The Writer's Selections: Shaping Our Lives

The Writer's Selections: Shaping Our Lives, 5/e is a thematic reader for beginning writers that focuses on the influences and decisions that shape our lives, including other people, events, cultures, media, work, and technology. Representing a wide range of sources and supported by pre-reading and post-reading activities, the readings are short, readable, and engaging. Writing About the Reading exercises require students to explore different approaches and styles of writing. Journal assignments encourage students to explore their ideas and write about them in a journal format; paragraph-length assignments offer writers the opportunity to explore a focused topic; and essay-length assignments give students experience in narrowing a topic and developing a short essay.