Preface    
   
ONE: Orienting     
On Habits 
On Unlearning   
On a Space of Your Own 

TWO: Paying Attention    
On Learning to See        
On Looking and Looking Again 
On Paying Attention to Words  

THREE: Questioning        
On Asking Good Questions      
On Writing to a Question
On Question-Driven Writing    

FOUR: Exploring  
On Going Down the Rabbit Hole
On Creative Reading     
On Choosing Your Own Adventure      

FIVE: Connecting  
On the Three Most Important Words in the English Language  
On Joining the Conversation     
On Working with the Words of Others 

SIX: Reflecting       
On Seeing as a Writer   
On Reading as a Writer 
On Reading in Slow Motion     

SEVEN: Persisting  
On Encountering Difficulty      
On Learning from Failure 
On Thinking Unthinkable Thoughts     

EIGHT: Rethinking
On Letting Go of Writing-by-Formula 
On Structure      
On Revising       

NINE: Wondering 
On Argument as Journey 
On Imagining Alternatives        
On Complexity  

TEN: Playing 
On Laughter       
On Bending Conventions
On the Joys of Pseudonymous Writing 

Readings     
Frederick Douglass, The Woman’s Cause
Eula Biss, Excerpt from On Immunity: An Inoculation
Cathy Park Hong, Bad English       
Andrew Leland, DeafBlind Communities May Be Creating a New Language of Touch         
Jia Tolentino, Can Motherhood Be a Form of Rebellion?  
Jesmyn Ward, Cracking the Code

The Habits of Mind have been brought into an even sharper focus with Rethinking and Wondering; supporting students as they develop the habits of being curious about the world, of being open to other ways of seeing things, and of embracing complexity as a precondition for understanding anything that is truly important.

Exemplary writers have been brought into the conversation with new essays that discuss writing by Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Julia Alvarez, Jia Tolentino, Cathy Park Hong, and Jesmyn Ward.

New practice sessions highlight the creative opportunities that bilingualism and multilingualism open up; use genealogies to raise questions about identity; consider the cultural divides exposed by the pandemic; invite discussions of the future of women’s rights; and ask students to imagine a nonverbal, nonvisual form of communication.

Six new readings replace the five readings in the previous edition. Pieces by Eula Biss, Frederick Douglass, Cathy Park Hong, Andrew Leland, Jia Tolentino, and Jesmyn Ward invite students to focus their creative energies on some of the most pressing issues of our time: public health, women’s rights, citizenship, the lives and rights of the differently abled, the wealth gap, and shifting foundations for defining the self.