The Little, Brown Essential Handbook Book

Finding What You Need     ii
Introduction: The Process of Writing     1
The writing situation
Development and focus
Revision
Source documentation
Editing and proofreading
Effective Sentences: Checklist     10
Emphasis     11
Subjects and verbs
Sentence beginnings and endings
Coordination
Subordination
Conciseness     15
Focusing on subject and verb
Cutting empty words
Cutting unneeded repetition
Reducing clauses and phrases
Cutting there is or it is
Combining sentences
Parallelism     17
With and, but, or, nor, yet
With both...and, either...or, etc.
With lists, headings, outlines
Variety and Details     19
Varied sentence lengths and structures
Details
Appropriate Words     22
Nonstandard dialect
Slang
Colloquial language
Technical words
Indirect and pretentious writing
Sexist and other biased language
Exact Words     28
Right word for meaning
Concrete and specific words
Idioms
Cliches
Grammatical Sentences: Checklist     32
Verbs
Forms     33
Sing/sang/sung and other irregular verbs
Helping verbs
Verb + gerund or infinitive
Verb + particle
Tenses     38
Present tense (sing)
Perfect tenses (have/had/will have sung)
Consistency
Sequence
Mood     40
Subjunctive (I wish I were)
Consistency
Voice     41
She wrote it (active) vs. It was written (passive)
Consistency
Subject-Verb Agreement     43
-s ending for noun or verb
Words between subject and verb
Subjects with and
Subjects with or or nor
Everyone and other indefinite pronouns
Team and other collective nouns
Who, which, that
News and other singular nouns ending in -s
Inverted word order
Is, are, and other linking verbs
Pronouns
Forms     46
She and I vs. her and me
It was she vs. It was her
Who vs. whom
Other constructions
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement     49
Antecedents with and
Antecedents with or or nor
Everyone, person, and other indefinite words
Team and other collective nouns
Pronoun Reference     51
Single antecedent
Close antecedent
Specific antecedent
Consistency
Modifiers
Adjectives and Adverbs     53
Adjective vs. adverb
Adjective with linking verb: felt bad
Bigger, most talented, and other comparisons
Double negatives
Present and past participles: boring vs. bored
Articles: a, an, the
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers     58
Misplaced modifiers
Dangling modifiers
Sentence Faults
Fragments     61
Tests
Revision
Comma Splices and Fused Sentences     63
Main clauses without and, but, etc.
Main clauses related by however, for example, etc.
Punctuation: Checklist     68
The Comma     69
And, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
Introductory elements
Interrupting and concluding elements
Series
Adjectives
Dates, addresses, place names, numbers
Quotations
The Semicolon     74
Main clauses
However, for example, etc.
Series
The Colon     75
For introduction
Salutations, titles and subtitles, time
The Apostrophe     77
Possessives
Misuses: plural noun, singular verb, personal pronoun
Contractions
Plural abbreviations, etc.
Quotation Marks     79
Direct quotations
Titles of works
Words used in a special sense
With other punctuation
End Punctuation     82
Period
Question mark
Exclamation point
Other Marks     83
Dash or dashes
Parentheses
Ellipsis mark
Brackets
Slash
Spelling and Mechanics: Checklist     90
Spelling and the Hyphen     91
Spelling checkers
Spelling rules
The hyphen
Capital Letters     94
First word of sentence
Proper nouns and adjectives
Titles and subtitles of works
Titles of persons
Online communication
Underlining or Italics     96
Underlining vs. italics
Titles of works
Ships, aircraft, spacecraft, trains
Foreign words and phrases
Words or characters named as words
Online alternatives
Abbreviations     99
Familiar abbreviations
Latin abbreviations
Words usually spelled out
Numbers     100
Numerals, not words
Words, not numerals
Research and Documentation: Checklist     104
Research Strategy     105
Subject, question, thesis
Goals for sources
Information gathering
Working bibliography
Finding Sources     111
Electronic searches
Reference works
Books
Periodicals
The Web
Online communication
Government publications
Your own sources
Evaluating and Synthesizing Sources     121
Evaluation
Synthesis
Integrating Sources into Your Text     127
Summary, paraphrase, direct quotation
Introduction and interpretation of source material
Clear boundaries for source material
Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources     136
Plagiarism and the Internet
What not to acknowledge
What must be acknowledged
Online sources
Source documentation
MLA Documentation and Format     142
Parenthetical text citations
List of works cited
Paper format
Sample pages
APA Documentation and Format     163
Parenthetical text citations
Reference list
Paper format
Sample pages
Chicago Documentation and Format     178
Notes and list of works cited
Models
Paper format
Sample pages
CSE Documentation     191
Name-year text citations
Numbered text citations
Reference list
Special Writing Situations
Designing Documents     200
Academic papers
Clear and effective documents
Writing Online     205
Electronic mail
Web composition
Making Oral Presentations     208
Organization
Delivery
Writing for Business     211
Job-application letter
Resume
Memo
Glossary of Usage     219
Glossary of Terms     229
Index     Index-1