Laurie G. Kirszner

A compact reference guide offering coverage of all of the topics that you would expect to find in a bigger and more expensive handbook, especially useful for college writing.

I loved this book! It has a great selection of literature in it and good examples of writing (including examples of the actual writing process, which is very important). I had to buy this for one of my literature classes, but I am keeping it because I feel it will be helpful to me as a future English teacher. Note: I have the compact 6th ed.

First textbook that I've used in a classroom.

This is a standard writing text for the college student. Some special things I liked about it:

Comments with examples of Conrad'sdaily writing journal How he used his entries to write Heart of Darkness.

Checklist items for revision in detail
Details on using examples to explain.

Arranging your argument

The grammar section is very good.