New Reading Selections. Thirty percent of the long and short readings in the book are new, covering such areas as how Facebook damages both friendships and one’s college GPA, why our over-reliance on Google may be making us stupid, the value of a college education in today’s economy, and the characteristics of American and Middle Eastern culture as examples of conflicting world views.

Increased emphasis on critical reading skills—reflected both in exercise questions and in box inserts interspersed throughout the text.

More coverage of inference. Chapter 3 has been expanded with a new section on making inferences in the real world that shows students how we make inferences in our everyday life.

Expanded coverage on fact vs. opinion and parody. New to this edition is a discussion of how to read poetry, with three poems for practicing analysis.

Expanded coverage of analyzing advertisements and public service announcements. Chapter 10 contains additional discussion of how to analyze advertisements and public service announcements (PSAs) and a new section on how to read blogs.

Coverage of e-Readers and their usefulness. The book’s introduction has a new section called “Some Thoughts on e-Readers,” which addresses key features of e-readers as well as a discussion about maintaining comprehension while using these new devices.