Writing Today, 5th edition

Richard Johnson-Sheehan Purdue University
Charles Paine University of New Mexico

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For courses in first year composition.

Practical writing skills for composing in the real world

Writing Today fits the way students today read, learn and write, and prepares them for writing in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). Flexible assignment chapters work in any sequence and cover writing genres, strategies and processes to help students succeed in their courses, careers and civic lives.

The 5th Edition reflects the emergence of AI as a tool for assisting writing and prepares students to employ it ethically. Updates include enhanced coverage of citing sources, new readings and writing samples, and a new Part 3 focused on transferring communication skills from college to the workplace.

Hallmark features of this title

Flexible chapters can be used in any sequence and offer clear instruction, concise paragraphs and helpful visual cues to help students find what they need.
Quick Start Guides provide a summary with action steps to approach each genre; and At-A-Glance Diagrams visually depict how to organize a genre's key elements.
Ample practice includes informal and long-form writing assignments and diverse question sets (following genre and microgenre models) to prompt analytical reading and discussion.
Annotated models include student-written examples that highlight rhetorical decisions and present assignment topics.
Digital and multimodal writing strategies and practice with microgenres hone career skills (e.g., proposal and pitch writing; using visuals, audio and remote collaboration).

New and updated features of this title

NEW: AI is covered as a tool for writing in nearly every chapter, preparing students to employ AI technologies (e.g., ChatGPT) effectively and ethically.
NEW: A new Part 3, focused on career-related genres, builds on Part 2 (“Genres for Writing in College”) to help students transfer writing skills to the workplace.
EXPANDED: Coverage of reflection in the writing process encourages students to consider how their writing reflects their motives, values and culture.
NEW: 4 new chapters cover in-demand topics such as explainers (increasingly used in STEM fields); literacy narratives (including digital literacy); photo essays; and how to create and use career materials in and beyond college. An expanded, early chapter on essay exams provides strategies for this prevalent form of assessment.
NEW: 15 diverse new readings inspire discussion and offer fresh writing topics. Included are several student writing models, as well as examples that help illustrate the rhetorical choices in new microgenre chapters.
ENHANCED: Coverage of properly citing sources is current with the latest methods and technologies to help students navigate challenges and avoid plagiarism.
NEW: Download the free Corequisite Support Workbook, a Writing Today supplement organized as 9 workshops to help corequisite learners succeed.

Features of Pearson+ eTextbook for the 5th Edition

More than 100 writing prompts and multimodal assignments throughout the eTextbook encourage literacy, critical thought and invention, and span from argument to research, to modes and genres, across multiple mediums.
A Corequisite Support Workbook for Writing Today has been added as a supplementary section of the Writing Today eTextbook organized into 9 workshops to help corequisite learners succeed.
- Each of the 9 workshops provide scaffolded learning opportunities on topics such as study skills, grammar, punctuation, sentence and paragraph construction, critical reading and research (at no extra cost to students).
- The workshops include exploratory writing prompts designed to help students take the first steps toward developing their own writing process. These exercises support a structured writing process when scaffolded with the assignments in Writing Today.
- Designed with corequisite learners in mind, 66 activities are included in the workbook to engage students in active learning exercises.
- An additional Instructor's Resource Manual for the Corequisite Support Workbook is available to help integrate these workshops into instruction with Writing Today.

PART 1: GETTING STARTED

Writing with Genres
Topic, Angle, Purpose
Readers, Contexts, and Rhetorical Situations
Reading Critically, Thinking Analytically
Reflecting Critically, Starting Your Portfolio

PART 2: GENRES FOR WRITING IN COLLEGE

Literacy Narratives
Memoirs
Reviews
Arguments
Literary Analysis
Rhetorical Analysis
Written Exams and Assessments
Research Papers

PART 3: GENRES FOR WRITING IN YOUR CAREER

Profiles
Explainers
Photo Essays
Proposals
Research Reports
Résumés and Application Letters

PART 4: DEVELOPING YOUR OWN WRITING PROCESS

Prewriting and Inventing Your Ideas
Organizing and Drafting
Choosing a Style
Designing Your Document
Revising and Editing

PART 5: STRATEGIES FOR SHAPING IDEAS

Developing Paragraphs and Sections
Using Basic Rhetorical Patterns
Using Argumentative Strategies
Collaborating and Peer Response
Presenting Your Work

PART 6: DOING RESEARCH

Starting Your Research
Finding Sources, and Collecting Evidence
Citing, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Sources
Using MLA Style
Using APA Style

PREFACE FOR THE COREQUISITE SUPPORT WORKBOOK FOR WRITING TODAY

Getting Your Edge
Reading to Strengthen Your Writing
Inventing Ideas Before You Write
Writing a College Paper
Writing Stronger Sentences
Revising Paragraphs
Doing Research and Citing It
Fixing the Dirty Dozen Grammar Errors
Punctuating Correctly

About our authors

Richard Johnson-Sheehan is a Professor of Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University. At Purdue, he has directed the Introductory Composition program and served as the Director of the Purdue Writing Lab and the Purdue OWL. He has mentored new teachers of composition for many years. He teaches a variety of courses in composition, professional writing, medical writing, environmental writing, and writing program administration, as well as classical rhetoric and the rhetoric of science. He has published widely in these areas.

Johnson-Sheehan's books on writing include Argument Today, coauthored with Charles Paine, Technical Communication Today and Writing Proposals. Professor Johnson-Sheehan was awarded the 2008 Fellow of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. In 2017, he was awarded the J.R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Society for Technical Communication. He has also won numerous awards for undergraduate teaching at Purdue University.

Charles Paine is a Professor of English at the University of New Mexico, where for more than fifteen years he directed the Core Writing and the Rhetoric and Writing programs. He teaches first-year composition and courses in writing pedagogy, the history of rhetoric and composition, and other areas. His published books span a variety of topics in rhetoric and composition, including The Resistant Writer(a history of composition studies), Teaching with Student Texts (a co-edited collection of essays on teaching writing), and Argument Today (an argument-based textbook).

An active member of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, Paine has served on its Executive Board and served as co-leader of the WPA Summer Conference Workshop. He co-founded and coordinates the Consortium for the Study of Writing in College, a joint effort of the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The Consortium conducts general research into the ways that undergraduate writing can lead to enhanced learning, engagement, and other gains related to student success.

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