Part I: Informing Our Vision of Essay
- Ch. 1: How to Read an Essay Closely
- Ch. 2: Reclaiming Essay
- Ch. 3: Naming Craft in Essay
Part II: Translating the Vision to Classroom Practice: How to Write an Essay
- Ch. 4: Living Like an Essayist
- Ch. 5: Growing Topics into Ideas
- Ch. 6: Drafting the Essay
- Ch. 7: Shaping and Fine-Tuning the Essay
Part III: Transferring the Vision of Essay to Academic Writing
- Ch. 8: Studying Essay Can Improve Academic Writing
- Ch. 9: Assessing Essay
Afterword: Let Them Be Heroes
Guest Essays
- Amy Ludwig VanDerwater: Drop-Off Cats
- Katie Wood Ray: You Are What You Eat
- Randy Bomer: What I Want to Be...
- Randy Bomer: There Is a Hercules of Everything
- Vicki Vinton: The Thing About Cats
- Georgia Heard: Querencia
- Isoke Titilayo Nia: The List
- Gianna Cassetta: Ice Girls
- Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich: They Don't Tell You About That
- Deb Kelt: Tattoos: Marked for Life
- Lester Laminack: You Didn't Know Me Then