This best-selling collection features ten chapters focusing on the classic methods of narration, description, argument, and persuasion. It contains classic and contemporary essays about popular culture, along with advice about how to read analytically, and how to write persuasively and effectively. Fifteen new essays, including timely topics such as Wikipedia, Facebook, and Iraq. Each chapter is organized clearly and effectively, enabling the reader to not only understand each essay and but also what the writer was trying to convey.