Book excerpt: The Humble Argument is so much more than a writing textbook. It gives you tools, tips, and tricks that actually explain what a writer does. It doesn’t sugarcoat the process or dumb down the very real challenges that entering a college writing space requires. This book is more like a friend. It’s the kind of friend that will coach you through a tough time, encourage you, and make you laugh while you go through it. It’s the kind of friend who holds your hair back when you’re sick of writing and gives you the courage to try again. Roy K. Humble is the kind of writing teacher who understands the struggle of learning how to write arguments like a college student and doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear. His lessons here are profound, but in the sense that they are delivered by someone who wants you to feel included in the conversation about what good college writing should be. He writes to students in language they can understand without becoming English majors, with just enough humor to keep them reading. He writes for faculty, moving through the unadorned guiding principles of effective formal writing so that faculty have a great framework on which to build their classes. Perhaps most importantly, Humble understands that the price of a book matters to students, so his books are affordable. From every perspective, Humble gets it. The Humble Argument has students covered on these important topics: • Understanding argument as an idea • Grasping the stages of the writing process • Organizing an argument around rhetorical principles • Thinking for yourself as a college student • Crafting a careful and clear thesis • Gathering and synthesizing evidence to support a thesis • Guiding readers through a thoughtful, persuasive essay