COMING SOON 14-February-2025

A Pocket Style Manual

Tenth Edition

Publication Date: February 14, 2025

Spiral-Bound ISBN: 9781319413019

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A Pocket Style Manual provides straightforward instruction on grammar, style, and punctuation and gives students quick solutions for writing challenges. Step-by-step guides and a how-to approach help students form research questions, integrate sources, and cite sources in three...

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A Pocket Style Manual

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Part 0: Becoming a College Writer: Using Academic Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

Part 1: Clarity

1 Tighten wordy sentences.

1a Redundancies

1b Empty or inflated phrases

1c Needlessly complex structures

2 Prefer active verbs.

2a When to replace be verbs

2b When to replace passive verbs

3 Balance parallel ideas.

3a Items in a series

3b Paired ideas

4 Add needed words.

4a Words in compound structures

4b The word that

4c Words in comparisons

5 Eliminate distracting shifts.

5a Shifts in point of view

5b Shifts in tense

6 Untangle mixed constructions.

6a Mixed grammatical structure

6b Illogical connections

6c Is when, is where, and reason . . . is because constructions

7 Repair misplaced and dangling modifiers.

7a Misplaced words

7b Misplaced phrases and clauses

7c Dangling modifiers

7d Split infinitives

8 Provide sentence variety.

8a Combining choppy sentences

8b Varying sentence openings

9 Find an appropriate voice.

9a Jargon

9b Clichés

9c Slang

9d Sexist and noninclusive language

Part 2: Grammar

10 Make subjects and verbs agree.

10a Words between subject and verb

10b Subjects joined with and

10c Subjects joined with or or nor

10d Indefinite pronouns such as someone

10e Collective nouns such as jury

10f Subject after verb

10g Who, which, and that

10h Plural form, singular meaning

10i Titles, company names, and words mentioned as words

11 Be alert to other problems with verbs.

11a Irregular verbs

11b Tense

11c Mood

12 Use pronouns with care.

12a Pronoun-antecedent agreement

12b Pronoun reference

12c Case of personal pronouns (I vs. me etc.)

12d Who vs. whom

13 Use adjectives and adverbs appropriately.

13a Adjectives

13b Adverbs

13c Comparatives and superlatives

14 Repair sentence fragments.

14a Fragmented clauses

14b Fragmented phrases

15 Revise run-on sentences.

15a Revision with a comma and a coordinating conjunction

15b Revision with a semicolon (or a colon or a dash)

15c Revision by separating sentences

15d Revision by restructuring the sentence

16 Consider grammar topics for multilingual writers.

16a Verbs

16b Articles (a, an, the)

16c Sentence structure

16d Prepositions showing time and place

Part 3: Punctuation

17 The comma

17a Before a coordinating conjunction joining independent clauses

17b After an introductory clause or phrase

17c Between items in a series

17d Between coordinate adjectives

17e To set off a nonrestrictive element, but not a restrictive element

17f To set off transitional and parenthetical expressions, absolute phrases, and word groups expressing contrast

17g To set off nouns of direct address, the words yes and no, interrogative tags, and mild interjections

17h To set off direct quotations introduced with expressions such as he said

17i With dates, addresses, and titles

17j Misuses of the comma

18 The semicolon and the colon

18a The semicolon

18b The colon

19 The apostrophe

19a To indicate possession

19b To mark contractions

19c Conventional uses

19d Misuses of the apostrophe

20 Quotation marks

20a To enclose direct quotations

20b Around titles of short works

20c To set off words used as words

20d Other punctuation with quotation marks

20e Misuses of quotation marks

21 Other punctuation marks

21a The period

21b The question mark

21c The exclamation point

21d The dash

21e Parentheses

21f Brackets

21g The ellipsis

21h The slash

Part 4: Mechanics

22 Capitalization

22a Proper vs. common nouns

22b Titles with proper names

22c Titles of works

22d First word of a sentence or quoted sentence

22e First word following a colon

23 Abbreviations, numbers, and italics

23a Abbreviations

23b Numbers

23c Italics

24 Hyphenation

24a Compound words

24b Words functioning together as an adjective

24c Conventional uses

Part 5: Research

25 Asking a research question

25a Choosing a focused question

25b Choosing a debatable question

25c Choosing a question grounded in evidence

26 Finding appropriate sources

26a Using the library

26b Using the web

26c Using bibliographies and citations

26d Conducting field research, if appropriate

27 Evaluating sources

27a Evaluating the reliability and usefulness of a source

27b Reading with an open mind and a critical eye

27d Constructing an annotated bibliography

28 Managing information; avoiding plagiarism during research

28a Maintaining a working bibliography

28b Keeping track of source materials

28c Taking notes responsibly: avoiding unintentional plagiarism

29 Supporting a thesis

29a Forming a thesis statement

29b Organizing your ideas

29c Using sources to inform and support your argument

30 Avoiding plagiarism

30a Citing quotations and borrowed ideas

30b Using the MLA, APA, and Chicago citation systems to lead readers to your sources

30c Using quotation marks around borrowed language

30d Putting summaries and paraphrases in your own words

31 Integrating sources

31a Summarizing and paraphrasing effectively

31b Using quotations effectively

31c Using signal phrases to integrate sources

31d Synthesizing sources

32 Integrating literary quotations

32a Introducing quotations from literary works

32b Avoiding shifts in tense

32c Formatting and citing literary passages

Part 6: MLA Style

33 MLA documentation style

33a MLA in-text citations

33b MLA list of works cited

34 MLA format; sample research essay

34a MLA format

34b Sample MLA research essay

Part 7: APA Style

35 APA documentation style

35a APA in-text citations

35b APA list of references

36 APA format; sample research essay

36a APA format

36b Sample APA research essay

Part 8: Chicago Style

37 Chicago documentation style

37a First and later notes for a source

37b Chicago-style bibliography

37c Model notes and bibliography entries

38 Chicago format; sample pages

38a Chicago format

38b Sample pages from a Chicago research essay

Part 9: Glossaries

Glossary of usage

Glossary of grammatical terms

Clear coverage of grammar, style, punctuation, and mechanics in a clean, uncluttered presentation.

Guidelines for three major documentation styles--MLA, APA, and Chicago--with more than 200 citation models.

Practical how-to research writing instruction, including step-by-step guides and model writing examples.

Affordable help for college writers delivered in Achieve, a dynamic digital environment designed for writing, practice, and peer review.

Achieve is Macmillan Learning’s complete online learning system. It houses instructor resources to support teaching and a range of interactive resources and the full ebook to help students succeed in their course. Access to Achieve for instructors is available on this page. Student access to Achieve could be through their institution if the institution has signed a license or as a separate student purchase. The instructor must set up a course for students to benefit from this product.

Tenth Edition Updates (c2025)

New guidance about the use of generative AI tools. From the new opening section “Using Academic Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence” to best practices for using AI for brainstorming and research and how to cite AI-generated content, A Pocket Style Manual helps students build literacy and critical thinking skills around the use of generative AI. New interactive AI tutorials in Achieve help students learn best practices.

More inclusive content. To help students see themselves in the handbook, new and updated examples feature people representing a wider range of backgrounds and lived experiences. A new at-a-glance box, “Researching for diverse viewpoints,” empowers students to search for and include sources reflecting diverse and sometimes under-represented viewpoints to make the research conversation inclusive and well rounded.

New quick-help boxes. New easy-to-find content helps students understand how to use AI to generate research questions, ways to research for diverse viewpoints, how to collect information for a working bibliography, and more.

Streamlined and reorganized content. Cutting down on repetition, advice about supporting a thesis, avoiding plagiarism, and integrating sources is now consolidated in the “Researched Writing” part of the book, which allows students to see disciplinary style variations all in one spot. The reorganization also makes the MLA-, APA-, and Chicago-specific citation sections easier to find.

“A Pocket Style Manual is for the student what a multi-function pocket knife is to the survivalist—a compact, versatile, and practical tool. It’s the one textbook a student can rely on for their college career.”

-Rick Garza, Reedley College

“Students can achieve their own writing growth and their own writing success with the right tool. Achieve is that tool.”

--Jennifer Duncan, Georgia State University, Perimeter College

“I like the new AI tips. They provide specific instruction for using AI in the writing process but do not sacrifice the student’s role as a writer.”

– Katherine Cottle, Goucher College

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.

Nancy Sommers

Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard's Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard's WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and editor of Tiny Teaching Stories on Macmillan Learning's Bits Blog.

Achieve for A Pocket Style Manual 10e is an online learning system backed by extensive development and research. Proven to increase student engagement and boost performance. Achieve offers:

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Integrated with iClicker so that instructors and students can benefit in class and remotely from an industry leading student response system.

A fully digital environment designed for writing practice, feedback, and peer review.

New interactive tutorials helping students understand the power of generative AI for college writers and how to use AI tools responsibly and effectively.

Engaging video tutorials to help students understand the expectations related to common college assignments. (Creating an argument, analysis, annotating a bibliography, and citing sources.

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