The ESL Writer's Handbook is a reference work for ESL students who are taking college-level courses. Because its purpose is to provide help with the broad variety of writing questions students may have when working on school assignments, the text focuses on English for Academic Purposes. Unlike other handbooks on the market, this book's sole purpose is to address the issues of second language learners.

The spiral-bound Handbook complements a student writer's dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar reference book. It would be suitable as a text for an advanced ESL writing course when used together with the companion Workbook (978-0-472-03726-1).

The new edition features significant revisions to Sections 3 and 4; in particular, both APA and MLA style guides have been updated and new sample papers for each are included. The new edition includes new and revised exercises and many new samples of student writing.

Like its predecessor, the Second Edition has these special features:

The topic selection is based on ESL writers' needs as observed by the authors over many years.
The coverage of topics is more complete than the limited amount usually provided for ESL writers in first language or L1 handbooks.
The explanatory language is appropriate for ESL students, in contrast to the more complex and idiomatic language of other English handbooks.
Many of the examples of paragraphs, essays, research papers, and exercise sentences were written by ESL students to help users realize that they too can become effective writers.