Bedford Basics
Third Edition ©1998 Diana Hacker; Wanda Van Goor Formats: Print
As low as $28.99
As low as $28.99
Authors
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Diana Hacker
Diana Hacker personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over thirty-five years at Prince George's Community College in Maryland, where she was a member of the English faculty. Hacker handbooks, built on innovation and on a keen understanding of the challenges facing student writers, are the most widely adopted in America. Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin's, include A Writer's Reference, Eleventh Edition (2025); A Pocket Style Manual, Tenth Edition (2025); The Bedford Handbook, Twelfth Edition (2023); Rules for Writers, Tenth Edition (2022); and Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version.
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Wanda Van Goor
Table of Contents
PART I. THE WRITING PROCESS
1. Generating ideas; sketching a plan
2. Roughing out an initial draft
3. Making global revisions; revising sentences
4. Choosing a document design
PART II. CONSTRUCTING PARAGRAPHS
5. Focusing on a main point
6. Developing the main point
7. Improving coherence
PART III. CLEAR SENTENCES
8. Coordination and subordination
9. Parallelism
10. Needed words
11. Mixed constructions
12. Misplaced and dangling modifiers
13. Shifts
14. Emphasis
15. Variety
PART IV. WORD CHOICE
16. Wordy sentences
17. Appropriate language
18. Exact Words
PART V. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES
19. Sentence fragments
20. Run-on sentences
21. Subject-verb agreement (is or are, etc.)
22. Pronoun-antecedent agreement (singular or plural)
23. Pronoun reference (clarity)
24. Pronoun case (I or me, etc.)
25. Who or whom
26. Adjectives and adverbs (good or well, etc.)
27. Standard English verb forms
28. Verb tense, mood, and voice
PART VI. ESL TROUBLE SPOTS
29. Special problems with verbs
30. The articles a, an, and the
31. Other trouble spots
PART VII. PUNCTUATION
32. The comma
33. Unnecessary commas
34. The semicolon
35. The colon
36. The apostrophe
37. Quotation marks
38. End punctuation
39. Other punctuation marks: the dash, parentheses, brackets, the ellipsis mark, the slash
PART VIII. MECHANICS
40. Abbreviations
41. Numbers
42. Italics (underlining)
43. Spelling
44. The hyphen
45. Capital letters
PART IX. GRAMMAR BASICS
46. Introduction
47. Parts of speech
48. Sentence patterns
49. Subordinate word groups
50. Sentence types
Glossary of Usage
Answers to Tutorials, Guided Practice, and Preview Exercises
Index
Product Updates
Grammar-checker boxes throughout the book explain what computerized grammar checkers can -- and cannot -- do.
Tutorials at the front of the book show students how to consult the text on their own.
New icons keyed to the books parts appeal to todays visually oriented students.
Authors
-
Diana Hacker
Diana Hacker personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over thirty-five years at Prince George's Community College in Maryland, where she was a member of the English faculty. Hacker handbooks, built on innovation and on a keen understanding of the challenges facing student writers, are the most widely adopted in America. Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin's, include A Writer's Reference, Eleventh Edition (2025); A Pocket Style Manual, Tenth Edition (2025); The Bedford Handbook, Twelfth Edition (2023); Rules for Writers, Tenth Edition (2022); and Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version.
-
Wanda Van Goor
Table of Contents
PART I. THE WRITING PROCESS
1. Generating ideas; sketching a plan
2. Roughing out an initial draft
3. Making global revisions; revising sentences
4. Choosing a document design
PART II. CONSTRUCTING PARAGRAPHS
5. Focusing on a main point
6. Developing the main point
7. Improving coherence
PART III. CLEAR SENTENCES
8. Coordination and subordination
9. Parallelism
10. Needed words
11. Mixed constructions
12. Misplaced and dangling modifiers
13. Shifts
14. Emphasis
15. Variety
PART IV. WORD CHOICE
16. Wordy sentences
17. Appropriate language
18. Exact Words
PART V. GRAMMATICAL SENTENCES
19. Sentence fragments
20. Run-on sentences
21. Subject-verb agreement (is or are, etc.)
22. Pronoun-antecedent agreement (singular or plural)
23. Pronoun reference (clarity)
24. Pronoun case (I or me, etc.)
25. Who or whom
26. Adjectives and adverbs (good or well, etc.)
27. Standard English verb forms
28. Verb tense, mood, and voice
PART VI. ESL TROUBLE SPOTS
29. Special problems with verbs
30. The articles a, an, and the
31. Other trouble spots
PART VII. PUNCTUATION
32. The comma
33. Unnecessary commas
34. The semicolon
35. The colon
36. The apostrophe
37. Quotation marks
38. End punctuation
39. Other punctuation marks: the dash, parentheses, brackets, the ellipsis mark, the slash
PART VIII. MECHANICS
40. Abbreviations
41. Numbers
42. Italics (underlining)
43. Spelling
44. The hyphen
45. Capital letters
PART IX. GRAMMAR BASICS
46. Introduction
47. Parts of speech
48. Sentence patterns
49. Subordinate word groups
50. Sentence types
Glossary of Usage
Answers to Tutorials, Guided Practice, and Preview Exercises
Index
Product Updates
Grammar-checker boxes throughout the book explain what computerized grammar checkers can -- and cannot -- do.
Tutorials at the front of the book show students how to consult the text on their own.
New icons keyed to the books parts appeal to todays visually oriented students.
Looking for instructor resources like Test Banks, Lecture Slides, and Clicker Questions? Request access to Achieve to explore the full suite of instructor resources.
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Sometimes also referred to as a spiral-bound or binder-ready textbook, loose-leaf textbooks are available to purchase. This three-hole punched, unbound version of the book costs less than a hardcover or paperback book.
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We can help! Contact your representative to discuss your specific needs for your course. If our off-the-shelf course materials don’t quite hit the mark, we also offer custom solutions made to fit your needs.
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ISBN:9781457648571
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FAQs
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Are you a campus bookstore looking for ordering information?
MPS Order Search Tool (MOST) is a web-based purchase order tracking program that allows customers to view and track their purchases. No registration or special codes needed! Just enter your BILL-TO ACCT # and your ZIP CODE to track orders.
Canadian Stores: Please use only the first five digits/letters in your zip code on MOST.
Visit MOST, our online ordering system for booksellers: https://tracking.mpsvirginia.com/Login.aspx
Learn more about our Bookstore programs here: https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/contact-us/booksellers
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Our courses currently integrate with Canvas, Blackboard (Learn and Ultra), Brightspace, D2L, and Moodle. Click on the support documentation below to find out more details about the integration with each LMS.
Integrate Macmillan courses with Blackboard
Integrate Macmillan courses with Canvas
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If you’re a verified instructor, you can request a free sample of our courseware, e-book, or print textbook to consider for use in your courses. Only registered and verified instructors can receive free print and digital samples, and they should not be sold to bookstores or book resellers. If you don't yet have an existing account with Macmillan Learning, it can take up to two business days to verify your status as an instructor. You can request a free sample from the right side of this product page by clicking on the "Request Instructor Sample" button or by contacting your rep. Learn more.
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Sometimes also referred to as a spiral-bound or binder-ready textbook, loose-leaf textbooks are available to purchase. This three-hole punched, unbound version of the book costs less than a hardcover or paperback book.
-
-
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We can help! Contact your representative to discuss your specific needs for your course. If our off-the-shelf course materials don’t quite hit the mark, we also offer custom solutions made to fit your needs.
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Bedford Basics
In a workbook format, Bedford Basics incorporates a streamlined version of the text from the highly successful Bedford Handbook with lower-level exercises. Because Bedford Basics follows the handbooks organization, it can easily be used in conjunction with the handbook in a composition sequence or it can stand alone in any developmental writing class. For the new edition, the exercises have been carefully revised after much classroom testing. In addition, several new features have been added to make this book more useful for culturally diverse students, students working on a computer, and students using the book on their own.
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