The Well-Crafted Argument (with 2016 MLA Update Card)

THE WELL-CRAFTED ARGUMENT, 6th Edition, guides you through the process of writing effective arguments for every course you take. The authors include coverage of critical reading strategies and the steps of writing, researching, and documenting a topic as well as an anthology of readings grouped into six thematic clusters. Students using this textbook have appreciated the inclusion of real students' essays, which show you that your own voice can come through regardless of the argumentative approach you select. The textbook includes many practical, skill-building tools to guide your progress. Checklists, writing projects, suggestions for further reading, and other features encourage you to apply what you've learned and go beyond the classroom if a topic is of particular interest to you. Each student text is packaged with a free Cengage Essential Reference Card to the MLA HANDBOOK, Eighth Edition.

Fred D. White received his Ph.D. in English (with a concentration in Rhetorical Theory and Composition Studies) in 1980 from The University of Iowa and began teaching at Santa Clara University that same year. He has taught expository writing and literature courses at both the community college and university level. A professor of English emeritus at Santa Clara University, White offered courses in first-year composition, argumentation, nature writing, and an introduction to poetry. In 1997 he received the Louis and Dorina Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence. He is the author, most recently, of THE WRITER'S IDEA THESAURUS (Writer's Digest Books, 2014) and WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS? A WRITER'S GUIDE TO TRANSFORMING NOTIONS INTO NARRATIVES (Writer's Digest Books, 2012). He is also the author of APPROACHING EMILY DICKINSON: CRITICAL CURRENTS AND CROSSCURRENTS SINCE 1960 (Camden House, 2008), THE DAILY WRITER: 366 MEDITATIONS TO CULTIVATE A PRODUCTIVE AND MEANINGFUL WRITING LIFE (Writer's Digest Books, 2008; A Quality Paperback Book Club Featured Selection), ESSENTIAL MUIR: A SELECTION OF JOHN MUIR'S BEST WRITINGS (Heyday Books, 2006), and LIFEWRITING (Quill Driver Books, 2004). His articles have been published in such journals as Arizona Quarterly, College Literature, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, North Dakota Quarterly, Pleiades, San Jose Studies, South Dakota Review, Walt Whitman Review, and The Writing Instructor.

Simone J. Billings received her Ph.D. in the Division of Language, Literacy, and Culture from Stanford University in 1994. Presently a senior lecturer at Santa Clara University, where she has worked full-time since 1980, she generally teaches non-fiction writing courses: freshman composition, freshman composition for honors students, argumentation, and creative non-fiction (e.g., profiles, satires, interviews, reviews, travel writing). In Fall 2009, Dr. Billings received a grant as a Fulbright Scholar to work with the Open Campus of the University of the West Indies on developing curriculum for online and blended (both online and face-to-face) delivery of writing classes. As a Fulbright Scholar, she also ran workshops on design of writing classes, written response to student papers, and writing program design for writing instructors of the Open Campus. In Fall 2007, she received the Dr. David E. Logothetti Teaching Award. Dr. Billings has presented numerous papers at the annual conventions of College Composition and Communication. She has also served as a consultant to the writing program at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, on Barbados. Her research interests include (1) instructor commentary on and assessment of student writing and (2) various sites and manifestations of literacy.