The Short Prose Reader

by Gilbert H. Muller, Harvey S. Wiener

The Short Prose Reader is a rhetorically organized reader that maintains the best features of the earlier lively reading selections supported by helpful apparatus to integrate reading and writing in college composition and reading courses. In working through the text, the student progresses from key aspects of the writing and reading processes to chapters on the essential patterns of writing and then to more rigorous forms of analysis and argument. Each chapter provides diverse and lively prose models suited for discussion, analysis, and imitation.

Genres: Academic, Nonfiction, Literature, Essays

576 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2012

Reviews

[Danielle Messier · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read through these stories for my college English class, and I have to say, I really love how this was set up. With the introduction before the short essays, and the many questions afterwards that help to understand the essays more. My favorite was "What I've learned from Men" by Barbara Ehrenreich


Also I have the 13th edition, so I'm not sure if that story appears in other editions of this.

[Mary Bundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the book for my English Comp. class I had to take to fulfill my General Ed. Requirement for school. I figured I'd read so much of it, I might as well finish and be able to put it on here. I have to say, I'm actually a fan of the short essay and short essays. Is my attention span just getting shorter as I get older? Definitely Possible! But I did thoroughly enjoy it. Thank you Professor!

[Caitlin Holm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were better than others. Good choice for my English class though.

[Amalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more useful for those who wants to find tools on essay writing. With activities on guided writing. I found the first four chapters of this book which was what I wanted.

[Wendi Enright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too textbook-like to enjoy.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a review of the (I think) second edition, published in 1982. My copy is also a very poorly put together paperback and not a hardback, but this was the closest edition to mine that I could find here on Goodreads. I have not been able to find a picture of the cover online and I don't currently have a working camera, so I can't take a photo of mine. Sorry. It's various colored thin rectangles that look like book silhouettes against a dark blue background.

This is an incredibly boring book. I'd read an essay or two to help get me drowsy enough to fall asleep. The notations in the margins made by a previous owner were more interesting. If you really want to knock yourself out, read the questions after the essays, too. And answer them any way you like. There are no right answers, apparently, since no answer list (or even a hint of one) appears in this book. So I'm not sure how well it can teach anybody anything -- except maybe how not to put an anthology together, I guess.

The glue holding the spine was deteriorating before I got my copy so every now and then things would liven up when the book would slip out of my hands and burst into a pile of very large pieces of confetti. The book now helps holds the air filter for my goldfish aquarium. That's the best use for it I could find -- other than sticking it in the recycle bin. There's a nice Ray Bradbury essay and one by Hemingway and that's about all she wrote, folks.