Comb-bound and tabbed for easy reference, A Writer's Resource is the students' indispensable handbook for writing and research. A Writer's Resource helps students manage information and express their ideas clearly and effectively in every writing situation. As a resource for research, A Writer's Resource helps students apply critical thinking skills to the information they discover in the library and on the Web. As a resource for editing, A Writer's Resource teaches students how to edit using three discrete steps (from clarity to correctness), delineated by three tabbed sections. As a resource for writing in college, A Writer's Resource provides a Common Assignments section with specific guidance on the types of assignments students will be expected to write.

CATALYST.

CATALYST, the technology that accompanies A Writer's Resource, offers diagnostic testing to detect problem areas; over 3,000 grammar and usage exercises; writing guides for informative papers, interpretive papers (including literary analyses), and argumentative papers; a tutorial in evaluating Web research; a Bibliomaker that automatically formats source information in APA, MLA, Chicago, CBE, or COS style; and access to Northern Lights, a search engine with 7,000 premium research sites, all evaluated by experts for credibility. Icons throughout A Writer's Resource integrate CATALYST with the use of the handbook.

Conducting Research in College.

Researching (Tab 5) focuses on the research process, starting with critical inquiry and developing questions worth writing about. Chapters 17-19 offer students step-by-step guidance for managing information gathered from library and online research, with particular attention paid to using search engines and word searches efficiently. Chapter 20 covers archive, field, and lab research, with a section on ethics in primary research. Chapter 23 includes a discipline-specific guide to library and online sources to help students begin their research and evaluate sources for relevance and credibility. The discipline guide is also available on the Web, where the links are updated weekly.

Documentation Styles across the Curriculum.

In addition to full tabbed sections on both MLA and APA with sample student papers in both styles, A Writer's Resource includes a tabbed section with the most thorough coverage of the Chicago style, the Council of Science Editors (CBE) style, and Columbia Online Style (COS). The section on COS tells students how to use this system with other documentation styles instead of treating it as a stand-alone style.

Document and Web Design.

Tab 9 includes guidelines that will help students format their college papers and incorporate visuals into their documents effectively. Chapter 37 gives students advice on writing for the World Wide Web, including suggestions that will help them use the esthetics of online design to their advantage.

A Three-Tier Editing Process.

The three tabs on editing encourage students to use a three-tier editing process: Editing for clarity (Tab 10), editing for grammar conventions (Tab 11), and editing for correctness-mechanics, punctuation, and spelling (Tab 12). The book thus gives students a helpful way to organize their editing and proofreading, beginning with issues of clarity and ending with surface concerns. Examples throughout the text are from real student writing, so they illustrate the kinds of problems and concerns that students are most likely to have.

Writing and Learning across the Curriculum.

Based on twenty years of research in writing across the curriculum, the guidance in the handbook is focused on how the basic principles of good writing apply to writing papers in college. Learning across the Curriculum (Tab 1) is a unique section that offers information on using writing to learn, writing online in college, and special help for multilingual students. This tab serves as an introduction to college and helps familiarize student with the terminology they will encounter during their college experiences. Writing Papers (Tab 2) begins the coverage of the writing process with a section on critical reading and reading from sources and includes sections on understanding your assignment and building an argument. It also includes help with writing online--particularly collaborative writing and peer review as well as e-mail etiquette.

Assignments across the Curriculum.

Common Writing Assignments (Tab 3) focuses on argumentative, informative, and interpretive writing (including writing about literature). Three full student papers are included: An informative paper on the stock market, a literary paper on Flannery O'Connor, and an argumentative paper on injuries in the NFL. Other common forms of college writing are also covered in Common Writing Assignments - including case studies, lab reports, oral reports and the use of presentation software, portfolio writing, and essay exams.

Charting the Territory boxes, integrated in each section of the text, include information on how writing conventions vary from discipline to discipline, giving students a sense of how to adapt their writing for different audiences.

Multilingual Resources.

Tab 13 reviews basic grammar and provides specific help with the kinds of problems multilingual writers often face. Boxes with helpful information and suggestions are also included throughout the book, as well as a chapter on learning for multilingual writers in Tab 1.

Writing Outside of College.

A tabbed section that connects college writing to writing at work and in the community, Writing Connections (Tab 4) includes chapters on service learning; writing letters to get action; and writing to get and keep a job, including common business formats.

Further Resources for College Writers.

An innovative appendix includes a glossary of common terms across the curriculum, timelines for major artistic, scientific, and political events, maps of the United States and the world, and conversion tables for weights and measures.