A comprehensive modes-oriented rhetoric for freshman composition that combines four books-a rhetoric, a research guide, reader and handbook-into one convenient teaching tool. Includes a handbook in back of the book.
Here's the thing: this text is bare bones and mostly "just the facts Ma'am"; just the thing for community college or non-English major students. I've found the "Reader" section, which contains real-life essays on topics from immigration to machsimo to defining family, to be a useful supplement for modeling examples of writing topics, strategies, and architecture. Plus, the TOC sports a cross-reference that matches up the categories of the essays in the "Reader" section to the "Rhetoric" section, so I don't have to flog my brain, and, gasp -- do it myself.
While not perfect, this really does work as a good composition textbook. It's clear, provides a workable number of readings from which to select, and succeeds in getting to the point. I admit, though, that I've never used the grammar section.