Backpack Writing

For college courses in Composition and Rhetoric.

This version of Backpack Writing has been updated to reflect the 8th Edition of the MLA Handbook (April 2016)*

Revealing the writing process through interactive learning
Backpack Writing, 4th Edition presents writing, reading, and research processes dynamically, using a variety of visuals to illustrate how readers interact with texts and how writers compose. One of the first textbook authors to focus on multimedia composing, Lester Faigley employs his own advice to engage individuals in every step of the writing process--for everyday life--and pulls back the curtain on how writers work. Backpack Writing gives individuals the support they need to succeed in their careers.

* The 8th Edition introduces sweeping changes to the philosophy and details of MLA works cited entries. Responding to the “increasing mobility of texts,” MLA now encourages writers to focus on the process of crafting the citation, beginning with the same questions for any source. These changes, then, align with current best practices in the teaching of writing which privilege inquiry and critical thinking over rote recall and rule-following.

Lester Faigley (University of Texas, Austin), 1996 chair of CCCC and winner of the 1992 MLA Shaughnessy Prize, is known for his scholarship about visual discourse and electronic technologies.