Book excerpt: Adapted from the best-selling St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, Axelrod and Cooper’s Concise Guide to Writing provides streamlined versions of the chapters covering six of the most commonly assigned genres in the first-year writing course — remembering events, writing profiles, explaining concepts, arguing a position, proposing a solution, and justifying an evaluation. The careful integration of well-chosen readings with guided writing instruction in these chapters is complemented by coverage of strategies for reading, writing, and research in brief-but-complete chapters at the end of the book. Read the preface.