Her guide, A Writer's Reference, co-written with Nancy Sommers, became the number one best-selling college textbook in the United States.
Raised in Washington, Illinois, Hacker was an English professor at Prince George's Community College (PGCC) for 35 years.
Her father was a line worker for Caterpillar who managed to move his family "squarely into the middle class" after becoming a supervisor.
[4] Hacker also chaired the nominating committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) at regional and national meetings.
Bedford president Chuck Christensen and co-publisher Joan Feinberg eventually bought the idea and the first edition of A Writer's Reference was published in 1989.
The award is given out annually to two-year college teachers and their institutions for "exemplary programs in English studies and its related disciplines.
[10] A previous version of the Open Syllabus Project placed Hacker's guides, A Writer's Reference and A Pocket Style Manual, both co-written with Nancy Sommers, as the number one and number third assigned texts at American colleges, respectively[11] and placed Hacker as the second most read female author on college campuses after Kate L.