A Writer's Reference

by Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers

Overview

A proven success. The best-selling college textbook of any kind. Thoroughly class tested and enthusiastically endorsed by millions of students and their instructors at more than 1300 colleges and universities across the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312601430
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	10/25/2010
Edition description:	Seventh Edition
Pages:	540
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

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 The Bedford Handbook, Ninth Edition (2014); A Writer’s Reference, Eighth Edition (2015); Rules for Writers, Seventh Edition (2012); and A Pocket Style Manual, Seventh Edition (2015).
 
Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches writing and mentors new writing teachers at 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.  Her recent work involves a longitudinal study of college writing to understand the role writing plays in undergraduate education. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and is coauthor of Fields of Reading, Ninth Edition (2010).

 

Table of Contents

	Composition/Style
	Composing and revising
	Planning
	Drafting
	Revising
	Paragraphs
	Arguments
	Sample Paper
	Research writing
	Conducting research
	Evaluating sources
	Managing information
	Planning and drafting
	Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
	Integrating sources
	Revising your draft
	Effective sentences
	Parallelism
	Needed words
	Problems with modifiers
	Shifts
	Mixed constructions
	Coordination and subordination
	Sentence variety
	Word choice
	Glossary of usage
	Wordy sentences
	Active verbs
	Appropriate language
	Exact language
	The dictionary and thesaurus
	Correctness
	Grammatical sentences
	Subject-verb agreement
	Other problems with verbs
	Problems with pronouns
	Adjectives and adverbs
	Sentence fragments
	Run-on sentences
	Esl Trouble spots
	Articles
	Special problems with verbs
	Sentence structure
	Other trouble spots
	Punctuation
	The comma
	Unnecessary commas
	The semicolon
	The colon
	The apostrophe
	Quotation marks
	Other marks
	Spelling and mechanics
	Spelling
	The hyphen
	Capitalization
	Abbreviations
	Numbers
	Italics (underlining)
	Format/Basic Grammar
	Document design
	Principles of document design
	Academic manuscript formats
	Business documents
	Electronic documents
	Mla documentation
	In-text citations
	List of works cited
	Information notes
	Manuscript format
	Sample Paper: Mla Style
	Alternative styles of documentation
	Apa style
	Sample Paper: Apa Style
	Chicago style
	Sample Pages: Chicago Style
	List of style manuals
	Basic grammar
	Parts of speech
	Parts of sentences
	Subordinate word groups
	Sentence types
	Index