Culture: A Reader for Writers / Edition 1

by John Mauk

Overview

Read. Write. Oxford.

Culture: A Reader for Writers presents work from a broad spectrum of writers who are grappling with the cultural trends around them. Some defend the status quo, some wonder what to make of new gadgets, some embrace uncertainty, and others celebrate inevitable shifts that will resonate for years to come. Whether the topic is working conditions, student loans, movie protagonists, or soldiers returning from war, the writers give voice to the discomfort and hope that accompanies change. And more importantly, they show the writhing and wonder that makes culture itself readable. Each chapter takes on a particularly urgent subject of contemporary conversation: work, consumerism, language, social media, identity, entertainment, nature, politics, and war. The photo galleries give shape and imagery to the subjects discussed in the readings.

Developed for the freshman composition course, Culture: A Reader for Writers includes an interdisciplinary mix of public, academic, and scientific reading selections, providing students with the rhetorical knowledge and compositional skills required to participate effectively in academic and public conversations about culture and change.

Culture: A Reader for Writers is part of a series of brief single-topic readers from Oxford University Press designed for today's college writing courses. Each reader in this series approaches a topic of contemporary conversation from multiple perspectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900199947224
Publication date:	12/06/2013
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John Mauk teaches writing at Miami University of Ohio.

Table of Contents

1. Work: What We DoAmy Reiter, "Why Being a Jerk at Work Pays." iDaily Beast/iElizabeth Dwoskin, "Why Americans Won't Do Dirty Jobs." iBloomberg Businessweek/iJulie Hanus, "White Collared: When Did Our Jobs Turn Into a Joke?" iUtne Reader/iPatricia Ann McNair, "I Go On Running." (Academic Writing)Jason Storms, "In the Valley of the Shadow of Debt." (Academic Writing)Ross Perlin, "Of Apprentices and Interns." iLapham's Quarterly/iChristian Williams, "This, That, and the American Dream." iUtne Reader/iMike Rose, "Blue-Collar Brilliance." iAmerican Scholar/i2. Consumerism: How We SpendSara Davis, "Freshly Minted." iThe Smart Set/iDavid E. Procter, "The Rural Grocery Crisis." iDaily Yonder/iDan Heath and Chip Heath, "How to Pick the Perfect Brand Name." iFast Company/iCharles Kenny, "Haiti Doesn't Need Your Old T-Shirt." iForeign Policy/iDrew Harwell, "Honey Buns Sweeten Life for Florida Prisoners." iSt. Petersburg Times/iSharon Begley and Jean Chatzky, "The New Science Behind Your Spending Addiction." iThe Daily Beast/iSharon Angel, "Sorting Out Santa." (Academic Writing)Fredrik deBoer, "The Resentment Machine: The Immiseration of the Digital Creative Class." iThe New Inquiry/iDamien Walter, "Sparks Will Fly." iAeon/i3. Language: What We MeanJulie Traves, "The Church of Please and Thank You." iThis Magazine/iRichard Chin, "The Science of Sarcasm? Yeah, Right." iSmithsonian/iBlake Gopnik, "Revolution in a Can." iForeign Policy/iAutumn Whitefield-Madrano, "Thoughts on a Word: Fine." iThe New Inquiry/iJuliette Kayyem,"Never Say, 'Never Again.'" iForeign Policy/iRobert Lane Greene, "OMG, ETC." iMore Intelligent Life/iFleda Brown, "Art and Buddhism: Looking for What's True." (Academic Writing)4. Social Media: How We CommunicateLucy P. Marcus, "What It Means Today To Be 'Connected.'" iHarvard Business Review/iSteven D. Krause, "Living Within Social Networks." (Academic Writing)Cynthia Jones, "Lying, Cheating, and Virtual Relationships." iGlobal Virtue Ethics Review/iMichael Erard, "What I Didn't Write About When I Wrote About Quitting Facebook." iThe Morning News/iRobert Fulford, "How Twitter Saved the Octothorpe." iNational Post/iRoger Scruton, "Hiding Behind The Screen." iThe New Atlantis/iJames Gleick, "What Defines a Meme?" iSmithsonian/i5. Identity: Who We AreSameer Pandya, "The Picture for Men: Superhero or Slacker." iPacific Standard/iCristina Black, "Bathing Suit Shopping With Annette Kellerman, the Australian Mermaid." iThe Hairpin/iDoug LaForest, "Undocumented Immigrants." (Academic Writing)S. Alan Ray, "Despite the Controversy, We're Glad We Asked." Chronicle of Higher EducationEboo Patel, "Is Your Campus Diverse?" iChronicle of Higher Education/iLeila Ahmed, "Reinventing the Veil." iFT Magazine/i6. Entertainment: What We Watch, How We ListenLaura Bennett, "Fallon and Letterman and the Invisible Late Show Audience." iThe New Republic/iRichard Lawson and Jen Doll, "Lies Hollywood Told Us: Love and Romance Edition." iThe Atlantic Wire/iStefan Babich, "The Fall of the Female Protagonist in Kids' Movies." iPersephone/iAmanda Marcotte, "The Shocking Radicalism of 'Brave.'" iAmerican Prospect/iSteve Yates, "The Sound of Capitalism." iProspect/i7. Nature: How We Share the PlanetJerry Dennis, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Excerpt from iFrom a Wooden Canoe/iStephanie Mills, "Some Words for the Wild." from iTough Little Beauties/iHugh Pennington, "Bug-Affairs." iLondon Review of Books/iRobert Moor, "Mother Nature's Sons." in+1/iRob Dunn, "Fly On Wall Sees Things It Wishes It Hadn't." iScientific American/iDavid P. Barash, "Two Cheers for Nature." iChronicle of Higher Education/iMichael Shellenberger and Ted Norhaus, "Evolve. A Case for Modernization as the Road to Salvation." iOrion/i8. Politics: How We GovernJeremy Brecher, "The 99 Percent Organize Themselves." iThe Nation/iDavid Korten, "When Bankers Rule the World." iYes Magazine/iDeanna Isaacs, "The Transnational Economy." iThe Chicago Reader/iStarhawk, "A Pagan's Response to the Affordable Healthcare Act." iDirt Worship/iDavid R. Dow, "We Stop the Next Aurora Not With Gun Control But With Better Mental Health Treatment." iDaily Beast/iJanice Brewer, "Letter from Governor Janice Brewer to President Barack Obama."Katelyn Langdale, "The Illogical World of U.S. Immigration." (Academic Writing)9. War: How We FightDoug Stanton, "What the Water Dragged In." iNew York Times/iBenjamin Busch, "Throwing the Last Stone." iDaily Beast/iEmily Chertoff, "Occupy Wounded Knee: A 71-Day Siege and a Forgotten Civil Rights Movement." iThe Atlantic/iNick Turse, "A Six-Point Plan for Global War." iTomDispatch/iNeal Whitman, "'Kinetic' Connections." iVisual Thesaurus/iChris Hedges, "War Is Betrayal." iBoston Review/iTom Malinowski, Sarah Holewinski, and Tammy Schultz, "Post-Conflict Potter." iForeign Policy/i, Appendix: Researching and Writing About Culture