Rules for Writers (Paperbound)

The best value for beginning college writers

Beginning college writers come from a wide range of backgrounds. For many, academic reading and writing skills are ones they must learn and practice. Enter Rules for Writers. Comprehensive and easy to use, this book provides students with all of the support they need--accessible explanations of writing and grammar topics, step-by-step advice for writing and doing research, class-tested examples and models, and opportunities to practice and build their skills. And with Achieve, students get even more out of their handbook--content and features that engage and support their learning, practice and assessment opportunities, an interactive ebook, and more. Rules for Writers gives students the most support for their money--without the need to search online--no matter where they are in their college careers.

Features:

• Comprehensive coverage. Students have access to trustworthy, easy-to-understand advice and practical models for composing and revising, reading critically, developing arguments and analyses, conducting and integrating research, and practicing grammar and punctuation skills.
• Step-by-step “How-to” guides. Writing guides help students work through college writing assignments in a variety of genres. How-to guides advise students on some of the most important topics in college writing, from developing thesis statements and revising run-on sentences to evaluating and paraphrasing sources.
• Critical reading and academic writing instruction. Key instruction on reading and writing build skills that transfer assignment-to-assignment and course-to-course.
• Research and citation help for multiple disciplines. Practical advice and detailed models guide students through the research process, from finding and evaluating sources to integrating and citing sources responsibly in MLA and APA styles.

New in this Edition:

• Achieve. Achieve with Rules for Writers puts student writing and revision at the core of your course, with a dedicated composition space that guides and engages students through drafting, peer review, source check, reflection, and revision and with diagnostics that generate personalized study plans for students. Developed to support best practices in commenting on drafts, Achieve is a flexible, integrated suite of tools for designing and facilitating writing assignments, paired with actionable insights that make students’ progress towards outcomes clear and measurable—all in a powerful, easy-to-use platform that works for in-person, remote, and hybrid learning scenarios. Fully editable pre-built assignments support the book’s approach, and an e-book version of Rules for Writers is included for convenience. For corequisite composition courses, Achieve lets students sign in to their composition and corequisite sections with one easy process–and no additional fees.
• A new argument essay and a look into the writing process. Chapter 7, Writing Arguments, features a new student essay and is built around the writer’s essay and process. A companion case study in Achieve allows students to learn along with the writer, following their steps from developing a working thesis and organizing an argument to selecting and integrating evidence. Corresponding exercises have students apply what they’ve learned and test their understanding.
• Updated MLA and APA formatting and citation guidelines. With up-to-date guidelines for writing in MLA (2021) and APA (2020) style, the handbook’s thorough advice and plenty of models help students work within multiple disciplines.
• More help for finding and working with sources. Updated chapters on finding and evaluating sources have a new focus on online research. Instruction on widening the research conversation helps students conduct research and seek out sources from diverse viewpoints. Three new features --a how-to box on annotating sources effectively, a guide for working with digital sources, and a case study of a student analyzing an advertisement--provide much-needed advice on analyzing sources. A new chapter in Multilingual and ESL Topics offers guided instruction in paraphrasing sources effectively, focusing on common concerns for writers who are new to writing in English.
• Step-by-step help with grammar and punctuation. New features guide students in building two important skills: revising run-on sentences and using quotation marks with other punctuation.

About the Authors

Diana Hacker personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over thirty-five 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. Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, include A Writer’s Reference, Ninth Edition (2018); A Pocket Style Manual, Eighth Edition (2018); The Bedford Handbook, Tenth Edition (2017); Rules for Writers, Eighth Edition (2016); and Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version.

Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard’s Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard’s WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through blogging and through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and is coauthor of Fields of Reading, Tenth Edition (2013).