A Writer's Reference

A Hacker handbook has always been a how-to manual for building confidence as a college writer. Diana Hacker conceived A Writer’s Reference as a quick-access innovation in handbook format, and Nancy Sommers continues to reinvent its content for an evolving course emphasizing critical reading and writing. For more than 25 years, the book has allowed students to build confidence and take ownership of their college writing experience.

A Writer’s Reference, Ninth Edition, and LaunchPad for A Writer’s Reference together represent a next-level tool for college writers. What’s most exciting? An emphasis on help that is personal, practical, and digital. A Writer’s Reference is reimagined as a system that helps students target their needs and see their successes; that offers innovative practice with writing, reading, thinking, and research; and that lives in an engaging multimedia environment.

Diagnostics, e-book tools, and custom options allow students and teachers to personalize the handbook. How-to pages, writing guides, student models, and exercises and activities deliver pragmatic, transferable lessons. And with a more interactive e-book, 24 new video tutorials for argument, analysis, research, and citation, and tools that make assigning and assessing a breeze, LaunchPad will be the digital solution that boosts your confidence as well as your students’. A Writer’s Reference, class tested by literally millions of college writers, still offers the right stuff.

Writing well
C COMPOSING AND REVISING

C1 Planning

C2 Drafting

C3 Reviewing, revising, and editing

C4 Preparing a portfolio; reflecting on your writing

C5 Writing paragraphs

A1 Reading and writing critically

A2 Reading and writing about multimodal texts

A3 Reading arguments

A4 Writing arguments

A5 Speaking confidently

A6 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

W1 Glossary of usage

W2 Wordy sentences

W3 Active verbs

W4 Appropriate language

W5 Exact language

G1 Subject-verb agreement

G2 Verb forms, tenses, and moods

G3 Pronouns

G4 Adjectives and adverbs

G5 Sentence fragments

G6 Run-on sentences

M1 Verbs

M2 Articles

M3 Sentence structure

M4 Using adjectives

M5 Prepositions and idiomatic expressions

M6 Paraphrasing sources effectively

P1 The comma

P2 Unnecessary commas

P3 The semicolon and the colon

P4 The apostrophe

P5 Quotation marks

P6 Other punctuation marks

P7 Spelling and hyphenation

P8 Capitalization

P9 Abbreviations and numbers

P10 Italics

B1 Parts of speech

B2 Sentence patterns

B3 Subordinate word groups

B4 Sentence types

R1 Thinking like a researcher; gathering sources

R2 Managing information; taking notes responsibly

R3 Evaluating sources

MLA-1 Supporting a thesis

MLA-2 Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism

MLA-3 Integrating sources

MLA-4 Documenting sources

MLA-5 Manuscript format; sample paper

(Coverage parallels MLA’s)

APA-1

APA-2

APA-3

APA-4

APA-5

CMS -1

CMS -2

CMS -3

CMS -4

CMS -5