Writing First With Readings

Best-selling authors and veteran college writing instructors Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell believe that students learn to write best when they use their own writing as a starting point. In Writing First with Readings: Practice in Context, designed for the paragraph to essay course, Kirszner and Mandell take seriously the ideas and expressive abilities of developmental students, as well as their need to learn the rules of writing and grammar. Visual writing prompts that open every chapter get students writing immediately. By moving frequently between their own writing, writing models and instruction, and workbook-style mastery exercises, students get constant reinforcement of the skills they are learning. Thoughtful chapters on college success, research, and critical reading, along with high-interest essays, round out the text, making it the perfect introduction to college writing. Read the preface.

Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell have taught college composition and basic writing for more than 25 years and have authored many widely adopted textbooks, including Foundations First: Sentences and Paragraphs, Focus on Writing: Paragraphs and Essays, Patterns for College Writing, and Practical Argument.

Laurie Kirszner teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at the University of the Sciences. 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.