Preface ‘The Norton Field Guide to Writing began as an attempt to offer the kind of writing guides found in the best rhetorics in a format as user-friendly as the best handbooks, and on top of that, to be as brief as could be. We wanted to create a handy guide to help college students with a ten work, Justas there are field guides for bird watchers, for gardeners, and for accountants, this would be one for writers. In its first three editions, the book has obviously touched a chord with many writing instructors, ‘and it’s become the best-selling college thetoric — a success that leaves ‘us humbled and grateful. Student success is now on everyone's mind. AS teachers, we want our students to succeed, and first-year writing courses offer one of the best opportunities to help them develop the skills and habits of mind they need to succeed, whatever their goals may be. To that end, we've added a new part on academic literacies, with chapters on reading and writing in academic contexts, summarizing and responding, and developing academic habits of mind. ‘The Norton Field Guide still aims to offer both the guidance new teach fers and first-year writers need and the flexibility many experienced teachers want, From our own experiences as teachers and WPAs, we've seen how well explicit guides to writing work for students and novice teachers. But too often, writing textbooks provide far more information than students need or instructors can assign and as a result are big ger and more expensive than they should be. So we've tried to provide ‘enough structure without too much detail—to give the information col lege writers need to know while resisting the temptation to tell them available at everything there is to know. ' Most of all, we've tried to make the book easy to use, with menus, tories, a glossary/index, and color-coded links to help students find ‘what they're looking for, The links are also the way we keep the book brie: chapters are short, but the links send students to pages elsewhere 1e book if they need more detail. their wi 80 ue, New York, NY 10210. on WID 285DIANA GEORGE Changing the Face of Poverty Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation «@ professor of Englis y. Ske has wr CConstructively changing the ways the poor are represe of life is one progressive intervention that can chal ryone to look at the face of poverty and not turn away. = Brit HOOKS, ourcavr TAs ware rs, thanksgiving is near. am about to spout ad 1¢ porches. Each day my maill ‘and with appeals from the Native American Scholarship Fund, the Salvation Army, WOJB— mn, the Barbs undlach Shelter Home Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, Habitat for own country to find third-world th the ad copy, from a bl copy continues, jaunt you. There stanton ‘etoENCLOSED: No Address Labels to Use Up. No Calendars to Look At ‘No Petitions to Sign. ‘And No Pictures of Starving Children. ‘Tex from the outer envelope of @ 1998 Oxfam appeal ‘The Oxfam promise 1 ing children — such images as the one Children, Inc. offe representations of poverty — have 1 the prosperity they see smn — there is real need out there? The solution for most poverty as something that can b down shacks and trashed out pi dated porches, barefoot kids wi order to suggest that ‘work against the aims ot types of poverty can, in fact, yn producing them. “The copy here has been revised, secent Chi [itor nate] th the author’ permietion, to reflect the more *ecoee one HU TLL EE ee obp ob Tie ud a2 OE feeb sericea You don’t have to leave your own country to find third-world poverty.Habitat for Humanity: A Case in Point $y videos for my focus because affiliates not only goal is not a mod- fest one: Habit iminate poverty housing from the globe, More than that, Habitat puts housing into the hands of the people who will be housed — into the hands of the homeowners and their neighbors. This is not another program aimed at keeping people in what has became known as the poverty or welfare cycle. ‘To be very clear, then, | am not criticizing the work of Habitat for ‘Humanity. tis an organization that has done an amazing jeb of address: ing what is, as cofounder Millard Fuller tells us again and again, a world- wide problem. What I would draw attention to, however, is how that lem of inadequate housing and its solution are represented, espe- uted by the organization, he troubles that Habit continues to have aa it attempts to change the ways Americans of helping others. What's more, the kinds of visual arguments Hi and other nonprofits use to advocate for action ar change have becomé inereasingly common tools for getting the message to the public, and yet, I would argue, these messages too often fail to overturn cul ‘commonplaces that represent poverty as an individual problem that can be addressed on an individual basis, Habitat's catch phrase — A Hand Up, Not a Hand-Out — appeals to a nation that believes anyone can achieve economic security with just the right attitude and set of circumstances. Habitat’s basic program has a kind of elegance. Applicants who are chosen as homeowners put in sweat equity hours to build thelr home ‘and to help build the homes of others chosen by Habitat. The organiza- tion then sells the home to the applicant at cost (that cost held down through Habitat’s at ) and charges a small mont Unlike public assistance, which recipient's circumstances, most Habi Hal in the United ink mone me te payments when homeowners get better jabs or find themselves in bet ter financial shape, nd once the house is paid frit belongs tothe 1ormeowner, in order to run a program like this one, Habitat must appeals aimed at convincing potential donors to give ‘me, money, and material. Print ads, publie service television and radio spots, commetcial appeals linked to products like Maxwell House cof- fee, and publicity videos meant to be played for churches, volunteer organizations, and even in-flight video appeals on certain fat publicity videos are typically configured as problem 'ments. The problem is that too many peaple have inad- er. The solution is community involvement in a program like for Humanity. The most common setup for these productions is an opening sequence of images — a visual montage — in which we see black-and-white shots of rural shacks, of men and women clearly in despair, and of thin children in ragged clothing The voice-over narrative of one such montage tells us the story: Poverty condemns millions of people throughout the world to live in deplorable and inhuman conditions. These people are trapped in a cycle of poverty, living in places offering littie protection from ‘cold. Terrible sanitary conditions make each with disease and death. And, for this, they often pay income in rent because, for the poor, there are no are denied a most basic human need: a decent place to live. The reasons for this worldwide tragedy ‘are many. They vary fom city to city, country to country, but the iether the families are in New York ins like Habitat for Humanity, in order to convey the seriousness of this struggle and, of course, to raise funds and volun. ‘eer support for their efforts in addressing it, must produce all sorts of publicity. And in that publicity they must tell us quickly what theproblem is and what we can do to help. Todo that Habitat gives usa “inva representation of poverty, representation tha minors the mest common understandings of poverty in Ameria. ‘Now there is nothing inherently wrong with that representation Y (as Habit unless ofcourse, what you want todo as # _ the American people to believe inthe radical ea that those who ha st care for th needs of others, not just by writing a chek, but by a Americans, it is truly radical enabling an entirely to think that our poorer neighbors might actually be .d with the donated time and mate: Shen own that houses ret Fyne inorder to continue owing Fat doce this work nt on lowrincome nowing developmen) ba inerotinal tly beives tat We ne " itv our neighbors trougheat the worl so that evesone might ev tony hove at leat asp decent pace Tehind many nonprots, Habitat’ isnot a mainateeam not of poverty clinging as ft doe t com smonpices rar fom A photoyrapnsinthis cei, ead Riss tinetenth entry photos ofatbanpover ‘our neighborhoods (not isolated responsible for partnering e, Like the philosophy ‘and from documentaries of nger — has serious limitations, which must be obvious to ‘those who remember the mom thas once again been echoed the perennial argument that there 4 country (“Myth”)? Heritage Foundation's finding comes despite figures iersces eres proces © evstesias @ seedings scaemie Homeless (‘Myths and Facts About ly one in five homeless ies across the United States was employed in a changed representation of poverty in America, bell hhooks argues that in this culture poverty *is seen as synonymous with depravity, lack and worthlessness.” She continues, “I talked with young lack women receiving state aid, who have not worked in years, about the issue of representation. They all agree that they do not want to be ‘identified as poor. In their apartments they have the material possessions that indicate success (a VCR, a color television), even they do without necessities and plunge into d Hers is hardly 2 noble image of povert complicates the job of an otganizati worthy" applicants. ina cou its national myth hardness of the Depression with dignity and pride, is certainly a part of \what Manning Marable challenges when he asks readers not to judge Poverty in the United States by the standards of other countries. Writing of overty among black Americans, Marable reminds us that “the process of {impoverishment is profoundly national and regional. It does little good to compare the impoverished of this country with Third World poverty or, for that matter, with Depression Era poverty. ‘The solution in these Habitat videos is just as visible and compel up to ra “hand up not a hand out," as to hammer again. Like the barn-raising scene from Peter Weir's come together against blue skies, Peaple who would norm: Aifferent worlds come together to help a neighbor. itis all fnished in Yecord time: a week, even a day. Volunteers can come together quickly. Do something. Get out just as quickly. ‘The real trouble with Habitat’s representation, then, is twofold: it ‘ells us that the signs of poverty are visible and easily recognized. Andit suggests that one of the most serious results of poverty (inadequate can be addressed quickly with volunteer efforts to bring indi viduals up and out of the poverty cy Of course, if Habitat works, what could be wrong with the represen: tation? Itis an organization so popular that it receives support from dia- calls the “theology of the hammer.” People might not agree on poli parties and they might not agree on how to worship or even what to ‘worship, Fuller says, but they can all agree on a hammer, All can come together to build houses. Or, can they? ‘As successful as Habitat has been, it is an organization that continues to struggle with such issues as who to choose for housing, how to support potential homeowners, and how to convince affiliates in the United States to tithe a portion of their funds to the real effort of 1g throughout the world, not just in affiliates often have ‘ante or convincing local residents their neighborhoods, There are feasons for these problems, but | would suggest that the way poverty continues to be represented in this country and on tapes like those videos limits our understanding of what poverty is and how we might address it ‘That limitation holds true for those caught in poverty as well as, those wanting to help. What if, as a potential Habitat applicant, you don't recognize yourself or you refuse to recognize yoursel representations? As Stanley Aronowitz points out in The that can happen very easily as class ident particu much more difficult to pin dawn since World War Il, especially with an expansion of consumer credit that allowed class and social status to be linked to consumption rather than to professions or even wages, In his discussion of how electronic media construct the social imaginary, representations How much more true is that of the impoverished in this country who se coee ous ae oap fo § £2 ab 2 Gf Bui HG a ‘may be neither homeless nor ragged, but are certainly struggling every day to feed their families, pay rent, and find jobs that pay more than ‘costs for dayeate? have been particularly interested in this last question because of a homes or even getting some of the most needy families of a given affiliate to apply for Habitat homes. When I showed the video Building New Lives to Kim Puuri, a Copper Country Habitat for Humanity homeowner and now member of the affiiate's Homeowner Selection ‘Committee, and asked her to respond, she was very clear in what she ‘saw as the problem: they could gear the. cal areas, it may make more of from people. ft would mean making s 50 much of a stereotype, but an assoc the people they help. People the conditions ofthe people ai not be that bad and feel they probably wouldn't qual What this Habitat homeowner has noticed is very close to what Stuart Hall describes. That is, the problem with this image, this representation, is not that it is not real enough. The problem has nothing to do wit whether or not these are images of poverty as it exists in the world. strate otherwise. The problem is that this representation of poverty is a one and functions to narrow the ways we might respond to the Poot who do not fit this representation, ‘The representation I have been discussing is one that insists on constructing poverty as an individual problem that can be dealt with by volunteers on an individual basis. That is the sort of representation com- ‘mon in this country, the sort of representation Paul Wellstone objects to ina recent call to action when he says “We can offer no single description.of American, ti fi to understand it as a way that representation, re about the many dime Citizens — are officially poor. More than one in five American children are poor. And the poor are getting poo! fone writes But we can be certain that much of that poverty is not the sort pictured in those black-and-white images. And if it doesn't look like poverty, then how do ‘we address it? How do we identify those “deserving” our help? Indeed, as Herbert Gans has suggested, the labels we have chosen to place on the poor in this country often reveal more than anything “an ideology of undeservingness,” by which we have often elided pov: ity, "By making scapegoats problems they have not caused ni ie economy and polity for the challenges of the twenty-first century’ These are tough issues to confront and certainly to argue in a twenty-minute video presentation aimed at raising funds and volunteer support, espet hen every piece of publicity must make @ complex argument visible. Notes 1. Building New Lives (Americus, Ga Habitat for Humanity Intema- 2, Robert Rector, “The Myth of Widespread American Poverty,” The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder (18 Sept. 1988), no. 1221, This publica- tion is available on-line at . * »es2oee oa #2 0G2 oF EOE fe aR B 4 HE EG ES a 2 Pd E ER Ba 4 pees ence ae 3, Cited in Barbara Ehrenreich, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America,” Harper's January 1998), 44. See also Christina Coburn Herman's Poverty Amid Plenty: The Unfinished Business of Welfare Reform, NETWORK, A National Social justice Lobby (Washington, D.C, 1999), from NETWORK’s national Welfare Reform Watch Project, which reports that percentage of those needing aid do not have phone sei jn the NETWORK survey had no operative phone) and, therefore, are not represented in most welfare reform reports. This report is available on-line at chttp/wuru:network-lobby.org> 4, bell hooks, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor,” Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (New York: 1994), 169. 5, Manning Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America Goston: South End Press, 1983), 54. 6, Stanley Aronowitz, The Politics of Identity: Class, Culture, Social Move ‘ments (New York: Routledge, 19 7. Kim Puuti, personal correspondence with author. 8, Paul Wellstone, “If Poverty Is the Question,” Nation (14 April 1997), 15, 9. Herbert J. Gans, The War Against the Poor (New York: Basic Books, 1998), 6-7, Engaging with the Text 1 >w, according to Diana George, is poverty represented by nonprofit agencies such as Habitat for Humanity? What problems does George identify as a result of such representation? 2. George opens her analysis with a bell hooks quote, followed by descrip- tions of how frequently she encounters charities near Thanksgiving. How do the quote and the description appeal to different AUDIENCES? fen, Inc. ad that George refers to is rey inted here on of4, What main BURPOSE is George's textual analysis intended to serve? ‘Where is that purpose made exp! What other purposes might her opinion on a political soci sou ANALYZE the view (eng, rds in the nd fo cures, photographs) and the accompanying words in Aescribe how the nue i represented. How effectively does the ad trees gols? Can you det any problems wth how ease represented that might undermine those goals? * . e 0 SASHA FRERE-JONES Weirdly Popular Sasha Frere-jones (b, 1967) is the executive editar of Genius, a website ‘that provides a forum for annotating texts ranging from rap music to restaurant menus. Previously, he was the New Yorker's pop music for eleven years and a columnist for newyorker.com. He has also writ. ten for Slate, Slant, Spin, and other publications. The following music review appeared in the New Yorker in 2014. D orrons sor wan au” vantovie because he's funny or because he's not that funny? The comedian, who specializes in song parodies, justreleased his fourteenth studio album, Mandatory Fun, which features his lass-clown ma Azalea, and Pharrel ore than a hundred post-digtal slump um a decade ago could sell as many a5 4 million copies in a week; this yea, Sis 2000 Forms of Fear entered the charts at No.1 by selling only fifty-two thousand copies this might be the biggest first week fora comedy album eve. But what ist that Weird Al actualy does? don't laugh at hi songs, yt Tm delighted by his presence in the world of pop culture. With his parodic versione of it Songs, this somehow ageless ify-fur-yearold has become popular Bot because he is immensely clever ~ though he ean be but Becaise he embodies how many people feel when confronted with pop musi Slightly too old and slightly too square. That feling never goes away, and neither has Al, who has sold more than twelve million albums since 1979, Anxiety starts early for pop audiences. For decades, 1 have had twenty-somethings tell me ‘haven't listened to any new artists since college, and don't “know any- thing about music” They feel confused by how quickly the value of their knowledge of what's current fades. Weird Al's songwaiting process, eres process © svatenion @ seseacn Seion readings araooe >