A comprehensive text for first-year composition, with detailed coverage of the writing process, the nine rhetorical patterns of development, and research and documentation.
Accessible and high-interest professional and student essays provide models for student writers. The complete edition also features a useful
handbook with exercises. More help with reading and study skills than any other book of its kind. A comprehensive Guide to Active Reading covers crucial strategies for critical reading and these skills are then reinforced in every writing assignment chapter, helping students apply the strategies to specific types of essays. In addition, the expanded and updated opening chapters cover study skills, time management, and the distinctive demands of academic reading and writing, providing students with invaluable survival strategies for their college work and beyond.
Visual tools help student analyze readings and write their own essays. Unique
graphic organizers show the relationships among ideas in each type of writing.
Revision flowcharts guide students systematically in revising their own essays or peer reviewing those of others. And each chapter begins with a
Quick Start activity, consisting of engaging images and a related assignment, to introduce students to the chapter topic.
Guided Writing Assignments and readings for ten different types of essays. Students receive step-by-step advice on planning, drafting, and revising an essay in each rhetorical pattern and an essay of literary analysis.
64 engaging brief professional and student readings provide strong rhetorical models.
The professional readings come from a variety of sources, including popular magazines, newspapers, scholarly journals, textbooks, and blogs.
A unique emphasis on learning styles. Understanding that different people learn in different ways — such as abstractly or concretely, verbally or spatially — helps boost students’ confidence. The
Learning Style Inventory helps students identify their strengths and preferences, and
Learning Style Options throughout the text give specific suggestions for applying these strengths to writing tasks.