Book excerpt: In a striking full-color visual format, The Bedford Book of Genres collects compelling examples that tell stories, report information, and persuade their audiences and then invites students to unpack how they work in order to experiment with their own compositions—not only through writing, but through photography, sketching, audio recording, and other creative forms. The Guide presents a simple rhetorical framework for reading in any genre and supports students through every step of the composing process, from finding a topic and sources to choosing a genre, presenting your work, and creating an author’s statement about your composing choices. Guided Readings—in print and e-Pages—map out the rhetorical situation and conventions of common public and academic genres, while Guided Process sections follow the decisions that 5 real students made as they worked in multiple genres and media. With 16 topic clusters and a range of readings from short visual arguments to longer, more complex pieces, the Reader gives students a wealth of sources, models, and inspiration for their own compositions.