Reader's choice

This college reader is built to sharpen how students read, reason, and write. Its approach moves through three levels of engagement: first grasping what a text literally says, then interpreting it, and finally evaluating how it works. Essays by students and by established writers serve as the examples throughout.

The book is organized around rhetorical strategies, with one chapter devoted to each technique. Every chapter explains its technique in depth and then presents several professional essays that show it in use. After each reading, a set of questions leads the reader step by step from basic comprehension to interpretation and, ultimately, close analysis.