本书是关于权威、金钱、社会等级、自我、同化、异化、美国梦、工作、生活等的指导。作者试图挑战人们已有的文化观念，并启发人们认识其根源，以使人成为独立的思考者。

写作必以观念或思想为先导，这是一条不变的法则。对于批判性思维的培养和高级写作能力的提升就更为如此。《观念的生成：主题写作读本》就是一本为达此目的而编撰的英美大学一年级写作课教材，在中国适用于英语专业本科高年级阅读和写作课。所谓“观念的生成”，说的是作文中所要表达的思想，大致要回答下面这些“说来容易写起来难”的问题：思想从哪儿来?是关于什么的?该如何表达?怎么去总结和评价?本书通过理解、生成、扩展和应用思想这四个步骤来提高学生的批判性思维能力和写作能力。理解就是理解所读文本的特殊观点；生成就是通过这种理解性阅读让学生提出自己的观点；扩展就是扩展文本的语境，使其与其他相关文本联系起来，扩大思考的幅度；应用就是在这三个步骤之后让学生将理解、生成和扩展的思想用于自己的写作实践。全书共分八章，除第一章总序外，其他七章汇集的文章中都就大学生所敏感的问题进行了热烈的讨论：年轻人的反叛精神，成长的烦恼，个人主义、孤独和异化，大学生的身份，金钱、社会阶级和自我，个人的权利以及梦想或理想等。所有文本不但思想性强，而且语言精湛，都是名家名篇。学生既能在无垠的思想海洋里畅游，又能在增进思考能力的同时学到隽美的语言。

Preface Xiii

1 An Introduction to Ideas：Critical Thinking

and Writing 1

Generating Ideas 3

The Processes of Writing 4

Critical Thinking 7

Close Reading and Rhetorical Strategies 8

Defining and Aligning 9

Evaluation 10

Understanding Perspective 10

Summarizing 11

Close Reading 12

Connecting and Comparing 12

Two Examples of Student Writing：Finding the Self 14

What to Expect in the Next Seven Chapters 26

2 Reacting to Authority：Youth Rebellion 29

Is rebellion an attempt to define an individual sell to

rwact to authority,or to fit in with one's peer group?

■Bringing Up Ideas 32

Mark Twain。“Advice to Youth” 33

The American master of satire offrs such practical advice as

“Always obey your parents，when they are present”and"You

want to be very careful about lying；otherwise you are nearly sure

to get caught．”

Maya Angelou，“Mary” 37

An employer calls her young servant“Mary”instead of her

prefeTrea name“Marguerite”；is that any reason for Marguerite

to break the woman's china?

Michael Moore。“Idiot Nation” 42

One of to day's most prominent liberal gadflies admits that he

dropped out of college because he couldn’t find a parking spot·

Judith Rich Harris, “'Nurture' Is Not the Same as

  'Environment'” 55

Maybe parents have less to do with their children's values

and personalities than we've been led to believe.

Judith Ortiz Corer, “Volar; Maria Elena; Exile”

  [short story]   67

  A young girl wants to fly like Supergirl; a young woman

  rejects her mother's rules about sexuality.

John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), “I Want You to Know That

  I Hate You, Baby”  73

  The lead singer of the groundbreaking punk band The Sex

  Pistols reflects on music as well as on fashion.

Ralph “Sonny” Barger, from Hell's Angel  85

  Are those guys who ride motorcycles in menacing gangs

  looking for attention, freedom, or just a good time?

Helen Nissenbaum, “Hackers and the Battle for

  Cyberspace”  94

  The Internet provides new opportunities to think about

  rebellion.

Thinking Through Ideas: Beatniks on the Road 105

The literary stylists who rejected the conservative 1950s

tell their stories in their unique way.

Gregory Corso, from “Variations on a Generation”

Jack Kerouac, from On the Road

Brenda Frazer, “Breaking Out of D.C.”

Joyce Johnson, from Minor Characers

Applying Ideas  120

3 Act Your Age: When Does Adulthood

Begin?  123

When does a child become an adult?

Bringing Up Ideas  125

David Mamet, “The Rake: A Few Scenes from My

 Childhood”  126

  Painful and violent events are associated with rites of

  passage in this playwright's memoir.

……