The Allyn & Bacon Handbook is designed as a superior resource for classroom and reference use, and is distinguished by its coverage of critical thinking and academic reading, writing, and thinking.

The handbook is uniquely suited to students learning how to write in college settings, both in and beyond their freshman composition courses. Its opening chapters on “Critical Thinking and Writing” provide a foundation for decision-making skills from the invention and planning stages, to whole essay development, to the design of sentences. Writing and argument-as-a-way-of-knowing are developed from early chapters through to the three unique chapters on writing and reading in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.