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This market-leading language reader features thought-provoking readings that explore the various interconnections between language and American society.
Chapter 1: Breaking Silences
BEGINNINGS: THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE
Visual: Tower of Babel
From Hand to Mouth
Michael C. Corballis
Language and Thought
Susanne K. Langer
Horton Heared A Who!
Visual: Gimme a Cookie (cartoon)
Another Language for the Deaf
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS: COMING INTO LANGUAGE
A Word for Everything
Visual: Sign Language
Chapter 2: Writers on Writing
THE WRITING PROCESS
Writing for an Audience
Beware the Trap of 'Bore-geous' Writing
Writing to Change the World
FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS
The Case for Short Words
Saying Is Believing
Patricia T. O’Conner
Visual: Writing Well (cartoon)
Selection, Slanting and Charged Language
Newman P. Birk and Genevieve B. Birk
Chapter 3: A World of Language
WHAT IS “AMERICAN” ENGLISH?
Do You Speak American?
Everyone Has an Accent but Me
Good English and Bad
Why Good English Is Good For You
Why the U.S. Needs an Official Language
Mauro E. Mujica
ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE
Why a Global Language?
Visual: English and Globish (cartoon)
What Global Language?
English as a Global Language: A Good Thing or a Bad Thing?
Lost in America
Chapter 4: Technology and Language
MAKING CONNECTIONS IN A MODERN WORLD
In the Beginning Was the Word
Is PowerPoint the Devil?
Visual: The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation and The Making of the Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation
Blogging in the Global Lunchroom
Visual: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em . . . (cartoon)
r u online?: The evolving lexicon of wired teens
The Keypad Solution
The Other Side of E-Mail
Three Tweets for the Web
I Tweet, Therefore I Am
Chapter 5: Communication Gap
HE SAYS, SHE SAYS
Women Talk Too Much
What Language Barrier?
No Detail Is Too Small for Girls Answering a Simple Question
Visual: Men Are from Belgium, Women Are from New Brunswick (cartoon)
Oh, Mom. Oh, Honey
WHAT WE SAY AND HOW WE SAY IT
Nonverbal Behavior: Culture, Gender, and the Media
Teri Kwal Gamble and Michael W. Gamble
The Like Virus
Some Friends and I Started Talking: Conversation and Social Change
Margaret J. Wheatley
Chapter 6: Censorship and Free Speech
BIASED LANGUAGE AND HATE SPEECH
Robin Tolmach Lakoff
Bias-Free Language: Some Guidelines
The Word Police
“Nigger”: The Meaning of a Word
CENSORSHIP AND FREE SPEECH
Regulating Racist Speech on Campus
Charles R. Lawrence, III
There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It’s a Good Thing Too
Freedom of Deplorable Speech
Visual: First Amendment (cartoon)
Hate Speech Cannot be Tolerated
Chapter 7: Advertising and Print Media
THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING
With These Words I Can Sell You Anything
The Language of Advertising
Charles A. O’Neill
Be All That You Can Be: The Company Persona and Language Alignment
A Brand by Any Other Name
Visual: Current Advertisements
THE FUTURE OF PRINT MEDIA
Out of Print
Is Print Dead?
Are We Reaching Da Youth?
Will the Death of Newspapers Also Kill Our Freedoms?
Freedom of Speech and the Editorial Cartoon
Visual: Editorial Cartoons
Chapter 8: Political Wordplay
How to Detect Propaganda
Institute for Propaganda Analysis
Doubts About Doublespeak
Do You Speak Presidential?
Anna Marie Trester
Fighting Words: The War over Language
Visuals: Campaign Advertisements
SPEAKING OUT: LANGUAGE THAT INSPIRED CHANGE
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King
John F. Kennedy
Kennedy’s Inaugural Address: Ask Not What Happened to Oratory
Aren’t I a Woman?
A More Perfect Union
Visual: Obama Speech
Chapter 9: Language and the Brain
LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT
Does Language Shape How You Think?
You Say Up, I Say Yesterday
Joan O’C. Hamilton
How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think?
What’s in a Word?
Google Making Us Stoopid?
The Internet and How We Think: Writers Offer Their Opinions
Your iBrain: How Technology Changes the Way We Think
Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan
Speaking in Tones: Music and Language Partner in the Brain
Mind over Mass Media