Book excerpt: Click here to find out more about the 2009 MLA Updates and the 2010 APA Updates. Reading specialist Kathleen McWhorter understands that students are often lacking in the skills they need to succeed in the first-year writing course and need a text that doesn’t assume they have mastered all the basics. Successful College Writing meets students where they are, offering extensive instruction in careful and critical reading, practical advice on study and college survival skills, step-by-step strategies for writing and research, detailed coverage of the nine rhetorical patterns of development, and 64 professional and student readings that provide strong rhetorical models, as well as an easy-to-use handbook in the complete edition. McWhorter’s unique visual approach to learning uses graphic organizers, revision flowcharts, and other visual tools to help students analyze texts and write their own essays. Her unique attention to varieties of learning styles also helps empower students, allowing them to identify their strengths and learning preferences.