Best-selling authors and veteran college writing instructors Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell believe that students learn to write best when they use their own writing as a starting point. In Writing First with Readings: Paragraphs and Essays, the authors take a simple yet effective approach to helping students improve their writing skills: visual writing prompts open every chapter and get students writing immediately. Then, throughout the chapter, students move between their own writing, writing models and instruction, and workbook-style mastery exercises so that they continually revise, rewrite, and improve their own writing. It is this formula that makes writing instruction meaningful and accessible for students. Thoughtful chapters on academic writing and success, research, and critical reading, along with high-interest essays, round out this new edition, making it the perfect introduction to college writing.