Writing matters a handbook for writing and research 4th edition rebecca moore howard download pdf
Rebecca Moore Howard
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Writing Matters: A Handbook for Writing and Research / 3e TABBED Rebecca Moore Howard
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ISBN 978-1-265-99244-6
MHID 1-265-99244-4
Cover Image: McGraw Hill
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The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw Hill LLC, and McGraw Hill LLC does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.
mheducation.com/highered
Writing Matters is dedicated to the memory of my sister, Sandy
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Dear Colleagues and Students:
Welcome to Writing Matters! I started this project as a way of giving back to the composition community and helping students to develop as writers. Working on this handbook has also been a source of my own development: My life and teaching have been immeasurably enriched by the students and instructors I have met during my travels to discuss Writing Matters and my responsibilities-focused approach to writing.
Rebecca Moore Howard is Professor
of Writing and Rhetoric
at Syracuse University. Her work on the Citation Project is part of a collaborative endeavor to study how students really use resources.
While developing all the editions of Writing Matters, I have also been working on the Citation Project, a study of the researched writing that 174 students (from 16 colleges and universities nationwide) produced in their composition classes. Some of the results of that research are available at citationproject.net There you will see a variety of evidence that students may not be reading their sources carefully and completely and that their research projects suffer accordingly. Drawing on the findings of the Citation Project, Writing Matters includes an array of materials that help students think dialogically and rhetorically as they work from sources. These include best practices in concrete techniques, such as marking where the source material ends and the student writer’s own voice begins. These materials provide guidance for students as they work to fulfill their writer’s responsibilities to other writers, to their readers, to their topics, and most especially, to themselves.
The result is a teaching and learning framework that unites research, rhetoric, documentation, grammar, and style into a cohesive whole, helping students to find consistency and creativity in rules that might otherwise confound them. Students experience responsible writing not only by citing the work and creativity of other writers accurately but also by treating those writers’ ideas fairly. They practice responsible writing by providing reliable information about a topic at a depth that does the topic justice. Most importantly, they embrace responsible writing by taking their writing seriously and approaching writing assignments as opportunities to learn about new topics and to expand their scope as writers.
Students are more likely to write well when they think of themselves as writers rather than as errormakers. By explaining rules in the context of responsibility, I address composition students respectfully as mature and capable fellow participants in the research and writing process.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Moore Howard
Where to Find What You Need in Writing Matters
Writing Matters is a reference for all writers and researchers. Whether you are writing a research project for class, giving a multimedia presentation for a meeting, or preparing a résumé for a job interview, you are bound to come across questions about writing and research. Writing Matters provides you with answers to your questions.
The Table of Contents. If you know the topic you are looking for, scan the brief contents on the inside front cover. If you are looking for specific information within a general topic (how to evaluate a source for relevance and reliability, for example), go to the detailed table of contents on pages xxv–xxxvii.
The Index. The comprehensive index at the end of Writing Matters, on pages I1–I40, includes cross-references to all topics covered in the book. If you are not sure how to use commas in compound sentences, for example, look up “commas” or “compound sentences” in the index.
Documentation Chapters (18–21). For help and models for citing sources, see the chapters in Part Five on documentation styles: MLA (Ch. 18), APA (Ch. 19), Chicago (Ch. 20), and CSE (Ch 21). The menus in the margins of these chapters guide you to specific types of sources.
Grammar Chapters (33–42). For help with correcting grammar errors, see the chapters in Part Eight (33–42) where you will also find examples of grammar challenges, models for how to fix them, and cross-references to pages where concepts are discussed.
Glossaries. If you are unfamiliar with a term or not sure if you are using a particular word (such as who or whom, less or fewer, can or may) correctly, see the Glossary of Key Terms on pages G1–G13 or the Glossary of Usage on pages G15–G20.
Chapters for Multilingual Writers (Chapters 43–47). For help with articles, helping verbs, prepositions, and other common problem areas for EFL writers, see pages 757–800.
Quick Reference Menus. See the inside back cover for comprehensive lists of student and professional writing models, self-assessment checklists, EFL and tech tips, Quick Reference boxes, and Writing Responsibly advice.
Connect Composition for Writing Matters. Access a digital, searchable, accessible ebook version of the handbook that you can personalize using tools such as highlighting and annotating; and any practice or homework assignments from your instructor. Also included in Connect Connect Composition for Writing Matters are practice activities, Writing Assignment Plus, Power of Process, and the Adaptive Learning Assignment platform.
Navigation and Learning Features
• Running heads and section numbers give the topic covered on that page as well as the number of the chapter and section letter in which the topic is discussed.
• Main headings include the chapter number and section letter (for example, 33d), as well as the title of the section.
• Examples, many of them with hand corrections, illustrate typical errors and how to correct them.
• EFL boxes provide useful tips and helpful information for writers whose first language is not English.
• Chapter table of contents identifies the topics covered in the text.
• Chapter introductions contextualize concepts explored in the upcoming lesson.
• Annotations to writing models point out and critique writers’ choices.
• Tech tips offer support for using familiar technology to your advantage while avoiding pitfalls.
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Writing Matters Students Matter
Empowering Students as Writers . . .
Writing Matters offers instructors and students an accessible four-part framework that focuses the rules and conventions of writing through a lens of responsibility, ultimately empowering students to own their ideas and to view their writing as consequential.
Writing Matters helps students see the conventions of writing as a network of responsibilities . . .
to other writers by treating information and sources fairly and accurately, and crafting writing that is fresh and original; to their audience by writing clearly, designing accessibly, and providing readers with the information and interpretation they need to make sense of a topic;
to their topic by exploring an issue thoroughly and creatively, assessing sources carefully, and providing reliable information at a depth that does the topic justice;
to themselves by taking their writing seriously, approaching the process as an opportunity to learn and to expand research and writing skills, and to capably join larger conversations in which their voices can and should be heard.
Features that Support a Writer’s Responsibilities
The four-part framework of a writer’s responsibilities is supported by features throughout Writing Matters and its companion Connect course. Students are guided to consider their responsibilities—to other writers, to the audience, to the topic, and to themselves—throughout the writing process via exercises, toolboxes, checklists, annotated writing models, and more that help students learn to meet their obligations and to produce meaningful writing.
Writing Responsibly tutorials and guidance
Five 2-page citation tutorials, in Chapters 7, 13, 15, and 16, draw from Rebecca Moore Howard’s published Citation Project, a research study that used empirical methods to explore the top challenges experienced by composition students when they work with sources. Supporting students in meeting a writer’s responsibility to the topic and to other writers, these five tutorials offer best practices for researched composing, and include practical insights, relatable before-andafter examples, and a targeted self-assessment checklist. The example presented here, “Understanding and Representing the Entire Source,” encourages students
to avoid pasting an isolated “killer quote” from the first couple of pages of the source, and to instead read through their sources in order to incorporate insights purposefully and responsibly.
In addition to tutorials, suggestions throughout the text frame writing skills in terms of a writer’s responsibilities—to their audience, topic, other writers, and themselves. Contextualized best practices encourage the writer-as-citizen.
Annotated student and professional models of writing
More than one dozen student projects and professional articles—including literary analyses, reviews, press releases, outlines, and cover letters—are explored in detail, with callouts identifying the unique features of each and analyses of the components of compelling writing. Annotations in the student project in Chapter 22 (“Writing in Literature and the Other Humanities”), for example, call attention to the important elements of a literary analysis, such as the thesis statement, citations, and supporting evidence in a student project, a close reading of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Student and professional models allow students to see how other writers have met the four writer’s responsibilities.
Accessible ebook and online resources
At McGraw Hill Higher Education, our mission is to accelerate learning through intuitive, engaging, efficient, and effective experiences, grounded in research. Assignments in Connect are WCAG compliant and updates to the ebook of
the 4th edition of Writing Matters go beyond WCAG compliance to create an improved reading experience for all learners. These enhancements include improved functionality for viewing annotated readings and editing marks. We are committed to creating universally accessible products that unlock the full potential of each learner, including individuals with disabilities.
MLA Style and APA Style citation tutorial
Part Five, Documentation Matters, begins with a special four-page reference section modeling citation styles. Pages from books, journals, websites, and databases present the features of popular and academic sources. On the page below, citations for a printed book are shown in both MLA and APA style. All MLA citations follow the current guidelines of the 2021 MLA Handbook, 9th Edition. Also updated are
the APA citations, now formatted according to the 2019 APA Manual. By providing accurate and complete citations, students meet their responsibility to the audience.
Self-Assessment checklists
Helpful checklists guide students to review their work at every step of the writing process, from drafting to revising to proofreading a piece before publication. In Chapter 17 (“Citing Rhetorically”), this checklist reminds students to emphasize their own insights when working with sources, and to provide contextual information that shows why a source is authoritative, thus guiding students to meet their responsibilities both to themselves by taking their own writing seriously and to the topic by carefully assessing sources.
Writing Assignment Plus
McGraw Hill’s new Writing Assignment Plus tool delivers a learning experience that improves students’ written communication skills and conceptual understanding with every assignment. Assign, monitor, and provide feedback on writing more efficiently and grade assignments within McGraw Hill Connect®. Writing Assignment Plus gives you time-saving tools with just-in-time basic writing and originality checker.
Power of Process
In addition to the readings throughout Writing Matters, Power of Process in Connect provides 100 additional readings. Power of Process guides students to engage with texts closely and critically so that they develop awareness of their process decisions, and ultimately begin to make those decisions consciously on their own—a hallmark of strategic, self-regulating readers and writers. Power of Process provides strategies that guide students in learning how to critically read a piece of writing or consider a text as a possible source for incorporation into their own work. After they progress through the strategies, responding to prompts by annotating and highlighting, students are encouraged to reflect on their processes and interaction with the text. Instructors can choose from a bank of carefully chosen readings within Power of Process, readings from Writing Matters, or upload their own readings. In keeping with McGraw Hill’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, fifty percent of the readings in Power of Process are by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) authors.
Quick Reference toolboxes
Major concepts are summarized to focus students on the important skills, strategies, and issues to keep in mind when writing. In this reference box from Chapter 14 (“Evaluating Information”), the characteristics of a source are listed, to help students assess the quality and reliability of the texts they discover during the research process and meet their responsibility to the topic.
Adaptive Learning Assignment
Found in Connect, the Adaptive Learning Assignment platform provides each student a personalized path to learning concepts instructors assign in their English Composition course. The assignments continually adapt to the individual, identifying knowledge gaps and focusing on areas where remediation is needed. All adaptive content for topics such as the Writing Process, the Research Process, and Grammar—including questions and integrated concept resources—is specifically targeted to, and directly aligned with, the individual learning objectives being assessed in the course.
Grammar tutorial
To help students in their responsibility to both themselves and their audience, Part Eight, Grammar Matters, begins with a six-page reference section that explores common grammar challenges such as subject–verb agreement, comma splices, and shifting tenses. On the page below, two sentence fragments and four agreement conflicts are modeled, each with edits showing how to correct the problem. Cross-references point students to the chapters that discuss the concept.
Focused exercises
More than 140 exercises help students explore the most important chapter concepts. Exercises gauge individual students’ grasp of key skills, and group projects promote teamwork, peer-to-peer feedback, and collaboration. Many of these exercises help students break the writing process down into smaller parts to focus, for example, on setting a schedule, generating ideas, or conducting a database search. The array of core concepts covered by these exercises strengthen students’ development of all four of a writer’s responsibilities. Additional exercises can be assigned through Connect.
Tech tips
While today’s students are tech savvy, Writing Matters draws their attention to potential complications that may occur when using even the most familiar technology. Chapter 12 (“Planning a Research Project”) advises students to meet their responsibility to themselves by backing up their research to a separate place as a guard against data loss.
EFL tips
Targeted advice on grammar, usage, and culture provide additional support for students for whom English is a foreign language. This EFL tip in Chapter 26 (“Writing Concisely”) clarifies for students that, in the US, there is an expectation for academic writing to be concise. This example helps foreign students to meet their responsibility to the audience.
Support for Writing Matters
Writing Matters includes an array of resources for instructors and students. Under the leadership of Rebecca Moore Howard, experienced instructors created supplements that help instructors and students fulfill their course responsibilities.
Instructor’s manual. The instructor’s manual includes teaching tips, learning outcomes, and suggestions for additional exercises using Connect Composition and Power of Process. Instruction Matters connects each instructor and student resource to the core material and makes the exercises relevant to instructors and students.
Test bank. The Assessment Matters test bank includes more than a thousand test items to ensure students grasp the concepts explored in every chapter.
Practice Matters exercises. Corresponding to content presented step-by-step throughout the chapters, the Practice Matters collection gauges student comprehension of all aspects of the text.
• Writing Exercises for Students
• Language Exercises for EFL Students
• Grammar Exercises for Students
PowerPoint slides. The Presentation Matters PowerPoint deck is designed to give new teachers confidence in the classroom and can be used as a teaching tool by all instructors. The slides emphasize key ideas from Writing Matters and help students take useful notes. Instructors can alter the slides to meet their own needs and, because the PowerPoints are WCAG compliant, the deck can be shared with students using screen readers.
LMS and gradebook synching. McGraw Hill offers deep integration for a range of LMS products. Deep integration includes functionality such as single sign-on, automatic grade sync, assignment level linking and calendar integration.
Reporting. Connect Composition generates a number of powerful reports and charts that allow instructors to quickly review the performance of a specific student or an entire section.
Chapter-by-Chapter Changes
Revision Highlights of the Fourth Edition
Writing Matters has been revised to include key updates from the field and to provide new examples and models.
• All content has been reviewed for inclusivity to ensure the text is free from words or images that reflect prejudiced, stereotyped, or discriminatory views of particular people or groups, and free from material that could potentially exclude people from feeling accepted.
• All in-text citations, bibliography notes, and Works Cited pages are updated to reflect the rules of the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook, the Modern Language Association’s 2021 update on citation formats.
• The text incorporates the use of the singular “they” to follow current MLA and APA guidelines.
Part I: Planning Drafting, Revising, Editing, Proofreading and Formatting (Chs. 1–6)
• Updated Writer’s Responsibilities checklists for selfassessment (Part I opener)
• New student model (research paper): Excerpt from Isabel Beck’s MLA research paper, “Fast Fashion: An Unethical Industry that Harms Garment Workers and the Environment,” to illustrate the parts of a paper and use of figures (Part I opener)
• New student model (article): Megan Ginsie’s, Plagiarism an Issue on Campus, Faculty Says, from the student paper The Collegian, to illustrate a writer’s responsibilities (Ch. 1)
• Expanded annotations for: Michael Wedd’s paper, Issues with Alternative Energy (Ch. 3)
• New student model: Excerpt from Joe Fernandez’s paper [title] on René Brooks’ article, “Time Blindness,” to show a paragraph’s topic sentence, evidence, and conclusion (Ch. 3)
• Fresh examples to demonstrate the crafting of paragraphs: thesis, topic sentence, transition, equivalent expressions, and patterns (Ch. 3)
• Updated and new examples for using visuals as evidence in academic writing (Ch. 5)
• Revised examples of titles for academic works (Ch. 6)
• Updated student model: new sources for Michael Wedd’s “Rethinking Alternative Energy” (Ch. 6) to
bring the content up to date and exemplify the MLA documentation style
• New advice on creating a portfolio and a “personal statement to accompany it (Ch. 6)
• New student model (summary): Joe Fernandez’s “Summary of René Brooks’ ‘Time Blindness’” to show how to summarize a text as part of reading comprehension (Ch. 7)
• New professional model (article): Bahar Gholipour’s “How Accurate Is the Myers-Briggs Personality Test?” to provide an interesting work for readers to comprehend and write about (Ch. 7)
• New professional model (annotated): René Brooks’s “Time Blindness: Timely Advice for Dealing With It” to provide an interesting text and demonstrate close reading and critical annotations (Ch. 7)
• New student model (reading journal): the “DoubleEntry Reading Journal” for Bahar Gholipour’s article, to illustrate a reader’s response and model quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing. (Ch. 7)
• Updated advice on rhetorical analysis: Revised “Preparing to Write” section includes new coverage of rhetorical superstructure, logic, rhetorical appeals, intertextual analysis, and use of a citation index. (Ch. 7)
• New student model (claims and evidence analysis): an artifact of Joe Fernandez’s writing process to show analysis of René Brooks’s article (Ch. 7)
• New student model (rhetorical analysis of an image): Aiden Kelley annotates and writes an analysis of a Soviet space poster (Ch. 7)
• New student model (annotated, critical response essay): Joe Fernandez’s “A Critical Analysis of René Brooks’ article ‘Time Blindness’” to show how to present a thesis, make claims, and use evidence (Ch. 7)
• Updated Chapter 8: Applying Analysis and Crafting Arguments: emphasizes exploration and learning as goals for writing arguments
• Updated section on persuading, exploring, and affirming (Ch. 8)
• Updated material on ethos, pathos, and logos with new examples (Ch. 8)
• Revised content on using rhetorical appeals in Writing Responsibly: Preparing Oral Arguments (Ch. 8)
• New student example (researched argument): Excerpt from Brianna Davids’ paper “Inmate Access to Technology: Safer Prisons and More Successful Reentries to Society” to model use of counterevidence as a response to alternative viewpoints (Ch. 8)
• New sections on “Evaluating Alternative Viewpoints” and “Dealing with Hate Speech, Misinformation, Disinformation, and Trolls” (Ch. 8)
• New student model (annotated researched argument, MLA): Brianna Davids’ paper “Inmate Access to Technology: Safer Prisons and More Successful Reentries to Society” to illustrate an exploratory argument, which looks at how communications technologies improve lives and reduce recidivism, and models for students concrete ways to draw on sources to examine a complex topic; an extensive works cited page models the use of diverse sources (Ch. 8)
• New student model figure (annotated web page): From Brianna Davids’ paper, an annotated version of a web page from a company that produces technologies for prisons (Ch. 8)
• New content, “Using Tone and Style Effectively and Ethically,” with contemporary advice on fallacies: projection, subtweeting, and gaslighting (Ch. 8)
Part III: Media Matters (Chs.
9–11)
• New Ch. 9: Designing Accessible Print and Digital Documents: to introduce students to universal, empathydriven design and the POUR principles for accessible web design; fresh advice for incorporating visuals, using color, and providing alt text
• In Ch. 9: new professional and student models, annotated to highlight choices writers and designers make to create and present accessible content
– New figures: an analysis of effective webpage design (screen from Black Lives Matter site); an analysis of accessible website design (screen from CRAM Foundation);
– New student model: A Well-Designed Document (report) to demonstrate the use of headings, contrast, color, white space, visuals, captioning, and alt text
• In Ch. 10: Writing for Multiple Media: new annotated figure (screen from Poetry Foundation) to illustrate website organization and navigation tools
• In Ch. 11: Presenting with Multiple Media: new introductory image and new advice on planning presentations that are accessible for all audiences
Part IV: Research Matters (Chs. 12–17)
•
Ch. 13: Finding Information: new section, “Searching Rhetorically,” to assist student researchers; new advice on searching rhetorically; revised Writing Responsibly box, “Using Wikipedia Responsibly”; new tips for narrowing search results; new annotated figures (screens from Google keyword search and advanced search; screen from a search of EBSCO database); updated information on using Google Scholar; revised Quick Reference box, “Conducting a Boolean Search”
•
Ch. 14: Evaluating Information: new introductory image; revised content in “Evaluating for Relevance and Reliability” section; revised Quick Reference box, “Judging Reliability”; new advice on previewing a source in the context of a research question, and then reading and evaluating a potential source (and its sources) more deeply; new advice on evaluating a source in the context of its author; new material on peer review and reliability; new section, “Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fake News” and coverage of evaluating social media to address challenges faced by student researchers; new advice in “Evaluating Visual Sources” section on how to evaluate infographics and memes
• Fully revised Ch. 15: Overcoming Fear of Plagiarizing: Paraphrase, Summary, and Rhetorical Note-Taking: to help students feel confident when they write from sources; new and updated coverage of researching rhetorically, understanding plagiarism (with information on ghostwriting, contract cheating, self-plagiarism, lack of citation, lack of quotation marks, and patchwriting), taking notes rhetorically, citing accurately, paraphrasing elegantly, summarizing eloquently, and quoting strategically, with annotated examples
• Ch. 16: Writing the Research Project: new student model of a research question, hypothesis, and thesis
statement, annotated (introduces new MLA paper in Ch. 18 on ethics of fast fashion); new student model of topic outline, annotated; new student model for analysis, interpretation, and synthesis, annotated; new example for how to include an image in a paper
• Ch. 17: Citing Rhetorically: new advice on thinking of citations not only as “plagiarism insurance” but as a part of a writer’s conversation with sources and readers; all examples of parenthetical citations and signal phrases new, annotated;
Part V: Documentation Matters (Chs.
18–21)
• Fully updated Ch. 18: Documenting Sources: MLA Style: all advice and models represent guidelines of latest MLA handbook (9e, 2021); new coverage of citing social media posts including memes and comments; fresh, contemporary examples of parenthetical citations and works-cited list entries; new student research paper on the ethics of fast fashion to exemplify the use of sources, MLA documentation style, and inclusion of figures, annotated
• Fully updated Ch. 19: Documenting Sources: APA Style: all advice and models reflect the latest APA handbook (7e, 2020); student research paper on nature, nurture, and birth order updated, annotated
• Ch. 20: Documenting Sources: Chicago Style: notes and bibliography entries refreshed with new sources
• Fully updated Ch. 21: Documenting Sources: CSE Style: all advice and models reflect the latest CSE handbook (8e, 2014); citations and reference list entries updated; student reference list updated with current sources
Part VI: Genre Matters (Chs. 22–25)
•
Ch. 22: Writing in Literature and Other Humanities: new student model: A Close Reading of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (annotated) to demonstrate an interpretive analysis of a work of fiction
• Ch. 23: Writing in the Social Sciences: a new assignment and an updated student model: A Field Research Report on the Mental Health of College Students: What Support Should Institutions Provide? (annotated) to illustrate a research report on social science in APA style
•
Ch. 25: Professional and Civic Writing: updated section on “Using Business Letter Formats” to align with expectations of the digital age more closely; updated coverage of digital résumés; new example of a report (from the White House) and a press release (from Habitat for Humanity)
Part VII: Style Matters (Chs. 26–32)
•
Ch. 30: Choosing Appropriate Language: revised to ensure students are purposeful in their sentence structure and language
– New introductory example of “Choosing Appropriate Language”
– Updated “Gender bias” section to show how to avoid it by using the singular they, them, or their
– Updated “Cultural labels” section to include “Latinx” as a gender neutral descriptor of individuals of Latin descent
•
Ch. 31: Choosing Effective Words: updated introduction to refer to language in context of contemporary protests and civil rights movement
Part VIII: Grammar Matters (Chs. 33–42)
• Ch. 33: Understanding Grammar: updated Quick Reference box, “Pronouns and Their Functions,” to include singular they/their; sentence examples updated
•
Ch. 36: Maintaining Agreement, updated Writing Responsibly box, “Using a Plural Pronoun with a Singular Antecedent” to reflect contemporary context
•
Ch. 40: Avoiding confusing shifts: updated “Avoiding Awkward Shifts in Person and Number” section to explain the use of a plural pronoun with a singular antecedent
• Ch. 42: Avoiding Mixed and Incomplete Constructions: updated introductory example to use architecture as metaphor for chapter’s focus
Part IX: Language Matters (Chs. 43–47); Part X: Detail Matters (Chs. 48–58)
• Refreshed examples throughout to interest students, reflect contemporary life
• Adjusted design to better distinguish between explanations and examples
Acknowledgments
The creation and evolution of Writing Matters has been an exciting and humbling experience. I began in the belief that I knew what I was doing, but I quickly realized that I had embarked on a path not only of sharing what I know but also of learning what I should know. Writing Matters lists a single author, Rebecca Moore Howard, but that author is actually the central figure in a collaboration of hundreds of students, teachers, and editors. I thank the instructors who have provided invaluable insights and suggestions as reviewers and members of the board of advisors. Talking with instructors at all sorts of institutions and learning from them about the teaching of writing has been an unparalleled experience. As a result of this project, I have many new colleagues, people who care deeply about teaching writing and who are experts at doing so. I also thank the many students who have shared their thoughts with us through class tests and design reviews. I particularly thank the students who have shared their writing with me and allowed me to publish some of it in this book. Writing Matters has been improved greatly by their contributions.
Manuscript Reviewers
Butler Community College: Andrea McCaffree-Wallace
Delgado Community College: Emily Cosper
East Carolina University: Tracy Morse
Indian River State College: Camila Alvarez
Kennesaw State University: Jeanne Bohannon
Lone Star College-CyFair: Andrea Hollinger
Metropolitan State University of Denver: Jessica Parker
Missouri Western State University: Kay Siebler
Oklahoma City Community College: Michael Franco
Oklahoma City Community College: Candie McKee
Palm Beach State College: Patrick Tierney
Pitt Community College: Anthony Holsten
Pitt Community College: Daniel Stanford
Robert Morris University: Julianne Michalenko
Salish Kootenai College: Christa Umphrey
St. Charles Community College: Byronie Carter
St. Johns River State College: Paul Andrews
St. Johns River State College-Orange Park: Melody Hargraves
St. Johns River State College-Orange Park: Jeannine Morgan
Tri-County Community College: Lee Ann Hodges
University of Arizona: Dev Bose
University of Memphis: William Duffy
University of Mississippi: Alison Hitch
University of Providence: Curt Bobbitt
University of Providence: Aaron Parrett
Personal Acknowledgments
Writing Matters is the result of rich collaboration with a creative, supportive, knowledgeable team who have a deep understanding of both teaching and publishing: Tom Howard, senior lecturer in University Studies at Colgate University, has worked with me from the beginning to the end, and his intelligence and ingenuity are evident everywhere in this project. Patrick Williams and Krista Kennedy, both of Syracuse University, reviewed key chapters in their areas of expertise, helping me update and reframe several of the core chapters. In this edition, Krista Kennedy joined me as a coauthor of “Designing Accessible Print and Digital Documents” (Ch. 9). She, Jeff Ward, and Greg Craybas contributed fresh new images that appear throughout the text.
For previous work on Writing Matters that carries forth to this edition, I’d like to thank Amy Rupiper Taggart from North Dakota State University, who drafted “Designing in Context: Academic and Business Documents”; Ted Johnston, formerly of El Paso Community College, and Maggie Sokolik, of University of California, Berkeley, who drafted “Language Matters: Guidance for Multilingual Writers” (Part 9) and EFL Notes. Sandra Jamieson, Drew University, and Bruce R. Thaler drafted many of the exercises; and a number of instructors— David Hooper, of Western Washington University; Tom Howard, of Colgate University; Ann Marie Leshkowich, of College of the Holy Cross; Leslie Yoder, of Southwestern College; and Paul Yoder, of University of Arkansas at Little Rock—kindly contributed sample exercises designed to help students learn the art of analyzing arguments.
In addition, Writing Matters has benefited greatly from the efforts of an extended editorial team: Erin Cosyn, portfolio manager, and Cara Labell, lead product developer, were amazing in the guidance and insights they brought to the project. Cheryl Ferguson contributed copyediting so perceptive that it not only corrected errors in the manuscript but also helped me articulate and expand my ideas. Finally, I feel privileged to have worked with Ellen Thibault, an extraordinarily skilled, creative, and supportive editor.
Contents
Tutorial Writing Matters Writer’s
Responsibilities Checklists 2
1 Writing Responsibly, Writing Successfully 7
a. Your Responsibilities to Your Audience 8
b. Your Responsibilities to Your Topic 9
Writing Responsibly Your Responsibilities as a Writer 9
c. Your Responsibilities to Other Writers 9
d. Your Responsibilities to Yourself 11
Writing Responsibly Taking Yourself Seriously as a Writer 12
Student Model Newspaper Article 12
2 Planning Your Project 14
a. Analyzing Your Writing Situation 14
Writing Responsibly Seeing and Showing the Whole Picture 20
b. Analyzing an Assignment 23
c. Generating Ideas, Topics 25
Writing Responsibly Note Taking and Plagiarism 26
d. Narrowing or Broadening a Topic 31
e. Working with Others: Planning a Collaborative Project 32
Student Model Freewrite 27; Brainstorm to Generate Ideas 28; Idea Cluster 29;
Journalists’ Questions 30; Brainstorm to Narrow a Topic 32
3 Organizing and Drafting Your Project 35
a. Crafting an Effective Thesis 35
b. Organizing Your Ideas 39
c. Preparing to Draft 44
d. Drafting: Explaining and Supporting Your Ideas 45
Writing Responsibly Made-up Evidence 46
e. Writing with Others: Collaborative Projects 51
Student Model Informal (or Scratch) Outline 42; Topic Outline and Sentence Outline 42; First Draft of a Researched Essay 47
4 Crafting and Connecting Paragraphs 52
a. Writing Relevant Paragraphs 53
b. Writing Unified Paragraphs 53
c. Writing Coherent Paragraphs 58
Writing Responsibly Guiding Your Audience 62
d. Developing Paragraphs Using Patterns 64
e. Writing Introductory Paragraphs 68
f. Writing Concluding Paragraphs 70
g. Connecting Paragraphs 73
Professional Model Speech 74
5 Drafting and Revising Visuals 77
a. Deciding Whether to Illustrate College Writing Projects 77
b. Using Visuals as Evidence 78
Writing Responsibly Exploitative Images 81
c. Deciding Whether to Copy Visuals or to Create Them 82
d. Revising Visuals 82
6 Revising, Editing, Proofreading, and Formatting 86
Revising Globally: Analyzing Your Own Work
a. Gaining Perspective 86
b. Revising Your Draft 87
Writing Responsibly The Big Picture 89
c. Reconsidering Your Title 90
Part Two
Reasoning Matters
Reading, Thinking, and Arguing 111
7 Thinking and Reading Critically 112
a. Comprehending 112
Writing Responsibly Engaging with What You Read 112
b. Reflecting 119
c. Preparing to Write 127
Writing Responsibly Drawing Inferences 133
Writing Responsibly Understanding Criticism 133
Professional Model Essay 116; Article (annotated by a student) 121
Student Model Summary of an Article 115; Double-Entry Reading Journal 125; Annotations to an Image: 126; Claims and Evidence Analysis 129; Rhetorical Analysis of an Image 130; Critical Analysis Essay 135
Writing Responsibly Understanding and Representing the Entire Source 141
8 Applying Analysis and Crafting Arguments 143
a. Persuading, Exploring, and Affirming 143
Revising Locally: Editing Words and Sentences
d. Choosing Your Words with Care 91
e. Editing Your Sentences 91
Writing Responsibly Making Your Text Long Enough without Wordiness 92
Revising with Others
f. Revising with Peers 93
g. Revising with a Tutor or an Instructor 95
Proofreading and Formatting
h. Proofreading 96
Writing Responsibly Beware the Spelling Checker! 97
i. Formatting an Academic Text 98
j. Creating and Submitting a Portfolio 106
Student Model Final Draft of a Researched Essay 99; Personal Statement 108
b. Making Claims 146
Writing Responsibly Choosing an Engaging Topic 148
c. Choosing Evidence Rhetorically 150
Writing Responsibly Establishing Yourself as a Responsible Writer 154
Writing Responsibly Preparing Oral Arguments 156
d. Considering Alternative Viewpoints 156
e. Discovering Assumptions and Common Ground 158
Writing Responsibly The Well-Tempered Tone 159
f. Organizing Arguments: Classical, Rogerian, and Toulmin Models 174
g. Avoiding Logical Fallacies 176
Writing Responsibly Visual Claims and Visual Fallacies 177
h. Using Tone and Style Effectively and Ethically 181
Student Model Exploratory Argument 159
Media
9 Designing Accessible Print and Digital Documents 184
a. Understanding the Four Principles of Design (CRAP) 184
b. Understanding Universal, EmpathyDriven Design 186
c. Understanding the Principles of Accessible Design (POUR) 187
d. Planning Your Design Project 188
e. Applying Traditional, Universal, and Accessible Design Principles 190
Writing Responsibly Selecting Fonts with Readers in Mind 192
Writing Responsibly Establishing a Consistent Font 193
Student Model A Well-Designed Document 190
10
Writing for Multiple Media 199
a. Writing and Answering Email 199
Writing Responsibly Maintaining Confidentiality in Email 201
12 Planning a Research Project 222
a. Analyzing the Assignment’s Purpose, Audience, and Method of Development 222
b. Setting a Schedule 223
c. Choosing and Narrowing a Research Topic 224
d. Drafting Research Questions and Hypotheses 225
Writing Responsibly Using Printed Sources 227
e. Choosing Research Sources Strategically 227
f. Establishing a Research Log 228
Writing Responsibly Making Considerate Attachments 202
Writing Responsibly Understanding Email and Privacy 203
b. Creating Websites and Web Pages 203
Writing Responsibly Checking Accessibility 209
c. Writing in Social Media 210
Writing Responsibly Flaming 210
11 Presenting with Multiple Media 212
a. Identifying Your Purpose, Audience, Context, and Genre 213
d. Revising, Proofreading, Formatting, and Publishing Your Project 311
Student Model Thesis Statement for “Fast Fashion” by Isabel Beck 304; Outline for “Fast Fashion” by Isabel Beck 306; Supporting Claims from “Fast Fashion” by Isabel Beck 309
17 Citing Rhetorically 312
a. Integrating Source Material Responsibly 313
b. Showing Source Boundaries 314
c. Emphasizing Your Voice 316
d. Providing Context 318
e. Integrating Altered Quotations 322
Writing Responsibly Explaining Your Choice of Sources 326
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central portion, where Peter and the Señora Kelley had built a stately home, was practically as it had been when the Yankee seaman first ranged over it and realized the riches of his bride. Now both sailor and señora were dead, and their only son, Tiburtio Kelley, preferred a life in Paris on the large fortune accumulated by his thrifty father, to the dolce far niente of empty, golden days in the Santa Clara Valley.
This central strip of the tract, which ran from the valley up into the first spurs of the hills, was still a virgin wilderness. Huge live-oaks, silvered with a hoar of lichen, stretched their boughs in fantastic frenzies. Gray fringes of moss hung from them, and tangled screens of clematis and wild grape caught the sunlight in their flickering meshes or lay over mounds of foliage like a torn green veil. The silence of an undesecrated nature dreamed over all. Woodland life seldom stirred the dry undergrowth, the rustle of nesting birds was rare in the secret leafy depths of the oaks. Here and there the murmurous dome of the stone pine soared aloft, the clouded dusk of its foliage almost black against the sky.
For nearly two miles the carriage drive wound upward through this sylvan solitude. As it approached the house a background of emerald lawns shone through the interlacing of branches, and brilliant bits of flower beds were set like pieces of mosaic between gray trunks. The drive took a sweep around a circular parterre planted in geraniums—a billowing bank of color under a tent of oak boughs—and ended in a wide, graveled space at the balcony steps. The house was a spreading, two-story building of wood, each floor surrounded by a deep balcony upon which lines of French windows opened. Flowering vines overhung, climbed and clung about the balcony pillars and balustrades. Roses drooped in heavy-headed cascades from second-story railings; the wide purple flowers of the clematis climbed aloft. On one wall a heliotrope broke in lavender foam and the creamy froth of the bankshur rose dabbled railings and pillars and dripped over on to the ground. It was a big, cool, friendly looking house with a front door that in summer was always open, giving the approaching visitor a hospitable glimpse of an airy, unencumbered hall.
The move completed, June and Rosamund began to taste the charm of the Californian’s summer life. There were no hotels near them. No country club had yet risen to bring the atmosphere of the city into the suave silence of the hills. It was a purely rural existence: driving and riding in the morning, reading in the hammock under the trees, receiving callers on the balcony in the warm, scented end of the afternoon, going out to dinner through the dry, dewless twilight and coming home under the light of large, pale stars in a night which looked as transparently dark as the heart of a black diamond.
They were sometimes alone, but, as a rule, the house contained guests. The Colonel at first came down constantly, always from Saturday to Monday and now and then for a week-day evening. But in May the sudden leap of Crown Point to one hundred and eighty upset the tranquillity of even cooler natures than Jim Parrish’s, and the stock exchange became the center of men’s lives. The long expected bonanza had been struck. The San Franciscans, once more restored to confidence in the great lode, were seized with their old zest of speculation, and all the world bought Crown Point. Allen saw himself on the road to a second fortune, and threw his money about in Virginia with an additional gusto, as it had been the scene of some of his poorest days.
Even the Colonel was attacked by the fever and invested. His financial condition had given him grounds for uneasiness lately, and here was the chance to repair it. A mine in Shasta, in which he had been a large owner, shut down. He owned property in South Park, and the real estate agents were beginning to shake their heads at the mention of South Park property. It surprised him to realize that for the first time in years he was short of ready money He sold two buildings far out among the sand dunes on upper Market Street, and with the rest of his kind bought Virginia mining stock with Crown Point and Belcher at the head.
Under the live-oaks back of San Mateo the girls only faintly heard the rising rush of the excitement. The current circled away from their peaceful corner, lapped now and then by a belated ripple. The country life they both loved filled them with contentment and health. Rosamund took to gardening again. Her face shaded by a large
Mexican hat, she might be seen of a morning in confab with the Irish gardener, astonishing him by her practical knowledge. In the evening she surreptitiously “hosed” the borders, wishing that her visitors would go back to town and leave her to the peaceful pursuit of the work she delighted in and understood.
June was not so energetic. She did not garden or do much of anything, save now and then go for a walk in the wild parts of the grounds.
As might be expected, Mrs. Barclay always moved down to San Mateo in April. She was not rich enough to own a large country place, but she did the best that was in her and rented a pretty cottage outside the village. Here Jerry came from town every Saturday and stayed till Monday morning, and to her surprise not infrequently appeared unannounced on week-day afternoons, saying that business was dull, and there was no necessity waiting about in town. The year before she had complained greatly that her son’s visits to San Mateo were rare. This summer she had no such grievance. He kept a horse in her small stable, and as soon as he arrived had it saddled and went out for a ride. Sometimes on Sunday he rode over and called on the Allens, but there were other people to visit in the neighborhood and he did not go to the Allens’—so he told his mother—as often as he would have liked.
The direction he took on the week-day afternoons was always the same. No rain falls during the California summer, there are no dark hours of thunder and cloud; it is a long procession of blue and gold days, steeped in ardent sunshine, cooled by vagrant airs, drowsy with aromatic scents—a summer made for lovers’ trysts.
Half-way up the winding drive to the De Soto house Jerry had learned there was a path through the underbrush which led to an opening, deep in the sylvan wilderness, under the thick-leaved roof of an oak. It had been a favorite spot of the late Señora Kelley’s, and all the poison oak had been uprooted. With the canopy of the tree above—a ceiling of green mosaic in which the twisted limbs were imbedded—and the screen of lightly hung, flickering leafage
encircling it, it was like a woodland room, the bower of some belated dryad.
Sometimes Jerry had to wait for her, and lying prone on the ground, his horse tethered to a tree trunk near by, lay looking up, his senses on the alert to catch her step. Sometimes she was there first, and as he brushed through the covert, he saw her dress gleaming between the leaves in a spattering of white. His heart was beginning to beat hard at the sound of her advancing footfall. While he waited for her he thought of nothing, his whole being held in a hush of expectancy. When she came he found it difficult for the first moment to speak easily.
On an afternoon early in June he sat thus waiting. All the morning the thought of this meeting had filled his mind, coming between him and his business. On the train coming down the anticipation of it held him in a trance-like quietude. He talked little to his mother at lunch. He kept seeing June as she came into sight between the small, delicately leaved branches, dots of sun dancing along her dress, her eyes, shy and full of delight, peeping through the leaves for him. He answered his mother’s questions at random and ate but little. The picture of the white-clad girl grew in intensity, striking him into motionless reverie, so that, his eyes fixed, he seemed scarcely to breathe.
It was very warm. Lying on his back on the dried grass, his hands clasped under his head, he gazed straight before him at the long fringes of moss that hung from a gnarled bough. His senses were focused in an effort to disentangle her footstep from the drowsy noises of the afternoon. All scruples, apprehensions of danger, were swept away by the hunger for her presence. His mind had room for no other thought. Every nerve was taut, every sense quiveringly alert, as he lay, still as a statue, waiting for her
Suddenly he rose on his elbow staring sidewise in the concentration of his attention The subdued, regular brush of her dress against the leaves came softly through the murmurous quietness. He sprang to his feet, strangely grave, his glance on the path she came by. In a moment her figure speckled the green with white, and she came into
view, hurrying, sending sharp, exploring looks before her She saw him, instantly fell to a slower pace, and tried to suppress the gladness of her expression. But he saw it all, and the quick breath that lifted her breast. Her hand hardly touched his, and moving a little away from him, she sank down on the ground, her white skirts billowing round her. She pressed them into folds with arranging pats, avoiding his eyes, and repeating some commonplaces of greeting.
Jerry returned to his reclining posture, lying on his side, his elbow in the grass, his hand supporting his head. He, at first, made no pretense of moving his eyes from her, and answered her remarks shortly and absently.
Against the background of variegated greens she presented a harmony of clear, thin tints like a water color. Her dress of sheer, white muslin was cut away from the throat in a point, and smoothly covering her arms and neck, let them be seen beneath its crisp transparency, warmly white under the cold white of the material. The heat of the afternoon and the excitement of the meeting had called up a faint pink to her cheeks. In her belt she had thrust a branch of wistaria and the trail of blossoms hung down along her skirt. She wore a wide leghorn hat, and in this she had fastened another bunch, the flowers lying scattered across the broad rim, and one spray hanging over its edge and mingling with the curls that touched her neck.
Jerry had never seen her look as she did this afternoon. Love, that she felt assured was returned, had lent her the fleeting beauty of an hour. She did not seek to penetrate the future. The happiness of the present sufficed her. She said little, plucking at a tuft of small wild flowers that grew beside her, conscious to her inmost fiber of her lover’s eyes.
“Why don’t you take off your hat?” he said. “There’s no sun here.”
She obediently took it off and threw it on the ground. The black velvet she wore around her head had become disarranged and she raised her hands to draw it into place and tuck a loosened curl under its restraint. He watched her fixedly.
“Now,” he said, reaching out to draw the hat to him and taking one of the wistaria blossoms from it, “put this in.”
“I have no glass,” she demurred, stretching a hand for the flower
“That doesn’t matter. I’ll be your glass. I’ll tell you if it isn’t all right.”
She tucked the stem of the blossom into the velvet band, so that its trail of delicate lavender bells fell downward behind her ear.
“How is that?” she said, facing him, her eyes downcast. Her coquetries of manner had deserted her. With the flush on her face a glowing pink and her lashes on her cheeks, she was a picture of uneasy embarrassment.
“Perfect,” he answered. He continued to stare at her for a moment and then said suddenly in a low voice,
“Good heavens, how you’ve changed! It’s a little over a year now that I’ve known you and you’re an entirely different person from the girl with the short hair I met up at Foleys. What have you done to yourself? What is it that has changed you?”
“I think it’s because I’m happy,” she said, beginning again to pick the wild flowers.
“Why are you happy?”
“I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I—” she paused and began to arrange her flowers in a careful bunch.
He suddenly dropped his eyes to the ground and there was a silence. The sleepy murmur of insects rose upon it. The sun, in an effort to penetrate the inclosure, scattered itself in intermittent flickerings of brilliant light that shifted in golden spots along the tree trunks or came diluted through the webbing of twigs and vine tendrils. It was still very hot and the balsamic odors of bay-tree and pine seemed to grow more intense with the passing of the hour.
“You were such a quiet little thing up there,” Jerry went on, “working like a man in that garden of yours and never wanting to go anywhere. Things down here may have made you happy, but I sometimes wonder if they haven’t made you frivolous, too.”
When Jerry ceased staring at her and began to talk in this familiar, half-bantering strain, she felt more at ease, less uncomfortable and conscious. She seized the opening with eagerness and said, smiling down at her little bouquet:
“But you know I am frivolous. I love parties and pretty clothes and lots of money to spend, and all the good times going. I was that way at Foleys, only I didn’t have any of those things. I can be serious, too, if it’s necessary. When I haven’t got the things to be frivolous with, I can do without.”
He stretched out his hand and plucked a long stalk of featherheaded grass.
“Can you?” he said indolently. “Are you sure you’re not telling a little story?”
“No, no, quite sure. I have two sides to my character, a frivolous one and a serious one. You ought to know that by now.”
“Which have you shown to me oftenest?” He was peeling the stalk of its shielding blade of grass.
“I don’t know That’s for you to say Perhaps it’s been an even division.”
He looked up. She was smiling slightly, her dimple faintly in evidence.
“And I suppose the dimple,” he said, “belongs to the frivolous side.”
“Yes. Even my face has two sides; the frivolous one with the dimple and the serious one without.”
“Let me see them,” he said. “Let me judge which of the two is the more attractive.”
He leaned forward and with the tip of the long spear of grass, touched her lightly on the cheek.
“Turn,” he commanded, “turn, till I get a good profile view.”
She turned, presenting her face in profile, pure as a cameo against the leafy background.
“That’s the serious side,” she said, raising her chin slightly, so that her curls slipped back, disclosing her ear.
“And now for the frivolous,” he answered. “I don’t seem to know the serious side so well.”
She turned her head in the other direction, her eyes down-drooped. He drew himself nearer to her over the ground, the grass spear in his hand.
“And so this is the frivolous. Shouldn’t the dimple be here?”
He touched her cheek again with the tip of the grass, and as he did so the dimple trembled into being. She looked at him slantwise, laughing, with something breathless in the laughter.
As she met his glance her laughter died away. His face had changed to something unfamiliar and hard. He was pale, his eyes fierce and unloving. For a moment she looked at him, some phrase of inquiry dying on her lips, then she made an attempt to rise, but he drew close to her and caught her hands. She turned her head away, suddenly white and frightened.
“June,” he whispered, “do you know how much I love you?”
It was a whisper unlike anything she had ever heard before. A whisper within herself responded to it. She sat still, trembling and dizzy, and felt his arms close about her, and her consciousness grow blurred as his lips were pressed on hers.
The instant after he had loosed her and they had shrunk from each other in guilty terror, the girl quivering with a rush of half comprehended alarm, the man struggling with contending passions. His face seemed to her full of anger, almost of hatred, as he cried to her,
“Go home. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you. We can’t come here again this way. I’m not free to love you. Go home.”
He made an imperious gesture for her to go, almost as though driving her from his presence. White as death and dazed by the terrifying strangeness of it all, she scrambled to her feet, and turning from him, set out at a run. She brushed through the bushes, her
eyes staring before her, her breast straining with dry sobs. In one hand she still held her little bunch of wild flowers, and with the other she made futile snatches at her skirt, which she had trodden upon and torn.
Gaining the end of the wood, she came into the open garden, glaring with sun, deserted and brilliant. Back of it stood the house, shuttered to the afternoon heat and drowsing among its vines. She was about to continue her course over the grass to the open front door, when a footstep behind her, rapid as her own, fell on her ear. For an instant of alert, lightly poised terror, she paused listening, then shot forward across the grass and on to the drive. But her pursuer was fleeter than she. Close at her shoulder she heard him, his voice full of commanding urgency.
“Stop, I must speak to you.”
She obeyed as she must always obey that voice, and wheeled around on him, pallid and panting.
“June, dearest, forgive me. I forgot myself and I’ve frightened you. But we mustn’t meet—that way—any more.”
She looked at him without answering. He was as pale as she. The lower part of his face seemed to tremble. He had difficulty in controlling it and speaking quietly.
“It’s true what I said,” he went on. “I love you. I’ve done so for months. I was to blame, horribly to blame. You’re so young—such a child. I was the one to blame for it all.”
“For what?” she said. “What’s there to blame anybody for? What has happened all of a sudden?”
He came closer to her and looked her steadily in the eye.
“I am not free,” he said in the lowest audible voice. “I can’t marry you. I am not free.”
She repeated with trembling lips, “Not free! Why not?”
“No. If I were—oh, June, if I were!” He turned away as if to go, then turned back, and said,
“Oh, June, if I were, we would be so happy! If I could undo the past and take you—!”
His voice broke and he looked down, biting his underlip. She understood everything now, and for the moment speech was impossible. There was a slight pause, and then he said,
“I wouldn’t let myself see the way it was going. I lied to myself. I loved you better every day, and I persuaded myself I didn’t, and that it was nothing but a friendship to both of us. We mustn’t meet this way any more. But we will see each other sometimes at people’s houses? We’re not to be strangers.”
She turned dazedly away from him to go to the house. For a step or two he let her go. Then he followed her, caught her hand with its bunch of limp flowers, and said with urgent desperation:
“I’ll see you sometimes. I can’t give you up entirely Perhaps— perhaps—later, when time has passed, we can be friends. June, I can’t give it all up like this.”
She turned on him a face whose expression pierced through his egotism.
“Let me go into the house,” she whispered. “I can’t say anything now. Let me go into the house.”
He dropped her hand, and turning, walked rapidly toward the driveway. June ran to the house.
It was wrapped in complete silence. Not a sound or movement came from it. She had but one idea, to mount the stairs unseen, gain her room and then lock the door. Noiseless and fleet-footed she sped up the veranda steps, flew through the open door, and then cowered against the wall. Rosamund was on the stairs coming down.
“June,” she said sharply, “where did Jerry Barclay come from, and what was he saying to you out there? I’ve been watching you from the window.”
Then she saw her sister’s face. Her own changed in a flash. Its severity vanished, and concern, alarm, love, took its place. She ran downward to the figure at the stair-foot, pressed against the wall.
“What’s happened? June, what’s the matter?”
Her startled whisper broke the sunny stillness with a note of the deadly realism of life amid the sweet unconcern of nature. She tried to clasp June, who made an effort to squeeze past her, crushed against the wall, her head down, like one who fears recognition. When, finding it impossible to escape, she suddenly collapsed at Rosamund’s feet, curled up like a person in physical anguish, and cried with smothered violence,
“He’s not free, Rosamund. It’s all over; everything’s over. It’s all true, and we’ve got to end it all. He’s not free.”
Rosamund realized vaguely what had happened. She was a loving woman, but she was a practical one, too. There were people in the house who must not see June just at this crisis. She was much the larger and stronger of the two girls, and she bent down and attempted to raise the prostrate figure.
“June, listen. We were going out driving at five. Mary Moore may be down at any moment. Come quick; she mustn’t see you. She’s the worst gossip in San Francisco. Come, I’ll help you.”
She dragged the girl up with an arm around her, hurried her to the top of the stairs, along the hall, and into her room. There she let her fall into an arm-chair, and, stepping back, locked the door.
In the sweet-scented, airy room, with its thin muslin curtains softening the hot brilliancy of the landscape, June sat in the armchair, silent and motionless, her face pinched. Rosamund, who had never seen her sister like this, did not know what to do, and in despair, resorted to the remedies she had been accustomed to using when her mother had been ill. She softly rubbed June’s temples with cologne and fanned her. Finally she knelt down by her side and said tenderly,
“What is it, Junie, dear? Tell it to me.”
“I have told it to you,” said June. “He’s not free; that’s all. You all said it, but I wouldn’t believe it. Now he’s said it and I’ve got to believe it.”
She spoke in a high, hard voice, and Rosamund, kneeling on the floor, put her arms round her, and said with ingenuous consolation, “But now you know it, the worst’s over.”
“Everything’s over,” said June dully.
Her eyes fell to her lap, and there, in one hand, she saw the wilted remains of the little bunch of wild flowers. A sudden realization of what her feelings had been when she picked them, how joyous, how shyly happy, how full of an elated pleasure of life, and what they were now, fell upon her with desolating force. She gave a cry, and, turning from her sister, pressed her face against the back of the chair and burst into a storm of tears.
CHAPTER VI READJUSTMENT
June and July passed, and the life in the De Soto house was very uneventful. As soon as the group of guests left June requested her sister to ask no more visitors for a time, and the mid-summer days filed by, unoccupied in their opulent, sun-bathed splendor.
The blow at first crushed her. Despite the warnings she had received, it had come upon her with the stunning force of the entirely unexpected. The very fact that Jerry had been attacked by scandal had lent an exalted fervor to her belief in him. Even now, had there been a possibility of her continuing in this belief, she would have persisted. Weak, loving women have an extraordinary talent for selfdeception, and June combined with weakness and love an irrepressible optimism. She tried to plead for him with herself, argued his case as before a stern judge, attempted in her ignorance to find extenuating circumstances for him, and then came face to face with the damning, incontrovertible fact that he himself had admitted.
It was a blasting experience. Had she known him less well, had their acquaintance been of shorter duration, the blow would probably have killed her love. But the period of acquaintance had been long, the growth of affection gradual. By the time the truth was forced upon her, her passion had struck its roots deep into her heart, and she was not strong enough to tear it out.
In the long summer days, wandering about the deserted, glowing gardens, she began the work of reconstructing her ideal. She told herself that she would always love him, but now it was with no confidence, no proud joy in a noble and uplifting thing. With agonizing throes of rebirth, her feeling for him passed from the soft, self-surrendering worship of a girl to the protective and forgiving passion of a woman. As it changed she changed with it. The suggestion of the child that had lingered in her vanished. The freshness of her youth went for ever The evanescent beauty that happiness had given her, which on the day of Barclay’s declaration
had reached its climax, shriveled like a flower in the heat of a fire. She looked pale, pinched, and thin. Eying her image in the glass, she marveled that any man could find her attractive.
In the first period of her wretchedness she was numbed. Then, the house swept of its guests and she and Rosamund once more alone, her silence broke and she poured out her sorrows to her sister. Rosamund heard the story from the first day at Foleys to its fateful termination in the Señora Kelley’s woodland bower.
She listened with unfailing sympathy, interrupted by moments of intense surprise. The revelations of the constant meetings with Barclay, which had been so skilfully kept secret, amazed and disconcerted her. She tried to conceal her astonishment, but now and then it broke out in startled queries. It was so hard to connect the unconscious and apparently candid June of the winter with this disclosure of a June who had been so far from candid. It was nearly impossible to include them in the same perspective. The culprit, engrossed in the recital of her griefs, was oblivious of her sister’s growing state of shocked amaze, which sometimes took the form of silence, and occasionally expressed itself in gently probing questions.
“But, June,” she could not help saying in protest, “didn’t you realize something wasn’t all right when you saw he’d rather meet you outside than see you at home?”
June turned on her an eye of cold disapproval.
“No. And I don’t see now that that’s got anything to do with it.”
Rosamund subsided meekly, unable to follow the intricacies of her sister’s mental processes.
She did not argue with June—it was hopeless in the sufferer’s present state of mind—and she made few comments on Barclay’s behavior. But she had her opinion of him, and it was that he was one of the darkest of villains. As to her opinion of June’s part in the story, she was a loyal soul and had none. All she felt was a flood of sympathy for the shocked and wounded girl, and a worried sense of responsibility in a position with which she felt herself unable to cope.
It was with great relief that, toward the end of July, she received a letter from the Colonel, who had been six weeks in Virginia City, telling her he would be with them on the following Sunday. She drove down to the train to meet him with the intention of preparing him for the change in his favorite. She had written to him that June was not well. Driving back from the station she had ample time to expatiate on this theme and warn him not to exclaim unduly on her changed appearance. The Colonel began to be apprehensive and ask penetrative questions, to which she had no answer. He leaped out of the carriage at the veranda steps and ran up to the top, where June stood.
The change in her, flushed with welcome, was not strikingly apparent at the first glance. It was later that he began to realize it, to be startled and then alarmed. She sat quiet through dinner, nibbling musingly at her food, once or twice not answering him. The empty silence of the house struck chill on him, and when he had commented on the absence of visitors, she had said with sudden gusty irritation,
“There’s been nobody here for over a month. I don’t want anybody to come. I’ll go away if anybody’s asked. I like being alone this way.”
He looked at Rosamund with an almost terrified inquiry. She surreptitiously raised her brows and gave her head a warning shake.
It was late in the evening before he had a chance to speak to Rosamund alone. Then, June having gone to her room, and he and Rosamund being left alone in the sitting-room, he laid his hand on the young girl’s shoulder, and said in a voice of command,
“Now, Rosamund, I’ve got to hear all about this. What the devil’s been going on down here?”
She told him the whole story, greatly relieved to have a listener who could advise her.
The Colonel was staggered by it. He said little, but Rosamund was not half-way through when he began pacing up and down, his hands in his pockets, every now and then a low ejaculation breaking from him. He, too, was astounded by the account of June’s underhand
behavior. He had thought the two girls as simple as children. That his own particular darling could have consented to, and then so dexterously carried out, a plan of procedure so far from what he had imagined a young girl would do, was painful and shocking to him. But as June’s love could not be killed by one sort of disagreeable revelation, so his could suffer no abatement from another kind. Manlike, he immediately began to make excuses for her.
“She was too young to be allowed to go round that way alone,” he burst out angrily. “There was nobody to take care of her. What good are two old Silurians like me and your father to look after girls? I told him six months ago he ought to get some kind of an old woman in the house who’d knit in corners and hang round after you.”
Rosamund continued her story and he went on with his walk. Now and then, as she alluded to Barclay’s part in the affair, suppressed phrases that were of a profane character broke from him. When she had concluded he stood for a moment by the window looking out.
“Well, the mischief’s been done. He’s made the poor little soul just about as miserable as she can be. I’d like to blow the top of his head off with one of my derringers, but as I can’t have that satisfaction there’s no good thinking of it. All we can do is to try and brace her up some way or other.”
Rosamund made no answer and after a moment of silence, he continued,
“And I suppose it lets poor Rion out?”
“Oh, yes,” breathed Rosamund with a melancholy sigh.
The Colonel walked to the other window muttering in his wrath.
“He was coming down here, Rosie, to ask her. They’ve made a pile of money up there, in this Crown Point business, and they’re buying up all the claims that might have clouded the title of the Cresta Plata. They believe there’s a bonanza there, and the Gracey boys don’t often make mistakes. They’ll be millionaires before they’re done. But that doesn’t count. What does is that Rion Gracey’s the finest man in California, bar none. The woman that he married would be loved and
taken care of, the way—the way a woman ought to be. Good Lord, what fools we are and how we tear our lives to pieces for nothing!”
“Don’t blame her, Uncle Jim. She’s just got so fond of that man she hasn’t any sense left.”
“Blame her! Have I ever blamed her? Why, Rosie, I’d die for her. I’ll have to go up to Virginia and put Rion off. What can I say to him?”
“Tell him she doesn’t care for him,” said the truthful Rosamund.
The Colonel paused by the table, looking down and jingling the loose silver in his pockets.
“No,” he said, “I’m not going to tell him that. That would be harder on Rion than on most men. Women, you know, change. June’s very young. She’s still a child in many things.”
“She isn’t the same sort of child she was two months ago,” said Rosamund sadly.
“No, but she’s young in years—only twenty-one. Dear girl, that’s a baby. Your mother was older than that when I knew her, and—and— she changed.”
“How changed?” Rosamund asked with some curiosity.
“Her heart changed. She—other men cared for her before your father came along. She once cared for one of them.”
The Colonel paused and cleared his throat.
“Mother was engaged to some one else before father. She told me so once, but she didn’t say who.”
“Well, there was no doubt of her second love being deep. In fact, it was the deeper of the two.”
“I wish June would care for Rion Gracey. But if you’d hear her talk!”—with hopeless recollection of June’s sentimental transports. “It sounds as if she didn’t know there was a man in the world but that miserable Barclay. She’s just bewitched. What’s the matter with women that they’re always falling in love with the wrong man?”
There was another pause.
“I’ll do my best,” said the Colonel at length, “to keep Rion from coming down and trying his luck. He mustn’t see her now. She’d refuse him in such a way that he’d never dare to come near her again. And you, Rosie, try and cheer her up and keep her from thinking of Barclay.”
On Monday morning the Colonel left for San Francisco, and a few days later was again en route for Virginia City.
The rest of the summer slowly passed, idle and eventless. June brightened a little with the passage of the weeks, but was far from her old self. Now and then she saw Barclay at the station, in the house of friends, or met him in the village. At first he merely bowed and passed on. But before the summer was over he had spoken to her; in the beginning with the short and colorless politeness of early acquaintanceship, but later with something of his natural bonhomie.
Once at an afternoon garden fête she suddenly came out on a balcony and found him there alone. For a moment they stood dumb, eye full on eye, then began speaking of indifferent things, their hearts beating hard, their faces pale. It was the first conversation of any length they had had since the meeting in the wood. They parted, feeling for the moment poignantly disturbed and yet eased of the ache of separation. From that on they spoke at greater length, talking with an assumption of naturalness, till finally their fragmentary intercourse assumed a tone of simple friendliness, from which all sentiment was banished. This surface calm was all that each saw of the other’s heart, but each knew what the calm concealed.
In October the Allens returned to town. The Colonel had managed to keep Rion Gracey from going to San Francisco “to try his luck” until this late date. It would have been impossible had not Fate been with him. In the growing excitement of the reawakened mining town Rion was continuously occupied, and he was a man to whom work was a paramount duty.
But in October he slipped his leash for a week and ran down to San Francisco. In four days he returned, as quiet as ever, and inclined to be harder with his men. The Colonel knew what had happened, and Black Dan guessed. Outside these two, no one understood why Rion
Gracey had become a more silent and less lenient man after a four days’ visit to the coast.
