Book excerpt: Click here to find out more about the 2009 MLA Updates and the 2010 APA Updates. Andrea A. Lunsford’s years of experience in the classroom and in the field have given her a unique understanding of how, what, where, and why today’s students write. For her research for The St. Martin’s Handbook — ongoing for over two decades — she has studied thousands of papers by composition students nationwide. Andrea Lunsford’s trademark attention to rhetorical choice, language and style, and critical thinking and argument have always made The St. Martin’s Handbook an accessible and thorough writing resource. Now informed by new research into student writing patterns and featuring expanded and more visual coverage of research, documentation, and writing in any discipline, The St. Martin’s Handbook offers students more help than ever before with meeting the expectations of college work.