Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers [Paperback]

David Bartholomae (Author), Anthony Petrosky (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312409958 | ISBN-13: 978-0312409951 | Publication Date: December 28, 2004 | Edition: 7th

In the late 1970s, instructors at the University of Pittsburgh recognized that students were entering the school unprepared for the rigors of academic life. The university's response was to develop a course offering challenging material -- readings requiring serious attention -- along with a method of reading and rereading that helped students learn to read and think critically and respond in writing. That course proved enormously successful, and its materials and methods were published as Ways of Reading. Often imitated -- but never duplicated -- Ways of Reading has for over twenty years profoundly influenced the teaching of writing. It continues to offer students and instructors a uniquely exciting and challenging approach to first-year composition, integrating reading, writing, and critical thinking with an unparalleled selection of readings and editorial features. Ways of Reading helps students develop the necessary intellectual skills for college-level academic work while engaging them in conversations with key academic and cultural texts. It bridges the gap between contemporary critical theory and composition so that instructors can connect their own scholarly work with their teaching. Adopted and readopted from coast to coast in a wide variety of schools, hundreds of instructors and thousands of students confirm that it works.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ways of Reading is not prescriptive; instead, it challenges students and engages them in the timeless issues of interpretation, knowledge, and power."

-- Anne Laskaya, University of Oregon

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

DAVID BARTHOLOMAE (Ph.D., Rutgers University) is one of the composition community's most highly regarded members. Professor and chair of the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh, he has published many articles on the teaching of writing and is a frequent lecturer to university faculty and writing projects nationwide. Winner of the Braddock Award and the CCC Exemplar Award, he has served as chair of CCCC and on the MLA Executive Council. He is coeditor of the Pittsburgh Series on Composition, Literacy, and Culture, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. His collection of essays, Writing on the Margins: Essays on Composition and Teaching, was published by Bedford/St. Martin's in 2005.

ANTHONY PETROSKY (D.Ed., State University of New York at Buffalo) is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh with a joint appointment in the English Department and the School of Education, where he has regularly taught composition, reading, and writing. He has served as the director of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Critical Thinking Project, chair of the NCTE Standing Committee on Research, director for the Third National Assessment of Reading and Literature, and an elected trustee of the NCTE Research Foundation. An award-winning poet, his most recent book of poems, Crazy Love, was published in 2003.

The two together have also published Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts: Theory and Method for a Reading and Writing Course, a report on their course at the University of Pittsburgh, The Teaching of Writing: Eighty-fifth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, and Ways of Reading Words and Images (Bedford/St. Martin's 2003).

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 928 pages
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's; 7th edition (December 28, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312409958
• ISBN-13: 978-0312409951
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From a Teacher, April 29, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers (Paperback)

I have used this book to teach a freshman writing and reading course at a liberal arts school. Because of the difficulty of many of the texts, it was met by my students with little fanfare. While a few of the pieces are clearly too much for the average freshman (Foucault comes first to mind), most can be used effectively to get them to discuss issues. I have found that the students would rather talk in generals and universals than with the intricate arguments that some of the writers brilliantly present.
This is one of the those books that if you decide to use it in a class, then you better be prepared to not only sink with the ship but also be able to provide an inspiring tour of the ruins.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and rewarding, February 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers (Paperback)

This tremendously rich and rewarding book is probably the best collection of essays, with the best apparatus (the most interesting questions, the best ideas for writing) of any teachable collection out there.

I teach at the University of California, Berkeley, and use this book, as do a number of my colleagues. Each one of these essays will unlock a world. Some of them, like Clifford Geertz or Paolo Freire or John Edgar Wideman or Adrienne Rich are centerpieces of my courses. History, anthropology, literature (the new addition of Alice Munro is a brilliant stroke), fieldwork, sociology... but to say that one can introduce any of these fields using this book doesn't do it justice.

These essays are complex and balanced, representing a wide variety of world views, whether political or aesthetic. Reading them requires some effort, but the essays will well repay that effort. They will transform any reader's ideas of what an essay can be.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging, yet rewarding read, February 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers (Paperback)

I had to read this book for my upper division journalism class this fall and found it to be one of the best books that we used in the course. The editors have tried to collect well-written, intelligent documentaries that challenge traditional connections between words and photographs.

Included are Edward Said's inspiring piece about the Palestinian holocaust and exile, a piece by Roland Barthes about the meaning of photograph, "Let Us Speak Now of Famous Men," and many others. Although some pieces are better than others, Barthes' piece is more exciting and informative than Marianne Hirsch's writing on the way that children are used in photography. Over all, the collection is a rewarding and challenge book that could be used for any upper division class. (Maybe the reason that previous reviewers did not like the book is that it was not intended for first year college composition classes.)