The Bedford Handbook


The Bedford Handbook is a guide written by Diana Hacker, now in its tenth edition, that provides basic explanations of proper English grammar, composition, citation, and textual analysis. The guide includes a number of sample texts and illustrations throughout its sections.
The Bedford Handbook contains guides to the MLA, APA, and Chicago citation styles and includes examples of each style in essay form. The book is paired with a companion website that has exercises and more writing models. The hardback is 820 pages and the paperback is 960 pages and are published by United States publisher Bedford/St. Martin's.

Brief Menu

Part I. The Writing Process

  1. Generating ideas; sketching a plan
  2. Roughing out an initial draft
  3. Making global revisions; revising sentences
  4. Building paragraphs

    Part II. Document Design

Part III. Clear Sentences

Part IV. Word Choice

Part V. Grammatical Sentences

Part VI. ESL Trouble Spots

Part VII. Punctuation

Part VIII. Mechanics

Part IX. Critical Thinking

Part X. Researched Writing