Academic writing now : a brief for busy students is concise in its layout and instruction and comprehensive in its coverage of the necessary elements of college writing. By distilling the fundamentals of college writing into and accessible format, David Starkey expertly guides the student writer through realistic yet critical practice. This makes academic writing now the most reliable resource for my students in both first- and second-semester composition.
Starkey delivers clear, ordered advice in a voice so familiar and colloquial that anyone's anxiety about this often rigid academic subject will start to calm. He moves seamlessly between examples ranging from everyday experience to the highest levels of great writing, and what i like best is that underneath it all he encourages students to keep creativity and poetic insight alive while they tackle the challenge of writing rigorous, scholarly papers.