Smarter Writing: A Student's Guide to College Composition and Research helps students gain the writing skills needed to produce college level summaries, critiques, analyses, syntheses, and documented research papers, and provides instruction in analysis, argument, research techniques, and critical thinking skills. Written to be accessible and student-friendly, and to minimize the anxiety many students feel when approaching college-level writing, the book features relatable examples and steers away from formal academic language. Students learn to write effective theses, introductions, bodies, and conclusions to the standard college essay. They become familiar with common rhetorical modes, and comfortable searching for source material and using the MLA format. Designed to enhance students' skills, to demonstrate effective techniques for organizing, researching and writing well, and perhaps most importantly, to boost students' confidence in their own abilities to manage their work and succeed in an academic environment, Smarter Writing is ideal for introductory composition courses. It is also an excellent text for writing courses for international students.