Strategies for Successful Writing : A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader and Handbook

For Freshman Composition courses. This best-selling rhetorically-organized writing guide combines four booksa rhetoric, a research guide, reader, and handbookinto one convenient and flexible teaching tool while offering students an exceptional value. Also available in an alternate version without a Handbook section.

The seventh edition ofStrategies for Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbookis a comprehensive textbook that offers ample material for a full-year composition course. Instructors teaching a one-term course can make selections from Chapters 1-17, from whatever types of specialized writing suit the needs of their students, and from appropriate essays in the Reader. Because we strongly believe that an effective composition textbook should address the student directly, we have aimed for a style that is conversational yet clear and concise. We believe that our style invites students into the book, lessens their apprehensions about writing, and provides a model for their own prose. This style complements our strong student-based approach to writing, and together they help create a text that genuinely meets student needs. Changes in the Seventh Edition The enthusiastic response to the six previous editions both by teachers and students has been most gratifying. The seventh edition retains the many popular features of the previous ones and incorporates a number of improvements suggested by users and reviewers, that should considerably enhance the utility of the text. Among these changes the following are noteworthy. There is a new chapter on strategies for successful writing to help students master college writing. The chapter includes pointers on writing summaries and critiques. The argument chapter has been updated and expanded to include new information on exploratory arguments and more suggestions on organizing arguments. The chapter on effective sentences has been revised to stress the basic strategies students can use to write more powerful sentences. The chapter on the research paper includes more information on using online catalogs and databases, material on using visuals in reports, and a very handy checklist that can be used for students writing research papers. The text features the most recent versions of APA (2001) and MLA (2003) guidelines. Two new sample student essays provide a more contemporary flavor. Eleven of the essays in the Reader, one-fourth of the total, are new. These additions increase its coverage of contemporary subjects and expand its discussion potential. The Sentence Elements section of the handbook has been revised to make it clearer. The individual-sentence exercises in the section are also new. Assorted updates and additions throughout the text, too numerous to mention individually, should help make the text even more effective. The Rhetoric In addition to these improvements, the text offers many other noteworthy features. The Rhetoric consists of nineteen chapters, grouped into four parts. The first part includes three chapters. Chapter 1 introduces students to the purposes of writing; the need for audience awareness, which includes a discussion of discourse communities; and the qualities of good writing. Chapter 2 offers suggestions for effective reading. Chapter 3 looks at the planning and drafting stages. Chapter 4 takes students through the various revision stages, starting with a systematic procedure for revising the whole essay and then moving to pointers for revising its component parts. Sets of checklists pose key questions for students to consider. Chapters 3 and 4 are unified by an unfolding case history that includes the first draft of a student paper, the initial revision marked with changes, and the final version. Notes in the margin highlight key features of the finished paper. Students can relate the sequence of events to their own projects as they work through the various stages. Both chapters offer suggestions for using word-processing programs, and Chapter 4 explains peer evaluation of drafts, collaborative writing, and maintaining and reviewing a portfolio. The ten cha