Thomas Cooley Books

As a rhetorically arranged collection of short essaysfor composition, our Sampler echoes the cloth samplers once done incolonial America, presenting the basic patterns of writing for studentsto practice just as schoolchildren once practiced their stitches andABCs on needlework samplers. This new edition shows students thatdescription, narration, and the other patterns of exposition are notjust abstract concepts used in composition classrooms but are in factthe way we think and write.The Norton Sampler contains 63 carefully chosen readings classics aswell as more recent pieces, essays along with a few real-worldtexts all demonstrating how writers use the modes of discourse for manyvaried purposes.

"Contexts and Sources" offers a comprehensive collection of documents that illuminate the historical background, language, composition, sale, reception, and newly uncovered first half of the manuscript of Mark Twain's most significant work. Readers will find letters discussing the novel's writing, excerpts from Twain's autobiography, and samples of poor poetry that inspired his satire, including one by a young Sam Clemens. The book addresses the censorship of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in schools and libraries over the past century. Commentary by David Carkeet explores the book's dialects, while Earl F. Briden critiques its "racist" illustrations. This section also includes full texts of "Sociable Jimmy," which supports the theory that Huck speaks in a "black voice," and "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It," Twain's first significant attempt to capture African American speech in print. The "Criticism" section is divided into "Early Responses," featuring the first negative review, and "Modern Views" from notable critics like Victor A. Doyno, T. S. Eliot, Jane Smiley, and others. Toni Morrison contributes a poignant personal "Introduction" reflecting on the complexities of reading Twain's work. Additionally, a "Chronology and Selected Bibliography" are provided.

A fresh take on the traditional modes, showing how they are used in texts of all kinds, and that they are central to all the writing, speaking, and thinking that we do. The Second Edition contains 34 new readings that teachers will want to teach and students will like to read, from Steven Pinker’s “Mind Over Mass Media” to Alex Horton’s “Advice for College-bound Vets,” as well as a chapter on academic writing, and editorial apparatus that explicitly links the readings to the writing instruction, with notes in the margins leading students from the text to specific examples in the readings―and the reverse.