Each chapter features two or more readings on controversial issues presented in a point-counterpoint format. The field-tested readings:

• Provide a mixture of classic and recent pieces, arranged in increasing length and complexity in the successive chapters.
• Illustrate variety in rhetorical form. While mainly expository and persuasive, the essays include elements of description and narration.
• Cover contemporary topics of interest to college students -- e.g., the juvenile justice system, aggression in sports, American attitudes toward aging, the right to bear arms, physician-assisted suicide, technology and society, etc.
• Appeals to a culturally diverse population -- e.g., considers topics on which a variety of groups have prior knowledge; compares groups impacted by an issue; offers a variety of questions, permitting -- but not requiring -- minority students to discuss the topic in relation to their own backgrounds.

Features instructional materials that guide students through four activities associated with each reading:

• Preview -- Students consider their own experiences and beliefs on a controversial topic, read a short selection, predict its main idea from the author's biographical information, the title, and key paragraphs. Short-answer questions help students organize their thoughts on paper and then share them, and a list of unfamiliar words helps students develop their vocabulary.
• Reading -- Students read the main essay, and -- guided by Reading Questions -- make notes on key ideas, personal reactions, and the author's writing style. Short-answer questions help students write before sharing their responses.
• Discussion -- As a means of summing up their reading experience and as preparation for writing, students discuss and compare their notes on the reading with those of their classmates. Procedural guides for small-group and whole-class discussions help students learn interaction skills while exchanging ideas.
• Composition -- Students use their short written responses, as well as any notes from the group discussion, as a jumping-off point for their own paragraphs or essays about their informed views. Accompanying Composition Questions call for higher-order thinking -- application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation -- and for short written answers which in turn help students to generate longer, more complex responses.

Focuses on criticism of ideas in a consistent way that is accessible to students.

• Teaches the consistent use of effective cognitive strategies (use of prior knowledge, prediction, use of context cues, etc.).
• Provides short, explicit writing assignments that help students to preview a reading, discuss the reading, and begin longer writing tasks.