When it was first published twenty years ago, The Bedford Guide for College Writers brought a lively and innovative new approach to the teaching of writing. Since that time, authors X. J. and Dorothy M. Kennedy have won praise for their friendly tone and their view, apparent on every page of the text, that writing is the "usually surprising, often rewarding art of thinking while working with language." More recently, experienced teacher and writer Marcia F. Muth joined the author team, adding more practical advice to help all students — even those underprepared for college work — become successful academic writers. While retaining the highly praised "Kennedy touch," The Bedford Guide continues to evolve to meet classroom needs. The new edition does even more to build essential academic writing skills, with expanded coverage of audience analysis, source-based writing, argumentation and reasoning, and more.

With its process-oriented rhetoric, provocative thematic reader, up-to-date research manual, and comprehensive handbook, The Bedford Guide for College Writers gives your students the tools they need to succeed as writers -- all in one book. Each of the book's four main components has been carefully developed to provide an engaging, well-coordinated guide for student writers. This edition's new, more open design and sharper focus on active learning do even more to help students develop transferable skills. The Bedford Guide for College Writers prepares students to be the confident, resourceful, and independent writers they will need to be.

All the tools you need for college writing The Bedford Guide for College Writers offers a comprehensive resource with all the tools you need for first-year writing and beyond. This flexible volume includes four books in one with a writing guide, reader, research manual, and handbook.

Combining a step-by-step rhetoric, a fresh thematic reader, a detailed research manual, and a helpful handbook for grammar and usage, The Bedford Guide for College Writers brings together everything students need for first-year writing. Based on feedback from our advisory board, this edition of the Guide has been streamlined to strengthen its focus on academic writing. Expanded support for planning a writing project and carefully evaluating online sources enables students to write and research confidently. Engaging new professional and student essays provide relevant models of writing from sources--the kinds of assignments students will face throughout their years in college. The book’s hallmark checklists help students move through every stage of the writing process, and Learning by Doing activities provide continuous opportunities for active learning.

Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, authors with nearly thirty years of experience teaching college writing, know what works in the classroom and have a knack for picking just the right readings. In Patterns for College Writing, they provide students with exemplary rhetorical models and instructors with class-tested selections that balance classic and contemporary essays. Along with more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patterns has the most comprehensive coverage of active reading, research, and the writing process, with a five-chapter mini-rhetoric; the clearest explanations of the patterns of development; and the most thorough apparatus of any rhetorical reader, all reasons why Patterns for College Writing is the best-selling reader in the country. And the new edition includes exciting new readings and expanded coverage of critical reading, working with sources, and research. It is now available as an interactive Bedford e-book and in a variety of other e-book formats that can be downloaded to a computer, tablet, or e-reader. Read the preface.