As part of Longman's Penguin Academic Series, A Short Guide to College Writing is a brief rhetoric focused on academic writing.

With a well-known author team, this book offers practical advice on writing college essays from the beginning of the process to the end. The student can turn to this book for advice about matters large and small—choosing a topic, writing an analysis, constructing a paragraph, using and documenting a source, punctuating a quotation. The instructor can suggest chapters for students to consult in revising a draft, editing a revision, or preparing final copy. Although discussion and examples of description and narration are included, the emphasis is on analysis, argument, and research. Students are taught the essential skills for effective college writing—skills one needs when writing an essay for a first-year composition course, or an art history class, or a cultural studies seminar.