A fresh take on the traditional modes, showing how they are used in texts of all kinds, and that they are central to all the writing, speaking, and thinking that we do.The Second Edition contains 34 new readings that teachers will want to teach and students will like to read, from Steven Pinker’s “Mind Over Mass Media” to Alex Horton’s “Advice for College-bound Vets,” as well as a chapter on academic writing, and editorial apparatus that explicitly links the readings to the writing instruction, with notes in the margins leading students from the text to specific examples in the readings—and the reverse.