Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide

Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, best-selling authors and experienced teachers, know what works in the classroom. They have a knack for picking just the right readings. In Patterns for College Writing, they provide students with exemplary rhetorical models and instructors with class-tested selections. The readings are a balance of classic and contemporary essays by writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Deborah Tannen, E. B. White, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. And with more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patterns has always been an exceptional resource for students.

Patterns also has the most comprehensive coverage of the writing process in a rhetorical reader with a five-chapter mini-rhetoric; the clearest explanations of the patterns of development; and the most thorough support for students of any rhetorical reader. With loads of exciting new readings and updated coverage of working with sources, Patterns for College Writing helps students as no other book does. There’s a reason it is the best-selling reader in the country.

During their more than 25-year collaboration, LAURIE KIRSZNER and STEPHEN MANDELL have produced a number of best-selling college texts for Bedford/St. Martin’s, including Foundations First: Sentences and Paragraphs (2005), Writing First: Practice in Context (2006), and Patterns for College Writing (2007). Laurie Kirszner teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Stephen Mandell is the founder and former director of the basic writing program at Drexel University, where he teaches composition, literature, and technical and business writing.