A Short Guide to College Writing Book

Preface     xix
The Writing Process     1
Developing Ideas     3
Starting     3
How to Write: Writing as a Physical Act     3
Some Ideas About Ideas: Strategies for Invention     3
Asking Questions and Answering Them     4
Listing     6
Clustering     8
Freewriting     10
Focusing     10
Critical Thinking: Subject, Topic, Thesis     10
Finding a Topic     11
Developing a Thesis     13
Developing Ideas     15
Thinking About Audience and Purpose: The Reader as Collaborator     15
Writing the Draft     16
Drafting and Revising     18
Reading Drafts     18
Imagining Your Audience and Asking Questions     18
Peer Review: The Benefits of Having a Real Audience     21
From Assignment to Essay: A Case History     22
First Draft     26
Summary of Peer Group Discussion     27
Final Version     29
Two Sides of a Story (Student Essay)     30
Checklist for Drafting and Revising     32
Shaping Paragraphs     33
Paragraph Form andSubstance     33
The Shape of a Paragraph     35
Paragraph Unity: Topic Sentences, Topic Ideas     36
Examples of Topic Sentences at Beginning and at End, and of Topic Ideas     36
Unity in Paragraphs     38
Organization in Paragraphs     41
Coherence in Paragraphs     42
Transitions     43
Repetition     44
Linking Paragraphs Together     45
The Story Behind the Gestures (Student Essay)     45
Paragraph Length     49
The Use and Abuse of Short Paragraphs     50
Introductory Paragraphs     52
Concluding Paragraphs     59
Checklist for Revising Paragraphs     60
Revising for Conciseness     62
Instant Prose     63
How to Avoid Instant Prose     64
Extra Words and Empty Words     65
Weak Intensifiers     66
Circumlocutions     66
Wordy Beginnings     67
Empty Conclusions     68
Wordy Uses of the Verbs To Be, To Have, and To Make     69
Redundancy     70
Negative Constructions     71
Extra Sentences, Extra Clauses: Subordination      72
Who, Which, That     73
It Is, This Is, There Are     73
Some Concluding Remarks About Conciseness     74
Checklist for Revising for Conciseness     75
Revising for Clarity     76
Clarity     76
Clarity and Exactness: Using the Right Word     78
Denotation     78
Connotation     80
Avoiding Sexist Language     81
Quotation Marks as Apologies     83
Being Specific     83
Using Examples     84
Jargon and Technical Language     86
Cliches     89
Metaphors and Mixed Metaphors     90
Euphemisms     92
Passive or Active Voice?     92
The Writer's "I"     95
Clarity and Coherence     96
Cats Are Dogs     96
Items in a Series     97
Modifiers     98
Misplaced Modifiers     98
Squinting Modifiers     99
Dangling Modifiers     99
Reference of Pronouns     100
Vague Reference of Pronouns     101
Shift in Pronouns     101
Ambiguous Reference of Pronouns     101
Agreement      102
Noun and Pronoun     102
Subject and Verb     102
Three Additional Points     103
Repetition and Variation     104
Clarity and Sentence Structure: Parallelism     106
Checklist for Revising for Clarity     107
Writing with Style     108
Academic Styles, Academic Audiences     108
Defining Style     111
Style and Tone     112
Acquiring Style     115
Clarity and Texture     115
Originality and Imitation     115
College Writing     117
Analyzing Texts     119
Analyzing an Image     119
Analyzing Advertisements (Visual Rhetoric)     120
Checklist for Analyzing Advertisements     122
Analyzing Texts     122
Analysis Versus Summary and Paraphrase     123
The Gettysburg Address: Summary, Paraphrase, Analysis     123
Summarizing     123
The Gettysburg Address     124
Paraphrasing     127
Analyzing     127
Paraphrasing and Summarizing Literary Texts     128
Classifying and Thinking     129
Examples of Classifying      129
Cause and Effect     130
Advertisements, Pornography, and Public Space     131
Analysis and Description     135
Description at Work in the Analytic Essay     136
Comparing     137
Organizing Short Comparisons     138
Longer Comparisons     141
Ways of Organizing an Essay Devoted to a Comparison     143
Checklist for Revising Comparisons     145
Process Analysis     145
It's the Portly Penguin That Gets the Girl, French Biologist Claims     146
Explaining an Analysis     149
Persuading Readers     150
Emotional Appeals     150
Making Reasonable Arguments     151
Claims and Evidence     153
Three Kinds of Claims: Claims of Fact, Value, and Policy     153
Claims of Fact     153
Claims of Value     154
Claims of Policy     155
Three Kinds of Evidence: Examples, Testimony, Statistics     156
Examples     156
Testimony     158
Statistics     159
A Note on Definition in the Persuasive Essay     159
Definition at Work     160
The Plight of the Politically Correct (Student Essay)     160
How Much Evidence Is Enough?     161
Two Kinds of Reasoning: Induction and Deduction     162
Avoiding Fallacies     163
Wit     167
Avoiding Sarcasm     168
Tone and Ethical Appeal     168
A Note on Critical Thinking     169
Organizing an Argument     171
Checklist for Revising Drafts of Persuasive Essays     172
Persuasion at Work: Two Writers Consider Torture     173
Torture Should Not Be Authorized     173
An Analysis of Heymann's Argument     175
Yes, It Should Be "On the Books"     176
An Analysis of Dershowitz's Argument     178
Using Sources     180
Why Use Sources?     180
What Is a Source? Primary and Secondary Materials     182
Developing a Research Topic     183
Finding Sources     183
The Library's Central Information System     184
Using the Internet     185
Checklist for Evaluating Web Sites     187
Reading and Taking Notes on Secondary Sources     187
A Guide to Note-Taking     188
Acknowledging Sources     191
Using Sources Without Plagiarizing      191
Acknowledging a Direct Quotation     193
Acknowledging a Paraphrase or Summary     193
Acknowledging an Idea     196
Fair Use of Common Knowledge     197
"But How Else Can I Put It?"     197
Checklist for Avoiding Plagiarism     198
Writing the Research Essay     199
Writing the Essay     200
Checklist for Revising Drafts of Research Essays     201
A Sample Research Essay (MLA Format)     202
Politics and Psychology in The Awakening (Student Essay)     203
A Brief Analysis of Cody's Use of Sources     217
A Sample Research Essay (APA Format)     218
Nitrite: Preservative or Carcinogen? (Student Essay)     219
A Brief Analysis of Alexander's Use of Sources     234
Writing Essay Examinations     236
Why Write Examinations? Examinations as Critical Thinking     236
Writing Essay Answers     237
Questions on Literature and the Social Sciences     237
Questions on the Physical Sciences and Mathematics     239
A Writer's Handbook     241
Punctuating Sentences     243
A Word on Computer Grammar and Punctuation Checks     245
Three Common Errors: Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-on Sentences     245
Fragments and How to Correct Them     245
How to Correct Comma Splices and Run-on Sentences     247
The Period     249
The Question Mark     250
The Colon     250
The Semicolon     251
The Comma     253
The Dash     259
Parentheses     260
Italics     261
Capital Letters     262
The Hyphen     264
The Apostrophe     265
Abbreviations     267
Numbers     268
Using the Right Word     270
A Note on Idioms     270
A Writer's Glossary     272
Documenting Sources     296
Documentation     296
MLA Format     297
Citations Within the Text     297
Author and Page Number in Parenthetic Citation     300
Title and Page Number in Parentheses     300
Author, Title, and Page Number in Parentheses     301
A Government Document or a Work of Corporate Authorship     301
A Work by Two or Three Authors     301
Parenthetic Citation of an Indirect Source (Citation of Material That Itself Was Quoted or Summarized in Your Source)     302
Parenthetic Citation of Two or More Words     302
A Work in More Than One Volume     302
An Anonymous Work     303
A literary Work     303
A Personal Interview     305
Lectures     306
Electronic Sources     306
A Note on Footnotes in an Essay Using Parenthetic Citations     306
The List of Works Cited     307
Alphabetic Order     308
Form on the Page     308
Author's Name     308
Title of Book     309
Place of Publication, Publisher, and Date     310
A Book by More Than One Author     311
Government Documents     311
Works of Corporate Authorship     311
Republished Work     312
A Book in Several Volumes     312
One Book with a Separate Title in a Set of Volumes     313
A Book with an Author and an Editor     313
A Revised Edition of a Book     313
A Translated Book     313
An Introduction, Foreword, or Afterword     314
A Book with an Editor but No Author     314
A Work in a Volume of Works by One Author      314
A Work in a Collection of Works by Several Authors     314
A Book Review     315
An Article or Essay-Not a Reprint-in a Collection     316
An Article or Essay Reprinted in a Collection     316
An Encyclopedia or Other Alphabetically Arranged Reference Work     317
A Film     317
A Television or Radio Program     318
An Article in a Scholarly Journal     318
An Article in a Weekly, Biweekly, or Monthly Publication     318
An Article in a Newspaper     319
An Interview     319
A Lecture     319
Portable Database Sources     319
Online Sources     320
APA Format     323
Citations Within the Text     324
A Summary of an Entire Work     324
A Reference to a Page or Pages     325
A Reference to an Author Represented by More Than One Work Published in a Given Year in the References     325
The List of References     325
Form on the Page     325
Alphabetic Order     325
Form of Title     327
Sample References     327
A Book by One Author     327
A Book by More Than One Author     327
A Collection of Essays     327
A Work in a Collection of Essays     328
Government Documents     328
An Article in a Journal That Paginates Each Issue Separately     328
An Article in a Journal with Continuous Pagination     328
An Article from a Monthly or Weekly Magazine     328
An Article in a Newspaper     329
A Book Review     329
Electronic Sources     329
A Note on Other Systems of Documentation     331
Preparing the Manuscript     333
Basic Manuscript Form     333
Using Quotations (and Punctuating Them Correctly)     338
Corrections in the Final Copy     343
Last Words     345
Credits     346
Index     347