The College Writer, Brief: a guide to thinking, writing, and researching

Combining streamlined, nuts-and-bolts writing instruction with outstanding accessibility and visual appeal, The College Writer Brief breaks new ground in brief rhetorics. While most first-year writing texts fail to appeal to today's visual learners, this rhetoric with readings and research guide has four-color line drawings, color-coded headings, easy-to-grasp graphic organizers, and other design elements on nearly every two-page spread, targeting the needs of less-prepared students.

From dynamic visuals to engaging essays and examples, the authors have made both content and presentation optimally exciting and useful for the student. The brief edition is identical to the full edition of The College Writer (2004)?less the handbook section?making this version useful for those who prefer a separate handbook.

• Each chapter in The College Writer Brief opens with concise writing instruction followed by engaging examples and writing assignments. Diagrams, charts, and graphic organizers demonstrate ideas and principles quickly, taking the place of pages of text.
• Color-coded headings, humorous line drawings, and other four-color design elements move students through the book and ensure better retention of material.
• The CD-ROM provides the entire main text in searchable format, as well as a fully searchable handbook of grammar, usage, punctuation, and ESL help. It takes students through one writer's process, and engages them with instructional video and audio clips, animated graphic organizers, and appealing interactive exercises.

Randall VanderMey (Ph.D. University of Iowa, M.F.A. Iowa Writers¿ Workshop, M.A. University of Pennsylvania) is an associate professor in the Department of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He also has taught composition, literature, and technical writing at Iowa State University, Dordt College, and the University of Iowa. He is a contributing editor and creative consultant for Write Source. VanderMey has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards for his teaching and poetry. He has published two books of poems, GROWING SOUL: A SONG CYCLE, GOD TALK, and CHARM SCHOOL: FIVE WOMEN OF THE ODYSSEY, as well as a commissioned biography, MERIZON: THE GREAT JOURNEY.

Verne Meyer (Ph.D. University of Minnesota) has spent twenty-five years in the English classroom, first at the high school level and more recently at the college level. He has taught composition and theater at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. Meyer has received several awards recognizing his excellence as both a classroom teacher and a director of dramatic arts. He is considered an authority on writing across the curriculum and workplace writing, and often gives presentations as a featured speaker at educational conferences.

John Van Rys (Ph.D. Dalhousie University, M.A./B.A. University of Western Ontario) has taught composition, business writing, and literature courses to college students for more than fifteen years, primarily at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. In the fall of 2005, Van Rys began teaching in the English Department at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, where he also is pursuing scholarly work in Canadian literature. For over a decade, he has worked on writing-across-the-curriculum theory and practice, on connections between workplace and academic writing, and on strategies for strengthening varied literacies in students (from reading to information to visual literacy). With Write Source Educational Publishing and Cengage Learning, he has coauthored writing handbooks for students from middle school to college. Van Rys also has coauthored an award-winning business-writing handbook for workplace professionals, WRITE FOR BUSINESS, with UpWrite Press.

Dave Kemper has been a contributing partner with Write Source since 1986. He has co-authored FUSION 1, FUSION 2, WRITE 1 SENTENCES TO PARAGRAPHS, WRITE 2 PARAGRAPHS TO ESSAYS, and the complete line of Write Source handbooks and writing texts. In addition to his editorial work, Kemper has presented at national writing conventions and conducted writing workshops across the country. Prior to his work with Write Source, Kemper taught literature and writing for 11 years.

Patrick Sebranek (M.A. University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse) taught English, speech, and multimedia classes for sixteen years at Union Grove High School in Wisconsin. During that time, he served as the English department chair and worked on several district-wide projects, including a writing-across-the-curriculum program and a K-12 writing sequence. He has studied the works of James Moffett, Ken Macrorie, Linda Reif, Nancie Atwell, and many other contemporary educators dealing with writing and learning. Sebranek is an author and editorial director for the Write Source Educational Publishing House and works closely with teachers and educators on all new and revised handbooks and sourcebooks.