Forms of Writing occupies the middle ground between a rhetoric and a handbook. Like a rhetoric text, it covers writing and research, but is briefer than most and lacks additional readings beyond the examples in the text. Its brevity and comprehensive coverage makes it an ideal companion book for communications courses, introductory and advanced writing courses, and English courses with a writing component. The authors focus on three main purposes of writing—to explain, to persuade, and to share personal experience—and show how purpose influences the strategies chosen in writing for a particular audience. This emphasis on purpose and audience gives students a basic orientation that helps them understand the conventions of a wide variety of forms, such as personal essays, research papers, and business letters. Many students keep the text as a reference for writing in other courses and on the job.
Marian E. Allen Knihy
