DIANA HACKER's handbooks, used at almost half of the colleges and universities in the country, are the most
widely adopted in America. A member of the English faculty at Prince George's Community College in Maryland for
almost 35 years, Diana Hacker personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students. Diana Hacker's
other handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin's, include The Bedford Handbook (2006); Rules for Writers
(2004); andA Pocket Style Manual (2004).
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
NANCY SOMMERS, Sosland Director of Expository Writing at Harvard University, has also taught composition at Rutgers
University and at Monmouth College and has directed the writing program at the University of Oklahoma. 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 in the field. Her recent work involves a longitudinal study of undergraduate writing.
Nancy Sommers is coauthor of Fields of Reading (2007) and tudent Writers at Work: The Bedford Prizes, both published
by Bedford/St. Martin's.
TOM JEHN teaches composition and directs the writing across the disciplines program at Harvard University. A recipient
of numerous teaching awards both at Harvard and at the University of Virginia, he also leads professional development
seminars on writing instruction for public high school teachers through the Calderwood Writing Fellows Project.
JANE ROSENZWEIG, a published author of fiction and non-fiction, teaches composition and directs the writing center
at Harvard University. She has also taught writing at Yale University and the University of Iowa.
MARCY CARBAJAL VAN HORN, assistant professor of English and ESL at Santa Fe Community College (FL), teaches composition
to native and nonnative speakers of English and teaches the Advanced ESL Writing course. She has also taught university-level
academic writing and critical thinking at Instituto Technológico y de Estudios Superiores in Mexico.
EDITORIAL ADVISERS:
Of the more than 500 experienced composition instructors who reviewed the new edition, a core group served as an
editorial advisory board � carefully reviewing all new material in depth, making sure the book would work as well
for their students as it always had.
Joanne ADDISON University of Colorado, Denver
Derick BURLESON University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Paige BYAM Northern Kentucky University
Elizabeth CANFIELD Virginia Commonwealth University
Richard CARR University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Michele CHEUNG University of Southern Maine
Jon CULLICK Northern Kentucky University
David ENDICOTT Tacoma Community College
Lin FRASER Sacramento City College
Hank GALMISH Green River Community College
Nancy GISH University of Southern Maine
Jacqueline GRAY St. Charles Community College
Barclay GREEN Northern Kentucky University
Karen GROSSWEINER University of Alaska, Fairbanks
D. J. HENRY Daytona Beach Community College
Kandace KNUDSON Sacramento City College
Tonya KROUSE Northern Kentucky University
Tamara KUZMENKOV Tacoma Community College
Cheryl LAZ University of Southern Maine
Lydia Lynn LEWELLEN Tacoma Community College
Jeanette LONIA Delaware Technical and Community College
Walter LOWE Green River Community College
Michael MACKEY Community College of Denver
Tammy MATA Tarrant County Community College
Holly MCSPADDEN Missouri Southern State University
Liora MORIEL University of Maryland, College Park
Patricia MURPHY Missouri Southern State University
Melissa NICOLAS University of Louisiana, Lafayette
Diane Allen O�HERON Broome Community College
Sarah QUIRK Waubonsee Community College
Ann SMITH Modesto Junior College
Steve THOMAS Community College of Denver
Nick TINGLE University of California, Santa Barbara
Terry Myers ZAWACKI George Mason University
Summary
A Writer�s Reference is the most widely adopted college handbook ever published. The new edition is available
in a classic version that provides more help with academic writing, serves a wider range of multilingual students,
and lends more support for college research � all in an easy-to-use quick-reference format. Now for all the ways
you teach your course, you can choose the classic version or choose from among 4 additional versions with varied
content.
A Writer�s Reference with Exercises is tailor-made for classroom use or for additional grammar practice with
86 integrated exercise sets.
A Writer�s Reference with Writing in the Disciplines provides help for college writing beyond composition with
advice and models in six academic disciplines.
A Writer�s Reference with Writing about Literature includes an entire tabbed section on interpreting and writing
about works of literature, with two annotated student essays.
A Writer�s Reference with Extra Help for ESL Writers includes an entire tabbed section for nonnative speakers
of English; it offers targeted advice and strategies for college writing and research.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
C Composing and revising
C1 Planning C2 Drafting C3 Revising C4 Writing paragraphs C5 Designing documents
*A Academic writing
*A1 Writing about texts A2 Constructing arguments A3 Evaluating arguments
*A4 Writing in the disciplines
S Sentence style
S1 Parallelism S2 Needed words S3 Problems with modifiers S4 Shifts S5 Mixed constructions S6 Sentence emphasis
S7 Sentence variety
W Word choice
W1 Glossary of usage W2 Wordy sentences W3 Active verbs W4 Appropriate language W5 Exact language W6 The dictionary
and thesaurus
G Grammatical sentences
G1 Subject-verb agreement G2 Other problems with verbs G3 Problems with pronouns G4 Adjectives and adverbs G5 Sentence
fragments G6 Run-on sentences
E ESL Challenges
E1 Verbs E2 Sentence structure E3 Articles and types of nouns
*E4 Using adjectives
*E5 Prepositions and idiomatic expressions
P Punctuation
P1 The comma P2 Unnecessary commas P3 The semicolon P4 The colon P5 The apostrophe P6 Quotation marks P7 Other
marks
M Mechanics
M1 Spelling M2 The hyphen M3 Capitalization M4 Abbreviations M5 Numbers M6 Italics (Underlining)
R Researching
R1 Conducting Research R2 Evaluating sources R3 Managing information; avoiding plagiarism R4 Choosing a style of
documentation
MLA papers
MLA-1 Supporting a thesis MLA-2 Avoiding plagiarism MLA-3 Integrating sources MLA-4 Documenting sources MLA-5 Manuscript
format
*STUDENT ESSAY
