The Bedford Handbook with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA updates

by Hacker, Diana; Sommers, Nancy

• ISBN13: 9780312652685
• ISBN10: 0312652682
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-16
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

The Bedford Handbookcarries on the Hacker tradition by responding to student writers' needs and to the way students need their handbook to work. Still a full-size handbook that doubles as a reference, theHandbookfeatures clear, straightforward advice, hand-edited sentences, a user-friendly index, and a handy format. The eighth edition combines classic Hacker usability with a next-generation focus on academic writing and research and new navigation that helps students pull together advice and models for each assignment. Developed with the help of students and teachers at more than 35 colleges and universities, the new edition reflects the ways students write and revise in their composition course and beyond. What's more,The Bedford Handbookremains a portable size; it's still a comprehensive reference that's as easy to consult as it is to carry.

Author Biography

DIANA HACKER personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over 35 years at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland, where she was a member of the English faculty. Hacker handbooks, built on innovation and on a keen understanding of the challenges facing student writers, are the most widely adopted in America. Other Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, include A Writer’s Reference, Sixth Edition (2007); Rules for Writers, Sixth Edition (2008); and A Pocket Style Manual, Fifth Edition (2008).

NANCY SOMMERS, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches writing in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well-known for her research and publications on student writing. Her recent work involves a longitudinal study of undergraduate writing. Nancy Sommers is co-author of Fields of Reading, Ninth Edition (2010) for Bedford/St. Martin’s.

TOM JEHN teaches composition and directs the Expository Writing program at Harvard University. A recipient of numerous teaching awards both at Harvard and at the University of Virginia, he also leads seminars on writing instruction for public high school teachers.

JANE ROSENZWEIG teaches composition and directs the writing center at Harvard University. She has also taught writing at Yale University and the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Part I  The Writing Process
1 Explore and plan; rough out a first draft.
2 Make global revisions; then revise sentences.
     STUDENT ESSAY
3 Build effective paragraphs.

Part II Academic Writing 
4 Writing about texts
     SAMPLE ANNOTATED ARTICLE 
     SAMPLE ANNOTATED ADVERTISEMENT
     SAMPLE ANALYSIS 
     SAMPLE ANALYSIS OF A VISUAL TEXT 
5 Constructing reasonable arguments
     STUDENT ESSAY
6 Evaluating arguments
7 Writing in the disciplines

Part III  Clear Sentences
8. Prefer active verbs.
9. Balance parallel ideas.
10. Add needed words.
11. Untangle mixed constructions.
12 Repair misplaced and dangling modifiers.
13 Eliminate distracting shifts.
14 Emphasize key ideas.
15 Provide some variety.

Part IV  Word Choice
16 Tighten wordy sentences.
17 Choose appropriate language.
18 Find the exact words.

Part V  Grammatical Sentences
19 Repair sentence fragments.
20 Revise run-on sentences.
21 Make subjects and verbs agree.
22 Make pronouns and antecedents agree.
23 Make pronoun references clear.
24 Distinguish between pronouns such as I and me.
25 Distinguish between who and whom.
26 Choose adjectives and adverbs with care.
27 Choose appropriate verb forms, tenses, and moods in standard English.

Part VI   ESL Challenges
28 Verbs
29 Articles
30 Sentence structure
31 Prepositions and idiomatic expressions

Part VII  Punctuation
32 The comma
33 Unnecessary commas
34 The semicolon
35 The colon
36 The apostrophe
37 Quotation marks
38 End punctuation
39 Other punctuation marks

Part VIII  Mechanics
40 Abbreviations
41 Numbers
42 Italics
43 Spelling
44 The hyphen
45 Capital letters

Part IX   Researched Writing
46 Conducting research
47 Evaluating sources
48 Managing information; avoiding plagiarism
49 Choosing a documentation style

Writing MLA papers
50 Supporting a thesis
51 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
52 Integrating sources
53 Documenting sources
54 MLA manuscript format; sample paper
    CASE STUDY: Highlights of one student’s research process 
    SAMPLE MLA RESEARCH PAPER
55 Writing about literature

Writing APA papers
56 APA papers
    SAMPLE APA RESEARCH PAPER
Writing Chicago papers
57 Chicago papers 
    SAMPLE PAGES FROM A CHICAGO-STYLE RESEARCH PAPER

Part X   Document Design 
58 Become familiar with the principles of document design.
59 Use standard academic formatting.
60 Use standard business formatting.

Part XI  Grammar Basics
61 Parts of speech
62 Sentence patterns
63 Subordinate word groups
64 Sentence types

GLOSSARY OF USAGE
ANSWERS TO TUTORIALS AND LETTERED EXERCISES
INDEX