Encounters: Readings and the World

This groundbreaking essay anthology for freshman writing courses offers a full range of essays, from informal, familiar essays that explore ideas, to more direct, argumentative essays, where meaning is more explicit. The best essays, the authors maintain, usually defy easy classification and manage to give us a sense of the writer's thinking even as they make their claims and try to persuade us. The essays teach students about the possibilities in writing, and the choices open to them as writers. Encounters also includes reproductions of well-known paintings, which stimulate thought, evoke feeling, and serve as springboards for writing.