The St. Martin's Handbook: With 2003 MLA Update [Paperback]

Andrea A. Lunsford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0312413130 | ISBN-13: 978-0312413132 | Edition: Fifth Edition

Providing guidelines and writing practice for students, this third edition features a discussion on language variety and includes expanded research coverage which gives tips on writing across the disciplines. In addition, students are shown how to prepare and give presentations. Full chapters on working online and designing documents on a computer are also included.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

ANDREA A. LUNSFORD is Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English and director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University and also teaches at the Bread Loaf School of English. A past chair of CCCC, she has won the major publication awards in both the CCCC and MLA. For Bedford/St. Martin's, she is also the author of Easy Writer (2006), and The Everyday Writer (2005); The Presence of Others (2004) and Everything's an Argument (2007) with John Ruszkiewicz; and Everything's an Argument with Readings (2007) with John Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters.

EDITORIAL ADVISERS:

 

Nora Bacon, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Rick Cole, Boston University

Judith M. Davis, Hampton University

Christy Desmet, University of Georgia

Judith G. Gardner, University of Texas at San Antonio

Sara Jameson, Oregon State University

Michael A. Keller, South Dakota State University

Winnie M. Kenney, Southwestern Illinois College

Heidi L. Kolk, Washington University, St. Louis

Carole P. Lane, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Stephen M. Levin, Georgia Institute of Technology

Annie Perkins, Norfolk State University

Eileen B. Seifert, DePaul University

Anne E. Raines, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 992 pages
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's; Fifth Edition edition (June 13, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312413130
• ISBN-13: 978-0312413132
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,048,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best of a Bad Lot, August 24, 2004

By 

Christopher I. Lehrich (Quincy, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The St. Martin's Handbook: With 2003 MLA Update (Paperback)

If you are looking for a writing handbook for a college writing class, this is the best there is. Ideally, you should get the paperback, but it appears to be out of print.

The volume wastes little time or space on trivia (web pages, business memos, etc.). The handling of grammar is clear and to the point. Discussions of reading and note-taking, argumentation, and analysis are useful, if not always inspired. Coverage of documentation and research writing is as good as such manuals get, which is to say decent without being fully satisfactory. Much of the pedagogical material interspersed with the rest, particularly about ESL students, cultural backgrounds, writing literature papers, and so forth is very well done.

Unlike every other manual I saw when my program reviewed nearly fifty of these tomes, Lunsford's text is clearly written by someone who understands what students will actually be asked to do in college classes. She doesn't lard the book with a lot of bad Mickey Mouse assignments. Those who actually read the text will find that she moves rapidly from basics (grammar, etc.) into elementary academic writing, which is of course exactly what professors will demand of students. Every other text I read through seems to think that professors want their students to write position papers expressing their opinions!

Lunsford has a charming, clear writing style, and the book is simply and clearly laid out. Those who only flip through it rapidly may think it insufficiently glitzy, but you buy a manual for its content, not its colors.

If you have to choose one writing textbook, this is far and away the best. Unfortunately, that just means it's acceptable, not that it's actually particularly good.

One day someone is going to write a manual that's about 500 pages (instead of 1,000), that's simple and clear and to the point, and that costs about $25. Until that happens, Andrea Lunsford's manual is your best bet for college writing.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Old MLA version, January 11, 2011

By 

Bry Osmonson - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The St. Martin's Handbook: With 2003 MLA Update (Paperback)

Since the anglophiles had to change the MLA bibliography rules, this book is now dated. It's fine for grammar and whatnot but don't follow the MLA citation guidelines.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent English tool, July 21, 2011

By 

Skarah007 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The St. Martin's Handbook (Hardcover)

We use this book in class every day and it has been extremely helpful in improving my grammar skills. I am sure that I will sell most of the school books that I collect over time, but I'm keeping this one for future reference.