●Historical and biographical margin notes enliven the course and show students that mathematics was developed to help explain and represent natural phenomena.
●More challenging exercises called "Problems Plus" follow the end-of-chapter exercises. These sections reinforce concepts by requiring students to apply techniques from more than one chapter of the text, and by patiently showing them how to approach a challenging problem.
●Four carefully-crafted diagnostic tests in algebra, analytic geometry, functions, and trigonometry appear at the beginning of the text. These provide students with a convenient way to test their preexisting knowledge and brush up on skill techniques they need to successfully begin the course. Answers are included, and students who need to improve will be referred to points in the text or on the book’s website where they can seek help.
●Stewart’s presentation repeatedly provides answers to the question, “When will I use this?” You’ll find many examples of how calculus is used as a problem-solving tool in fields such as physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, medicine, and the social sciences.
●Stewart’s text offers an extensive collection of more than 8,000 quality exercises. Each exercise set is carefully graded, progressing from skill-development problems to more challenging problems involving applications and proofs. The wide variety of types of exercises includes many technology-oriented, thought-provoking, real, and engaging problems.
●A wealth of engaging projects reinforce concepts. "Writing Projects" ask students to compare present-day methods with those of the founders of calculus. "Discovery Projects" anticipate results to be discussed later. "Applied Projects" feature content that engages student interest and demonstrates the real-world use of mathematics. "Laboratory Projects" anticipate results to be discussed later or encourage discovery through pattern recognition.
●"Strategies" sections (based on George Polya’s problem-solving methodology) help students select what techniques they’ll need to solve problems in situations where the choice is not obvious, and help them develop true problem-solving skills and intuition.

The late James Stewart received his M.S. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He did research at the University of London and was influenced by the famous mathematician George Polya at Stanford University. Stewart was most recently Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University, and his research field was harmonic analysis. Stewart was the author of a best-selling calculus textbook series published by Cengage Learning, including CALCULUS, CALCULUS: EARLY TRANSCENDENTALS, and CALCULUS: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS, as well as a series of precalculus texts.