Culture and Context is a bridge-level developmental writing textbook that teaches the basics of essay writing through meaningful connections to popular culture and college life.

The book emphasizes the integral link between reading and writing by providing a multitude of readings related to popular and campus culture.

Each chapter in the book's first three parts opens with a professional reading that serves to stimulate student interest and to provide a model for analysis and imitation, and Part IV presents additional readings on a variety of popular culture topics. Connected writing assignments ask students to respond to the readings and to reflect on and investigate their own cultures and those of others. These assignments aim to help them understand their contexts and to see their lives and interests—where they are now—as subjects worth writing about. The writing process emphasizes context, too, by prompting students to be aware of topic, audience, and purpose as they proceed through three carefully laid out steps: ready, write, revise. A series of worksheets and checklists help students.