Excerpt
If you are teaching first-year composition, you have a diverse classroom of students from ambitious chemistry majors or aspiring poets to budding entrepreneurs. Regardless of your students' interests, odds are that they'll write every day. Whatever their goals as writers, the seventh edition of
The Scott Foresman Handbook will help your students achieve them. Do your students need step-by-step advice for surviving their first college research paper assignment? Instructions for crafting a Web page or a PowerPoint presentation? Tips on literary analysis for a senior thesis? Formatting guidelines for a business letter? They will find it all in this handbook.
Since the best-selling first edition, The Scott Foresman Handbook has proven again and again that a comprehensive handbook can be easy, practical, even fun to use. Each new edition has provided complete, up-to-date material on writing processes, argumentation, style, grammar, mechanics, and punctuation, in friendly and accessible language. Yet we've also broken new ground, anticipating developments in writing influenced by innovative theories and technologies. For example, earlier editions of this handbook have led the field in addressing document design, online research, service learning, and other emerging trends. As a result of our forward-looking philosophy, writers using The Scott Foresman Handbook know what college writingmeans today and what it will mean tomorrow.
What's New
This seventh edition continues our commitment to preparing students for college writing as well as writing beyond college. In keeping with this goal, we have added new material that writers need for today, and we have expanded and updated familiar sections. Here are the highlights:
- More on Visual and Multimedia Literacy. The Scott Foresman Handbook was the first handbook acknowledging that college writers now produce many different kinds of documents in a variety of media including visual and aural "texts." We have updated our popular document design material (Chapters 21, 22, and 24), and our chapters on writing processes (Chapters 1-5) now explore design issues at every stage of a project. Our coverage of visual literary also includes several entirely new chapters and sections:
- The NEW Chapter 13, "How Do You Prepare an Oral or Multimedia Report?" helps writers prepare traditional oral reports as well as presentations that incorporate technological elements, including presentation software. Full-color examples of PowerPoint slides illustrate effective ways to present information visually.
- The NEW Chapter 23, "How Do You Create a Web Site?" represents our first full chapter on writing for the Web. This detailed chapter presents step-by-step instructions for crafting a Web page from start to finish. Designed to serve both Web novices and more experienced Web writers, this beautifully illustrated chapter offers assistance to writers for working with a basic HTML editor or with more helpful Web-authoring software. Web design has never looked so easy!
- Because many college courses now include online components, we've added to Chapter 8 a practical NEW section on using courseware such as Blackboard. Full-color illustrations introduce students to the basic features and uses of course management software enabling students to approach online assignments with confidence.
- Chapter 11, "How Do You Interpret and Use Visual Texts?" has been updated and expanded, incorporating many NEW examples of visual rhetoric and a NEW student paper that analyzes a print advertisement, demonstrating critical visual literary in action.
- Chapter 14, "How Do You Write About Literature?" now includes sections on analyzing films and television as literary artifacts.
- NEW photos and images appear throughout the book and many were created by the text authors themselves in order to reinforce key points about writing, style, and mechanics.
- NEW, extensive Companion Website at www.prenhall.com/hairston offers:
- An E-Book available 24/7 that contains the entire The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition, in a searchable format, which enables students to find information quickly and easily.
- A self-graded diagnostic test that assists students in identifying problem areas and creates a personalized handbook, My Handbook. Students are provided with information and exercises in order to improve their problem areas. Competency tests are also available so students can assess their own progress.
- Hundreds of interactive, text-tied, and self-graded exercises including editing activities.
- Additional information on research and documentation styles.
- More Examples of Real Writers at Work. The pages of The Scott Foresman Handbook are filled with photos of student and professional writers at work, as we're happy to give a human face to this reference book. For the seventh edition, we showcase even more writers, representing a wider range of academic, civic, and professional projects and writing situations. These include the following:
- NEW "ESL Tips" appear throughout Chapters 34, 35, and 36, each offering advice from successful ESL writers on negotiating problematic areas of academic English. These chapters have also been revised to include more discussion of rhetorical and cultural dimensions of college writing in the U.S., supplementing our coverage of grammatical and mechanical conventions.
- A NEW section on writing centers in Chapter 8 introduces students to this important campus resource for improving their writing and gives advice on getting the most from a writing center consultation.
- NEW student samples throughout the book, including an APA paper originally published in an undergraduate online research journal. Also, to reinforce our emphasis on real-world writing, there are updated "Going Public" examples showing students engaged in public and community writing.
- Updated and Expanded Research Coverage. No part of The Scott Foresman Handbook has been more widely admired (or imitated) than its chapters on research and documentation. As in previous editions, we provide everything instructors and writers need to prepare traditional academic research papers, as well as thorough guidelines for electronic, service-oriented, and community-oriented projects. In this edition, we have rearranged and enhanced this material so that it's even more user-friendly. Examples of this include the following:
- Research coverage is regrouped into six smaller, more accessible chapters (46-51) enabling students to locate this information easily at each stage of a project.
- The NEW Chapter 52, "What Is Documentation?" answers basic questions students often ask about documentation, explaining, for example, why most writing instructors teach MLA style and how MLA, APA, and CMS styles differ.
- All research and documentation material has been freshly updated, and a NEW sample APA paper appears in Chapter 54.
What's Familiar
- A Respected, Proven Resource. Although we've made many revisions to this new edition, the most important features of The Scott Foresman Handbook haven't changed. The handbook retains its authoritative discussion of the writing process; its full coverage of critical thinking and reading, argumentation, and academic writing; its engaging and thorough treatment of grammar, mechanics, and usage; its lively discussion of research; and its exhaustive treatment of documentation. Because we teach undergraduate writing courses year after year, we know that student writers need accurate, current information. We've applied this knowledge in the creation of The Scott Foresman Handbook.
- Serving Students Best. Since its first edition, The Scott Foresman Handbook has strived to serve students better and help them achieve their writing goals. With this in mind, each chapter is framed around the questions students commonly ask about writing, rather than presenting rules and terminology out of context. Our research materials have been carefully refined, edition after edition, and are clear, easy, and manageable. As in past editions, we continue to tackle thorny issues such as evaluating electronic sources, plagiarism, civil language, and, uniquely, grades. Perhaps most important, we continue to address student writers in language that is both personal and encouraging. We recognize that writing is hard work and that even a volume as thick as this one only begins to address the complexities writers face in sharing their ideas. We are committed to students' writing success.
- Extending Beyond the Classroom. Our support for student writing extends beyond the classroom. The Scott Foresman Handbook provides support for writers moving from academic assignments to work in their local communities. In addition to Chapter 9, "How Do You Write for the Public?" the handbook emphasizes civic and public issues throughout, in the many "Going Public" examples, the discussions of service-learning and online courses, and the many sample student papers focused on civic and public issues. We want writers to know and believe that their "writing matters."
Supplements
Resources for Instructors
- The Instructor's Resource Manual: Creating a Community of Writers offers guidance to new and experienced instructors for teaching in the composition classroom. ISBN 013-182392-2
- Answer Key to the exercises within The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. ISBN 013-182390-6
- Our course management solutions, Blackboard, Course Compass, and WebCT adapted for The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition, provide extensive book-specific content including the entire The Scott Foresman Handbook online as a searchable E-Book as well as online exercises for each chapter. Access Code Cards for these course management solutions are available. VALUE PACK FREE with new copies of The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. Contact your Prentice Hall representative for complete information.
- Prentice Hall Resources for Teaching Writingindividual booklets covering some of the most effective approaches and important concerns of composition instructors todayare available to use with your students and teaching assistants. Contact your Prentice Hall representative for sample copies of the following:
- Distance Learning by W. Dees Stallings. ISBN 013-088656-4
- Computers and Writing by Dawn Rodriguez. ISBN 013 084034-3
- Classroom Strategies by Wendy Bishop. ISBN 013-572355-8
- Portfolios by Pat Belanoff. ISBN 013-572322-1
- Journals by Christopher C. Burnham. ISBN 013-572348-5
- Collaborative Learning by Harvey Kail and John Trimbur. ISBN 013-028487-4
- English as a Second Language by Ruth Spack. ISBN 013028559-5
- Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum by Art Young. ISBN 013-081650-7
Resources for Student
- Premium Companion Website at http://www.prenhall.com/hairston offers an E-Book available 24/7 that contains the entire The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition, in a searchable format; a self-graded diagnostic test to assist students in identifying their specific problem areas and then in creating their individualized handbook, My Handbook; hundreds of interactive exercises, text-tied and self-graded; and research and documentation information.
- Evaluating Online Sources with Research Navigator helps students make the most of their research time, offering help with the research process and three exclusive databases full of relevant and reliable source material, including EBSCO's ContentSelect Academic Journal Database, The New York Times Search-by-Subject Archive, and the Best of the Web Link Library. VALUE PACK FREE with The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. Visit www.researchnavigator.com to learn more.
- The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary or The New American Roget's College Thesaurus in Dictionary Form is available to VALUE PACK FREE with The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. Contact your Prentice Hall representative for ordering information.
- A Writer's Guide to Research and Documentation by Kirk G. Rasmussen features the most recent information on MLA, APA, CBE, and CM formats and covers the research process. VALUE PACK FREE with The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. ISBN 013-032641-0
- A Writer's Guide to Writing in the Disciplines and Oral Presentations by Christine Manion helps students write successfully in different academic disciplines, as well as offers advice and information on preparing oral presentations. VALUE PACK FREE with The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. ISBN 013-018931-6
- A Writer's Guide to Document and Web Design by Lory Hawkes offers students additional information on document and Web design. VALUE PACK FREE with The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. ISBN 013-018929-4
- A Writer's Guide to Writing About Literature by Edgar V. Roberts prepares students for writing about literature with information on research and literature, as well as additional sample student papers. VALUE PACK FREE with The Scott Foresman Handbook, Seventh Edition. ISBN 013-018932-4