The market is essay-level developmental writing, often referred to as the "bridge" course (to freshman composition). At the developmental level, the bridge course (and texts for it) apes freshman composition but includes more basic grammar review than the typical comp course. The course may or may not include a research paper, but focuses nonetheless on writing essays.

Students are placed in this course initially if they score too low on standardized or local writing placement tests or if they pass into the course after having successfully completed lower-level developmental writing courses. Between 90 and 95 percent of the market for the bridge course is in community colleges and/or career ed schools.

This is a growing market. More and more, four-year schools that don't want to publicly offer a bridge course will use a book such as BRIDGES TO BETTER WRITING because incoming students aren't ready for a standard freshman comp course.