A compact version of one of the most widely adopted composition readers of all time — at a significant savings to students — The Brief Bedford Reader continues to engage and inspire with 50 remarkable selections, all the outstanding instructional material of the full-length text, and a unique "Writers on Writing" feature in which 32 of the book’s writers comment on their process and their work. Thorough coverage of critical reading, effective writing, and working with sources guides students, now more than ever, through their own academic writing. And an exciting visual dimension shows that rhetorical methods apply to both images and text.

The Brief Bedford Reader is a favorite of students for the Kennedys’ clarity and wit, of instructors for the flexible and realistic view of the rhetorical methods, and of both for the superior selections and perceptive commentaries by writers worth reading.