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Part 3 Drafting Your Work 85
7 Understanding the Paragraph 86
What Does a Paragraph Actually Look Like? 86
How Does a Paragraph Function? 87
How Long Should a Paragraph Be? 88
Crafting the Topic Sentence 90
Developing the Topic 93
How Do You End a Paragraph? 101
8 Writing Introductions and Conclusions 102
The Introductory Paragraph 102
Getting and Holding Your Readers’ Attention 103
The Concluding Paragraph 109
9 Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting 115
Summarizing 116
Paraphrasing 120
Quoting 123
Additional Suggestions for Writing 130
10 Developing Unity, Coherence, and Tone 132
Unity 132
Coherence 134
Tone 140
11 Choosing the Right Words 144
The Writer’s Toolkit 144
The Seven Deadly Errors of Writing 146
Reading: Russell Baker, “Little Red Riding
Hood Revisited” 157
Part 4 Understanding Common Writing Styles 161

12 Academic and Workplace Writing 162
Four Ideas to Consider as You Develop Your
Writing 162
Choosing an Overall Writing Strategy 163
Differences between Workplace and Academic
Writing 164
13 Analytical Writing: Process Analysis, Causal
Analysis, and Classification and Division 165
Analytical Writing 165
Process Analysis 165
Reading: Brian Green, “How To Play Winning Tennis” 168
Causal Analysis 170
Reading: Trina Piscatelli, “The Slender Trap” 171
vi Detailed Contents NEL
Copyright 2015 Nelson Education Ltd. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Classification and Division 175
Reading: Alice Tam, “On-the-Job Training” 176
14 Persuasive Writing: Description, Narration, and Example 180
Description 180
Narration 182
Example 183
Putting Description, Narration, and Example to Use 185
Reading: Amanda van der Heiden, “Looking Both Ways” 185
15 Comparison and Contrast 188
Tips for Writing a Comparison or Contrast Paper 189
Readings: D’Arcy McHayle, “The Canadian Climate” 189
Aniko Hencz, “Shopping Around” 191
16 Argumentation 194
Choose Your Issue Carefully 194
Consider Your Audience 195
Identify Your Purpose 195
Organize Your Ideas 195
Tips for Writing Argumentation 198
Readings: Aliki Tryphonopoulos, “A City for Students” 198
Walter Isaacs, “Of Pain, Predators, and Pleasure” 200
Part 5 Writing Research Papers 205

17 Preparing for Research and Choosing a Research
Method 206
Tips for Writing a Research Paper 207
Ways of Doing Research 209
18 Formatting a Research Paper 214
Taking Good Research Notes for Informative Writing 214
Basic Formatting Guidelines 216
Formatting an MLA-Style Research Paper 217
Formatting an APA-Style Research Paper 218
Projecting an Image 220
19 Documenting Your Sources 221
Introduction: The Two-Part Principle of Documentation 221
The MLA Style 222
The APA Style 237
20 Writing in the Workplace: Memos, Letters, and Short
Reports 252
Memos 253
Letters 255
Short Reports 259
NEL Detailed Contents vii
Part 6 Undertaking the Revision Process
265
21 Rewriting Your Work 266
The Three Steps of Revision 267
Step 1: Rewriting 268
22 Editing and Proofreading Your Work 273
Step 2: Editing 273
Step 3: Proofreading 277
Working with Rubrics 278
Part 7 Readings
281
Richard Lederer, “How I Write” 283
Malcolm Gladwell, “How to Be a Success” 285
Rick Groen, “The Magic of Moviegoing” 289
Sara R. Howerth, “The Gas–Electric Hybrid
Demystified” 291
Victor Chen, “Justice and Journalism” 293
Olive Skene Johnson, “For Minorities, Timing
Is Everything” 294
Deenu Parmar, “Labouring the Walmart Way” 296
Gabor Maté, “Embraced by the Needle” 298
Rubi Garyfalakis, “No Sweat?” 301
Hal Niedzviecki, “Stupid Jobs Are Good to
Relax With” 305
Maria Amuchastegui, “Farming It Out” 309
Sam McNerney, “Is Creativity Sexy? The Evolutionary
Advantages of Artistic Thinking” 315
Navneet Alang, “Online Freedom Will Depend on
Deeper Forms of Web Literacy” 317
Scott Adams, “The Heady Thrill of Having
Nothing to Do” 319
Annie Murphy Paul, “Your Brain on Fiction” 321
Part 8 Workbook 323
23 A Review of the Basics
324
How to Use This Workbook 324
Cracking the Sentence Code 325
Solving Sentence-Fragment Problems 334
Solving Run-On Problems 340
Solving Modifier Problems 344
The Parallelism Principle 350
Refining by Combining 354
viii Detailed Contents NEL
24 Grammar 359
Mastering Subject–Verb Agreement 359
Using Verbs Effectively 367
Solving Pronoun Problems 378
25 Punctuation 395
The Comma 395
The Semicolon 404
The Colon 406
Quotation Marks 410
The Question Mark 412
The Exclamation Mark 412
Dashes and Parentheses 414
26 Spelling 419
Hazardous Homonyms 419
The Apostrophe 429
The Hyphen 435
Capital Letters 438
Numbers 443
Appendix A: List of Terms: A Vocabulary of Writing 448

Appendix B: Answers for Selected Exercises 458

Index 492
Readings:
Contents by Subject
Work and Leisure
Brian Green, “How To Play Winning Tennis” 168
Hal Niedzviecki, “Stupid Jobs Are Good to Relax With” 305
Deenu Parmar, “Labouring the Walmart Way” 296
Alice Tam, “On-the-Job Training” 176
NEL Detailed Contents ix
Learning and Education
Navneet Alang, “Online Freedom Will Depend on Deeper
Forms of Web Literacy” 317
Mainly Canadian
D’Arcy McHayle, “The Canadian Climate” 189
Aliki Tryphonopoulos, “A City for Students” 198
Communication and Writing

Russell Baker, “Little Red Riding Hood Revisited” 157
Richard Lederer, “How I Write” 283
The Contemporary Scene

Aniko Hencz, “Shopping Around” 191
Gabor Maté, “Embraced by the Needle” 298
Trina Piscatelli, “The Slender Trap” 171
Olive Skene Johnson, “For Minorities, Timing Is
Everything” 294
Aliki Tryphonopoulos, “A City for Students” 198
Amanda van der Heiden, “Looking Both Ways” 185
Media and the Arts

Rick Groen, “The Magic of Moviegoing” 289
Matthew McKinnon, “The Needle and the Damage
Done” 22
x Detailed Contents NEL
Science, Technology, and the Environment

Navneet Alang, “Online Freedom Will Depend on
Deeper Forms of Web Literacy” 317
Sara R. Howerth, “The Gas–Electric Hybrid
Demystified” 291
Ethics and Morality

Walter Isaacs, “Of Pain, Predators, and Pleasure” 200
Olive Skene Johnson, “For Minorities, Timing Is
Everything” 294
NEL Detailed Contents xi
Preface:
To the Instructor
Essay Essentials with Readings, Sixth Edition, is designed for all Canadian post-
secondary students who are learning to write academic and professional prose.
The book has been substantially revised and expanded to inclusively fit the needs
of students who want to succeed at school and who require the ability to bring
their developed writing skills to the workplace.
New to the Sixth Edition

The most significant change in the sixth edition is a major revision to the structure
of the book to accommodate courses that focus on integrating the study of writing
with detailed information on critical thinking and innovative ideas about relating
to audiences effectively. Other highlights of the new edition include the following:
● A new chapter on reading strategies (Chapter 2) will give students insight
on how to develop their analytical skills.
● An expansion of the chapter on writing the thesis statement (Chapter 6)
addresses the struggles students have with the process.
● Further discussion about persuasive writing has been added (Chapter 14)
to assist students in learning this important technique for both academic
and workplace writing.
● Coverage of the processes of revising, editing, and proofreading has been
expanded into two chapters: Rewriting Your Work (Chapter 21) and
Editing and Proofreading Your Work (Chapter 22).
● The number of printed readings has been pared to 15, in response to user
comments that the book was growing too long. Four new readings focus
on current and innovative topics. More readings will be available on the
interactive practice website, Nelson à la Carte. (See the section on Nelson
à la Carte later in the preface for more information.)
● A stronger emphasis on workplace writing has been introduced and can
be found in Chapter 20, which is devoted to workplace documents such
as letters and memos; as well, the overall function and form of profes-
sional writing is threaded into discussions throughout each chapter. No
matter what or where your students study, eventually they will need to
transfer their academic writing skills to the workplace. We have attempted
to help you and your students along that path by including some of the
most practical and useful professional formats and writing styles.
● Many of the exercises in the Workbook (Chapters 23–26) are new or
have been revised and updated to allow students at a variety of skill levels
to increase their understanding of grammar and mechanics.
● The presentation of the book has been improved, with a new design that
opens up the look of the textbook for a better student experience.
● A brand new online interactive practice website, Nelson à la Carte, offers
further readings and supplements, allowing for more instructor choice
and providing more content about writing than could be included in the
printed version of the text.
xii Preface NEL
Essay Essentials with Readings is divided into eight parts. Parts 1 through 6
explain, exemplify, and provide practice in planning, drafting, and revising trans-
actional prose, as well as in researching and writing properly formatted and docu-
mented essays and workplace material. Because most adults learn better and with
more satisfaction when they work with other learners, many of the exercises are
interactive.1 Some involve the whole class, but most are designed to be done in
pairs or groups, either in class or online.2
A principal goal of this book is to convince students that good writing involves
rewriting and editing. Part 6, Undertaking the Revision Process, has been adapted
to clarify the distinct but interconnected tasks of rewriting, editing, and proof-
reading, and we have developed new exercises to help students identify and exe-
cute these tasks. To reinforce our goal, we have incorporated many rewriting and
editing exercises throughout the text.
The questions following the essays and readings in Part 7 are designed to provoke
thinking and discussion as well as to promote students’ understanding of structure
and development. Teachers will find suggested answers to these questions in the
Instructor’s Manual available on the Essay Essentials website at www.nelson.com/
site/essayessentials6e or in the Instructor Resources section of Nelson à la Carte.
Part 8, the Workbook, reviews the basics of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and
spelling. Many students will be required to work through this workbook on their
own; answers to the asterisked exercises are provided in Appendix B. Answers to
the Mastery Tests are provided in the Instructor’s Manual and on the Instructors’
page of the website. The four chapters of the workbook can be covered in any
order, but the information within each chapter is interdependent and should be
studied sequentially; competency in later parts of each chapter often depends on
mastery of the earlier material.
Appendix A includes a revised glossary containing all the words found in bold
throughout the text. These provide easy reference for students looking for defini-
tions and clarification of terms.
Inside the front cover is a Quick Revision Guide. We encourage students to
use it as a checklist to consult as they revise and edit their work. It also provides
an overall summary of the entire book and lists how each chapter illustrates the
main process of essay writing. Instructors can duplicate the guide, attach a copy
to each student’s paper, and mark ✓ or ✗ beside each item in the guide to identify
the paper’s strengths and weaknesses. This strategy provides students with specific
feedback in a consistent format. It also saves hours of marking time.
Nelson à la Carte
Nelson à la Carte, an interactive website that provides students with a multitude of
opportunities to practise and master their writing skills, is available to package with
Essay Essentials, Sixth Edition. Using Nelson à la Carte, students test their knowledge by
completing a series of exercises and diagnostic tests. They can work through numerous
exercise questions, covering all the major grammar rules and other writing require-
ments. For more information, contact your Nelson sales and editorial representative.
1 Answers to exercises marked with an asterisk are provided in Appendix B.

2These group exercises can be adapted to individual assignments if the instructor prefers or the
course requires.
NEL Preface xiii
Acknowledgments
We thank the following reviewers who helped us with the content of this edition:
Maria Berrafati, Mohawk College
Thom Bland, Camosun College
Phillip Chaddock, Centennial College
John Lehr, George Brown College
Tanya Lewis, Langara College
Donna Mae Matheson, Georgian College
Ian Stanwood, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Andrew Stracuzzi, Fanshawe College
We are thankful for the emphasis that the Language Studies department of
Mohawk College has placed on teaching critical thinking, as that work helped us
to realize the value of critical thinking and reading skills to the development of
the sound writing skills we focus on here. Years of fantastic articles used in exams
became excellent new readings in this text.
We are grateful to the publishing team at Nelson Education Ltd. Laura Macleod
and Lisa Berland saw this book through some serious reconditioning. Amanda
Henry and the sales team are always available for quick pick-me-ups. Finally,
Cathy Witlox and her supportive copy editing made all of these words gel together
into something really special.
xiv Acknowledgments NEL
Introduction:
Why We Learn to Write
Writing can be a rewarding and career-enhancing skill. Unlike most of the skills
you acquire in a career program, however, writing is not job-specific. The writing
skills you learn from this book will be useful to you not only in all your college
or university courses but in every job you hold throughout your working life.
Prospective employers will assume that you, as a college or university graduate, are
able to write quickly and skillfully. As you progress through your career and climb
higher on the organizational ladder, you will write more, and your writing tasks
will become more complex. In any job, evaluations of your performance will be
based in part on your communication skills. Essay Essentials with Readings will teach
you to write standard English prose, the kind you can apply to any writing task.
The word essay comes from the French essayer, to try or attempt. Broadly speak-
ing, an essay is an attempt to communicate information, opinion, or emotion.
In college or university, an essay is an exercise that requires students to explore
and explain their own and others’ thoughts about a subject. In the larger world,
essays appear in print and online newspapers and magazines as editorials, reviews,
opinion pieces, and commentaries on news and public affairs. In the workplace,
an essay structure can be used for any email, memo, letter, or report. It can even
form the backbone of a Prezi or PowerPoint presentation.
Thinking, organizing, and researching are fundamental to all practical writing You can learn to write
tasks. From this book, you will learn how to find and organize thoughts, to develop well through practice,
ideas in coherent paragraphs, and to express yourself clearly, correctly, and concisely. perseverance, and a
Once you’ve mastered these basics, you will have no difficulty adapting your skills willingness to believe
to fit the needs of your work environment to create business or technical reports, that writing skills
instructions, proposals, memoranda, sales presentations, commercial scripts, legal develop over time.
briefs, or websites. Those who can write competently are in high demand.
We have designed this book to guide you through focused learning and practice
to develop better writing skills. Because it is more fun and more efficient to learn
with others than to struggle alone, we have included many group-based exercises.
To make the writing process even more relevant to the workplace, we have also
introduced some applicable readings and useful examples of professional writ-
ing. Part 8, our interactive editing workbook, provides handy tools, rules, and
exercises to boost your sentence-writing skills and grammar. We strongly encour-
age you throughout your study to keep a list of the errors that you make most
frequently. Only by recognizing your writing weaknesses can you develop them
into writing strengths. If you follow the guidelines in this text, you will produce
effective essays in school and creditable communications in your career.
Online Supplements
Purchase of this book entitles you to free access to InfoTrac®, an easy-to-use
online database of source materials you can use for your research in this and other
courses. You will learn more about databases in Chapter 17.
NEL Introduction: Why We Learn to Write 1
Some students will have access to an interactive practice site, Nelson à la
Carte, with the purchase of this book. If your class is using this resource, go to
NelsonBrain.com and enter the code on the à la Carte card included with your
book to find the menu of options available to you. The answers to the site’s
exercises are marked automatically, so you will know instantly whether you have
understood the material.
What the Symbols Mean

This symbol in the margin beside an exercise means the exercise is designed
for two or more students working together. Read the directions that intro-
duce the exercise carefully to find out how many students should participate
and what task is to be performed. Often you are instructed to begin work in
a pair or group, then to work individually on a writing task, and finally to
regroup and review your writing with your partner(s).
This symbol means “note this.” We’ve used it to highlight writing tips, help-
ful hints, hard-to-remember points, and information that you should apply
whenever you write, not just when you are dealing with the specific prin-
ciple covered in the paragraph marked by the icon.
This icon attached to an exercise means that the exercise is a mastery test
designed to check your understanding of the section of the chapter you have
just completed. The answers to these exercises are not in the back of the
book; your instructor will provide them.
This symbol means that the Essay Essentials website has exercises to supple-
ment the chapter you are working on. Log on to the website and click on
Web Exercises. The exercises are arranged by chapter or workbook section,
so to get to the exercises for the apostrophe, for example, click on Workbook
Section 26.5 and do the numbered exercises listed below the icon.
The Process of Writing

Writing is a three-step process consisting of
1. planning or prewriting
2. writing (sometimes called drafting)
3. revising
The majority of this book explains the approach to writing that you will take when
you have already been told what to write about, called the conceptual approach. The
conceptual (or top-down) approach is the one you choose when you know what
you want to say before you begin to write. You identify your subject and main
points, and draft a thesis statement (a statement that provides your readers a pre-
view of the content of your paper). Research papers, business reports, and essay
questions on exams are examples of writing that requires a conceptual approach.
2 Introduction: Why We Learn to Write NEL
The experimental (bottom-up) approach is also useful and should be used
when you do not know ahead of time what you want to say. You discover your
thesis gradually, incrementally, through trial and error, and through several drafts.
Experimental writers often rely on prewriting strategies such as brainstorming and
freewriting to kick-start the process. At times throughout the textbook, you will be
given exercises that allow you to use this approach, although we recognize that, at
both school and in the workplace, many topics have been thoughtfully planned
out for you ahead of time.
You should learn to use both approaches. Sometimes you will discover your
subject through writing; at other times, using top-down strategies will help you to
express clearly what you already know. If you are familiar with both approaches,
you can comfortably choose whichever is more appropriate for a particular
writing task.
What Your Readers Expect

Whichever approach you use, your goal is to make your finished writing easy for
your audience to read and understand. To achieve this goal, you must meet your
readers’ expectations.
When your readers begin to read a piece of extended prose, they unconsciously
expect to find
●● a preview (in the introduction) of the content and organization of the
paper
●● paragraphs that contain the necessary content
●● a sentence (usually the first) in each paragraph that identifies its topic
●● unified paragraphs, each of which explores a single topic
●● connections (transitions) within and between paragraphs
Keep in mind that readers want to obtain information quickly and easily, without
backtracking. They rely on the writer—you—to make efficient reading possible.
Your readers will read more easily and remember more of what they have read
if you include a thesis statement to introduce them to the content and organiza-
tion of the paper and if you begin each paragraph with a topic sentence. If you do
not organize and develop your paper and its paragraphs in a clearly identifiable
way, readers will impose their own organization on it. The result will be longer
reading time, difficulty in understanding and remembering the content, or, worse,
the assumption that a paragraph or even the whole paper has a meaning other
than the one you intended.
How to Begin
Having a conversation with someone who never seems to get to the point is a tire-
some and frustrating experience. Similarly, an essay—or any other form of written
communication—that has no point and rambles on will turn readers off. So how
can you avoid boring, confusing, or annoying your readers? To begin with, you
need to have something to say and a reason for saying it. Very few people can
write anything longer than a few sentences from start to finish without taking
time to think about and plan what they’ll say. Prewriting will help you to plan and
develop your writing projects more efficiently. We will explore some prewriting
strategies in Chapter 4.
Writing an essay is like Once you’ve determined what you want to say, the next step is to arrange your
building a house: if you main points in the most effective order possible. If you organize your ideas care-
have a clear plan or fully, you won’t ramble. As a general rule, the more time you spend on prewriting
blueprint, you can construct and planning, the less time you’ll need to spend on drafting and revising. Careful
the house without having planning will enable you to produce papers that your readers will find clear and
to double back or even understandable.
start all over again. A
good plan saves time. The Parts of an Essay
An essay, like any Most students come to college or university with some familiarity with the five-
document, has a beginning, paragraph theme, the most basic form of essay composition, so we will start with
a middle, and an end. it and then move on to adaptations and variations of this basic format.
The beginning, or introduction, tells your reader the thesis (i.e., the single main
idea you will explain or prove) and the scope of your essay. If your introduction
is well crafted, its thesis statement will identify the points you will discuss in the
paragraphs that follow.
The middle, or body, consists of paragraphs that discuss in detail the points that
have been identified in the introduction. In a short essay, each paragraph develops
a separate main point and each should contain three essential components:
1. a topic sentence, which identifies the point of the paragraph
2. development, or support, of the topic sentence (supporting sentences pro-
vide the detailed information the reader needs in order to understand
the point)
3. a concluding sentence that either brings the discussion of the topic to a
close or provides a transition to the next paragraph
The end, or conclusion, is a brief final paragraph. Unless your essay is very short,
you summarize the main points to reinforce them for readers, and then end with
a statement that will give your readers something to think about after they have
finished reading your essay.
Think of this tightly structured form of prose not as a straitjacket that stifles
your creativity but rather as a pattern to follow while you develop the skills and
abilities you need to build other, more complex prose structures. As you seek out
and find the links between this type of academic format and workplace structures,
you will begin to see all that this deceptively simple form has to offer.
The following essay can serve as a guide, starting point, and reminder of what
a five-paragraph essay can do. The introduction contains a clear thesis. Each body
paragraph has a topic sentence, is well developed, and has a concluding sentence.
The conclusion is brief but leaves the reader with a thoughtful question. Consider
this essay as you read through the textbook—it is the kind of work you will want
to write before you move on to more complex prose.
Failing Better
Something I have learned over the past thirteen years of schooling is
what I call failing better. Failing better is a process of learning to grow
as a person, to feel better, as a result of failed attempts at a variety of
things. From school work to relationships, from D+ essays to fights
to lost friendships, failing better is a process I would recommend
to anyone. More than a process, failing better is a state of mind. By
4 Introduction: Why We Learn to Write NEL
focusing on seeing failure as a stepping stone, learning to use mistakes
to communicate better, and reflecting on how past challenges can
become future successes, failing better can work for anyone who feels a
need for a new way to look at life.
When you see failure, whether it be a bad grade or a failed cus-
tomer service interaction at work, always try to use it as a pathway to
something better. Give yourself some time to feel disappointed, but
try eventually to move past your emotions to consider what led to the
failed experience. You will have another paper to write and another
customer to please. The last time is in the past. Move forward and try to
think of failure as an opportunity not to be missed the next time.
When you feel that you have failed, communication is always a
great option. Is a bad grade a chance to talk to your teacher or professor
and get some new information? Sometimes that conversation can lead
you to grow in ways you might not have imagined. Asking a manager
how you could have better made the customer happy and really lis-
tening to the reply can set the tone for better interactions later. All in
all, you can learn, over time, that there is no such thing as failing.
Really, it is in reflection that failure can be transformed. Talk to
anyone about the past experiences that have been most important
to them. Sure, some of those things might be successes, but overall,
you will most likely find that what most people saw as failures—for
example, failed attempts at getting work or failures to make deadlines
—ended up being really pivotal and eventually positive moments. Make
any experience work for you!
Failing better, in the end, is looking back and seeing any experi-
ence as part of who you are and as an opportunity to imagine who you
might become.
Part 1
Understanding the Elements
of Good Writing
1 Understanding the Audience, Understanding Yourself
2 Understanding the Role of Reading as a Basic Writing Component
3 Understanding the Role of Critical Thinking
All good writing is well thought out, organized, and developed in such a way that the
person or people you are writing for understand the message you are trying to send.
And most good writing contains certain writing components, which we will discuss
throughout this book. These include skills like developing a clear outline and thesis
statement as well as considering the way your paragraphs and ideas fit together.
Grammar and some stylistic elements are also addressed. When you get good enough,
some of these writing components will come naturally to you. In Part I, we are going
to explore the following standard elements of good writing:
●● understanding the role that both you and your audience play in the commu-
nication process (Chapter 1)
●● reading about your topic carefully (Chapter 2)
●● thinking critically about what you have read before you start writing (Chapter 3)
NEL 7
Understanding the
Audience, Understanding
1 Yourself
Chapter
Before you start writing—an essay, a report, an email message—you must

have something to write about (your subject) and someone to write for (your
audience). In order to produce a clear, effective message for your readers, you
must clearly know who they are. A seeming paradox exists in many high school
English classrooms as students walk around whispering about their papers: “You
know, you must write about what Mr. So-and-So wants in order to get a good
grade.…” In other words, many students have learned that writing for readers
and giving them what they want always offers benefits, be it better grades, a job
“Begin at the beginning,”
promotion, or simply a clearer dialogue between two parties. But learning to
the King said gravely,
write for only one audience is not enough. You need to develop a flexible writing
“and go till you come to
style that will allow you to adapt your writing to the various audiences you will
the end; then stop.”
encounter throughout your career. Your boss in the professional world will most
—Lewis Carroll, Alice’s
likely not care what Mr. So-and-So wanted at the beginning of each paragraph.
Adventures in Wonderland
Addressing Your Readers

Knowing your audience is essential to really writing well. As you plan, draft,
and revise your paper with your audience in mind, ask yourself the following
questions:
●● How old are your readers? Might the readers’ generation change their
perceptions?
●● What is their level of education?
●● What do they do for a living?
●● Are your readers busy, or will they be able to give your message a great
deal of consideration?
●● What is their cultural background? Their first language?
●● Do they have any other specific traits that might affect their perception
of what they are reading?
While you must be careful to avoid generalizing or stereotyping (for example,
assuming that women will be more likely than men to accept your position), the
answers to these questions do influence most people’s views, and you would be
wise to consider them before you begin to write, especially if you don’t know your
audience personally or they are hard to categorize.
8 Part 1: Understanding the Elements of Good Writing NEL
For most college and university assignments, you should assume that your instruc-
tor or your classmates are your audience. Some teachers will specify external audiences
for short papers (and if they don’t, they will be impressed if you ask who your read-
ers are). Learning to write for a variety of audiences will be useful to you in the “real
world.” If you are given the opportunity, experiment with writing for other readers:
●● your high school principal
●● a recent immigrant
●● a union official
●● a member of the Green Party
●● a religious or spiritual leader
●● the CEO of a local company
●● the manager of your school cafeteria
Keeping your reader in mind will help you to plan, develop, and revise your as-
signment in a tone and style appropriate to your message. Spend some time think-
ing about your subject in relation to your audience. Consider the following three
questions when you are deciding what information your essay should include:
1. What does my reader know about my subject?

2. What is my reader’s attitude toward my subject?
3. What are my reader’s needs in regard to my subject?
Readers’ Knowledge
The first question will help you choose the kind and amount of information that Do you have to cover all
you should include. Are you writing for people who know little about your subject the basics, or can you
or for people with fairly detailed knowledge? Telling readers things they clearly assume your audience
already know can seem demeaning and offensive. is familiar with them?
While you don’t want to offend or bore your readers by providing them with in-
formation they already have, if you fail to include facts they need in order to under-
stand your message, you’ll turn them off or lose them entirely. It’s a delicate balance.
Readers’ Attitudes
The second question helps you decide how to approach your subject, especially Gentle persuasion is
if it is controversial. Will your readers be sympathetic to what you have to say? If usually more effective
so, you will aim to reinforce their agreement and will probably state your opinion than confrontation in
up front to show you’re on their side. If, however, you think they may be hostile writing, as it is in life.
to what you have to say, you might lessen their resistance by providing reasons
and support for your ideas before revealing your point of view. The approach you
take requires you to know your readers, emphasizing the importance of critically
reading and analyzing people.
Readers’ Needs
The third question helps you to decide whether to persuade or inform, to com-
pare or classify, to describe or analyze.
NEL Chapter 1: Understanding the Audience, Understanding Yourself 9
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CHAPTER XXV
A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
Betty was whipping mayonnaise in the kitchen when a voice hailed

the Diamond Bar K ranch in general.
“Hello the house!”
Through the window she saw a rider on a horse, and a moment later
her brain localized him as a neighborhood boy who had recently
joined the forest rangers. She went to the door, sleeves still rolled
back to the elbows of the firm satiny arms.
“Hoo-hoo!” she called, flinging a small hand wildly above her head in
greeting. “Hoo-hoo, Billy boy!”
He turned, caught sight of her, and at once began to smile. It was
noticeable that when Betty laughed, as she frequently did for no
good reason at all except a general state of well-being, others were
likely to join in her happiness.
“Oh, there you are,” he said, and at once descended.
“Umpha! Here I am, but I won’t be long. I’m making salad dressing.
Come in to the kitchen if you like. I’ll give you a cookie. Just out o’
the oven.”
“Listens good to Billy,” he said, and stayed not on the order of his
coming.
She found him a plate of cookies and a stool. “Sit there. And tell me
what’s new in the hills. Did you pass the dam as you came down?
And what d’you know about the tunnel?”
The ranger stopped a cookie halfway to his mouth. “Say, that fellow
—the one drivin’ the tunnel—he’s been shot.”
“What!”
“Last night—at Don Black’s cabin.”
A cold hand laid itself on her heart and stopped its beating. “You
mean—on purpose?”
He nodded. “Shot through the window at dark.”
“Mr. Hollister—that who you mean?”
“Yep. That’s what he calls himself now. Jones it was at first.”
“Is he—hurt badly?”
“I’ll say so. In the side—internal injuries. Outa his head when I was
there this mo’ning.”
“What does the doctor say?”
“He ain’t seen him yet. On the way up now. I ’phoned down from
Meagher’s ranch. He’d ought to pass here soon.”
“But why didn’t they get the doctor sooner? What were they thinking
about?” she cried.
“Nobody with him but Don Black. He couldn’t leave him alone, he
claims. Lucky I dropped in when I did.”
Impulsively Betty made up her mind. “I’m going to him. You’ll have to
take me, Billy.”
“You!” exclaimed the ranger. “What’s the big idea, Betty?”
“Dad’s gone to Denver to the stock show. I’m going to look after him.
That’s what Dad would want if he were here. Some one’s got to
nurse him. What other woman can go in on snowshoes and do it?”
“Does he have to have a woman nurse? Can’t Mr. Merrick send a
man up there to look after him?”
“Don’t argue, Billy boy,” she told him. “You see how it is. They don’t
even get a doctor to him for fifteen or sixteen hours. By this time he
may be—” She stopped and bit her lip to check a sudden swell of
emotion that choked up her throat.
Bridget came into the kitchen. Betty’s announcement was both a
decision and an appeal. “Mr. Hollister’s been hurt—shot—up in the
hills. I’m going up to Justin to make him take me to him.”
“Is he hur-rt bad?” asked the buxom housekeeper.
“Yes. I don’t know. Billy thinks so. If I hurry I can get there before
night.”
Bridget hesitated. “I was thinkin’ it might be better for me to go,
dearie. You know how folks talk.”
“Oh, talk!” Betty was explosively impatient. She always was when
anybody interfered with one of her enthusiasms. “Of course, if you
could go. But you’d never get in through the snow. And what could
they say—except that I went to save a man’s life if I could?”
“Mr. Merrick might not like it.”
“Of course he’d like it.” The girl was nobly indignant for her fiancé.
“Why wouldn’t he like it? It’s just what he’d want me to do.” Under
the brown bloom of her cheeks was the peach glow of excitement.
Bridget had traveled some distance on the journey of life, and she
had her own opinion about that. Merrick, if she guessed him at all
correctly, was a possessive man. He could appreciate Betty’s valiant
eagerness when it went out to him, but he would be likely to resent
her generous giving of herself to another. He did not belong to the
type of lover that recognizes the right of a sweetheart or a wife to
express herself in her own way. She was pledged to him. Her
vocation and avocation in life were to be his wife.
But Bridget was wise in her generation. She knew that Betty was of
the temperament that had to learn from experience. She asked how
they would travel to the dam.
“On horseback—if we can get through. The road’s not broken yet
probably after yesterday’s storm. We’ll start right away. I can’t get
Justin on the ’phone. The wire must be down.”
The ranger saddled for her and they took the road. Betty carried with
her a small emergency kit of medical supplies.
Travel back and forth had broken the road in the valley. It was not
until the riders struck the hill trail that they had to buck drifts. It was
slow, wearing work, and, by the time they came in sight of the dam,
Betty’s watch told her that it was two o’clock.
Merrick saw them coming down the long white slope and wondered
what travelers had business urgent enough to bring them through
heavy drifts to the isolated camp. As soon as he recognized Betty,
he went to meet her. Billy rode on down to the tents. He knew when
he was not needed.
Rich color glowed in her cheeks, excitement sparkled in her eyes.
“What in the world are you doing here?” Merrick asked.
She was the least bit dashed by his manner. It suggested censure,
implied that her adventure—whatever the cause of it—was a bit of
headstrong folly. Did he think it was a girl’s place to stay at home in
weather like this? Did he think that she was unmaidenly, had bucked
miles of snowdrifts because she could not stay away from him?
“Have you heard about Mr. Hollister? He’s been hurt—shot.”
“Shot?”
“Last night. At Black’s cabin.”
“Who shot him?”
“I don’t know. He’s pretty bad, Billy says.”
“Doctor seen him yet?”
“He’s on the way now. I want you to take me to him, Justin.”
“Take you? What for?”
“To nurse him.”
He smiled, the superior smile of one prepared to argue away the
foolish fancies of a girl.
“Is your father home yet?”
“No. He’ll be back to-morrow. Why?”
“Because, dear girl, you can’t go farther. In the first place, it’s not
necessary. I’ll do all that can be done for Hollister. The trip from here
won’t be a picnic.”
“I’ve brought my skis. I can get in all right,” she protested eagerly.
“I grant that. But there’s no need for you to go. You’d far better not.
It’s not quite—” He stopped in mid-sentence, with an expressive lift
of the shoulders.
“Not quite proper. I didn’t expect you to say that, Justin,” she
reproached. “After what he did for us.”
“He did only what any self-respecting man would do.”
Her smile coaxed him. “Well, I want to do only what any self-
respecting woman would do. Surely it’ll be all right if you go along.”
How could he tell her that he knew no other unmarried woman of her
age, outside of professional nurses, who would consider such a thing
for the sake of a comparative stranger? How could he make her see
that Black’s cabin was no place for a young girl to stay? He was
exasperated at her persistence. It offended his amour propre. Why
all this discussion about one of his employees who had been a tramp
only a few months since?
Merrick shook his head. His lips smiled, but there was no smile in his
eyes. “You’re a very impulsive and very generous young woman. But
if you were a little older you would see—”
She broke impatiently into his argument. “Don’t you see how I feel,
Justin? I’ve got to do what I can for him. We’re not in a city where we
can ring up for a trained nurse. I’m the only available woman that
can get in to him. Why did I take my Red Cross training if I’m not to
help those who are sick?”
“Can’t you trust me to look out for him?”
“Of course I can. That’s not the point. There’s so much in nursing.
Any doctor will tell you so. Maybe he needs expert care. I really can
nurse. I’ve done it all my life.”
“You don’t expect to nurse everybody in the county that falls sick, do
you? Don’t you see, dear girl, that Black’s shack is no place for
you?”
“Why isn’t it? I’m a ranchman’s daughter. It doesn’t shock or offend
me to see things that might distress a city girl.” She cast about in her
mind for another way to put it. “I remember my mother leaving us
once for days to look after a homesteader who had been hurt ’way
up on Rabbit Ear Creek. Why, that’s what all the women on the
frontier did.”
“The frontier days are past,” he said. “And that’s beside the point,
anyhow. I’ll have him well looked after. You needn’t worry about
that.”
“But I would,” she urged. “I’d worry a lot. I want to go myself, Justin—
to make sure it’s all right and that everything’s being done for him
that can be. You think it’s just foolishness in me, but it isn’t.”
She put her hand shyly on his sleeve. The gesture was an appeal for
understanding of the impulse that was urgent in her. If he could only
sympathize with it and acknowledge its obligation.
“I think it’s neither necessary nor wise. It’s my duty, not yours, to
have him nursed properly. I’ll not shirk it.” He spoke with the finality
of a dominant man who has made up his mind.
Betty felt thrown back on herself. She was disappointed in him and
her feelings were hurt. Why must he be so obtuse, so correct and
formal? Why couldn’t he see that she had to go? After all, a decision
as to what course she would follow lay with her and not with him. He
had no right to assume otherwise. She was determined to go,
anyhow, but she would not quarrel with him.
“When are you going up to Black’s?” she asked.
“At once.”
“Do take me, please.”
He shook his head. “It isn’t best, dear girl.”
In her heart flamed smokily rebellious fires. “Then I’ll go with Billy.”
He interpreted the words as a challenge. Their eyes met in a long,
steady look. Each measured the strength of the other. It was the first
time they had come into open conflict.
“I wouldn’t do that, Betty,” he said quietly.
“You don’t know how I feel about it. You won’t understand.” Her voice
shook with emotion. “I’ve got to go.”
Merrick knew that he could prevent the ranger from guiding Betty to
the gulch where the wounded man was, but it was possible to pay
too great a price for victory. He yielded, grudgingly.
“I’ll take you. After you’ve seen Hollister, you can give us directions
for nursing him. I should think the doctor ought to know, but, if you
haven’t confidence in him, you can see to it yourself.”
Betty found no pleasure now in her desire to help. Justin’s opposition
had taken all the joy out of it. Nor did his surrender give her any
gratification. He had not yielded because he appreciated the validity
of her purpose, but because he had chosen to avoid an open
breach. She felt a thousand miles away from him in spirit.
“Thank you,” she said formally, choking down a lump in her throat.
CHAPTER XXVI
BLACK IS SURPRISED
It is not in youth to be long cast down for the troubles of a stranger,

even one who has very greatly engaged the sympathy. In spite of
Betty’s anxiety about the wounded man, her resilient spirits had sent
her eagerly upon this adventure.
She would see Justin. He would approve her plans with enthusiasm.
Together they would ski across the white wastes, they two alone in a
vast world of mysterious stillness. The thin clear air of the high
Rockies would carry their resonant voices like the chimes of bells.
Silences would be significant, laughter the symbol of happy
comradeship. For the first time they would come glowing through
difficulties, perhaps dangers, conquered side by side. And at the end
of the journey waited for them service, that which gave their joyous
enterprise the value of an obligation.
And it was not at all like that—not a bit as she had day-dreamed it on
the ride to Sweetwater Dam. The joy was struck dead in her heart.
Miserably she realized that Justin could not understand. The ardent
fire that burned in her soul seemed only mushy sentiment to him, on
a par with the hysteria that made silly women send flowers to brutal
murderers they did not know.
The bars were up between them. The hard look in his eyes meant
anger. There would be no expression of it in temper. He was too self-
contained for that. None the less it was anger. The reflection of it
gleamed out from under her own dark lashes. She told herself she
hated the narrowness in him that made him hold so rigidly to the
well-ordered, the conventional thing. Why couldn’t he see that there
was an imperative on her to live? Well, she would show him.
Probably he thought that in every clash of will she ought to yield. He
could learn his lesson just as well now as later.
She held her head high, but there was a leaden weight in her bosom
that made her want to sob.
Often she had been proud of his tremendous driving power, the force
that made of him a sixty-horse-power man. She resented it fiercely
to-day. He was traveling just a little too fast for her, so that she could
hardly keep up with him. But she would have fallen in her tracks
rather than ask him to go slower.
Once the slither of his runners stopped. “Am I going too fast?” he
asked coldly.
“Not at all,” she answered stubbornly.
He struck out again. They were climbing a long slope that ended in a
fringe of timber. At the top he waited, watching her as she labored up
heavily. The look he gave her when she reached him said, “I told you
so.”
Before them lay a valley, beyond which was another crest of pines.
“How far now?” Betty asked, panting from the climb.
“Just beyond that ridge.”
“That all?” she said indifferently. “Thought it was a long way.”
“We’ll coast into the valley,” he replied curtly.
She watched him gliding into the dip of the slope. He was not an
expert on runners as her father was, but he had learned the trick of
the thing pretty well. It was in line with his thoroughness not to be a
novice long at anything he set out to master.
Betty shot down after him, gathering impetus as she went. She was
watching the path ahead, and it was not till she was close upon him
that she saw Merrick had fallen. She swerved to the left, flinging out
her arms to prevent herself from going down. Unsteadily she
teetered for a moment, but righted herself with an effort and kept
going till she reached the bottom.
Merrick was on his feet when she turned.
“Anything wrong?” she called.
“One of my skis broken.”
She went back to him. “How did it happen?”
“Dipped into a rock under the snow.” His voice was sullen. Like many
men who do well whatever they undertake, he resented any mishap
due to lack of his own skill. His sense of superiority would have been
satisfied if the accident had befallen her instead of him.
Betty did not smile, but, nevertheless, she was maliciously pleased.
It would bring him down a peg, anyhow.
“What’ll you do?” she asked.
“I suppose I can hobble along somehow. Perhaps I’d better take your
skis and hurry on. I could borrow a pair at the cabin and come back
for you. Yes, I think that would be better.”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll go on and send Mr. Black with a pair.
I’d rather not wait here in the cold. I’ll not be long. You can keep
moving.”
This did not suit Merrick at all. He did not want to be regarded as an
incompetent who had bogged down in the snow. It hurt his pride that
Betty should go on and send back help to him, especially when they
felt criss-cross toward each other.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” he said. “You don’t know who is at the cabin.
That tramp Cig may be there—or Prowers. They’re dangerous, both
of them. Yesterday they tried to blow up the men working on the
tunnel.”
“You can lend me your revolver, then, if you like. But I’m not afraid.
Mr. Black wouldn’t let them hurt me even if they wanted to.”
“It’s not very cold. I’d be back in a little while. And, as you say, you
could keep moving.”
“No, I’m going on,” she answered, and her quiet voice told him she
had made up her mind.
He unbuckled his belt and handed it to her. “You’ll be safer with that
.38,” he said. What he thought is not of record.
“Thanks.” Betty’s little smile, with its hint of sarcasm, suggested that
there was not the least need of the revolver; if she wore it, the only
reason was to humor his vanity and let him feel that he was
protecting her.
She crossed the valley and climbed the ridge. From the farther side
of it she looked down upon a log cabin of two rooms, a small stable,
and a corral. They nestled in a draw at her feet, so close that a man
could have thrown a stone almost to the fence. The hillside was
rough with stones. With Justin’s mishap in mind, she felt her way
down carefully.
Smoke poured out of the chimney and polluted the pure light air. No
need of seeing the fire inside to know that the wood was resinous fir.
Betty knocked on the door.
It opened. Black stood on the threshold looking down at her in
ludicrous amazement. She had taken off her coat and was carrying
it. Against a background of white she bloomed vivid as a poinsettia in
her old-rose sweater and jaunty tam. The cold crisp air had whipped
the scarlet into her lips, the pink into her cheeks.
“What in—Mexico!” he exclaimed.
“How’s Mr. Hollister?”
“A mighty sick man. Howcome you here, miss?”
The sound of a querulous voice came from within. “Tell you I don’t
want the stuff. How many times I got to say it?”
“I’ve come to nurse him. Billy brought us word. Father wasn’t home
—nor Lon. So Mr. Merrick brought me.”
“Merrick,” he repeated.
“He’s over the hill, a ways back. Broke a ski. He’d like you to take
him a pair. I’ll look after Mr. Hollister.”
As she followed the lank range rider into the cabin, she pulled off her
gauntlets. Her cold fingers fumbled with the ski ties.
“Lemme do that,” Black said, and dropped on a knee to help.
“I guess you can do it quicker.” She looked at the patient and let her
voice fall as she asked a question. “Is he delirious?”
“Crazy as a hydryphoby skunk.” He repeated what he had said
before. “A mighty sick man, looks like.”
Betty looked into the hot, fevered face of the man tossing on the bed.
From her medicine kit she took a thermometer. His fever was high.
She prepared medicine and coaxed him to swallow it.
“Where is he wounded?” she asked.
“In the side.”
“Did you wash out the wound and bind it up?”
“Yes’m. I’ve took care of fellows shot up before.”
“Bleed much?”
“Right smart. Did you hear when Doc Rayburn was comin’?”
“He’s on the way.” She found cold water and bathed the burning
face.
“Wisht he’d hustle along,” the range rider said uneasily.
“He won’t be long.” With a flare of anger she turned on Black. “Who
shot him?”
“I dunno. He was shot through the window whilst he was ondressin’
for bed. We come together from the old Thorwaldson cabin a while
before.”
“Did that Cig do it?”
“Might have, at that.” Black was putting on his webs. “Reckon I’ll drift
back an’ pick up yore friend Merrick.”
“Yes,” she said absently. “It was that tramp Cig or Jake Prowers,
one.”
“Yore guess is as good as mine,” he said, buttoning to the neck a
leather coat.
“Can’t we have more light in here? It’s dark. If you’d draw back that
window curtain—”
“Then Mr. Bushwhacker would get a chanct for another shot,” he
said dryly. “No, I reckon we’ll leave the curtain where it’s at.”
Her big startled eyes held fascinated to his. “You don’t think they’d
shoot him again now.”
“Mebbeso. My notion is better not give ’em a show to get at him. You
keep the door closed. I’ll not be long. I see you got a gun.”
There was something significant in the way he said it. Her heart
began to beat fast.
“You don’t think—?”
“No, I don’t. If I did, I’d stay right here. Not a chanct in a hundred.
How far back’s yore friend?”
“Less than a mile.”
“Well, he’s likely been movin’ right along. When I reach the ridge, I’ll
give him the high sign an’ leave the skis stickin’ up in the snow
there.”
“Yes.” And, as he was leaving, “Don’t be long,” she begged.
“Don’t you be scared, miss. Them sidewinders don’t come out in the
open an’ do their wolf-killin’. An’ I won’t be gone but a li’l’ while. If
anything worries you, bang away with that .38 an’ I’ll come a-
runnin’.”
He closed the door after him. From behind the curtain she watched
him begin the ascent. Then she went back to her patient and bathed
his hot hands. Betty echoed the wish of the range rider that the
doctor would come. What could be keeping him? From the Diamond
Bar K ranch to Wild Horse was only a few miles. He must have
started before she did. It would not be long now.
In spite of a two days’ growth of beard, the young fellow on the bed
looked very boyish. She gently brushed back the curls matted on the
damp forehead. He was rambling again in desultory speech.
“A cup o’ cold water—cold lemonade. Happy days, she says. No
trouble friendship won’t lighten, she says, with that game smile
lighting up her face. Little thoroughbred.”
A warm wave of exultant emotion beat through her blood. It reached
her face in a glow of delicate beauty that transformed her.
“You dear boy!” she cried softly, and her eyes were shining stars of
tender light.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE MAN WITH THE BLEACHED BLUE EYES
There was not much she could do for him except bathe again his
face and hands. He asked for a drink, and Betty propped him up with
her arm while she held the tin cup to his lips. Exhausted by the effort,
he sank back to the pillow and panted. All the supple strength of his
splendid youth had been drained from him. The muscles were lax,
the movements of the body feeble.
Sunken eyes stared at her without recognition. “Sure I’ll take your
hand, and say ‘Thank you’ too. You’re the best little scout, the best
ever.”
She took the offered hand and pressed it gently. “Yes, but now you
must rest. You’ve been sick.”
“A Boche got me.” His wandering subconscious thoughts flowed into
other memories. “Zero hour, boys. Over the top and give ’em hell.”
Then, without any apparent break from one theme to another, his
thick voice fell to a cunning whisper. “There’s a joint on South Clark
Street where I can get it.”
Into his disjointed mutterings her name came at times, spoken
always with a respect that was almost reverence. And perhaps a
moment later his voice would ring out clear and crisp in directions to
the men working under him. Subjects merged into each other
inconsequently—long-forgotten episodes of school days, college
larks, murmured endearments to the mother who had died many
years since. Listening to him, Betty knew that she was hearing
revelations of a soul masculine but essentially clean.
A sound startled her, the click of the latch. She turned her head
swiftly as the door opened. Fear drenched her heart. The man on the
threshold was Prowers. He had come out of a strong white light and
at first could see nothing in the dark cabin.
Betty watched him as he stood there, his bleached blue eyes
blinking while they adjusted themselves to another focus.
“What do you want?” she asked sharply, the accent of alarm in her
voice.
“A woman, by jiminy by jinks!” The surprise in his squeaky voice was
pronounced. He moved forward to the bed. “Clint Reed’s girl. Where
you come from? How’d you get here?”
She had drawn back to the wall at the head of the bed in order to
keep a space between them. Her heart was racing furiously. His cold
eyes, with the knife-edge stab in them, held hers fast.
“I came in over the snow to nurse him.”
“Alone?”
“No. Mr. Merrick’s with me.”
“Where?”
“At the top of the hill. He broke a ski.”
“Where’s Don?”
“Gone to meet him. They’ll be here in a minute.”
A cunning, impish grin broke the lines of the man’s leathery face. He
remembered that he had come prepared to be surprised to hear of
Hollister’s wound. “Nurse who?” he asked suavely.
“Mr. Hollister, the engineer driving the tunnel.”
“Sick, is he?” He scarcely took the trouble to veil his rancorous
malice. It rode him, voice, manner, and mocking eye. His mouth was
a thin straight line, horribly cruel.
“Some one shot him—last night—through the window.” She knew
now that he had done it or had had it done. The sense of outrage, of
horror at his unhuman callousness, drove the fear out of her bosom.
Her eyes accused him, though her tongue made no charge.
“Shot him, by jiminy by jinks! Why, Daniels had ought to put the
fellow in the calaboose. Who did it?”
“I don’t know. Do you?” she flashed back.
His evil grin derided her. “How would I know, my dear?”
He drew up a chair and sat down. The girl did not move. Rigid and
watchful, she did not let her eye waver from him for an instant.
He nodded toward the delirious man. “Will he make it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Doc seen him yet?”
“No.”
“Glad I came. I can help nurse him.” He cut short a high cackle of
laughter to ask a question. “What’s yore gun for, dearie? You
wouldn’t throw it on poor Jake Prowers, would you?”
He was as deadly as dynamite, she thought, more treacherous than
a rattlesnake. She wanted to cry out her horror at him. To see him
sitting there, humped up like a spider, not three feet from the man he
had tried to murder, filled her with repulsion. There was more in her
feeling than that; a growing paralysis of terror lest he might reach out
and in a flash complete the homicide he had attempted.
She tried to reason this away. He dared not do it, with her here as a
witness, with two men drawing closer every minute. Don Black had
told her that he wouldn’t strike in the open, and the range rider had
known him more years than she had lived. But the doubt remained.
She did not know what he would do. Since she did not live in the
same world as he, it was not possible for her to follow his thought
processes.
Then, with no previous intimation that his delirium had dropped from
him, the wounded man startled Betty by asking a rational question.
“Did you come to see how good a job you’d done?” he said quietly to
Prowers.
The cowman shook his head, still with the Satanic grin. “No job of
mine, son. I’m thorough.”
“Your orders, but maybe not your hand,” Hollister insisted feebly.
Betty moved into his line of vision, and to his startled brain the
motion of her was like sweet unearthly music. He looked silently at
her for a long moment.
“Am I still out of my head?” he asked. “It’s not really you, is it?”
“Yes,” she said, very gently. “You mustn’t talk.”
“In Black’s cabin, aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“Shot through the window, Black told me. Remember, if I don’t get
well, it was this man or Cig that did it.”
“I’ll remember,” she promised. “But you’re going to get well. Don’t
talk, please.”
“Just one thing. What are you doing here?”
“I came to look after you. Now that’s all—please.”
He said no more, in words. But the eyes of sick men are like those of
children. They tell the truth. From them is stripped the veil woven by
time and the complexities of life.
Sounds of voices on the hillside drifted to the cabin. Betty’s heart
leaped joyfully. Friends were at hand. It was too late now for Prowers
to do any harm even if it was in his mind.
The voices approached the cabin. The girl recognized that of
Merrick, strong and dominant and just a little heavy. She heard
Black’s drawling answer, without being able to distinguish the words.
The door opened. Four men came into the room. The two who
brought up the rear were Dr. Rayburn and Lon Forbes.
“Oh, Lon!” Betty cried, and went to him with a rush. “I’m awf’ly glad
you came.”
She clung to him, trembling, a sob in her throat.
The rawboned foreman patted her shoulder with a touch of
embarrassment. “There—there, honey, ’s all right. Why didn’t you
wait for old Lon instead o’ hoppin’ away like you done?”
Prowers tilted back his chair on two legs and chirped up with satiric
comment. “We got quite a nice party present. Any late arrivals not
yet heard from?”
Both Lon and Justin Merrick were taken aback. In the darkness they
had not yet recognized the little man.
The foreman spoke dryly. “Might ’a’ known it. Trouble and Jake
Prowers hunt in couples. Always did.”
“I could get a right good testimonial from Mr. Lon Forbes,” the
cowman said, with his high cackle of splenetic laughter. “Good old
Lon, downright an’ four-square, always a booster for me.”
Betty whispered. “He’s an awful man, Lon. I’m scared of him. I didn’t
know any minute what he was going to do. Oh, I am glad you came.”
“Same here,” Lon replied. “Don’t you be scared, Betty. He can’t do a
thing—not a thing.”
Merrick had been taking off his skis. He came up to Betty now. “Did
he annoy you—say anything or—?”
“No, Justin.” A shiver ran down her spine. “He just looked and
grinned. I wanted to scream. He shot Mr. Hollister. I know he did. Or
had it done by that Cig.”
“Yes. I don’t doubt that.”
The doctor, disencumbered of impedimenta of snowshoes and
wraps, fussed forward to the bedside. “Well, let’s see—let’s see
what’s wrong here.”
He examined the wound, effervesced protests and questions, and
prepared for business with the bustling air that characterized him.
“Outa the room now—all but Miss Reed and one o’ you men. Lon,
you’ll do.”
“I’ll stay,” announced Merrick with decision.
“All right. All right. I want some clean rags, Black. You got plenty of
hot water, I see. Clear out, boys.”
“You don’t need a good nurse, Doc?” Prowers asked, not without
satiric malice. He was playing with fire, and he knew it. Everybody in
the room suspected him of this crime. He felt a perverted enjoyment
in their hostility.
Black chose this moment to make his declaration of independence.
“I’d light a shuck outa here if I was you, Jake, an’ I wouldn’t come
back, seems to me.”
The cold, bleached eyes of the cowman narrowed. “You’re givin’ me
that advice as a friend, are you, Don?” he asked.
The range rider’s jaw stopped moving. In his cheek the tobacco quid
stuck out. His face, habitually set to the leathery imperturbability of
his calling, froze now to an expressionless mask.
“I’m sure givin’ you that advice,” he said evenly.
“I don’t hear so awful good, Don. As a friend, did you say?” The little
man cupped an ear with one hand in ironic mockery.
Black’s gaze was hard as gun-metal. “I said I’d hit the trail for home if
I was you, Jake, an’ I’d stay there for a spell with kinda low visibility
like they said in the war.”
“I getcha, Don.” Prowers shot a blast of cold lightning from under his
scant brows. “I can take a hint without waitin’ for a church to fall on
me. Rats an’ a sinkin’ ship, eh? You got a notion these fellows are
liable to win out on me, an’ you want to quit while the quittin’ is good.
I been wonderin’ for quite a while if you wasn’t yellow.”
“Don’t do that wonderin’ out loud, Jake,” the other warned quietly. “If
you do, you’ll sure enough find out.”
The little man laughed scornfully, met in turn defiantly the eyes of
Betty, Merrick, and Forbes, turned on his heel, and sauntered out.

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(Original PDF) Essay Essentials with

Readings 6th Edition

Part 4 Understanding Common Writing Styles 161

vi Detailed Contents NEL

Part 5 Writing Research Papers 205

NEL Detailed Contents vii

viii Detailed Contents NEL

Appendix A: List of Terms: A Vocabulary of Writing 448

NEL Detailed Contents ix

Communication and Writing

The Contemporary Scene

Media and the Arts

x Detailed Contents NEL

Science, Technology, and the Environment

Ethics and Morality

NEL Detailed Contents xi

New to the Sixth Edition

1 Answers to exercises marked with an asterisk are provided in Appendix B.

NEL Preface xiii

xiv Acknowledgments NEL

NEL Introduction: Why We Learn to Write 1

What the Symbols Mean

The Process of Writing

2 Introduction: Why We Learn to Write NEL

What Your Readers Expect

NEL Introduction: Why We Learn to Write 3

4 Introduction: Why We Learn to Write NEL

NEL Introduction: Why We Learn to Write 5

Before you start writing—an essay, a report, an email message—you must

Addressing Your Readers

8 Part 1: Understanding the Elements of Good Writing NEL

1. What does my reader know about my subject?

NEL Chapter 1: Understanding the Audience, Understanding Yourself 9

Betty was whipping mayonnaise in the kitchen when a voice hailed

It is not in youth to be long cast down for the troubles of a stranger,

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