, pretty, chic, sexy

The good writer is always aware of the context in which his or her words are placed The experiences we have make us react to certain words in a special way If, for example, you were bitten by a dog and had to take painful antirabies shots, your reaction to the word dog would be quite different from that of a person who was recently rescued by a dog

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6

If you have been beaten regularly by your mother, the word mother

might not connote good things to you You cannot, therefore, be sure that your reader will interpret your words as you mean them unless your context helps to make their meanings clear

Words are also classified as abstract and concrete

Abstract words represent ideas, emotions, qualities, and the like:

friendship, love, patriotism, loyalty Such words are good and necessary, but they often mean different things to different people Some people, for example, believe that it is patriotic to criticize the government in order to improve it Others believe that any criticism is un-American “Love it or leave it!” they shout Some people feel that love involves a total commit-

ment to one other person; others believe that you can love more than

one person at a time, The best way to make sure that your meaning is clear is to define it fully Examples help a great deal

Concrete words are specific The more specific a word you use, the more likely it is that your reader will get the same picture you wish to

convey: dachshund is more specific than dog; six-room, brick bungalow is

much clearer than house

“Allness” words such as all, every, always, and never are often diffi-

cult or impossible to support A statement beginning with “We all know” implies that you have taken a poll and are sure of what everyone present is thinking “Everyone knows” indicates that you have the wherewithal to know what all the people on Earth know at a particular point in time “People have always acted this way and always will” says that you know everything about all people in the past as well as in the future Even the word most in “Most people agree that ” implies that you have taken af opinion poll and are sure about the opinions of more than half the population Being careful to use only words that say what you really know will help you avoid these pitfalls Your words will carry greater weight, and you will appear to others as a more mature, responsible

person

Tong Each writer conveys an attitude: aloof, friendly, cold, dis- passionate, respectful Connotation, diction, sentence structure, and voice are factors that contribute to tone The tone should be appropriate to the material and the audience One doesn’t, for example, treat a tragic situation lightly Some readers resent a tone that is too friendly, preachy, or condescending, and some don’t understand humor

SENTENCE StRucTurE Simplicity and directness in sentence structure are effective in most situations Too many short, simple sentences, however, can make writing seem childish or choppy and repetitive, but sentences should not be made long and convoluted simply to create the appearance of erudition In some situations short sentences provide drama and “punch.”

Voice Many sentences can be written in either the active or passive

voice In the active voice, the subject does the acting, possessing, feeling:

“Miss Tote fired Kempert.” “Carl owns the lot.” “Lena admires Steve.”

In the passive voice the subject, in a sense, receives the action of the verb:

“Kempert was fired by Miss Tote.” “The lot is owned by Carl.” “Steve is admired by Lena.”

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Because the passive voice is wordier and less direct, the active voice

is considered more effective for most expository writing

Simplicity and Style

Most authorities seem to agree that simplicity is the most important aspect of style In his highly praised book The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr., says:

Vigorous writing is concise A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.!

In further support of this view, William Zinsser, author, editor,

critic, and teacher, says:

the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest com- ponents Every word that serves no function, every long word that could

be a short word, every adverb which carries the same meaning that is al-

ready in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence ?

The best way to become aware of style and to develop your own is to look for it as you read the work of professionals in the pages that follow For additional articles that deal with style in particular or language in general, see the language section of the thematic table of contents

The Crime Called “Plagiarism”

7

Professional writers sell their words for money They protect their words by copyrighting them A person who uses a writer's words under his own name without permission is committing a crime If he tries to sell

those words, he can, under many circumstances, be sued Students who

use other writers’ words without properly crediting those writers are guilty of cheating and may be penalized with an F grade on the paper or, depending on the policy of the instructor, with failing the course

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CREDITING YOUR SOURCES

1, In Context You can indicate the source of your ideas either by

direct or indirect quotation in the body of your paper

Example of direct quotation:

“The scramble to get into college is going to be so terrible in the next few

years that students are going to put up with almost anything, even an education,” said Barnaby C Keeney, president of Brown University in a recent Time article

Example of indirect or paraphrased quotation:

In a recent Time article Barnaby C Keeney, President of Brown Univer-

sity, quipped that it’s going to be so hard to get into college in coming years that students may be willing to undergo even the trauma of getting an education

2 In Footnotes Footnotes appear in most chapters of this text Observe how they are used Copyright credits follow the form required

by individual publishers In student themes, sources are usually credited in context If footnotes are required, your English handbook will supply the necessary information

3 In a Bibliography For longer papers or reports, the sources consulted are often listed at the end Such lists cite both the sources of

8

direct and indirect quotations and” the works read ‘by the student for

general background information

The appropriate use and proper acknowledgment of sources add

credence and authority to your work

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Narration

READING FOCUS

® Use your knowledge of where the main idea, lesson, or moral of narrative

writing is usually found to help you read narration more quickly and effectively

® See how narration is used in various types of writing

Narration and description are discussed separately from exposition because, although both are used in expository writing, by them-

selves they differ in purpose, organization, and development While the

purpose of exposition is to explain things as clearly as possible, narra-

tion’s main function is to tell a story in chronological order, and that of

description is to reveal how things look, smell, feel, taste, and sound In this chapter and the next one we will discuss the principal char- acteristics of narration and description We’ll analyze professional and student models and present Demonstration Assignments to help pre- pare you to write your themes In this chapter the examples of narration center mostly on events The models in Chapter 3 will combine narration and description

Although many students think of narrative writing primarily as fic- tion, narration is used for a wide range of nonfiction: biography and au- tobiography, journalistic and legal writing, scientific and travel journals, social work and psychiatric case histories, and in historical and anthro- pological works Conversely, expository techniques like definition, classification, and comparison/contrast can be found in narrative writing

When narrating, the writer relates events as they move from one

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example, turn the pattern on its head, putting the latest and most impor-

tant information first In case histories, journals, and other narrative

forms, instead of unnecessarily repeating incidents that reoccur at inter- vals, the writer often summarizes them In some narrative forms, the au-

thor interrupts the events with commentary In the interview the writer can influence the narrative by the way he asks questions

Section 2A illustrates the many uses of narration Section 2B focuses on personal narrative, the kind of narrative that you will most likely be asked to write

SECTION 2A

a joke

Read the selections in this section first for content and enjoyment Next,

read them again with special attention to their structure; then, answer

the questions

INSIDE OUT

Stumbling his way homeward one dark, drizzly night, the town’s most notorious alcoholic tripped over a huge python

“Drunk!” shouted the python in its most insulting voice

Turning unsteadily on his feet, the tippler threatened, “You call

me that again an’ I’ll turn y’ inshide out!” He turned to go but tripped

over the python’s tail and fell in the gutter :

“Drunk! Drunk! Drunk!” shouted the python with even more deri-

sion in its voice

Angered beyond control, the alcoholic grabbed the python’s head,

forced its mouth open, reached inside as far as he could go, and turned the snake inside out; then proud of his feat, he marched off, victorious

But his victory was turned to ashes when the inside-out python,

using a tone reserved only for the lowest of the low, hissed “KNURD!”

a Hottentot folk tale

10 NARRATION

1

THE ORIGIN OF DEATH

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=

The insect started with the message, but, while on his way, was

overtaken by the hare, who asked, “On what errand are you bound?”

The insect answered, “I am sent by the Moon to men to tell them that as she dies and dying lives, so shall they also die and dying live.”

The hare said, “As you are an awkward runner, let me go.” With

these words he ran off, and when he reached men he said, “I am sent by

the Moon to tell you, ‘As I die and dying perish, in the same manner you also shall die and come wholly to an end.’”

The hare then returned to the Moon and told her what he had said to men The Moon reproached him angrily, saying, “Do you dare tell the people a thing which I have not said?”

With these words the Moon took up a piece of wood and struck the hare on the nose Since that day the hare’s nose has been slit, but men believe what Hare had told them,

a Buddhist myth

11 NARRATION

THE BIRTH OF BUDDHA

It is related that at that time the midsummer festival had been pro- claimed in the city of Kapilavatthu, and the multitude were enjoying the

feast And queen Maha-Maya, abstaining from strong drink, and bril-

liant with garlands and perfumes, took part in the festivities for the six days previous to the day of full moon And when it came to be the day of full moon, she rose early, bathed in perfumed water, and dispensed four hundred thousand pieces of money in great largess And decked:in full gala attire, she ate of the choicest food; after which she took the eight vows, and entered her elegantly furnished chamber of state And lying down on the royal couch, she fell asleep and dreamed the following dream:

The four guardian angels came and lifted her up, together with her couch, and took her away to the Himalaya Mountains There, in the Manosila table-land, which is sixty leagues in extent, they laid her under a prodigious sal-tree, seven leagues in height, and took up their posi- tions respectfully at one side Then came the wives of these guardian angels, and conducted her to Anotatta Lake, and bathed her, to remove every human stain And after clothing her with divine garments, they anointed her with perfumes and decked her with divine flowers Not far off was Silver Hill, and in it a golden mansion There they spread a di-

vine couch with its head toward the east, and laid her down upon it Now

the future Buddha had become a superb white elephant and was wan- dering about at no great distance on Gold Hill Descending thence, he

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a legal brief

ascended Silver Hill, and approaching from the north, he plucked a

white lotus with his silvery trunk, and trumpeting loudly, went into the golden mansion, And three times he walked round his mother’s couch, with his right side towards it, and striking her on her right side, he

seemed to enter her womb Thus the conception took place in the mid-

summer festival

DEFINE: largess (1); league, prodigious (2)

TIMMS VERSUS ONDEGO ELECTRIC

A legal brief is the formal presentation of an argument for or against a defendant or

a plaintiff, The names in this brief have been changed

In Timms v Ondego Electric (1140E373-—1965), Ondego Electric had been requested to furnish electric service to an airport In so doing, a

transformer enclosed by a fence was placed on the property Ondego Electric had no easement in the airport property; neither did Ondego

Electric have a contract with the property owner; nor did the power

company pay rent to the property owner The original owner requested

Ondego Electric to provide service, including the placing of the

transformer and any auxiliary equipment The power company placed its equipment-on-the-premises-with-the-full-knowledge-and-acquiescence of the property owner The public travelled over the airport property; in fact, there was a path within ten to twenty feet of the enclosure Dece-

dent, last seen alive walking in the direction of the airport, was later found dead within the enclosure, near the transformer He had been electrocuted At that time, the fence which formed the east wall of the

enclosure was down flat on the ground, a condition which had existed for at least five weeks Furthermore, the transformer was negligently

maintained; the transformer was upset; the lid was off, some of the wires

were broken and oil from within the transformer had spilled out upon the cement base A jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in his action for

wrongful death

DEFINE: easement, auxiliary, acquiescence, decedent, plaintiff

two news stories

12 | NARRATION

Washington, D.C., April 14, 1865

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13 NARRATION

The wildest excitement prevailed in all parts of the city Men, women and children, old and young, rushed to and fro, and the rumors were magnified until we had nearly every member of the Cabinet killed Some time elapsed before authentic data could be ascertained in regard

to the affair

The President and Mrs Lincoln were at Ford’s theatre, listening to

the performance of The American Cousin, occupying a box in the second tier At the close of the third act a person entered the box occupied by

the President, and shot Mr Lincoln in the head The shot entered the

back of his head, and came out above the temple

The assassin then jumped from the box upon the stage and ran across to the other side, exhibiting a dagger in his hand, flourishing it in a tragical manner, shouting the same words repeated by the desperado at Mr Seward’s house, adding to it, “The South is avenged,” and then escaped from the back entrance to the stage, but in his passage dropped his pistol and his hat

Mr Lincoln fell forward from his seat, and Mrs Lincoln fainted The moment the astonished audience could realize what had happened, the President was taken and carried to Mr Peterson’s house, in Tenth street, opposite to the theatre Medical aid was immediately sent for, and the wound was at first supposed to be fatal, and it was an-

nounced that he could not live, but at half-past twelve he is still alive,

though in a precarious condition

New York Herald, April 15, 1865,

DEFINE: ascertained (2); precarious (6)

Dallas, November 22, 1963

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin today

He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at him as he was riding through downtown Dallas in a motorcade

Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was riding in the third car behind Mr Kennedy’s, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States 99 minutes after Mr Kennedy's death

Mr Johnson is 55 years old; Mr Kennedy was 46

Shortly after the assassination, Lee H Oswald, who once defected

to the Soviet Union and who has been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, was arrested by the Dallas police Tonight he was accused of the killing

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a case history

14 NARRATION

F Redl and D Wineman

MIKE

Practically the whole first year he was with us at Pioneer House, Mike had almost nightly attacks of excitement and aggressiveness at bedtime which would reach a climax when the counselor would leave the sleeping room after the story reading His antics were very disturbing to the rest of the group He would make high banshee wails, striking out at his pillow like an imaginary attacker, muttering fierce counterthreats against it (I'll kill you, bastard, bitch, mother fucker) Or he might branch out into vicious aggression against one of the other children mixed with teasing erotic seduction of the other into his wild mood pattern, with occasional sex play thrown in Inevitably, every evening, we would have to take him out and sit with him for sometimes thirty to forty-five minutes He would usually start out on a high plane of hysteric

euphorics with whoever was holding him, again repeating with the adult

some of the erotic aggressiveness he had displayed toward the children,

wriggling and wanting to dart through the house so that he would have

to be physically restrained by light holding until he reinstituted some controls All along the only verbalization that was possible at all was gently soothing reassurance like “O.K., Mike, let’s quiet down, everything’s going to be O.K., you know it’s like this every night When you quiet down a little, you can go back to bed.” Should we make an attempt

to probe, to ask him what was bothering him, we got absolutely nowhere;

as a matter of fact, it only increased his upset Gradually, after about a

year at the Home, Mike began to show definite indications of some new

abilities to conceptualize some of his fantasies through words as well as

through acting them.out and.thus, in connection.with bedtime behavior, we were slowly able to get him to talk Finally, he was able to actually say that every night he was “real scared” that someone was going to “get

him” and that this was worse after the counselor left and he was alone

with the “guys.” In this way, we were able to make the connection clear to him: “When you're scared, you get wild.” It took a year before this point was reached with Mike

Reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc from Children Wh:

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an interview

15 NARRATION

1

Merle Miller

HARRY TRUMAN GOES TO WORK

Mr President, tell me about your first job

“Well, when I was ten, maybe eleven years old, I got a job at Jim Clinton’s drugstore on the northeast corner of the square in Indepen- dence I had to get there at six thirty in the morning and set up the place

so that when Mr Clinton came down, he would find everything in order

Pd mop the floor and dust off the bottles and wipe off the counters, and

then I’d wake Jim Clinton at seven.”

Did you ever have any early-morning customers?

“Oh yes, a great many The people who were church members, the

high hats in town, the ones who were afraid to go into a saloon and buy a

drink, they’d come in, and I’d have to set out a bottle of whiskey, and

they'd pay a dime for a drink before most people were up and around to see them They'd put their dimes on the counter, and I’d leave all those

dimes there until Mr Clinton came in, and he’d put them in the cash register

“All those fancy high hats, they'd say, ‘Harry, give me a drink,’ and

I'd do it And that’s where [ got my idea of what prohibitionists and high hats are That’s the reason some of them didn’t like me Because they

knew I knew their background and their history

“There were saloons all around the square, and the tough old birds who didn’t give a damn about what people think, they’d go into the saloons and buy a drink when they wanted it But as I say, the so-called

good people, the fancy ones, they'd come in and buy a drink behind the

prescription counter from a boy who didn’t have any right to sell it to them

“But that’s the way I got to well, feel a lack of respect for the counterfeits, and I don’t care where they are In Washington or

wherever.[ }

Mr President, I understand that when you were still a boy, you got a job working as timekeeper for the Santa Fe Railroad

“I worked for an old fellow named Smith L J Smith his name was,

and he was head of the construction company that was building the dou-

ble track for the Santa Fe Railroad down here from Eaton Falls to where

the Missouri Pacific comes into the Santa Fe down at Sheffield

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16 NARRATION 10

20

“I was eighteen years old, and I’d just finished high school and knew I wasn’t going to get to go to West Point So I took this job as a timekeeper I took it to help out at home, to keep my brother, Vivian, and my sister, Mary, in school My father was having a hard time with

finances just then :

“Old man Smith had three camps, and there were about a hundred

hoboes in each camp, and I got very well acquainted with them My job was to keep tabs on them, to keep track of how much time they put in, and then I'd write out their paychecks for them I’d usually write those

checks in a saloon on the north side of the square in Independence here,

a saloon called Pogunpo’s or in old man Schmidt’s saloon in Sheffield I

used to sit there and pay off those hoboes And they weren’t bad fellows They’d work for two weeks They’d get discounted if they drew their

checks before that time So they’d work two weeks, and then they'd

spend all their money for whiskey in the saloon and come back to work the next Monday morning I'd pay them off on Saturday night.[ ]

How much did those men make? -

“They made eleven dollars for two weeks’ work, and as I say, they'd

get paid on Saturday, and by Monday morning most of them had drunk it all up But it was one of the best experiences that I ever had because that was when I began to understand who the underdog, was and what

he thought about the people who were the high hats They felt just like I

did about them They didn’t have any time for them And neither did I

I always liked the underdogs better than the high hats I still do.”

Weren't you ever uneasy? I mean, you were a reader of books and wore glasses and, as you say, you'd been called a sissy

“No: No I-never-had-any-trouble-with-those-birds: “Fhey were just

as nice as they could be, and when I left, the foreman down there in

Sheffield said, ‘Harry's all right from the navel out in every direction.’

Which when you come to think of it is just about the highest compliment I ever have been paid

“Some of those hoboes had better educations than the president of

Ha-vud University, and they weren’t stuck up about it either The aver- age of them was just as smart as the smartest people in the country, and

they’d had experiences, and a lot of them told me about their experi-

ences T-hope T profited fromm it, and T think Tdid.T had to quit at the end of the summer, but my goodness, that was a great experience for me.”

I understand you learned a few cuss words that summer

“I did The words some of those men knew I'd never heard before,

but later when I was in the Army, there was an occasion or two when

those words came in handy, and I used them

“That experience also taught me that the lower classes so called are

better than the high hats and the counterfeits, and they can be trusted

more, too

“About this counterfeit business My Grandfather Young felt the same way We had a church in the front yard where the cemetery is now

And the Baptists and the Methodists and all of them used it And Grand-

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me that whenever the customers in any of those denominations prayed too loud in the Amen corner, you’d better go home and lock your smokehouse

“And I found that to be true I’ve never cared much for the loud

prayers or for people who do that much going on about religion.”

DEFINE: prohibitionist (5); counterfeits (7); denominations (20)

a historic episode

17 NARRATION

L Collins and D Lapierre

A FISTFUL OF SALT

In 1928 India was on the verge of a popular uprising against the British, When a series of appeals for independence was turned doum by the British government, the Congress Party of India adopted a resolution for complete independence and seces- sion from the Empire All eyes now turned to Mahatma Gandhi, the spiritual leader of the country

Gandhi was released before the end of his sentence because of ill-

health For three years he traveled and wrote, patiently training his followers, inculcating the principles of nonviolence to avoid a recurrence of the outburst that had shocked him before his arrest

By the end of 1929, he was ready for another move forward In Lahore, at the stroke of midnight, as the year ended, he led his Congress in a vow for swaraj, nothing less than complete independence Twenty- six days later, in gatherings all across India, millions of Congressmen repeated the pledge

A new confrontation between Gandhi and the British was inevita-

ble Gandhi pondered for days waiting for his Inner Voice to counsel

him on the proper form of that confrontation The answer proposed by his Inner Voice was-the finest fruit of his creative genius, the most bi- zarre, the most stupefying political challenge of modern times So simple was the thought, so dramatic its execution, that it made Gandhi world- famous overnight Paradoxically, it was based on a staple the Mahatma had given up years before in his efforts to repress his sexual desires as part of his vow of chastity, salt

if Gandhi spurned it, in India’s hot climate, it was an essential in- gredient in every man’s diet It lay in great white sheets along the shorelines, the gift of the eternal Mother, the sea Its manufacture and

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structure

18 NARRATION

sale, however, was the exclusive monopoly of the state, which built a tax

into its selling price It was a small tax, but for a poor peasant it repre- sented, each year, two weeks’ income,

On March 12, 1930, at six-thirty in the morning, his bamboo stave

in his hand, his back slightly bent, his familiar loincloth around his hips, Gandhi marched out of his ashram at the head of a cortege of seventy-

eight disciples and headed for the sea, 240 miles away Thousands of supporters from Ahmedabad lined the way and strewed the route with green leaves,

Newsmen rushed from all over the world to follow the progress of his strange caravan From village to village the crowds knelt by the road- side as Gandhi passed His pace was a deliberately tantalizing approach

to his climax To the British, it was infuriatingly slow The weird, almost

Chaplinesque’ image of a little old half-naked man clutching a bamboo pole, marching down to the sea to challenge the British Empire domi- nated the newsreels and press of the world day after day

On April 5, at six o'clock in the evening, Gandhi and his party finally reached the banks of the Indian Ocean near the town of Dandi At dawn the next morning, after a night of prayer, the group marched

into the sea for a ritual bath Then Gandhi waded ashore and, before thousands of spectators, reached down to scoop up a piece of caked salt With a grave and stern mien, he held his fist to the crowd, then opened it

to expose in his palms the white crystals, the forbidden gift of the sea,

the newest symbol in the struggle for Indian independence

Within a week all India was in turmoil All over the continent

Gandhi's followers began to collect and distribute salt The country was

‘flooded with pamphlets explaining how to make” salt from sea’ water

From one end of India to another, bonfires of British cloth and exports sparkled in the streets

The British replied with the most massive roundup in Indian his-

tory, sweeping people to jail by the thousands Gandhi was among them

Before returning to the confines of Yeravda prison, however, he man-

aged to send a last message to his followers

“The honor of India,” he said, “has been symbolized by a fistful of

salt in the hand of a man of nonviolence The fist which held the salt

may be broken, but it will not yield up ‘its salt.”

ANALYSIS

1 In expository writing the main idea is usually stated at the beginning

In narrative writing the opposite is usually true What two selections

begin with the main idea? Why?

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meaning style 18 NARRATION 9 19 11 12 13 14 15, 16 17

“Mike” consists entirely of a summary of events rather than step-by- step chronology Discuss the advantages of this method Consider, of

course, the purpose for which the selection was written

If the Lincoln assassination story were written chronologically, with what sentence would it begin?

What one word in the first sentence of the Kennedy story keeps it

from being strictly chronological?

You know that stating the “catch” line of a joke prematurely wrecks the joke Can you think of other kinds of narrative writing in which knowing the outcome spoils the effect for the reader?

What time periods are covered in “Mike,” “Harry Truman Goes to

Work,” and “A Fistful of Salt”?

Cite one example of a statement summarizing events from “Fistful.” Locate one example of interpretation or commentary from “Harry

Truman” and “Fistful.”

Summarize “Truman” in two or three sentences Summarize “Fistful” in three or four sentences

Why does Truman look down on high hats and prohibitionists? Aside from the pay he got, why did Truman find his paymaster’s job valuable?

What did Grandfather Young say about people “who prayed too loud”? Explain his comment and add your own

Who won the case in “Timms Versus Ondego Electric”—the electric company or the family of the decedent?

Why did the counselors want Mike to talk?

Explain the political implications of Gandhi's fistful of salt Is the profanity in “Mike” necessary? Discuss

WRITING EXERCISES

1, Write a brief news story about a school, neighborhood, or civic event

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SECTION 2B

20 NARRATION

In this section are three personal narratives by professional writers Read them through once for pleasure and understanding and a second

time for structure and style Note whether the chronology flows in a

straight line from one point in time to the end, or whether it jumps from one time period to another Be aware of insertions of historical background or personal commentary Pay attention to the difference be-

tween the depiction of an actual series of events and a summary of events

Observe how the various authors use dialogue, description, humor, and

irony Finally, scan the selections to get ideas about periods and incidents in your own life that you might write about

dames Thurber

UNIVERSITY DAYS

I passed all the other courses that I took at my university, but I could never pass botany This was because all botany students had to spend several hours a week in a laboratory looking through a microscope at plant cells, and I could never see through a microscope I never once saw.acell through a microscope This used to enrage my instructor _

He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all

the students were making in drawing the involved and, so I am told, in-

teresting structure of flower cells, until he came to me I would just be

standing there “I can’t see anything,” I would say He would begin pa-

tiently enough, explaining how anybody can see through a microscope, but he would always end up in a fury, claiming that I could too see through a microscope but just pretended that I couldn’t “It takes away from the beauty of flowers anyway,” I used to tell him “We are not concerned with beauty in this course,”-he would say,.““We are concerned solely with what I may call the mechanics of flars.” “Well,” I'd say, “I can’t see anything.” “Try it just once again,” he’d say, and I would put my eye to the microscope and see nothing at all, except now and again a nebulous milky substance—a phenomenon of maladjustment You were sup-

posed to see a vivid, restless clockwork of sharply defined plant cells “I

see what looks like a lot of milk,” I would tell him This, he claimed, was

the result of my not having adjusted the microscope properly, so he would readjust it for me, or rather, for himself And I would look again and see milk

I finally took a deferred pass, as they called it, and waited a year and tried again (You had to pass one of the biological sciences or you couldn’t graduate.) The professor had come back from vacation brown

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21 NARRATION

we

as a berry, bright-eyed, and eager to explain cell-structure again to his

classes “Well,” he said to me, cheerily, when we met in the first labora-

tory hour of the semester, “we’re going to see cells this time, aren’t we?”

“Yes, sir,” I said Students to right of me and to left of me and in front of

me were seeing cells; what’s more, they were quietly drawing pictures of them in their notebooks Of course, I didn’t see anything

“We'll try it,” the professor said to me, grimly, “with every adjust-

ment of the microscope known to man As God is my witness, Pll arrange this glass so that you see cells through it or I'll give up teaching In twenty-two years of botany, I—” He cut off abruptly for he was beginning to quiver all over, like Lionel Barrymore,' and he genuinely wished to hold onto his temper; his scenes with me had taken a great deal out of him

So we tried it with every adjustment of the microscope known to man With only one of them did I see anything but blackness or the familiar lacteal opacity, and that time I saw, to my pleasure and amaze- ment, a variegated constellation of flecks, specks, and dots These I has- tily drew The instructor, noting my activity, came back from an adjoining desk, a smile on his lips and his eyebrows high in hope He looked at my cell drawing “What’s that?” he demanded, with a hint of a squeal in his voice “That’s what I saw,” I said “You didn’t, you didn’t, you didn’t!” he screamed, losing control of his temper instantly, and he bent over and squinted into the microscope His head snapped up “That’s your eye!” he shouted “You've fixed the lens so that it reflects! You’ve drawn your eye!”

Another course that I didn’t like, but somehow managed to pass, was economics I went to that class straight from the botany class, which didn’t help me any in understanding either subject I used to get them mixed up But not as mixed up as another student in my economics class who came there direct from a physics laboratory He was a tackle on the football team, named Bolenciecwez At that time Ohio State University

had one of the best football teams in the country, and Bolenciecwez was

one of its outstanding stars, In order to be eligible to play it was neces-

sary for him to keep up in his studies, a very difficult matter, for while he was not dumber than an ox he was not any smarter Most of his pro- fessors were lenient and helped him along None gave him more hints in answering questions or asked him simpler ones than the economics professor, a thin, timid man named Bassum One day when we were on the subject of transportation and distribution, it came Bolenciecwcz’s turn to answer a question “Name one means of transportation,” the professor said to him No light came into the big tackle’s eyes “Just any means of transportation,” said the professor Bolenciecwcz sat staring at him “That is,” pursued the professor, “any medium, agency, or method of going from one place to another.” Bolenciecwcz had the look of a man who is being led into a trap “You may choose among steam, horse- drawn, or electrically propelled vehicles,” said the instructor “1 might suggest the one which we commonly take in making long journeys across land.” There was a profound silence in which everybody stirred uneas-

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ily, including Bolenciecwez and Mr Bassum Mr Bassum abruptly broke

this silence in an amazing manner “Choo-choo-choo,” he said, in a low

voice, and turned instantly scarlet He glanced appealingly around the

room All of us, of course, shared Mr Bassum’s desire that Bolenciecwcz

should stay abreast of the class in economics, for the Ilinois game, one of the hardest and most important of the season, was only a week off “Toot, toot, too-toooccoot!” some student with a deep voice moaned, and we all looked encouragingly at Bolenciecwcz Somebody else gave a

fine imitation of a locomotive letting off steam Mr Bassum himself

rounded off the little show “Ding, dong, ding, dong,” he said, hope-

fully Bolenciecwez was staring at the floor now, trying to think, his great brow furrowed, his huge hands rubbing together, his face red

“How did you come to college this year, Mr Bolenciecwez?” asked

the professor “Chuffa chuffa, chuffa chuffa.” “M’father sent me,” said the football player

“What on?” asked Bassum

“1 git an ‘lowance,” said the tackle, in a low, husky voice, obviously

embarrassed

“No, no,” said Bassum “Name a means of transportation What did you ride here on?”

“Train,” said Bolenciecwcz “Quite right,” said the professor

DEFINE: nebulous, phenomenon (1); deferred (2); lacteal, opacity, variegated (4) ANALYSIS 22 comment meaning style opinion NARRATION

Instead of following a close-knit chronology, Thurber selects those ex-

periences that lend themselves to humor and develops them into little vignettes

1 What character is depicted as a stereotype? (See glossary.) Discuss 2 Is the anecdote about Bolenciecwcz merely a joke, or is it a commen-

tary about an aspect of college life? Discuss

8 On what techniques does Thurber depend for his humor: irony, ex- aggeration, surprise, or satire? (See glossary.) Explain

4, Is it necessary to believe that everything happened exactly the way Thurber depicts it in order to appreciate his humor? Do you think il probably did happen exactly that way? Discuss

Piri Thomas

IN BUSINESS

Living in number 109 was snap breeze I knew practically everybody on the block and, if I didn’t, they knew me When I went to the

barbershop, José the barber would ask me, “Shape up or trim?” He

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23 NARRATION

liked to trim because in three hot minutes he could earn fifty cents But I

always gave him a hard way to shovel and said, “Give me the works with

a square back,” “Ay cofio,” he groaned and started to cut hair and breathe bad breath on me, on spite, while I ignored him on spite

Just being a kid, nothing different from all the other kids, was good Even when you slept over at some other kid’s house, it was almost

like being in your own house They all had kids, rats, and roaches in

common And life was full of happy moments—spitting out of tenement windows at unsuspecting people below, popping off with sling shots, or even better with Red Ryder BB rifles, watching the neighbors fight through their open windows or make love under half-drawn shades

The good kick in the hot summer was to sleep on the fire escape Sometimes Ilay awake all night and thought about all the things I would do when I grew up, about the nice duds I’d have like a champ uptown

and come back around the block and treat all the kids to cuchifritos and

pour tons of nickles into the jukebox and help anybody that was in trouble, from a junkie to a priest I dreamed big; it didn’t cost anything

In the morning I stood on Lexington Avenue in Spanish Harlem, one finger poked through my pants pocket, scratching myself, while I

droned, “Shine, mister—good shine, only fifteen cents Shine, mis-

ter ” It was hard to shine shoes and harder to keep my corner from getting copped by an early-rising shine boy I had to be prepared to mess a guy up; that corner spot wasn’t mine alone I had to earn it every time I

shined shoes there `

When I got a customer, we both played our roles The customer,

tall and aloof, smiled, “Gimme a shine, kid,” and I replied, “S#, sefior,

sir, T'll give you one that you'll have to put sunglasses on to eat the bright

down.”

My knees grinding against the gritty sidewalk, I adopted a serious,

businesslike air Carefully, but confidently, I snaked out my rags, polish,

and brushes I gave my.cool breeze customer the treatment I rolled his

pants cuff up—“That’'ll keep shoe polish off’—straightened his socks,

patted his shoe, assured him he was in good hands, and loosened and

retied his shoes Then I wiped my nose with a delicate finger, picked up my shoe brush, and scrunched away the first hard crust of dirt | opened my bottle of black shoe cleaner—dab, rub in, wipe off, pat the shoe

down Then I opened my can of polish—dab on with three fingers, pat-

a-pid, pat-a-pid He’s not looking—spit on the shoe, more polish, let it dry, tap the bottom of his sole, smile up at Mr Big Tip (you hope),

“Next, sir.”

I repeated the process on the other shoe, then picked up my brush and rubbed the bristles very hard against the palm of my hand, scientific-like, to warm the brush hairs up so they would melt the black shoe wax and give a cool unlumpy shine I peeked out of the corner of my eye to see if Mr Big Tip was watching my modern shoeshine methods The bum was looking I hadn’t touched his shoe, forcing him to look

The shoe began to gleam dully—more spit, more polish, more

brush, little more spit, little more polish, and a lotta rag I repeated on

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24 structure meaning style NARRATION }

for the climax of my performance Just as he finished saying, “Damn

nice shine, kid,” I said, “Oh, I ain’t finished, sir I got a special service,”

and I plunged my wax-covered fingers into a dark corner of my shoe

box and brought out a bottle of “special shoe lanolin cream for better preservation of leather.”

I applied a dab, a tiny dab, pausing long enough to say very confidently, “You can’t put on too much or it'll spoil the shine It gotta be just

right.” Then I grabbed the shoe rag firmly, like a maestro with a baton, and hummed a rhythm with it, slapping out a beat on the shoes A final swish here and there, and mira!—finished Sweating from the effort of

my creation, I slowly rose from my knees, bent from the strain, my hand

casually extended, palm flat up, and murmured, “Fifteen cents, sir,” with a look that said, “But it’s worth much more, don’t you think?” Mr

Big Tip dropped a quarter and a nickel into the offering plate, and I

said, “Thanks a mil, sir,” thinking, Take it cool, as I cast a watchful eye at

his retreating back

But wasn’t it great to work for a living? I calculated how long it would take to make my first million shining shoes Too long I would be something like 987 years old Maybe I could steal it faster

ANALYSIS

ih Although “In Business” is taken out of context from Down These

Mean Streets, it has all the aspects of a little story Discuss its structure

2 Is the shoeshine incident specific or typical? Explain

3 Does Thomas merely tell the story, or does he comment on it? Sup- port your view

4, Why is it unnecessary for Thomas to define the Spanish terms he uses?

5 Paragraph 2 contains an example of irony (See glossary.) Explain Can you find other examples?

6 Discuss terms like copped, mess a guy up, Mr Big Tip, and take i cool in

relation to the tone of the selection Patrick Fenton

CONFESSIONS OF A WORKING STIFF

The Big Ben is hammering out its 5:45 alarm in the half-dark oi

another Tuesday morning If ’'m lucky, my car down in the street wil

kick over for me I don’t want to think about that now; all I want to do i:

Condensed from Patrick Fenton, “Confessions of a Working Stiff.” Copyright €

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25 NARRATION

roll over into the warm covers that hug my wife I can hear the wind as it whistles up and down the sides of the building Tuesday is always the worst day—it’s the day the drudgery, boredom, and fatigue start all over again I'm off from work on Sunday and Monday, so Tuesday is my blue Monday

I make my living humping cargo for Seaboard World Airlines, one of the big international airlines at Kennedy Airport They handle strictly all cargo I was once told that one of the Rockerfellers is the major stock- holder for the airline, but I don’t really think about that too much I don’t get paid to think The big thing is to beat that race with the time clock every morning of your life so the airline will be happy The worst thing a man could ever do is to make suggestions about building a better airline They pay people $40,000 a year to come up with better ideas It doesn’t matter that these ideas never work, it’s just that they get nervous when a guy from South Brooklyn or Ozone Park acts like he actually has a brain

I throw a Myadec high-potency vitamin into my mouth to ward off

one of the ten colds I get every year from humping mailbags out in the cold rain at Kennedy A huge DC-8 stretch jet waits impatiently for the 8,000 pounds of mail that I will soon feed its empty belly I wash the Myadec down with some orange juice and grab a brown bag filled with bologna and cheese Inside the lunch bag there is sometimes a silly note from my wife that says, “I Love You-—-Guess Who?” It is all that keeps

me going to a job that I hate

I've been going there for seven years now and my job is still the same It’s weary work that makes a man feel used up and worn out You push and you pull all day long with your back You tie down pallets

loaded with thousands of pounds of freight You fill igloo-shaped con- tainers with hundreds of boxes that all look the same If you're assigned

to work the warehouse, it’s really your hard luck This is the job all the men hate most You stack box upon box until the pallet resembles the

exact shape of the inside of the plane You get the same monotonous

feeling an adult gets when he plays with a child’s blocks When you finish one pallet, you find another and start the whole dull process over

- again.[ .]

To keep his kids in that great place in the country in the summer, that great place far away from Brooklyn and the South Bronx, he must work every hour of overtime that the airline offers him If he never turns down an hour, if he works some 600 hours over, he can make about $15,000 To do this he must turn against himself, he must pray that the phone rings in the middle of the night, even though it’s snowing out and he doesn’t feel like working He must hump cargo late into the night, eat meatball heroes for supper, drink coffee that starts to taste like oil, and then hope that his car starts when it’s time to go home If he gets

sick—well, he better not think about that.( ]

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