Based on the assumption that lucid thinking, reading, and writing are so closely interwoven as to be one process, this rhetorical reader helps students improve their abilities to think, read, and write on progressively more sophisticated levels by providing a collection of 60 provocative and interesting essays. The essays are accompanied by apparatus that includes clear, well-developed rhetorical introductions, sample student essays, prewriting questions, and flexible writing assignments. The essays cover a broad range of contemporary topics and portray the universality of human experience as expressed through the viewpoints of men and women, many different ethnic and racial groups, and a variety of ages and social classes.