Nexus: A Rhetorical Reader for Writers

Nexus presents the traditional rhetorical modes as different ways of thinking about our contemporary world, no matter the medium. It builds on students’ multimedia communication skills by using a mix of readings in contemporary and traditional genres to improve students’ college writing skills.

Nexus starts where students’ interests lie—with engaging essays, interviews, blog conversations, Web sites, and YouTube videos. These “readings” are presented in a lively, highly visual format that draws on the daily environment in which students are immersed, including electronic and visual sources that are stimulating, energizing, and directly related to topics they are studying.

While the format of Nexus is contemporary and stimulating, the content is substantive and pedagogically sound. Students are asked continually throughout this text to pull ideas from multiple media and respond to them first with critical thinking and writing and then by creating a project through a written, oral, visual, or electronic medium of their own choice.