Offers a warm up exercise in each chapter, over ten writing topics, an optional Extra Challenge, and hints for revision.

Repeats five themes throughout the text--Columbus and the encounter between Europeans and natives, the family, World War II, music, and communication.

Highlights the unique power of writing by relating it to other forms of communication--reading, speaking, nonverbal signals, and audiovisual media.

Reflects the variety of writing opportunities and techniques used outside of academe, while still reinforcing the strengths of academic writing.

Integrates special-interest sidebars on:

• Prewriting--how to shape a topic, gather ideas, and envision an audience.
• Drafting--how to express a thesis, develop ideas, fashion paragraphs, provide unity and coherence.
• Revising--writing introductions and conclusions.
• Incorporating illustrations.

Encourages students to harness the power of research in all their writing.

Serves as a combined reader and rhetoric on writing to explore, explain, and persuade.

Vividly reinforces the main idea of the chapter with a concluding poem or song.