Still designed as a classroom text for first-time academic writers (and for those whose educational experience did not include formal writing), this edition also includes new materials on assembling and organizing paragraphs and writing different types of essays. It also includes new readings that reflect recent events and concerns. Joy (English, Sacramento City College) starts gently by stepping students through writing about reading and then the writing process itself, giving students strategies for writing from observation, making connections, interpreting, and considering contexts. She then builds students' confidence in assignments and examples that come from their own cultures and experience, and uses that confidence to help them tackle research papers. Finally, she improves students' mechanical writing skills through practice in editing. The result respects students' experience and cultures while giving them opportunities to improve their formal writing in preparation for college work. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)