The Bedford Handbook with 2009 MLA and 2010 APA Updates / Edition 8

by Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers

Overview

The Bedford Handbook carries on the Hacker tradition by responding to student writers’ needs and to the way students need their handbook to work. Still a full-size handbook that doubles as a reference, the Handbook features clear, straightforward advice, hand-edited sentences, a user-friendly index, and a handy format. The eighth edition combines classic Hacker usability with a next-generation focus on academic writing and research and new navigation that helps students pull together advice and models for each assignment. Developed with the help of students and teachers at more than 35 colleges and universities, the new edition reflects the ways students write and revise in their composition course and beyond. What’s more, The Bedford Handbook remains a portable size; it’s still a comprehensive reference that’s as easy to consult as it is to carry.
 
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312652685
Publisher:	Bedford/St. Martin's
Publication date:	12/16/2009
Edition description:	Eighth Edition
Pages:	818
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	1100L (what's this?)

About the Author

DIANA HACKER personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over 35 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. Other Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, include A Writer’s Reference, Sixth Edition (2007); Rules for Writers, Sixth Edition (2008); and A Pocket Style Manual, Fifth Edition (2008).

NANCY SOMMERS, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches writing in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well-known for her research and publications on student writing. Her recent work involves a longitudinal study of undergraduate writing. Nancy Sommers is co-author of Fields of Reading, Ninth Edition (2010) for Bedford/St. Martin’s.

TOM JEHN teaches composition and directs the Expository Writing program at Harvard University. A recipient of numerous teaching awards both at Harvard and at the University of Virginia, he also leads seminars on writing instruction for public high school teachers.

JANE ROSENZWEIG teaches composition and directs the writing center at Harvard University. She has also taught writing at Yale University and the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Part I  The Writing Process
1 Explore and plan; rough out a first draft
2 Make global revisions; then revise sentences
     STUDENT ESSAY
3 Build effective paragraphs
 
Part II Academic Writing
4 Writing about texts
     SAMPLE ANNOTATED ARTICLE 
     SAMPLE ANNOTATED ADVERTISEMENT
     SAMPLE ANALYSIS 
     SAMPLE ANALYSIS OF A VISUAL TEXT 
5 Constructing reasonable arguments
     STUDENT ESSAY
6 Evaluating arguments
7 Writing in the disciplines
 
Part III  Clear Sentences
8 Prefer active verbs
9 Balance parallel ideas
10 Add needed words
11 Untangle mixed constructions
12 Repair misplaced and dangling modifiers
13 Eliminate distracting shifts
14 Emphasize key ideas
15 Provide some variety
 
Part IV  Word Choice
16 Tighten wordy sentences
17 Choose appropriate language
18 Find the exact words
 
Part V  Grammatical Sentences
19 Repair sentence fragments
20 Revise run-on sentences
21 Make subjects and verbs agree
22 Make pronouns and antecedents agree
23 Make pronoun references clear
24 Distinguish between pronouns such as I and me
25 Distinguish between who and whom
26 Choose adjectives and adverbs with care
27 Choose appropriate verb forms, tenses, and moods in standard English
 
Part VI  ESL Challenges
28 Verbs
29 Articles
30 Sentence structure
31 Prepositions and idiomatic expressions
 
Part VII  Punctuation
32 The comma
33 Unnecessary commas
34 The semicolon
35 The colon
36 The apostrophe
37 Quotation marks
38 End punctuation
39 Other punctuation marks
 
Part VIII  Mechanics
40 Abbreviations
41 Numbers
42 Italics
43 Spelling
44 The hyphen
45 Capital letters
 
Part IX   Researched Writing
46 Conducting research
47 Evaluating sources
48 Managing information; avoiding plagiarism
49 Choosing a documentation style
Writing MLA papers
50 Supporting a thesis
51 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
52 Integrating sources
53 Documenting sources
54 MLA manuscript format; sample paper
     CASE STUDY: Highlights of one student's research process 
     SAMPLE MLA RESEARCH PAPER
55 Writing about literature
Writing APA papers
56 APA papers
     SAMPLE APA RESEARCH PAPER
Writing Chicago papers
57 Chicago papers
     SAMPLE PAGES FROM A CHICAGO-STYLE RESEARCH PAPER
 
Part X   Document Design 
58 Become familiar with the principles of document design
59 Use standard academic formatting
60 Use standard business formatting
 
Part XI  Grammar Basics
61 Parts of speech
62 Sentence patterns
63 Subordinate word groups
64 Sentence types
 
     GLOSSARY OF USAGE
     ANSWERS TO TUTORIALS AND LETTERED EXERCISES  
     INDEX