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Changes in the Ninth Edition In this edition, we have taken instructors’ advice and revised the text to make it an even more effective teaching tool. Streamlined and redesigned Part One chapters provide more visual cues for students who learn visually, more “easy-reference” features for students who need help navigating a lengthy text, and more […]

  Continuing Attention to Changes in Composition With each new edition, we have responded to new thinking and new issues in the field of composition and turned current theory and research into practical class- room activities — with a minimum of jargon. As a result, in every new edition The Guide incorporated new material that

Systematic Integration of Reading and Writing Each chapter in Part One introduces a single genre of writing, which students are led to consider both as readers and as writers. Chapters begin with an essay written in the genre by a student writer using The Guide; these essays are annotated with questions designed to encourage students

Practical Guides to Writing Each chapter in Part One offers practical, flexible guides that help students with different aspects of writing, such as invention or revision, as they write. Common- sensical and easy to follow, these writing guides teach students to assess a rhetorical situation, identify the kinds of information they will need, ask probing

Writing for Assessment Part Five covers essay examinations, showing students how to analyze different kinds of exam questions and offering strategies for writing answers. It also addresses portfolios, helping students select, assemble, and present a representative sample of their writing. Part Six: Writing and Speaking to Wider Audiences Part Six includes chapters on oral presentations,

Research Strategies Part Four discusses field as well as library and Internet research and includes thorough, up-to-date guidelines for using and documenting sources, with detailed examples of the 2009 Modern Language Association (MLA) and 2010 American Psychological Association (APA) documentation styles. An annotated sample student research paper models ways students can integrate citations into their

Writing Strategies Part Three looks at a wide range of writers’ strategies: paragraphing and coherence; logic and reasoning; and the familiar methods of presenting information, such as narrating, defining, and classifying. In the ninth edition of The Guide, a new Chapter 20 provides students with criteria for analyzing visuals and illustrates them with several lengthy

Critical Thinking Strategies Part Two consists of two chapters that present practical heuristics for invention and reading. Chapter 11, “A Catalog of Invention Strategies,” covers clustering, looping, dramatizing, and questioning, among other strategies, while Chapter 12, “A Catalog of Reading Strategies,” includes annotating, summarizing, exploring the significance of figurative language, and evaluating the logic of

vi PREFACE FOR INSTRUCTORS An Overview of the Book The Guide offers everything you need for the writing course. Part One: Writing Activities Part One presents nine different genres of writing, all reflecting actual writing assign- ments that students may encounter both in and out of college. While the chapters can be taught in any

This page intentionally left blank Preface for Instructors When we first wrote The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, we aimed to demystify writing and authorize students as writers. We wanted to help students learn to commit them- selves to writing projects, communicate effectively with chosen readers, and question their own certainties. We also wanted them