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The Norton Sampler: Short Essays For Composition (1979)

by Thomas Cooley(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0393919463 (ISBN13: 9780393919462)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: I have decided that THIS is my new English Composition II textbook for a community college course ;) I was/ am still using the "Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction" because it was "contemporary" and cheap (under $20). However after a few semesters of using it, the same critiques come up from students: the stories are depressing, many are "boring" or "confusing," there's not enough variety, etc. "The Norton Sampler" (8th edition) is a bit more pricey and I'm aware of how even the moisture in our fingers crinkle the onion-skin thin pages (I imagine a spilled cup of water will dissolve the entire thing), but still . . . the readings have a much vaster spectrum to them, loads of positive stories, awesome instructional pieces, good writing prompts, annotations to... more assist students, and I even love how the paragraphs are numbered for each essay. Good stuff.
review 2: You know what's funny? I thought it was cute that the cover was modeled after the Whitman's Sampler. You know, that box of candy that you always give to elderly relatives on holidays? Little did I know, however, that the "Sampler" is really a cross-stitching pattern school kids in the 19th Century used to complete to learn the alphabet and numbers. Not only does this book teach you about that little handy piece of trivia, but it is really a great resource for an advanced high school or freshman college level writing course. There are essays and short pieces in here that are perfect for teaching the various writing forms (literary journalism, essay, profile, etc.). Before each piece is a short profile of the author, and after each piece, in true textbook fashion, is a series of wuestions about the work. Unlike most texts, though these questions are actually thought-provoking and intelligent. The size of this litlte textbook is handy and easy to carry as well. Good stuff. less

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