Accessible to students and flexible for instructors, Writing Today, Third Edition introduces students to the conventions of writing memoirs, profiles, literary analyses, arguments, research papers, and more.
From its graphic Quick Start Guides to its Write This prompts, this resource challenges students to extend the boundaries of their writing abilities as they practice composing for the real world.
Writing Today is fully integrated with MyWritingLab—an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed to work with this text to engage students and improve results. Low- and high-stakes writing exercises from the text can now be assigned, completed, and assessed in MyWritingLab.
Genres as Generative Tools
Genres are not formulas to be followed mechanically but instead are dynamic social interactions between writers and readers. These ways of writing and speaking are flexible and ever evolving. Writing Today approaches genre as the foundation from which all writing and speaking happens. The elements of the writing process are built on this core concept of genre.
Scaffolding Writing Assignments
Multiple and detailed activities and exercises move students through the drafting, designing, and revising stages of writing. Sequencing writing assignments that grow over time from low- to high-stakes writing allow students to experience drafting and revision in ways that serve as a small-scale version of this authentic writing experience. Writing Today also encourages students to craft “microgenre” compositions as a step toward composing in the larger genre.
Instructive Visuals
Writing Today includes informative visuals like At a Glance and the Quick Start Guide to help students understand and employ the conventions of genres.
To help students think like critical readers, the At a Glance illustrations appear early in the chapter and show the typical conventions of the genre examined in that chapter. To ease the transition from being readers into being writers of the genre, the Quick Start Guides offer specific, to-the-point guidance.
Additional Features Unique Approach
Emphasize Critical Thinking Skills
- “Designing the Text” and “Choosing an Appropriate Style.” Chapter opening vignettes launch the narrative of that chapter and identify its themes.
- NEW | Each of the ten chapters in Part 2: Using Genres to Express Ideas now begins with an in-depth discussion of audience, purpose, and primary considerationsstudents should think about before writing in a particular genre.
- NEW | Over twenty new “Readings ” illustrate common organizations of each genre as well as relevant and engaging variations. “A Closer Look” follows each reading, encouraging students to analyze the rhetorical choices writers have made.
- Compelling exercises encourage student engagement and offer instructors the opportunity to scaffold from short writing tasks to sustained longer compositions.
- “Ideas for Writing” and “A Few Ideas for Composing” prompts offer opportunities to practice composing in the genre and to employ multimodal composing strategies.
- At the close of every chapter, students have four opportunity to practice what they learned. “Talk About This” exercises prompt classroom discussion, especially in small groups. “Try This Out” exercises offer low-stakes and collaborative writing activities. “Explore This” activities encourage students to engage in independent practice. “Write This” prompts provide opportunities for formal writing and longer projects.
- Flexibility is a chief strength of Writing Today. The early chapters form a foundation, but remaining chapters can be taught in any order or combination to suit individual teaching approaches and objectives.
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REVEL for Writing Today — Access Card, 3rd Edition
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Writing Today, MLA Update Edition, 3rd Edition
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REVEL for Writing Today — Access Card, 3rd Edition
Johnson-Sheehan Paine
Writing Today, Books a la Carte Edition, MLA Update Edition, 3rd Edition
Johnson-Sheehan Paine
This package contains:
Writing Today, 3rd Edition
Johnson-Sheehan Paine
The Pearson Guide to the MLA Handbook
This package contains:
REVEL for Writing Today — Access Card, 3rd Edition
Johnson-Sheehan Paine
Writing Today, Books a la Carte Edition, 3rd Edition
Johnson-Sheehan Paine
REVEL + ALC — Discount Access Card