The Norton Sampler - Sixth Edition Author:Thomas Cooley (Editor) W. W. Norton & Company is proud to present the Sixth Edition of The Norton Sampler. As a rhetorically arranged collection of short essays for composition, our Sampler echoes the cloth samplers once done in colonial America, presenting the basic patterns of writing for students to practice just as school children once practiced ... more »their stitches and ABCs on needlework samplers.
This new edition shows students that description, narration, and the other patterns of exposition are not just abstract concepts used in composition classrooms but are in fact the way we think -- and write. The Norton Sampler contains 63 carefully chosen readings -- classics as well as more recent pieces, essays along with a few real-world texts -- all demonstrating how writers use the modes of discourse for many varied purposes.
Introduction --
The death of a moth / Annie Dillard --
How I wrote the moth essay --
and why / Annie Dillard --
The processes of writing --
The modes of writing --
Mixing the modes --
Description --
RealTime writing/catalog description --
The Miss Dennis school of writing / Alice Steinbach --
A view from the bridge / Cherokee Paul McDonald --
No rainbows, no roses / Beverly Dipo --
No wonder they call me a bitch / Ann Hodgman --
Narrative --
RealTime/obituary --
The ashen guy : lower Broadway, September 11, 2001 / Thomas Beller --
The lion in winter / Sebastian Junger --
The back of the bus / Mary Mebane --
None of this is fair / Richard Rodriguez --
Frank Sinatra's gum / Kelly Simon --
Example --
RealTime writing/Girl Scout cookie box --
All seven deadly sins committed at church bake sale / The Onion --
The invisible flying cat / Malcolm Browne --
English is a crazy language / Richard Lederer --
Jazz : music beyond time and nations / Nat Hentoff --
Homeward bound / Janet Wu --
Classification and division --
RealTime writing/www.dailycandy.com --
Mother tongue / Amy Tan --
The color of success / Eric A. Watts --
What do you call a platypus? / Isaac Asimov --
Science, guided by ethics, can lift up the poor / Freeman J. Dyson --
The rise of the blended American / Jeff Jacoby --
Process analysis --
RealTime writing/how to make razzleberry lemonade --
How to fend off a shark / Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht --
How boys become men / Jon Katz --
The spider and the wasp / Alexander Petrunkevitch --
How to write a letter / Garrison Keillor --
How to get out of a locked trunk / Philip Weiss --
Comparison and contrast --
RealTime writing/baseball stats --
Grammy rewards / Deborah Dalfonso --
Body imperfect / Debi Davis --
Grant and Lee : a study in contrasts / Bruce Catton --
Like Mexicans / Gary Soto --
Gender in the classroom / Deborah Tannen --
Remembering my childhood on the continent of Africa / David Sedaris --
Definition --
RealTime writing/www.savethemanatee.org --
Guys vs. men / Dave Barry --
In praise of the humble comma / Pico Iyer --
How come the quantum? / John Archibald Wheeler --
Bop / Langston Hughes --
If you are what you eat, then what am I? / Geeta Kothari --
Cause and effect --
RealTime writing/outside magazine q & a --
Climbing the golden arches / Marissa NunÌez --
Prison man considers turkey / John Edwards --
Who killed Easter Island? / Jared Diamond --
A giant step / Henry Louis Gates Jr. --
The wounds that can't be stitched up / Ruth Russell --
Argument --
RealTime writing/sign on an old house --
The declaration of independence / Thomas Jefferson --
The island of plenty / Johnson C. Montgomery --
The price of power : living in the nuclear age / Kori Quintana --
Being prepared in suburbia / Roger Verhulst --
Safe-sex lies / Meghan Daum --
Reply to the U.S. Government / Chief Seattle --
Classic essays --
A modest proposal / Jonathan Swift --
Politics and the English language / George Orwell --