Wordsmith: A Guide to Paragraphs & Short Essays, 7th edition

For courses in developmental writing.

Inspire students to craft clear, concise and engaging writing

Wordsmith: A Guide to Paragraphs and Short Essays is the antidote to dry, overwrought and overly expansive writing guides. It engages students, serves multiple skill levels and teaches writing techniques in a way that's actionable, contemporary, hands-on and fun. A 3-part layout allows the freedom to mix and match the writing chapters, grammar chapters and readings.

The 7th Edition is a powerful tool for both students and teachers. With topical readings and expanded writing exercises, the updated text empowers instructors to meet students where they are and engage their collective interests.

Hallmark features of this title

• Integrates real-world examples and delivers concepts in a direct, conversational way that engages students in learning.
• Helps students become quicker, more fluid writers building confidence through “Small Scrawls” writing practice in each of the modes chapters (accompanied by visual cues in Ch. 7-9).
• Presents material in a flexible 3-part layout that enables mixing and matching the writing chapters, grammar chapters, and readings.
• Groups rhetorical modes together based on actual usage, mirroring realistic writing strategies.
• Argument coverage includes discussion of ethos, pathos, logos (and identifying flawed arguments).
• A Word Choice chapter covers more informal writing for the Internet and texting and updated MLA/APA style guidelines are included.
• Free download: The Pearson Guide to the 2021 MLA Handbook.

New and updated features of this title

Brief, readable and actionable content

• UPDATED: Content has been enhanced (exercises, images, assignments, model essays, Grammar Alert! boxes, and chapter openers) to keep material current and engaging.
• NEW: Streamlined explanations and examples throughout (particularly in the subject-verb agreement chapter and 2 pronoun chapters), enhance clarity without sacrificing coverage.
• NEW: Includes 5 new essays: “Surrender at Appomattox” by Ulysses S. Grant; Barbara Ehrenreich's “Warning: This Is a Rights-Free Workplace”; “Crossing Invisible Lines” by Eugenia Vela; Mark Twain's “Two Ways of Seeing a River”; and "Simplicity," an essay on ridding writing of clutter by William Zinsser.

Thoughtfully organized for structure and flexibility

• NEW: Additional paragraph-style editing exercises have been added where students are most likely to need extra practice (e.g., subject-verb agreement; coordination and subordination; run-on sentences; sentence fragments; pronoun agreement, reference, and point of view).

Handy, in-text, up-to-date information

• NEW: Writing Summary Reports (Ch. 11) contains all of this edition's coverage on incorporating quotes into college essays. This reorganization is based on college writing's focus on quotations in the context of research (rather than as dialogue).