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Reading and Writing About Contemporary Issues, 3rd edition

Published by Pearson (January 4, 2019) © 2020

  • Kathleen T. McWhorter Niagara County Community College

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For courses in integrated reading & writing and intermediate reading (9 to 12 grade level).

High-interest, thought-provoking, thematic content to spur learning

Reading and Writing About Contemporary Issues gathers only the most stimulating nonfiction pieces regarding real-world problems, connects them thematically, and uses them as tools to build on students' reading and writing through numerous examples for analysis. Each reading is organized into thematic units that focus on contemporary issues.

The 3rd Edition's readings are organized based on level of difficulty, and are drawn from a variety of sources, such as blogs and websites, books, textbooks, periodicals and more.

Hallmark features of this title

Organized for success in 3 Parts

  • Part 1: A Handbook for Reading and Writing is a guide for skill development and a user-friendly reference for later work.
    • Skills range from analyzing, drafting, and revising a reading/writing assignment to applying critical thinking and analysis to writing arguments and documented papers.
  • Part 2: readings accompanied by writing activities allow students to practice applying the skills learned in Part 1.
    • 3 readings per chapter are paired with exercises. Chapter-ending activities prompt relating 2 or more readings and making connections across chapters.
  • Part 3: Casebook for Critical Thinking offers different viewpoints on climate change and global warming via 8 multi-genre readings and synthesis and integration writing activities.
  • Free download: The Pearson Guide to the 2021 MLA Handbook.

New and updated features of this title

  • UPDATED: Includes current coverage of the digital reading skills essential to today's college students, numerous strategies for adapting reading skills to digital text, identifying fake news on the internet, and sharing digital documents to aid in the writing process.
  • NEW: Self-Test End-of-Chapter Summaries are included throughout to facilitate interactive self-testing.
  • NEW: 12 new professional readings, and updated passages reflect more contemporary issues, such as using technology to fight crime, government surveillance, free speech on college campuses, and an entirely new Critical Thinking Casebook on artificial intelligence.
    • Accompanying reading strategies have been reorganized to help instructors teach both reading and writing throughout the reading.
  • NEW: New activities have been added and existing activities have been revised.

Features of MyLab Reading & Writing for the 3rd Edition

  • Students can test their understanding of chapter content right in MyLab Reading & Writing Skills. The book-specific MyLab Reading & Writing Skills/eText course for Reading and Writing About Contemporary Issues contains end-of-chapter assessments and activities/assignments from the print book that flow directly into the MyLab Reading & Writing Skills instructor Gradebook upon completion.
  • Adaptive study plan. As students progress through the course, MyLab Reading & Writing Skills evaluates their results on each assessment and recommends new topics for study. If they are working in the learning path, the program adapts its recommendations based on their most recent performance. If they are working on a reading assignment, MyLab adapts its recommendations to help build toward that next assignment.

PART 1: A HANDBOOK FOR READING AND WRITING IN COLLEGE

  1. The Reading Process
  2. The Writing Process
  3. Vocabulary for Readers and Writers
  4. Main Ideas and Topic Sentences
  5. Supporting Details, Transitions, and Implied Main Ideas
  6. Revising and Proofreading Paragraphs
  7. Reading and Writing Organizational Patterns
  8. Writing Essays and Documented Papers
  9. Critical Thinking: Reading and Writing
  10. Analyzing Issues and Arguments

PART 2: READING AND WRITING ABOUT CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

  1. Defining Ourselves: Our Multiple Identities
  2. Our Environment: Problems and Solutions
  3. Relationships: Our Friends, Families, and Communities
  4. Medical Ethics: Where Do We Draw the Line?
  5. Personal Safety and Security
  6. Conformity and Nonconformity: Following and Breaking the Rules
  7. Personal Freedoms and Limitations: Lifestyle Choices

PART 3: A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY CASEBOOK ON GLOBALIZATION

  • Examining One Issue in Depth
  • Reading 1: Geography, "The Impact of Globalization"
  • Reading 2: Biology, "World Overpopulation and Resource Management"
  • Reading 3: Business and Marketing, "Marketing on the Global Stage"
  • Reading 4: Cultural Anthropology, "Globalization and Health"
  • Reading 5: Communication, "Globalization and Intercultural Communication"
  • Reading 6: Economics, "The Global Economy"
  • Synthesis and Integration Questions and Activities
  • Writing About the Readings

PART 4: GRAMMAR AND CORRECTNESS SKILL REFRESHERS

  • Skill Refresher 1: Sentence Fragments
  • Skill Refresher 2: Run-On Sentences
  • Skill Refresher 3: Subject-Verb Agreement
  • Skill Refresher 4: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
  • Skill Refresher 5: Pronoun Reference
  • Skill Refresher 6: Dangling Modifiers
  • Skill Refresher 7: Misplaced Modifiers
  • Skill Refresher 8 Parallelism
  • Skill Refresher 9: Comma Usage
  • Skill Refresher 10: Colons and Semicolons

About our author

Kathleen T. McWhorter is the author of more than a dozen textbooks designed to help students succeed in college. Born in a rural farm community in Upstate New York, she went on to receive her EdD from SUNY Buffalo. For 34 years, she taught at Niagara County Community College in Sanborn, NY, where she is a professor emerita of humanities. Through her textbooks, Dr. McWhorter has helped an estimated 500,000 students improve their reading, writing and critical-thinking skills.

For more information on Kathleen's Reading and Writing Series, visit the McWhorter Way series page. She also encourages interaction and discourse in the education community on her LinkedIn page.

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