Patterns Plus

10 Memories

11 Education

12 Food for Thought

13 Human Behavior

14 Careers

15 Values

Freedom lu-choi Chan (Student)

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds? Paul Theroux

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16 A Humorous Approach

Preface

Since its first edition in 1985, Patterns Plus: A Short Prose Reader with

Argumentation has offered students a variety of high-interest paragraphs and essays, as well as exceptionally complete and clear study apparatus. In this third edition, the aim is to preserve and enhance the strengths of past editions.

New to the Third Edition

Patterns Plus, Third Edition, strives to give students a variety of models for their own writing and the stimulus for lively classroom discussion. Features of the new edition include:

•40 percent new selections. Selections by traditional favorites such as Russell Baker, Elizabeth Bishop, and E. B. White are joined by contemporary voices including Zora Neale Hurston, Annie Dillard, and Scott Russell Sanders.

•Chapter introductions have been completely revised and expanded to provide fuller treatment of the writing process.

•End-of-selection apparatus (Questions About the Reading, Questions About the Writer's Strategy, and Writing Assignments) have been thoroughly revised. Questions now progress from basic comprehension questions to questions with a more analytical focus.

•The Glossary has been expanded to include rhetorical and literary terms presented in the chapter introductions and in the end-of-se- lection apparatus. Glossary items are now boldfaced throughout the text for quick indentification.

An Overview of Patterns Plus

Chapter 1, an introductory chapter, describes the basics of paragraphs and essays. In Chapters 2 through 10, the various techniques in devel-

argumentation and persuasion—are taken up in individual chapters. These techniques are the traditional rhetorical modes—the strategies for development that have proven effective in providing starting points for many student writers. Chapter 11, "Extra Readings," contains essays that illustrate the ways writers combine various modes of development within a single essay.

Professional and student selections in Patterns Plus were specifically chosen to build students' confidence by showing them that writing a short, effective composition is within their reach. Selections range from simple, accessible paragraphs to longer, more challenging essays. The student writing included throughout the text will make students aware of the level of skill they can realistically expect to acquire.

The breadth of reading selections also allows the instructor a wide choice of topics—from serious and timely discussions about the morality of handguns and hidden racism to light-hearted pieces that reveal human foibles. As a stimulus to discussion, two sides of a controversial subject are sometimes provided; students will probably respond quite differently to the definitions of success offered by Ellen Goodman and Michael Korda and to views on capital punishment by Coretta Scott King and Mike Royko.

Apparatus

Patterns Plus offers a full range of study apparatus:

•Headnotes provide context for each reading selection, helping students to understand and enjoy the selection more easily.

•"Words to Know" defines unfamiliar words and clarifies allusions that might be unfamiliar or regional.

•Exercises elicit various levels of thinking from the student:

Questions About the Reading are designed to stimulate thinking about the selection's meaning— expressed and implied—and help students gain fuller understanding of the writer's message.

Questions About the Writer's Strategies ask students to discuss the writer's thesis statement, mode ofdevelopment, point ofview,figurative language—or whatever strategy is particularly appropriate to a given selection—and thereby promote analytical thinking.

Writing Assignments are related to the topic or mode of the reading selection and are designed to encourage the student to generate ideas and develop these ideas into paragraphs and essays.

•The thematic table of contents groups the readings in the text by themes such as "The Individual and Society," "Life in America," and "Careers."

•The Glossary provides definitions of all rhetorical and literary terms boldfaced throughout the chapter introductions and end-of-selec- tion questions.

Support for Instuctors

The Instructor's Manual for Patterns Plus offers instructors a wide variety of supplemental materials:

•Part I supplies teaching suggestions that will allow flexibility in determining course content and stucture.

•Part II provides suggested answers to the reading comprehension and Writer's Strategies questions appearing at the end of each reading selection in Chapters 2 through 10.

•Part III offers suggested questions and answers for the Extra Readings that are included in Chapter 11.

•Part IV includes a list of the reading levels according to the Fry and. Dale-Chall readability formulas. Reading levels are arranged by chapter.

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to the following persons for their help on the third edition of the text:

Rose Austin, North Harris County College—East Campus; TX John Bell, New York City Technical College

Barbara Blaha, Plymouth State College; NH Mary P. Boyles, Pembroke State University; NC Lee Brandon, Mt. San Antonio College; CA

Aleeta Paulk Christian, Austin Peay State University; TN Beverly Cotton, Cerritos College: Norwalk, CA

Marghret DeHart, Trinity Valley Community College; TX Fannie M. Delk, LeMoyne-Owen College; TN

Sarah L. Dye, Elgin Community College: Elgin, IL Marjorie S. Edelen, Harbor College; CA

Dr. James D. Fullen, Central Ohio Technical College Ursula Isfan, Merritt College; CA

Patricia Kowal, Blackburn College: Carlinville, IL

Jane Maher, Nassau Community College: Garden City, NY

Beatrice McKinsey, Grambling State University: Grambling, LA E. Jane Melendez, East Tennessee State University

Gail Mowatt, West Valley College; CA

Betty Payne, Montgomery College: Rockville, MD John W. Presley, Augusta College; IL

Dennis Sivack, Kingsborough Community College: Brooklyn, NY Barbara J. Speidell, Southwestern College: Chula Vista, CA

Janet S. Streepey, Indiana University Southeast

Barbara P. Thompson, Columbus State Community College; OH Louise M. Tomlinson, University of Georgia

Edward A. Ulrich, Tulsa Junior College

Joyce S. Zaritsky, LaGuardia Community College; NY

Mary Lou Conlin

PATTERNS PLUS

A Short Prose Reader with Argumentation

•book tells you about the strategies and techniques that you can use to produce effective writing. It includes many paragraphs and essays by other writers—both students and professionals—that you can study as models for your own writing. By studying the techniques and strategies these writers use to communicate their ideas, and by practicing in paragraphs and essays of your own, you can develop the skill and confidence needed to write effectively on many different subjects.

It is important that you learn a variety of writing strategies because you will find yourself, in school and afterward, writing for different purposes, to different types of audiences, and for varied occasions. Your purpose might be to persuade (perhaps in a memo recommending a new procedure at work), to instruct (in a description of how you successfully handled a lab assignment), or to inform (in a letter to the editor explaining errors in a newspaper article). Your audience, or reader, and the occasion for your writing will vary too. In one situation, your audience might be fellow students or friends and the occasion an informal activity. Or your audience could be your economics or history professor and the occasion an assigned essay or term paper. In each case, you will need to make choices about the organization, content, and words you use in your paragraph or essay.

As a student, you will have assignments that require you to write either a paragraph or an essay. Although such compositions may differ in their length and content, a paragraph and an essay are alike in two important ways. First, each one should have a main idea. Second, the main idea should be fully explained or developed. In this text we will study the main idea and the explanation or development of the main idea.

The Main Idea

The main idea of a paragraph is called the topic. This topic is usually stated in a sentence, called a topic sentence. The topic sentence, usually a general rather than a specific idea, may be placed anywhere within the paragraph. As a student writer, however, you should try to state your main idea at the beginning of the paragraph.

Thesis

statement

Topic sentence of paragraph 2

Topic sentence of paragraph 3

Topic sentence of paragraph 4

imply the idea. Notice that the writer must provide enough clues to allow the careful reader to determine the main idea. In the following paragraph, for example, the writer implies rather than states the idea that the man saw the berries reflected rather than actually floating in the water. The writer provides the clues the reader needs by saying that the man struck the bottom of the river when he dived in and that he then looked up and saw the berries hanging over him.

While walking along the river, he saw some berries in the water. He dived down for them, but was stunned when he unexpectedly struck the bottom. There he lay for quite a while, and when he recovered consciousness and looked up, he saw the berries hanging on a tree just above him.

Paul Radin,

"Manbozho and the Berries"

If you experiment with implying your main idea, be sure to give the reader enough clues to determine your meaning.

In a longer piece of writing, such as an essay, the main idea is called the thesis (rather than the topic). The thesis is usually stated in one or more sentences called the thesis statement. Like the topic sentence of a paragraph, the thesis statement is often placed near the beginning of an essay. In the sample essay that follows, the thesis is stated in the opening paragraph.

Scientists all agree that packages are very necessary. They also agree that packages are a problem. But they do not agree on what to do about it.

There is the make-it-attractive group. These designers concentrate on making the package so interesting that the buyer cannot bring himself to part with it—thus keeping it out of the trash. . . .

Next there are the no-package-package groups. They have ideas like spraying a protein coating, derived from corn, on foods to protect them against loss of vitamins and spoilage.

In the no-package-package group is a new type of giass that may be the answer to the 26 billion bottles thrown away every year. The glass is coated on the inside as well as on the outside by a water-resistant film. When the bottle is smashed, the glass will dissolve in plain water. . . .

narration description examples

classification and division comparison and contrast process

cause and effect definition

argumentation and persuasion

These methods of developing the main idea are called modes of development. Although they have different characteristics, the modes of development have a common purpose in written compositions. That purpose is to provide the reader with the specific information needed to support or clarify the main idea. As stated earlier, the main idea is a general statement; the development provides the details to support or explain the main idea.

In developing a paragraph^ the writer usually (1) begins with a topic sentence, (2) develops the main idea by a series of related sentences that explain the idea fully, and (3) concludes with a sentence that restates or summarizes the main idea. Look at the diagram below and compare it with the development of an essay on page 7.

Paragraph

•

Keep in mind tnat a paragrapn is inoie man a group

of sentences. A paragraph must be unified, meaning that it must deal with one single idea (the main idea) and that ^each sentence must be related to this idea. It must be co- herent—that is, it must state the main idea clearly—and the sentences that develop the main idea must be arranged according to some logical order that will allow the reader to follow your thoughts through the paragraph without stumbling or backtracking. Finally, a paragraph must be complete. It should develop the main idea fully enough so that the reader will understand and appreciate what you are saying.

i An essay is a collection of paragraphs, but a composition of more than one paragraph is not necessarily an essay. In developing an essay, the writer starts with a thesis statement, which is generally part of the introduction and may make up the whole first paragraph. Then the writer develops the thesis in a series of related paragraphs, usually called the body of the essay. Often, each paragraph has its own individual topic sentence. The conclusion, which may restate the thesis or summarize the essay's important points, is usually found in the final paragraph.

Essay