The Allyn & Bacon Handbook is designed as a superior resource for classroom and reference use, offering cross-disciplinary coverage that is uniquely suited to writers both in and beyond college. Its opening chapters on "Critical Thinking and Writing" provide a foundation for decision-making skills from the invention and planning stages, to whole essay development, to the design of sentences. Writing and argument-as-a-way-of-knowing is developed from early chapters through to the three unique chapters on writing and reading in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.