Many Voices A Multicultural Reader

Preface WRITING ABOUT READING This book was designed to encourage critical thinking about the ideas contained in the reading selections. We believe that students will get the most benefit from this text if they begin with Chapter One. Although the readings are in the first person singular, the assignments and writing prompts for the most part encourage academic, text-driven writing in which both the authors' and the readers' ideas can connect in a coherent essay. Using the Revising and Editing Checklists should help refine and correct students' drafts. These checklists can be used both to facilitate group activity and to help individuals refine and edit their drafts. PREREADING The prereading questions are designed to provoke thoughts and feelings about the ideas contained in the readings. They may be used to evoke discussion and writings, or they may be assigned as a prereading assignment or a group activity. Their purpose is to guide the reader in making his or her own connection with the text. With this mind set, the reading will be more meaningful. WORKING WITH WORDS The "Working with Words" section is designed to encourage thinking about vocabulary in context as well as to develop word skills. Students should feel free to add similar words and expressions to the list. EXAMINING CONTENT The "Examining Content" questions encourage students to recall key ideas in the selection they have just read. These questions could also be used to help students summarize the main ideas of the excerpts and stories. They are focused on the important ideas in the content with the intention of helping students prepare for the more difficult questions and writing prompts that follow. RESPONDING TO IDEAS Designed to elicit discussion and more abstract thinking and writing, the "Responding to Ideas" questions can be answered either individually or in groups. The ideas could also be used as writing prompts for reader-response essays. In addition, students should feel free to add their own questions to this list. Chapter One discusses the writing of the reader-response draft. MORE WRITING TOPICS In addition to Reader Response Topics, other abstract writing prompts in this section give readers more practice with academic, expository writing. Students may choose to write as many drafts as time permits. In addition, students should use the Revising and Editing Checklists to prepare the final copy. MAKING THE FINAL COPY Additional writing prompts and revising and editing exercises and checklists are provided in order to prepare the draft for its final evaluation. Students are encouraged to add to the Revising and Editing Checklists as needed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank every writer whose poem, story, article, or excerpt appears in this book. We would also like to acknowledge the ideas and feedback from the students of Hostos Community College, The Bronx, New York. A special thank you to Virginia DeLeon, whose draft appears in Chapter One. We thank former Acquisitions Editor Maggie Barbieri, Acquisitions Editor Craig Campanella, Editorial Assistant Joan Polk, and Production Editor Linda Pawelchak. The following reviewers made invaluable suggestions at an earlier stage of the writing: Keith Coplin, Colby Community College; Margo L. Eden-Camann, Georgia Perimeter College-Clarkston; Kathryn Gleason, New York City Technical College; Mary Helen Halloran, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Harvey Rubinstein, Hudson County Community College; Karen Standridge, Pikes Peak Community College; and Charles Wukasch, Austin Community College. We hope that a deeper appreciation of the many voices of these writers from diverse corners of the world will be one of the results of reading this book, and that this will, in some small way, promote world communication and understanding. Linda Watkins-GofGoffman, Richard W. is the author of 'Many Voices A Multicultural Reader', published 2000 under ISBN 9780139756245 and ISBN 0139756248.