Focusing on and reinforcing problem-solving throughout, Kaufmann and Schwitters help students learn to analyze a word problem by approaching it logically and extracting all its essential mathematical components so that the process of solving a problem can be approached with ease. The authors' proven approach of "learn a skill" then "use a skill to solve equations and inequalities" and finally, "use equations and inequalities to solve word problems" helps students apply their newly learned skills immediately for better comprehension and retention. This is the same approach used by the authors in their highly successful developmental mathematics texts.