Developmental Exercises for Hacker Handbooks offers more than 175 class-tested exercise sets in a wide variety of formats, all designed for developing college writers. The exercises in each set include cross-curricular content and are thematically linked, usually focusing on the achievements of a famous person or group, so that students are reading real prose on inspiring topics rather than unrelated drill sentences. Most sections include practice and review exercises that identify problem areas and direct students to sections in their handbook for explanations and revision strategies. An answer key, in the back of the workbook, provides answers and feedback for practice exercises.

Developmental Exercises for Hacker Handbooks supports the following handbook titles by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers: A Pocket Style Manual, Eighth Edition, A Writer’s Reference, Ninth Edition, and Rules for Writers, Ninth Edition.

Features

Respectful of students’ college status. The exercises in this workbook respect the age and experience of college students. Students will edit paragraphs and essays instead of rewriting sentences, which will encourage them to think about the impact of errors on readers and to choose the most effective revision strategies.

Written in connected discourse. Because nearly every exercise is a paragraph, an essay, or numbered sentences that are connected in meaning, students learn to identify and revise problem sentences in realistic contexts.

Practice exercises that include guidance. Most sections open with a practice exercise, featuring arrows in the margin that indicate the lines with errors. A gray box at the bottom of each page tells students where in their handbook to look for explanations and revision strategies. Answers to these exercises appear in the back of the book.

Varied formats. The exercises ask students to perform a variety of activities, such as circling the letter of the correct sentence, choosing between two words of phrases, or adding handwritten revisions. Varied ways of working on a topic keep the task interesting.

Emphasis on reading. As they complete the exercises, students do a considerable amount of reading, and many exercises ask them to respond as readers. Where possible, students are encouraged to think about meaning.

Adaptable to a variety of teaching styles. Instructors have used these exercises successfully in a range of ways, such as for homework, for quizzes, for class discussions, and for collaborative learning in small groups.

New to This Edition

Developmental Exercises for Hacker Handbooks

Diana Hacker; Wanda Van Goor

E-book

Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.

Learn About E-book

Developmental Exercises for Hacker Handbooks

First Edition 2018

Diana Hacker; Wanda Van Goor

Clarity (effective sentences)

Active verbs: Practice

Active verbs 1

Active verbs 2

Active verbs: Review

Parallelism: Practice

Parallelism 1

Parallelism 2

Parallelism: Review

Needed words: Practice

Needed words 1

Needed words 2

Needed words: Review

Misplaced and dangling modifiers: Practice

Misplaced and dangling modifiers 1

Misplaced and dangling modifiers 2

Misplaced and dangling modifiers: Review

Distracting shifts: Practice

Distracting shifts 1

Distracting shifts 2

Distracting shifts" Review

Emphasis: Practice

Emphasis 1

Emphasis 2

Emphasis: Review

Variety: Practice

Variety

Variety: Review

Review of Clarity (effective sentences)

Clarity (word choice)

Wordy sentences: Practice

Wordy sentences 1

Wordy sentences 2

Wordy sentences: Review

Appropriate language: Practice

Appropriate language 1

Appropriate language 2

Appropriate language: Review

Exact words: Practice

Exact words 1

Exact words 2

Exact words 3

Exact words: Review

Review of Clarity (word choice)

Grammar

Fragments: Practice

Fragments 1

Fragments 2

Fragments: Review

Run-on sentences: Practice

Run-on sentences 1

Run-on sentences 2

Run-on sentences 3

Run-on sentences: Review

Subject-verb agreement: Practice

Subject-verb agreement 1

Subject-verb agreement 2

Subject-verb agreement: Review

Pronoun-antecedent agreement: Practice

Pronoun-antecedent agreement 1

Pronoun-antecedent agreement 2

Pronoun-antecedent agreement: Review

Pronoun reference: Practice

Pronoun reference 1

Pronoun reference 2

Pronoun reference: Review

Pronoun and noun case: Practice

Pronoun and noun case 1

Pronoun and noun case 2

Pronoun and noun case: Review

Who and whom: Practice

Who and whom 1

Who and whom 2

Who and whom: Review

Adjectives and adverbs: Practice

Adjectives and adverbs 1

Adjectives and adverbs 2

Adjectives and adverbs: Review

Verb forms: Practice

Verb forms 1

Verb forms 2

Verb forms: Review

Verb tense and mood: Practice

Verb tense and mood 1

Verb tense and mood 2

Verb tense and mood: Review

Review of Grammar

Multilingual Writers and ESL Topics

Multilingual verb use: Practice

Verb forms 1 (multilingual)

Helping verbs, main verbs, and omitted verbs

Verb forms 2 (multilingual)

Passive verbs

Conditional verbs

Verbs followed by gerunds or infinitives 1

Verbs followed by gerunds or infinitives 2

Multilingual verb use: Review

Articles: Practice

Articles 1

Articles 2

Articles: Review

Sentence structure, prepositions, and idiomatic expressions: Practice

Omissions and needless repetitions

Present and past participles

Placement of adjectives

Sentence structure, prepositions, and idiomatic expressions: Review

Review of Multilingual Writers and ESL Topics

Punctuation

The comma and unnecessary commas: Practice

The comma 1

The comma 2

The comma 3

Unnecessary commas 1

Unnecessary commas 2

The comma and unnecessary commas: Review

The semicolon: Practice

The semicolon 1

The semicolon 2

The semicolon: Review

The colon: Practice

The colon 1

The colon 2

The colon: Review

The apostrophe: Practice

The apostrophe 1

The apostrophe 2

The apostrophe: Review

Quotation marks: Practice

Quotation marks 1

Quotation marks 2

Quotation marks: Review

End punctuation: Practice

End punctuation

End punctuation: Review

Other punctuation marks: Practice

Other punctuation marks 1

Other punctuation marks 2

Other punctuation marks: Review

Review of Punctuation

Mechanics

Abbreviations, numbers, and italics: Practice

Abbreviations and numbers

Italics (underlining)

Abbreviations, numbers, and italics: Review

Spelling, the hyphen, and capitalization: Practice

Spelling

The hyphen

Capitalization

Spelling, the hyphen, and capitalization: Review

Review of Mechanics

Grammar Basics

Parts of speech: Preview

Nouns and noun/adjectives 1

Nouns and noun/Adjectives 2

Pronouns and pronoun/adjectives

Verbs

Adjectives and adverbs

Prepositions

Prepositions and conjunctions

Parts of speech: Review

Sentence patterns: Preview

Subjects

Direct objects and subject complements

Indirect objects and object complements

Direct objects, indirect objects, and object complements

Sentence patters: Review

Subordinate word groups: Preview

Prepositional phrases

Prepositional and verbal phrases

Verbal phrases

Subordinate clauses

Subordinate word groups: Review

Sentence types: Preview

Sentence types

Sentence types: Review

Answers to Practice and Preview Exercises

Developmental Exercises for Hacker Handbooks

First Edition 2018

Diana Hacker; Wanda Van Goor

Find Your Rep

Diana Hacker

Diana Hacker personally class-tested her handbooks with nearly four thousand students over thirty-five years at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland, where she was a member of the English faculty. Hacker handbooks, built on innovation and on a keen understanding of the challenges facing student writers, are the most widely adopted in America. Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, include A Writer’s Reference, Eleventh Edition (2025); A Pocket Style Manual, Tenth Edition (2025); The Bedford Handbook, Twelfth Edition (2023); Rules for Writers, Tenth Edition (2022); and Writer’s Help 2.0, Hacker Version.