Common Ground: Integrated Reading and Writing Skills

Common Ground, the lower-level integrated reading and writing (IRW) companion text to the best-selling textbook Common Places, guides students through the reading and writing process at the sentence and paragraph level. Providing an easy-to-follow blueprint for students by modeling skills and behavior without being wordy, this text helps students break down each reading and writing skill with step-by-step guidance and clear visuals.

Carefully selected readings equip students not only with writing skills but also with the life skills they will need for their college careers and beyond. Common Ground’s extensive and easy-to use grammar and mechanics handbook, included in the text, is tailor-made for IRW students. The methodology relies on building blocks and takes a granular approach, teaching students from the ground up to build confidence, and provides an easy-to-follow blueprint for students, modeling skills and behavior without being wordy.


The text avoids making assumptions about students' prior knowledge or current understanding and answers even the most basic questions students might have about a topic. Students must learn to read from a writer's point of view and learn to write from a reader's point of view as this kind of self-awareness develops strong readers and writers. Content is presented through numerous graphics and tables that encapsulate processes. The graphic representation of material provides a visual reinforcement of concepts.


The text is divided into five comprehensive parts that cover skills, projects, grammar, and readings. 
• Parts 1 and 2 (Chapters 1–12) cover basic and more advanced skills, ranging from subjects such as sentences and topics to critical thinking and argument. 
• Part 3 (Chapters 13–15) contains extended projects that provide students with a chance to work on activities requiring sustained attention. The projects are structured so that students can complete them in two to three weeks while they are mastering the skills in Chapters 1–12. 
• Part 4 contains the extensive and easy-to-use Grammar and Mechanics Handbook, which is tailored for IRW students, with a minimum of complex terminology. 
• Part 5, the Anthology of Readings, contains readings and accompanying pedagogy across three themes of high interest to students and features content that will support their college work and their careers. Lexile levels are given for all readings. 


A master Connect IRW course, Connect Integrated Reading and Writing: The Common Ground Master Course, aligns with chapters and features LearnSmart Achieve topics, chapter and vocabulary quizzes, and PowerPoint presentations as well as discussion board prompts for chapter concepts. Additionally, Power of Process assignments are built around selected chapter readings, and chapter reading and writing assignments are offered in the Power of Process tool and Writing Assignment features.

Kent Hoeffner earned a B.A. from Texas A&M University in College Station; an M.Div. from Golden State Seminary in Mill Valley, California; and a Ph.D. from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He has served at McLennan Community College since 2001, first as the division director for liberal arts and currently as a professor of philosophy. In 2007, Dr. Hoeffner developed McLennan's first online philosophy course, and since then has continued to develop and teach various online courses. Most recently, Dr. Hoeffner renewed his long-standing involvement in academic advising by joining a group of faculty in a grant-funded intensive advising program focused on improving the success of developmental students. He regularly mentors students who need help in the areas of successful academic behaviors, self-advocacy, and the development of college-level reading and writing skills.

Lisa Hoeffner earned a Ph.D. in English with a specialization in rhetoric from the University of Houston. Since 1998, Dr. Hoeffner has served as both professor of English and professor of reading at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. In addition to her teaching roles, Dr. Hoeffner focuses on curricular redesign in developmental education. She serves as grant director for a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board grant awarded for work on improvement and innovation in developmental education. With the advent of integrated reading and writing in Texas, Dr. Hoeffner has provided leadership for colleges across the state that are creating integrated reading and writing (INRW) programs and has provided leadership to public school districts implementing INRW programs as college preparatory classes.