Customer Reviews

Convergences: Message, Method, Medium

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I used this book for an English 101 class during my freshman year of college. This book inspired a composition class that I enjoyed thoroughly. Never had I had so much fun writing and analyzing before in a class. I would strongly recommend this text for any teachers/professors searching. Students love the non-traditional topics, diverse contributors, and unique voice this book provides to the class.

I truly regret not ordering this text for my composition courses this semester but I definitely will teach it next semester. I have been reading through it and I find that it is carefully structured. The themes focused on are fascinating. I can well see how students would become drawn to this text. There are a wealth of essays, short stories, commentaries, and images here: the images are just a wonder, ranging many different subjects. The images are followed by questions designed to provoke deep thought. What a way to encourage class discussion and encourage students to stop and carefully examine what they see! I congratulate the author for a superb job.

I love teaching with this book. I've used it for five semesters, and have never repeated a course. Each one of the selections can inspire six weeks of discussion, the issues are so complex and provocative. Nevertheless, there is a handful of work I would drop in the next edition, for example, the Reality T.V. essay is not well organized; even though the subject remains relevant, this is not the essay with which to open the exploration. There are also some photos which haven't awoken any interesting conversations. (Whereas the Sally Mann group has been a source of eternal delight and debate.) I'm ready for a new edition, but Mr.Atwan is the author-editor I'll stick with. (Check out his America Now, also from Bedford St. Martins. This is the editor's eye you want trained on your classroom.)