For courses in Integrated Reading & Writing and Intermediate Reading (9-12 grade level). This version of Reading and Writing About Contemporary Issues has been updated to reflect the 8th Edition of the MLA Handbook (April 2016)* Prepares students for academic reading and writing Reading and Writing About Contemporary Issues builds on students' reading and writing skills through numerous examples for analysis. Each nonfiction reading is organized into thematic units that focus on contemporary issues, and has been chosen to interest and motivate students. Readings are drawn from a variety of sources, such as books, textbooks, periodicals, popular magazines, newspapers, blogs, websites, and Internet sources. The Second Edition builds upon the strong pedagogy in the text by using the readings as direct teaching tools rather than examples. Instructional components of each chapter are built around reading samples, and each reading has been organized based on its level of difficulty. Its versatile presentation adapts easily to a variety of integrated reading and writing courses and a wide range of students. * The 8th Edition introduces sweeping changes to the philosophy and details of MLA works cited entries. Responding to the "increasing mobility of texts," MLA now encourages writers to focus on the process of crafting the citation, beginning with the same questions for any source. These changes, then, align with current best practices in the teaching of writing which privilege inquiry and critical thinking over rote recall and rule-following.