TO THE INSTRUCTOR

The tenth edition of The Bedford Guide for College Writers gives students all the tools they need to succeed as writers, especially in the rapidly changing times in which we now live and write. Whether their writing class meets on campus or online, students benefit from qualities integral to The Bedford Guide’s enduring success — clear and succinct instruction, thorough coverage with a flexible organization, and frequent opportunities for active learning, engaging students with what is presented. The tenth edition extends active learning into the online environment, offering assignable e-Pages. These videos, audio segments, and photo essays take advantage of what the Web can do. All aspects of this new edition of The Bedford Guide — from its updated research manual to its new student and professional readings and visuals — are designed with one overarching goal: to help students to become the confident, resourceful, and independent writers they will need to be.

Several key interrelated ideas have shaped this book from the beginning. First, students learn best by doing. The Bedford Guide therefore includes an exceptional number of opportunities for practice and self-assessment. Throughout the book, we intersperse class-tested “Learning by Doing” activities and assignments in a helpful rhythm with concise instruction and models of writing. Students have frequent opportunities to apply what they have learned and become comfortable with each step in the process as they go along.

Second, we intend The Bedford Guide for College Writers to be an effective, engaging text that gives students everything they need to write well — all in one flexible book. Written and developed as four books in one, it offers a process-oriented rhetoric, a provocative thematic reader, an up-to-date research manual, and a comprehensive handbook. The Bedford Guide gives students all the tools they need to succeed as writers.

Most important, the focus of the book is building transferable skills. Recognizing that the college composition course may be one of a student’s last classes with in-depth writing instruction, we have made every effort to ensure that The Bedford Guide develops writers able to meet future challenges. It offers supportive, step-by-step guidance; “Why Writing Matters” features; a full chapter on “Strategies for Future Writing”; and varied, end-of-chapter “Additional Writing Assignments.” These and other features prepare students to apply what they have learned in other courses and in the workplace, meeting whatever rhetorical challenges lie ahead, in college and in life.

Built on these cornerstone concepts, the tremendous success of The Bedford Guide has been gratifying. And especially gratifying has been the way that this book has continued to evolve over time. New ideas on teaching and writing and excellent suggestions from users of the book improve and enrich each edition of the book. Now the tenth edition includes many thought-provoking new readings, revised chapters on analyzing visuals and conducting research, recurring options for a Source Activity or Source Assignment, a new series of reflective “Learning by Doing” activities, and a new APA sample paper. It also expands popular features, offering new “Take Action” charts on literary analysis and APA style as well as many more “Why Writing Matters” chapter openers for both writing and research chapters. These changes and others throughout the book do even more to involve students in their own development as writers.

Everything You Need

The tenth edition continues to offer four coordinated composition books integrated into one convenient text — all of them now even better resources for students. The Bedford Guide is also available in a brief version, containing the rhetoric and reader, in a new concise edition, and in e-book versions. (For more details on the e-book versions and other exciting new resources accompanying The Bedford Guide, see pp. xiii–xvii. For more information on what is new in the tenth edition, see p. viii.)

A Writer’s Guide

This uniquely accessible — yet thorough — process-oriented rhetoric helps students become better writers, regardless of their skill level. Addressing all the assignments and topics typically covered in a first-year writing course, it is divided into four parts.

Part One, “A College Writer’s Processes,” introduces students to the interconnected processes of writing (Chapter 1), reading (Chapter 2), and critical thinking (Chapter 3). In the tenth edition, the student writing in these chapters now includes a new critical reading response in Chapter 2, “Reading Processes.”

In Part Two, “A Writer’s Situations,” nine core chapters — each including two sample readings (one by a student) — guide students step-by-step through a full range of common first-year writing assignments. The rhetorical situations in Part Two include recalling an experience (Chapter 4), observing a scene (Chapter 5), interviewing a subject (Chapter 6), comparing and contrasting (Chapter 7), explaining causes and effects (Chapter 8), taking a stand (Chapter 9), proposing a solution (Chapter 10), evaluating and reviewing (Chapter 11), and supporting a position with sources (Chapter 12). “Why Writing Matters” features, readings, visuals, “Responding to an Image” chapter openers for class discussion and journal writing, and “Additional Writing Assignments” — now including both visual and source-based options — make these chapters both useful and interesting for students. If followed sequentially, these chapters lead students gradually into the rigorous analytical writing that will comprise most of their college writing. Rearranged and selected chapters readily support a course emphasizing argument, source-based writing, or other rhetorical or thematic approaches.

Part Three, “Other Writing Situations,” offers helpful strategies and examples to focus students’ efforts in five special rhetorical situations: responding to literature (Chapter 13), responding to visual representations (Chapter 14), writing online (Chapter 15), writing and presenting under pressure (Chapter 16), and writing in the workplace (Chapter 17). The more sharply focused Chapter 15, “Writing Online,” and revised sections on visual analysis in Chapter 14 succinctly address rhetorical situations that college students now encounter.

Part Four, “A Writer’s Strategies,” is a convenient resource for approaching different writing processes. The first chapter, “Strategies: A Case Study” (Chapter 18), follows a student as she develops and revises her “Recalling an Experience” paper through multiple drafts. It also includes her self-reflective portfolio letter. The next five chapters explain and further illustrate stages of common writing processes: generating ideas (Chapter 19), stating a thesis and planning (Chapter 20), drafting (Chapter 21), developing (Chapter 22), and revising and editing (Chapter 23), each now concluding with a “Learning by Doing” process reflection. Marginal annotations in the earlier parts of the book guide students to these chapters, which collectively serve as a writer’s toolbox. The part ends with “Strategies for Future Writing” (Chapter 24), helping students apply what they have learned to other rhetorical situations. It includes two new student samples, one from a multigenre history assignment and one from a philosophy of teaching portfolio.

A Writer’s Reader

A Writer’s Reader is a thematic reader, unique in a book of this kind. In this edition, ten new e-Pages readings add a rich array of integrated, assignable, multimodal content. The reader offers forty selections in all — twenty-three of them new — arranged around five themes that provide a meaningful context for students, giving them something to write about. The themes are families (Chapter 25), men and women (Chapter 26), popular culture (Chapter 27), digital living (Chapter 28), and explorations on living well (Chapter 29). This last distinctive theme considers what different people value as components of a life well lived. Apparatus that encourages critical thinking and writing accompanies each reading. A rhetorical table of contents (p. xl) shows how the selections are coordinated with A Writer’s Guide and illustrate writing situations assigned there. A biographical headnote and a brief prereading tip or question introduce each reading. Each selection is followed by questions on meaning, writing strategies, critical reading, vocabulary, and connections to other selections; journal prompts; and suggested writing assignments, one personal and the other analytical. These questions lead students from reading carefully for both thematic and rhetorical elements to applying new strategies and insights in their own writing.

A Writer’s Research Manual

A Writer’s Research Manual is a remarkably comprehensive guide to source-based writing, detailing all the essential steps for print, electronic, and field research. Updated to reflect current text practices gathered from a survey of academic librarians, this manual covers planning a research project (Chapter 30), working with sources (Chapter 31), finding sources (Chapter 32), evaluating sources (Chapter 33), integrating sources (Chapter 34), and writing the research paper (Chapter 35). Each chapter now opens with a “Why Research Matters” feature. Chapters 36 and 37 include extensive coverage of MLA and APA documentation, with ninety-eight MLA-style models and over seventy APA-style models, along with a new example of an APA research paper and a new APA “Take Action” chart. In the appendices, a “Quick Research Guide” conveniently — and briefly — reviews how to find, evaluate, integrate, cite, and document sources. Here also, a “Quick Format Guide” illustrates academic document design.

A Writer’s Handbook

A most complete handbook, with superior ESL coverage (in “ESL Guidelines”), this useful reference clearly explains grammar, style, and usage topics. It also includes nearly fifty exercise sets for practice in and out of class. Answers to half of the questions in most sets are provided in the back of the book so that students can check their understanding. Beyond the coverage in the handbook, a “Quick Editing Guide” in the appendices gives special attention to the most troublesome grammar and editing problems.

New to the Tenth Edition

The tenth edition gives students even more opportunities for learning by doing and developing transferable skills. Through innovative e-Pages, activities, assignments, visuals, readings, and examples of students’ work, this new edition prepares students for writing challenges in college and beyond. New activities reflect classroom experiences, advances from the always-developing field of composition, and the insightful suggestions of many helpful reviewers.

Now with Bedford Integrated Media

e-Pages connect with students and build writing and critical thinking skills

The Bedford Guide now comes with Bedford Integrated Media: e-Pages that give the book a rich array of assignable, multimodal content. These materials extend the book’s focus on active learning and transferable skills into the online environment. They also expand alternatives for class-specific activities, such as using the e-Pages research cluster on celebrity culture (Chapter 12) to improve source handling. Two types of e-Pages accompany the book and take advantage of all the Web can do:

Students access e-Pages materials through the Bedford Integrated Media page for The Bedford Guide for College Writers at bedfordstmartins.com/bedguide. They receive automatic access to e-Pages with the purchase of a new book. (Students who do not buy a new book can purchase access at this same site.) The e-Pages format makes it easy for instructors to see and evaluate what students are doing and gives new options for readings and assignments.

Instructors receive log-in information in a separate e-mail with access to all of the resources in Bedford Integrated Media. You can also log in or request access information at the book’s media page.

Focus on Active Learning and Transferable Skills

More “Learning by Doing” Activities

“Learning by Doing” activities, many drawn from instructors’ suggestions, encourage active learning and the development of transferable skills. A new Learning by Doing on Analyzing Interview Questions, for example, helps develop critical thinking and awareness of genre. Other additions help students reflect on their own writing processes. With some Learning by Doing activities available in the print book and some in e-Pages, students have different ways to practice and apply what they are learning.

New “Take Action” charts

The unique “Take Action” charts guide students through assessing and revising challenging aspects of writing. In the tenth edition, new “Take Action” charts help students improve their use of APA documentation style and understand the basics of literary analysis. These self-assessment charts are designed to help students of varying skill levels become stronger and more independent writers by reflecting on their own writing, identifying its weaknesses, and then using concrete and relevant strategies for strengthening their papers. Other “Take Action” charts address such important issues as supporting a stand, integrating sources, and strengthening thesis statements.

Updated Research Manual

As they continue in college, students will most likely investigate research topics and write papers in which they will need to cite sources. Book 3 of The Bedford Guide, A Writer’s Research Manual, and the “Quick Research Guide” now give students more practice and support to prepare them for source-based academic writing. Revised with the input of research librarians from around the country who shared their “best practices,” these sections now more sharply focus on effectively searching for and organizing sources, as well as relating them to one’s thesis. A new APA research paper and updated APA examples prepare students who might find that this style is the one required in future classes.

New Readings

Readings from a Wide Range of Perspectives

A third of the readings are new in the tenth edition, including essays by well-known authors such as Anna Quindlen, Sandra Cisneros, Dagoberto Gilb, Katha Pollitt, David Brooks, and Jhumpa Lahiri. The readings also reflect a wide range of experience, since students come to the composition class varying in age, work background, comfort with technology, life situations, and other factors. Terrell Jermaine Starr, for example, writes about his grandmother, a strong woman who raised him and saw that he got a good education, despite not having had one herself. Libby Copeland examines how Facebook can sometimes make people feel more isolated and depressed, not less. Mike Haynie writes about PTSD, veterans, and the media. Throughout The Bedford Guide, the readings encourage students to see familiar topics from new angles and to use critical thinking skills to gain insight and understanding.

More Connections between The Bedford Guide’s Rhetoric and Reader

Throughout the tenth edition, new connections and references have been added to make it easier for instructors and students to use A Writer’s Guide (Chapters 1–24) with A Writer’s Reader (Chapters 25–29) and vice versa. Many new internal cross-references, marginal notes, thematic correspondences, interlinked excerpts, and complementary assignments improve the way these two sections of the book can work in tandem. All serve to integrate the different parts of the book into a more useful whole. Instructors and students can now more easily find relevant examples and support for the writing skills and strategies presented.

New Examples of Student Writing

Throughout the tenth edition, interesting new examples of student writing provide helpful models. Four of nine student essays are new in Part Two, such as an observation on arrival in Stockholm (Chapter 5) and an essay comparing and contrasting karate and kung fu (Chapter 7). Other new student work includes a critical reading response to “The New Literacy” in “Reading Processes” (Chapter 2), selections from a history paper and a portfolio (Chapter 24), entries from an annotated bibliography (Chapter 30), and a full APA research paper (Chapter 37).

Many New Photographs and Multimodal Genres

Thought-provoking visuals begin and conclude each Part Two assignment chapter, supporting the goals of the chapter with skills-building apparatus. Chapter 14, “Responding to Visual Representations,” contains new examples and a new visual essay. More public announcements, news photos, visuals from Web sites, movie critiques, and videos appear throughout this edition of The Bedford Guide. All give engaging opportunities for discussion, critical thinking, and written analysis.