Here is an excerpt from the preface:
The guiding purpose of the editors in this anthology has been to achieve a balance between range and variety of good writing in the various genres, including non-fiction prose types, and reasonable brevity and compactness in the whole text. We have tried to bring together a collection adequate to serve as a base for those courses which aim to introduce the student to the college study of both literature and composition, while avoiding the inclusiveness and elaboration which discourages the use of additional individual books for those courses which wish to supplement the basic text. Within each section we have sought to bring the expressive resources of the forms into relief by providing opportunities for effective comparison and contrast both in technique and theme. Although we have consistently tried to keep the experience and abilities of students in mind in making selections, we have not hesitated to represent a wide range of difficulty, as well as a variety of styles, within each genre.
The essay section offers narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative selections arranged generally in an ascending order of difficulty. Within the major type groupings, we have arranged these selections in related thematic groups, believing that the reader's sense of both intention and method are sharpened by noting the implicit contrasts of both form and content in such groups. The section concludes with a group of essays which, while offering further examples of the methods and aims of nonfiction prose, serve also to introduce the student to some of the critical considerations relevant to the genres to which the later sections are devoted. The intention throughout this first section of the anthology has been to provide models and topics for student writing, as well as examples of the various types of non-fiction as literary forms.
The story section is arranged in a way which will enable the instructor to provide a pocket course in the techniques of fiction. It first offers brief groups of stories which the editors believe particularly useful for the study of four basic aspects of fiction, and follows these with a more loosely organized group of stories which may be drawn from freely for further examples of these and other aspects of fiction. The drama section, necessarily modest in size, offers a classic tragedy, a modern comedy, and a Shakespeare history play which the editors believe to be particularly teachable and accessible to students.
| Price | $2.50 |
|---|---|
| Shipping & Handling | $3.00 |
| Total | $5.50 |
