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The College Writer's Reference
Second Edition
by Toby Fulwiler and Alan R. Hayakawa
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The second edition of The College Writer's Reference remains portable, accessible, and easy to understand. It continues to explain and illustrate the qualities of good writing as well as the logic behind the traditional conventions of grammar and usage. And it continues to insist that good writing is a mix of inventive composing, judicious revising, and rigorous editing rather than the mechanical following of formulaic prescriptions. At the same time, the new edition features an expanded discussion of Internet research and documentation conventions, fresh samples of student writing, more complete information on publishing student writing, and (we hope) more clarity and grace throughout!
Pedagogical Features
As a progressive alternative to traditional brief handbooks, this revised edition of The College Writer's Reference has several important features that will continue to make this book as easy for instructors to teach from as it is for students to use on their own.
Useful Organization
The College Writer's Reference offers concise yet thorough coverage of all handbook concerns, uniquely organized according to the logic of the writing process: in the opening section, we urge writers to think about planning and drafting; in the later sections, we ask them to think hard about revision and editing. Traditional topics of style, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics are thus presented as "editing" choices writers make in the final stage of the writing process.
Teachable Treatment of the Whole Writing Process
The opening chapters of The College Writer's Reference examine the creative but frustrating messiness of the writing process, offering plenty of ideas and strategies to help writers shape, organize, and give voice to their work. This fully teachable treatment of the writing process discusses inventing, composing, revising, and keeping journals. Detailed chapters cover four common purposes for writingÑrecounting experiences, explaining things, interpreting texts, and arguing positions. For the second edition, each chapter includes a fresh and authentic sample of student writing to illustrate each kind of writing.
Publishing Portfolios, Class Books, and Web Pages
This edition of The College Writer's Reference adds a new chapter (11) explaining how students may publish their work, including guidelines for different types of writing portfolios and for organizing class editors to publish class books.
Peer Editing
The new edition also provides practical advice on specific editing strategies and defines more clearly the concept of effective writing. In addition, we offer more specific ideas for peer editing from both Writer's and responder's points of view.
Emphasis on Effectiveness
The middle chapters focus on editing for effectiveness, for grammar, for usage, for punctuation, and for mechanics-fundamentals that also depend upon the Writer's purpose, audience, and situation. Hand-edited examples illustrate at a glance how writers revise and edit, showing students proven strategies for focusing loose paragraphs, strengthening weak sentences, and finding the most precise and suitable words. Throughout the editing sections, we updated samples from the first edition, replacing ones that seemed dated and providing wherever we could ones that illustrated concepts and editing choices more clearly. For example, the discussion of recognizing and fixing fragments is much simpler and uses fewer technical grammatical terms.
Emphasis on conventions, not rules
The second edition of The College Writer's Reference continues to explain conventions of standard, written English as ways to facilitate efficient communication, not as arbitrary rules to be memorized and followed by rote. The text spends less time instructing students in grammatical terminology and more time showing students how to identify, analyze, and solve problems that can confuse readers.
Full coverage of electronic research writing and
documentation methods
This edition of The College Writer's Reference now includes the most up-to-date strategies of using the Internet for research and documenting Internet sources correctly according to newly revised MLA and APA conventions. The chapters devoted to research guide writers through the many stages of the whole process, which is viewed here as yet another matter of making choices: from keeping a project log and learning how to find sources (including the proliferation of electronic choices), to conducting field research, to using and documenting sources. These chapters offer strategies for planning, organizing, and writing major research papers.
Help for Those Who Speak English as a Second Language
The College Writer's Reference pays careful attention to the needs of second-language students. Graphically distinct boxes throughout the text provide information on everything from grammar, word idioms, and usage, to the how and why of rhetorical conventions.
Tips for Writing with Computers
The College Writer's Reference integrates up-to-date information on the role of computers in writing, insofar as any information on computers can be up-to-date. Word-processing tips offer students strategies for composing, revising, and editing on computer. This edition includes new ideas for gathering research information from the Internet and for testing the value and validity of the sources found there.
Unique Design that Facilitates Quick Reference
The four-color design of the book helps students locate information quickly, as they learn to identify the parts of the book, such as "grammar" and "mechanics," with their corresponding color bands. Thus, navigating the text becomes a visual as well as mental activity. The spiral binding allows the book to lie flat and fold back on itself for ease of use next to a computer.
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