Crosscurrents: Readings in the Disciplines, 1st edition
Published by Pearson (July 31, 2012) © 2013
- Eric C. Link
- Steven P. Frye
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Underscoring the essential skills of reading and writing in multiple fields of knowledge, Crosscurrents is a thematic reader that connects ideas and texts from across the disciplines.
With its rich variety of readings that span the major college disciplines, Crosscurrents is a true writing across the curriculum reader. Three introductory chapters on critical reading, thinking, and research (Part 1) provide a broad, yet concise rhetoric that orients both students and instructors to disciplines that may be outside their comfort zone or areas of expertise. These chapters offer assistance in reading and comprehending material in each of the disciplines. Foundational, seminal readings foreground each of the eight thematic chapters in Part 2; additional, mainly contemporary, selections drawn from print and electronic books, journals, and general interest periodicals provide a wide range of source materials so that students can further understand each discipline and its intricacies.- Accessibility. A main, annotated table of contents links specific academic disciplines and departments, or a blend of related academic fields. An alternative table of contents organized by rhetorical strategy takes into account those courses which may be oriented in relation to formal genre conventions and structures.
- A broad, yet concise rhetoric. Part 1 showcases the shared conventions of academic writing, the form and shape of the academic essay, differences in conventions among the disciplines, and the rhetorical strategies that emphasize research, persuasion and argumentation, analysis, and synthesis. Student sample drafts and final essays are included. These chapters orient students to academic writing and provide guidance in reading and comprehending the material, discussing it, and writing about it.
- Foundational readings. Each thematic chapter in Part 2 begins with selections from the classical, medieval, and renaissance periods, as well as those from the early twentieth century. These selections offer grounding in the history of the discipline and provide instructors the opportunity to focus their courses on interdisciplinary content.
- Thematic sub-units in each chapter. Within each thematic chapter is a series of additional “sub themes” that offer an array of discipline-specific inquiries into issues that affect both its educational and academic spheres.
- Visual literacy. A series of images in each thematic chapter, as well as a 4-color, 8-page insert, provides opportunities for students to engage in reading visuals. Photos, ads, posters, fine art, cartoons, and film stills are accompanied by thoughtful questions designed to challenge and foster interdisciplinary engagement through visual imagery.
- Focus on technology. Technology is a significant part of both the reader’s everyday experience and the modern educational experience. Virtually every readings chapter contains opportunities for readers to engage in a variety of discussions about technology.
- Thoughtful apparatus. An introduction to each thematic chapter exposes students to the discipline and its history. These introductions provide students with a general understanding of the commonalities within and among academic disciplines. Headnotes for each writer, including important biographical information, commentary on the writer’s significance in the field, and a glossing of the essential ideas contained in the selection allow students to understand the person behind the words and provide both a human and a historical context for the reading.
- Writing prompts. Following each reading, a textual support section includes four sets of writing prompts. “Questions on Meaning” reinforce students’ understanding of the selection. “Questions for Discussion” provide a starting point for in-class exploration of the material in open conversation. “Looking at Rhetoric” questions ask students to delve into the mechanics of the selections and assess the authors’ writing strategies. “Writing Assignments” provide opportunities for research and collaborative work. In addition, end of chapter “Thinking Crosscurrently” questions allow students to make connections among writers both within and outside the discipline, and in doing so allow for cross-disciplinary interchange.
PART 1: READING AND WRITING IN THE DISCIPLINES
Chapter 1 Knowledge, Reading, and Writing across Disciplines
Preparing a Foundation for Learning
Understanding Genres
Sciences
Social Sciences
Humanities
Genres Used across Fields
Linking Thinking, Reading, and Writing
Learning in Disciplines
Categorizing Academic Disciplines
Natural and Applied Sciences
Social Sciences
Business and Applied/Professional Studies
History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies
Humanities
Creative Arts
Understanding Genre Expectations in the Disciplines
Researching in the Disciplines
Reasoning
Cross-Check
Chapter 2 Reading across Disciplines: Reading for Learning, for Analysis, and for Argument
Reading for Learning
Strategies for Reading
Reading the Author’s Logic: Logical Fallacies
Reading Visual Aids
Reading Internet Sites and Determining Credibility
Reading for Analysis
Strategies for Analytic Reading
Analyzing Arguments
Argumentation in the Disciplines
Cross-Check
Chapter 3 Writing and Researching: Genres, Practices, and Processes
Writing Conventions
Rules
Guidelines
Strategies
Writing as a Cyclical Process
Planning and Invention
Analyzing your Audiences
Writing Arguments
Developing a Thesis Statement
Researching
Types of Research
Starting Your Research
Narrowing Your Topic
Taking Notes
Synthesizing and Incorporating Borrowed Material without
Plagiarizing
Organizing Ideas
Working with Visual Aids
Revising, Editing, and Proofreading
Documenting Sources
MLA Documentation
Annotated Student Paper
APA Documentation
Cross-Check
PART 2: ANTHOLOGY OF READINGS
Chapter 4 Nature, Genetics, and the Philosophy of Science
Introduction
Emily Martin, et. al. “Scientific Literacy, What It Is, Why It’s Important, and Why Scientists Think We Don’t Have It”
Foundations in the Philosophy of Science
Thomas Kuhn “The Historical Structure of Scientific Discovery”
Paul Feyerabend, from Against Method
The Tools of Science: A World Too Small to See (images)
Genetics and Human Identity
Barry Commoner “Unraveling the DNA Myth”
Francis Fukuyama “Why We Should Worry” from Our Posthuman Future
Visions of the Posthuman (images)
Michael J. Sandel “The Case Against Perfection”
Olivia Judson “The Selfless Gene”
Robert Lanza “A New Theory of the Universe”
Natalie Angier “My God Problem—And Theirs”
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 5 Business and Economics
Introduction
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Maid to Order”
Foundations: Free Enterprise and Social Responsibility
Milton Friedman, “Economic Freedom and Political Freedom” (from Capitalism and Freedom)
John Maynard Keynes, “The End of Laissez-Faire”
Doing Business in America (images)
Barbara Kellerman, “Leadership: Warts and All”
Nature and the Economic Realm: Causes and Conflicts
Paul Krugman, “Irrational Exuberance” (from The Great Unraveling)
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, “Information Asymmetry” (from Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything)
Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan, “Laughing All the Way to the Darwinian Bank” (from Mean Genes,)
At Work in America: The Triumph and Trials of an Economic System (images)
Steve Denning, “Why Amazon Can’t Make a Kindle in the USA”
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 6 Government, Political Science, and Public Policy
Introduction
David Mamet, “Political Civility”
Foundations: The Individual and the State
Thomas Jefferson, “The Declaration of Independence”
Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”
Mahatma Gandhi, “The Non-Violent Society”
Governments and their Symbols (images)
Activism, Social Change, and its Discontents
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Caitlin Flanagan, “How Serfdom Saved the Women’s Movement”
Activism and Social Change (images)
Jane Mayer, “The Black Sites”
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 7 Education and Society
Introduction
Shelby Steele, “The New Sovereignty”
Foundations: Theorizing Education
John Dewey, “My Pedagogic Creed”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”
The Classroom: Then and Now (images)
Education in the Modern Age
Jay P. Greene, “The Myth of Helplessness” (from Education Myths)
Christina Hoff Sommers “The War Against Boys”
Diane Ravitch, “What I Learned About School Reform” (from The Death and the Life of the American School)
Alissa Quart, “The Baby Genius Edutainment Complex”
Emily Bernard, “Teaching the N-Word”
Jeff Sharlet, “Straight Man’s Burden”
Guns in America: Two Views (images)
Dan Baum, “Happiness is a Worn Gun”
Malcolm Gladwell, “The 10,000 Hour Rule” (from Outliers: The Story of Success)
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 8 Communication and Pop Culture
Introduction
Foundations: Theories of Communication and Culture
Marshall McLuhan from Understanding Media
Dick Hebdige, “Subculture and Style”
Comics and the Graphic Novel
Scott McCloud “Setting the Record Straight”
Douglas Wolk from Reading Comics
Lynda Barry, from The Greatest of Marlys
Noel Murray and Scott Tobias, “How Has the Culture of TV (and TV-Watching) Changed?
Susan Willis “Disney World” (from Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World)
Susan Linn “Marketing, Media, and the First Amendment” (from Consuming Kids)
Using Advertising to Raise Awareness: Animal Rights (images)
William Deresiewicz, “Faux Friendship”
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 9 Philosophy and Psychology
Introduction
Foundations: Examining the Self
William James “The Will to Believe”
Plato “The Apology”
Understanding Human Emotions (images)
V. S. Ramachandran, “Neuroscience: The New Philosophy” (from A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness)
Thinking Beyond the Human: Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism
A. M. Turing “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”
Ray Kurzweil, “The Law of Accelerating Returns”
Proving the Existence of God
Three Arguments for the Existence of God
William Paley from Natural Theology
St. Thomas Aquinas from Summa Theologica
St. Anselm from Proslogium
Theology and Cartoons (images)
Kwasi Wiredu from Cultural Universals and Particulars: An African Perspective
Robert Orsi “When 2 + 2 = 5”
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 10 History and Culture
Introduction
Jacques Barzun, “The Coming Age” (from From Dawn to Decadence 1500 to Present: 50 Years of Western Cultural Life)
Foundations: Historical Process and Human Agency
Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address” and “The Second Inaugural Address”
W. E. B. Dubois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” (from The Souls of Black Folk)
Images of the American Civil War (images)
Richard Rodriguez, “In the Brown Study” (from Brown)
Bruce Catton, “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”
Illegal Immigration in America: Political Cartoons (images)
Immigration: Pathways and Promises
Judith Ortiz Cofer, “Rituals: A Prayer, a Candle, and a Notebook”
Belle Yang, “The Language of Dreams”
Margaret Regan, “Prologue” (from The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands)
Andrea Elliot, “A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds”
Thinking Crosscurrently
Chapter 11 Literature, Language, and Art
Introduction
Barbara Wallraff, “What Global Language?”
Foundations: What Makes it Literature?
Oscar Wilde, Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
Virginia Woolf, “Shakespeare's Sister” (from A Room of One’s Own)
Architecture as Art (images)
The Interdisciplinary Imagination
Bharati Mukherjee, “The Management of Grief”
James Tiptree, Jr. “The Last Flight of Doctor Ain”
Herman Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street”
Art and Medicine Through the Ages (8-page, 4-color insert)
The Art of Love, the Passion of Art
Kate Chopin, “The Storm”
James Joyce, “Araby”
Terry Eagleton, “The Rise of English” (from Literary Theory: An Introduction)
Thinking Crosscurrently
Appendix Breaking Down Assignments: A Guide for Students
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