Key Features Of This Edition

• Powerful LearningCurve online assessment system available with every new book. When it comes to retaining new information, research shows that self-testing with small, bite-sized chunks of information works best. LearningCurve for College Success, a new adaptive online quizzing program, helps students focus on the material they need the most help with. With LearningCurve, students receive as much practice as they need to master a given concept and are provided with immediate feedback and links back to online instruction. A personalized study plan with suggestions for further practice gives your students what they need to thrive in the college success course, in their college, career, and beyond!
• A pre-reading activity kicks off each chapter to get students thinking about and looking at the content that is to come and how it relates to them.
• Chapter-opening profiles that help students see themselves in the text. Each chapter of the text opens with a story of a recent first-year student at a two-year college who has used the strategies in the chapter to succeed. The profiled students come from diverse backgrounds and attend all kinds of two-year colleges around the country.
• Your Turn activities in each chapter encourage students to build communication, collaboration, critical thinking, organization, and self-assessment skills by asking them to reflect on or apply content introduced in the chapter. Your Turn activities are broken into four types: On Your Own; Try It; Discuss It; and Work Together. Some include space for students’ responses.
• Key terms are boldfaced and defined within the narrative so as not to disturb the flow of reading. In addition, a glossary of key terms appears at the end of the book.
• An increased focus on technology and learning. Tech Tips in every chapter ask students to apply many of the technology skills they likely already have and use in their personal lives in an academic setting. For some readers, the Tech Tips teach new skills. This application-based feature appears at the end of the chapter so as not to disturb the flow of the main narrative.
• Chapter-ending activities encourage communication, critical thinking, organization, application, and self-assessment skills by asking students to THINK, WRITE, and APPLY concepts introduced in the chapter.
• Where to Go for Help boxes connect the text to student experiences at their specific institution to help students take more control of their own success, every chapter includes a quick overview of college and online resources for support, focusing on those available at open-enrollment colleges, including learning assistance centers, library, Web sites, professional staff, and fellow students. The box ends with a prompt for students to write in their own ideas and resources at their college.
• A carefully executed design and art program keep students focused on the content while keeping them engaged by including images of current students and pop culture help make students feel comfortable and connected. Captions invite students to think critically.
• Models (including digital models) let students see principles in action because many students learn best by example, full-size models—more than in any competing book—show realistic examples of annotating a textbook, creating a mind map, multiple styles of note taking, and other strategies for academic success. This edition includes digital models to reflect the tools students will be using in their everyday lives.
• Retention Strategies in every chapter of the Instructor’s Annotated Edition (IAE) offer best practices from the authors to help students persist in the first year. In addition, a 16-page insert at the beginning of the IAE includes chapter-specific exercises and activities designed as retention strategies to support writing, critical thinking, working in groups, planning, reflecting, and taking action.