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Preface to Instructors
The idea for A Writer's Guidebook came after years of trying out different ways of teaching students to edit their own writing. We developed a method in which instructors point out sentence-level problems in a portion of an essay and students use a quick-reference handbook to solve the problems themselves. Then instructors review the students' work. This focus on identifying problems, giving students initiative, and providing follow-up proved highly effective, but students sometimes had difficulty finding help even when we directed them to the relevant section in the handbook we assigned. They found too much explanation and too few examples, with too little coverage, or, in some cases, no coverage at all of the errors they were actually making.
To remedy these problems, we organized a nationwide study to find out which errors occur in typical college writing situations. Focusing on the part of each essay characteristic of its genre, our team of twelve experienced writing instructors and professional editors analyzed approximately fifteen thousand sentences in over five hundred essays in nine genres of college writing. The essays, written by students in universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges, were revised drafts completed without the benefit of advice on style and sentence-level conventions. The findings from this research gave shape to A Writer's Guidebook.
A Writer's Guidebook provides quick, explicit answers for students working on their own. The text relies on examples of student writing, rather than abstract and complicated explanations, to illustrate grammatical concepts. Like a trail guide, A Writer's Guidebook shows students what to do and how to do it-how to quickly identify and correct their own errors. In addition to providing thorough coverage of the conventions of grammar and usage, the Guidebook supports students' research and writing in their college courses.
Features of A Writer's Guidebook
Brief guides for six writing tasks
Condensed from the St. Martin's Guide to Writing, Fifth Edition, these brief guides offer specific advice on writing essays that present personal experience, explain concepts, argue positions, evaluate texts or ideas, speculate about causes, or interpret literature. Each brief guide helps students plan, draft, and revise their essays, providing a sample outline of one student's essay as well as questions students can use to evaluate one another's drafts.
Numerous examples from actual student writing
Sentences illustrating common errors and grammatical concepts are taken from actual student essays. The student sentences come from essays representing the wide range of subjects first-year students write about and the many genres they write in. The realistic examples make it easier for students to match a flawed sentence to a good model.
Sentence problems organized by frequency
Our research findings have led us to present error categories in order of their frequency, making it easier for students searching for help on their own to find what they need. For example, the section on grammatical sentences in A Writer's Guidebook begins with pronoun reference, the single most common grammatical error covered in that section. In Chapter 19, "Pronoun Reference," the three prominent types of errors appear in order of frequency. The organization and content of all the chapters on grammar, punctuation, and mechanics are informed by our research findings and offer students extra help where they need it most.
Detailed coverage of the writing problems and topics identified by our research
Our research revealed several types of errors that occur with some frequency but that are not covered, or not covered in enough detail, by most current handbooks. As a result, A Writer's Guidebook provides chapters on relative pronouns (21); noun agreement (28); and errors in spacing around punctuation marks (48). Chapter 31 offers help with integrating quotations, questions, and thoughts in addition to the advice on integrating source material in Chapter 8. A Writer's Guidebook also provides a chapter on dashes (41), with thorough coverage of this useful punctuation mark.
We also offer stronger coverage of the following problem areas uncovered by our research than is offered by most other brief handbooks:
- Missing prepositions, conjunctions, and other small words (26a)
- Unnecessary prepositions (34e)
- Incorrect prepositions (35c)
- Comma needed with trailing participial phrases (37c)
- Unnecessary commas with trailing adverbial clauses (38d)
- Semicolon needed to join a pair or series of independent clauses with internal punctuation (39c)
Finally, Chapter 33, "Emphasis and Clarity," includes coverage of strategies that increase readability, including using cohesive devices (33c), making sentence topics visible (33d), and putting familiar information ahead of new information (33e).
Grammar definitions highlighted in the margins
To help streamline the explanations, grammar definitions appear in the margins so that students can read them as needed or skip right to the examples.
Integrated coverage of library and online research
Reflecting the way students actually do research today, Chapter 7 integrates coverage of both traditional and online sources. It also provides guidelines for evaluating both, including a separate section on evaluating Internet sources. Abundant coverage of how to cite online sources appears in our documentation chapters. Chapter 9 includes new guidelines from the Modern Language Association for citing sources from the World Wide Web.
Attention to ESL issues
For students who have learned to write English as a second language, A Writer's Guidebook covers the most common problem areas in four separate chapters in Part 10. In addition, boxes throughout the text provide additional information for ESL writers or refer them to Part 10 for more help.
Full-color guidebook format
Designed to help students find what to do and how to do it, the Guidebook minimizes lengthy explanations and uses color icons, tabbed sections, and other quick-reference features to lead students to the information they need.
A sample student assignment
To give students a specific, realistic example of how to respond to a college assignment, Chapter 1 of the Guidebook, "Organizing and Managing College Writing Assignments," follows one student through the process of researching, writing, and revising an essay for a history course.
Digital Hints
Throughout the book, Digital Hint boxes provide useful tips on using technology in all stages of the writing process.
A chapter on critical reading strategies
Chapter 12 includes important strategies to help students become more active, critical readers and, consequently, better writers. Strategies covered include annotating, outlining, summarizing, reflecting on the writer's perspective, and evaluating the writer's logic.
Additional Resources
- Web Site gives students and instructors information on using the World Wide Web for research as well as exercises and links to useful sites for writers.
- Transparency Masters include student essays and revision checklists.
- Exercise Booklet with Answer Key provides additional opportunities for practice.
- Selected exercises are also available on the Web Site.
- Who Are We? Readings on Identity, Community, Work, and Career, by Rise Axelrod and Charles Cooper, provides twenty-six selections in a brief reader.
- Free Falling and Other Student Essays, edited by Paul Sladky, Augusta College, a collection of essays by students using the St. Martin's Guide to Writing, makes available fine writing from students at colleges across the country.
Rise B. Axelrod
Charles R. Cooper
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