Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide

By Stephen R. Mandell and Laurie G. Kirszner

Book Overview

Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, authors with nearly thirty years of experience teaching college writing, know what works in the classroom and have a knack for picking just the right readings. In Patterns for College Writing , they provide students with exemplary rhetorical models and instructors with class-tested selections that balance classic and contemporary essays. Along with more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patterns has the most comprehensive coverage of active reading, research, and the writing process, with a five-chapter mini-rhetoric; the clearest explanations of the patterns of development; and the most thorough apparatus of any rhetorical reader, all reasons why Patterns for College Writing is the best-selling reader in the country. And the new edition includes exciting new readings and expanded coverage of critical reading, working with sources, and research. It is now available as an interactive Bedford e-book and in a variety of other e-book formats that can be downloaded to a computer, tablet, or e-reader. Also Available: Updated 14th Edition

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312676840
• ISBN13: 9780312676841
• Release Date: December 2011
• Publisher: Bedford Books
• Length: 832 Pages
• Weight: 2.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good book

brand new, good book and i recommend to anyone that wants to get a little more creative in their writing.

Very Helpful

This book helped me out a lot in my college writing class. When the teacher would correct my paper I could go back and look at some examples in the book to make my essays better. This is one book that I would not sell back after the end of the quarter.

Write this way...

This book, `Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide' edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, is a book widely used in colleges and universities, as well as advanced high school classes across the nation. It is a very useful text, and I use it when tutoring students in preparation for community college level writing and reading work. It is used at our college in the basic skills reading courses, too. The book looks at how writers develop their work. The first few chapters look at some of the basic mechanics of writing - planning, writing, editing and revising. It also looks briefly at certain skills needed for writing, such as brainstorming and idea generation, as well as journal writing. There are many exercises included here to give students first-hand experience.The second section looks at the various types of writing students will be called upon to produce - narrative papers, process papers, cause-and-effect, descriptive works, comparison-and-contrast, classification, definition, and persuasive/argumentative papers. Each chapter keeps a solid focus on the type of work presented, so that students can develop the particular skills; the final chapter in this section looks at combining the patterns, to produce more complex and comprehensive research papers and essays. There is a thematic listing of articles that shows the breadth of topics covered - family relationships, language, education, business and work, sports, race and culture, gender, nature and the environment, media and society, history and politics, and ethics. Among more than one hundred articles are sixteen pieces written by actual students, so that students can see the model produced by people at their same level of development. Writings from famous people such as Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Flannery O'Connor and Mark Twain also give breadth and interest to the selections included here. The writing assignments include journal writing, essays of the types modeled in the chapters, collaborative activities, and even an internet assignment. There is a companion website for students to use, and instructors can take advantage of materials provided by the publisher, such transparencies and additional samples.The appendix has a ten-step process for writing a research paper (one of the more common types of college writing expected of students). The steps include everything from choosing a topic to documenting sources. Avoiding common pitfalls such as plagiarism (intentional and inadvertent) is also covered.

Even for the casual reader

I used this book in a highschool course called Advance Composition. It was excellent, not only as a tutor in how to write essays, but because of it's choice of examples. Essays on everything from workaholics to environmental issues, made for hours of reading pleasure. Also, it drew on works of relevant authors of the time, including Deborah Tannen and even Al Gore. I didn't realize essays could have such value, even for the casual reader.

Excellent resource and guide!

Very accessible and thorough..the eighth edition is a wonderful text for teaching introductory college writing. As a writing instructor, this text is highly recommended.