This book provides students with the kind of extra help they will need to meet the demands of their first-year writing course as well as their other courses. Through its highly visual, student-centered approach, the book teaches basic skills and engages students immediately in the thinking-writing process, guiding them through the writing strategies and activities that form the core of composition instruction. It is divided into six parts: Academic Quick Start; Strategies for Writing Essays; Patterns of Development; Reading and Writing Arguments; Academic Applications; and Handbook: Writing Problems and How To Correct Them. Chapters in the book are: (1) Starting with an Advantage; (2) Working with Text: Active Reading Strategies; (3) Writing about Readings; (4) Prewriting: How To Find and Focus Ideas; (5) Developing and Supporting a Thesis; (6) Drafting an Essay; (7) Revising Content and Organization; (8) Editing Sentences and Words; (9) Narration: Recounting Events; (10) Description: Portraying People, Places, and Things; (11) Illustration: Explaining with Examples; (12) Process Analysis: Explaining How Something Works or Is Done; (13) Comparison and Contrast: Showing Similarities and Differences; (14) Classification and Division: Explaining Categories and Parts; (15) Definition: Explaining What You Mean; (16) Cause and Effect: Using Reasons and Results To Explain; (17) Reading Arguments; (18) Writing Arguments; (19) Planning a Paper with Sources; (20) Writing a Research Paper; (21) Reading and Writing about Literature; and (22) Essay Examinations and Timed Writings. A handbook on writing problems and how to correct them is attached. Appendixes contain two writing assessment tests, advice on five steps to academic success, and answers to even-numbered exercises. (RS)