The Brief Bedford Reader (2009 MLA Update)

A compact version of one of the most widely adopted composition readers of all time — at a significant savings to students — The Brief Bedford Reader continues to engage and inspire with 50 remarkable selections, all the outstanding instructional material of the full-length text, and a unique "Writers on Writing" feature in which 32 of the book’s writers comment on their process and their work. Thorough coverage of critical reading, effective writing, and working with sources guides students, now more than ever, through their own academic writing. And an exciting visual dimension shows that rhetorical methods apply to both images and text.

The Brief Bedford Reader is a favorite of students for the Kennedys’ clarity and wit, of instructors for the flexible and realistic view of the rhetorical methods, and of both for the superior selections and perceptive commentaries by writers worth reading.

X. J. KENNEDY is an acclaimed poet, children’s writer, college teacher, and textbook author. He has taught freshman composition at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Tufts University. Since 1966, more than two million students have treasured his introductory literature texts and The Bedford Guide for College Writers, Eighth Edition (2008), coauthored with Dorothy M. Kennedy and Marcia F. Muth.

DOROTHY M. KENNEDY is a writer and editor whose articles and reviews have appeared in both professional and academic journals. She has taught composition at the University of Michigan and Ohio University and, with X. J. Kennedy, is the recipient of the NCTE Teacher’s Choice Award for Knock at a Star: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry.

JANE E. AARON is a respected writer and editor who has taught composition at New York University and New School University. For Bedford/St. Martin’s she is the author of The Compact Reader, Eighth Edition (2008), and 40 Model Essays: A Portable Anthology (2005).