| |
| |
| Preface | |
| |
| |
| |
| An Overview Of The Writing Process | |
| |
| |
| |
| Discovering Ideas | |
| |
| |
| Starting | |
| |
| |
| How to Write: Writing as a Physical Act | |
| |
| |
| Why Write? Writing as Thinking | |
| |
| |
| Some Ideas about Ideas: Invention | |
| |
| |
| An Exercise in Critical Reading | |
| |
| |
| Reflections on the Death of a Library Philip Roth | |
| |
| |
| An Essay by a Student: On Philip Roth's Reflections | |
| |
| |
| Keeping a Journal | |
| |
| |
| Focusing | |
| |
| |
| What to Write About: Subject, Topic, Thesis | |
| |
| |
| Developing Ideas | |
| |
| |
| Thinking About Audience and Purpose | |
| |
| |
| Writing from Experience: Two Essays by Students | |
| |
| |
| An Overview: from Subject to Essay | |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| Suggestions for Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
| Drafting and Revising | |
| |
| |
| Reading Drafts | |
| |
| |
| Imagining Your Audience and Asking Questions | |
| |
| |
| Peer Review: The Benefits of Having a Real Audience | |
| |
| |
| From Assignment to Essay: A Case History | |
| |
| |
| Two Sides of a Story (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| Notes, Drafts, Revisions: An Historian Revises Her Work | |
| |
| |
| Prospero's Army | |
| |
| |
| |
| Suggestions for Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
| Shaping Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Paragraph Form and Substance | |
| |
| |
| Paragraph Unity: Topic Sentences, Topic Ideas | |
| |
| |
| Examples of Topic Sentences at Beginning and at End, and of Topic Ideas | |
| |
| |
| Unifying Ideas into Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Organization in Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Coherence in Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Transitions | |
| |
| |
| Repetition | |
| |
| |
| Linking Paragraphs Together | |
| |
| |
| The Story Behind the Gestures (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| Paragraph Length | |
| |
| |
| The Use and Abuse of Short Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Introductory Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Concluding Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| A Checklist for Revising Paragraphs | |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| Revising Sentences for Conciseness | |
| |
| |
| Instant Prose (Zonkers) | |
| |
| |
| How to Avoid Instant Prose | |
| |
| |
| Extra Words and Empty Words | |
| |
| |
| Weak Intensifiers and Qualifiers | |
| |
| |
| Circumlocutions | |
| |
| |
| Wordy Beginnings | |
| |
| |
| Empty Conclusions | |
| |
| |
| Wordy Uses of the Verbs To Be, To Have, and To Make | |
| |
| |
| Redundancy | |
| |
| |
| Negative Constructions | |
| |
| |
| Extra Sentences, Extra Clauses: Subordination | |
| |
| |
| Some Concluding Remarks About Conciseness | |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| Revising Sentences for Clarity | |
| |
| |
| Clarity | |
| |
| |
| Clarity and Exactness: Using the Right Word | |
| |
| |
| Denotation | |
| |
| |
| Connotation | |
| |
| |
| Quotation Marks as Apologies | |
| |
| |
| Being Specific | |
| |
| |
| Using Examples | |
| |
| |
| Jargon and Technical Language | |
| |
| |
| Clich�s | |
| |
| |
| Metaphors and Mixed Metaphors | |
| |
| |
| Euphemisms | |
| |
| |
| A Digression on Public Lying | |
| |
| |
| Passive or Active Voice? | |
| |
| |
| The Writer's "I" | |
| |
| |
| Clarity and Coherence | |
| |
| |
| Cats Are Dogs | |
| |
| |
| Items in a Series | |
| |
| |
| Modifiers | |
| |
| |
| Reference of Pronouns | |
| |
| |
| Agreement | |
| |
| |
| Three Additional Points | |
| |
| |
| Repetition and Variation | |
| |
| |
| Euphony | |
| |
| |
| Transitions | |
| |
| |
| Clarity and Sentence Structure: Parallelism | |
| |
| |
| Love Poem | |
| |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| Revising Sentences for Emphasis | |
| |
| |
| Emphasis by Position | |
| |
| |
| Emphasis by Brevity and Length: Short and Long Sentences | |
| |
| |
| Emphasis by Repetition | |
| |
| |
| Emphasis by Subordination | |
| |
| |
| Five Kinds of Sentences | |
| |
| |
| Subordination | |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Writer's Voice | |
| |
| |
| Defining Style | |
| |
| |
| Style and Tone | |
| |
| |
| Acquiring Style | |
| |
| |
| Clarity and Texture | |
| |
| |
| Originality and Imitation | |
| |
| |
| Practice in Acquiring Style | |
| |
| |
| Academic Styles, Academic Audiences | |
| |
| |
| The Writer's Voice: Six Examples | |
| |
| |
| Camille Paglia, William F. Buckley, Alfred North Whitehead, Terry Castle, Thomas R. Edwards, Patricia J. Williams | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Writer's Materials And Strategies | |
| |
| |
| |
| Analytical Thinking and Writing | |
| |
| |
| Analyzing a Drawing | |
| |
| |
| Analyzing Texts | |
| |
| |
| Classifying and Thinking | |
| |
| |
| Examples of Classifying | |
| |
| |
| Cause and Effect | |
| |
| |
| Advertising, Pornography, and Public Space | |
| |
| |
| |
| Analysis and Description | |
| |
| |
| Description at Work in the Analytic Essay | |
| |
| |
| A Note on the Use of Summary in the Analytic Essay | |
| |
| |
| Comparing | |
| |
| |
| Organizing Short Comparisons | |
| |
| |
| Longer Comparisons | |
| |
| |
| Ways of Organizing an Essay Devoted to a Comparison | |
| |
| |
| A Checklist for Revising Comparisons | |
| |
| |
| Analyzing a Process | |
| |
| |
| Two Essays Analyzing a Process | |
| |
| |
| Tennis Tips to a Beginning Player (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| It's the Portly Penguin That Gets the Girl, French Biologist Claims | |
| |
| |
| |
| Explaining an Analysis | |
| |
| |
| The Science of Deduction | |
| |
| |
| |
| Analysis at Work | |
| |
| |
| My Father's Photograph | |
| |
| |
| |
| Columbo Knows the Butler Didn't Do It | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Endless Autumn | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Word and the Web | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Narrating | |
| |
| |
| The Uses of Narrative | |
| |
| |
| Narrative Introductions | |
| |
| |
| Narratives in Other Positions in an Essay | |
| |
| |
| Inventing Stories | |
| |
| |
| Narrative Pace: Scene and Summary | |
| |
| |
| Organizing a Narrative | |
| |
| |
| A Letter to the Editor (student writing) | |
| |
| |
| Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing | |
| |
| |
| Narration at Work | |
| |
| |
| A Conflict of Interest | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Girls' Room | |
| |
| |
| |
| Anorexia: The Cheating Disorder | |
| |
| |
| |
| Zen and the Art of Burglary | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Describing | |
| |
| |
| Observing Details | |
| |
| |
| Organizing a Description | |
| |
| |
| Establishing the Observer's Position | |
| |
| |
| Establishing the Observer's Point of View | |
| |
| |
| Describing an Action | |
| |
| |
| Description at Work | |
| |
| |
| Observing Mrs. Taylor | |
| |
| |
| (student essay), Gina Men | |
| |
| |
| Los Angeles Notebook | |
| |
| |
| |
| Education | |
| |
| |
| |
| From At the Buffalo Bill Museum-June 1988 | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Defining | |
| |
| |
| The Need for Definition | |
| |
| |
| Kinds of Definitions | |
| |
| |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Definitions | |
| |
| |
| Stipulative Definitions | |
| |
| |
| Definition by Origin or History | |
| |
| |
| The Limits of Definition by Synonym | |
| |
| |
| A Note on Using the Dictionary | |
| |
| |
| A Checklist for Revising Definitions | |
| |
| |
| Definition at Work | |
| |
| |
| The Plight of the Politically Correct (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| Country Just Ain't What It Used to Be | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Question of Language | |
| |
| |
| |
| Four-Letter Words Can Hurt You | |
| |
| |
| |
| Darwin's Disgust | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Persuading | |
| |
| |
| Making Reasonable Arguments | |
| |
| |
| Making Reasonable Claims | |
| |
| |
| Claims of Fact | |
| |
| |
| Claims of Value | |
| |
| |
| Claims of Policy | |
| |
| |
| Three Kinds of Evidence: Examples, Testimony, Statistics | |
| |
| |
| Examples | |
| |
| |
| Testimony | |
| |
| |
| Statistics | |
| |
| |
| How Much Evidence Is Enough? | |
| |
| |
| Avoiding Fallacies | |
| |
| |
| Wit | |
| |
| |
| Avoiding Sarcasm | |
| |
| |
| Organizing an Argument | |
| |
| |
| A Checklist for Revising Drafts of Persuasive Essays | |
| |
| |
| Persuasion at Work | |
| |
| |
| Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment Affirms Life | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Death Penalty | |
| |
| |
| |
| The True Terror is in the Card | |
| |
| |
| |
| Radio Hoods | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Some Forms Of Academic Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
| Outlining and Summarizing | |
| |
| |
| Outlining | |
| |
| |
| Scratch Outline | |
| |
| |
| Paragraph Outline | |
| |
| |
| Formal Outline | |
| |
| |
| Summarizing | |
| |
| |
| What a Summary Is | |
| |
| |
| How to Write a Summary | |
| |
| |
| How Much Summary Is Enough? | |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| Reviewing | |
| |
| |
| Writing a Book Review | |
| |
| |
| Review of The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life | |
| |
| |
| |
| Writing Other Reviews | |
| |
| |
| Deconstructing Pop: The Halo Benders (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Interviewing | |
| |
| |
| Writing an Essay Based on an Interview | |
| |
| |
| The Einstein of Happiness | |
| |
| |
| |
| Ethnobotanists Race Against Time to Save Useful Plants | |
| |
| |
| |
| Guidelines for Conducting the Interview and Writing the Essay | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Research Essay | |
| |
| |
| What Research Is | |
| |
| |
| Primary and Secondary Materials | |
| |
| |
| Developing a Research Topic | |
| |
| |
| Getting Started | |
| |
| |
| The Library's Central Information System | |
| |
| |
| The Online Catalog | |
| |
| |
| Scanning Books and Book Reviews | |
| |
| |
| Finding Articles in Periodicals | |
| |
| |
| Finding Bibliographies | |
| |
| |
| A Word on the Internet | |
| |
| |
| Reading and Taking Notes on Secondary Sources | |
| |
| |
| A Guide to Note Taking | |
| |
| |
| Acknowledging Sources | |
| |
| |
| Borrowing Without Plagiarizing | |
| |
| |
| Fair Use of Common Knowledge | |
| |
| |
| "But How Else Can I Put It?" | |
| |
| |
| Writing the Essay | |
| |
| |
| A Checklist for Reading Drafts | |
| |
| |
| Documentation | |
| |
| |
| MLA Format | |
| |
| |
| APA Format | |
| |
| |
| A Note on Other Systems of Documentation | |
| |
| |
| Two Sample Research Essays | |
| |
| |
| MLA Style | |
| |
| |
| Politics and Psychology in the Awakening (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| APA Style | |
| |
| |
| Nitrite: Preservative or Carcinogen? (student essay) | |
| |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| Writing About Literature | |
| |
| |
| Responding to Literary Texts | |
| |
| |
| Reading Fiction | |
| |
| |
| |
| Anonymous | |
| |
| |
| The Yellow Wallpaper | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Student's Response to "The Yellow Wallpaper": Aviva Geiger's Preliminary Exercises and Final Draft | |
| |
| |
| Getting Ideas for Writing about Fiction | |
| |
| |
| Checklist: Asking Questions about Fiction | |
| |
| |
| Reading Poetry | |
| |
| |
| Harlem | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Student Thinks About "Harlem": Richard Taub's Annotations, Journal Entries, Notes, and Final Draft | |
| |
| |
| Getting Ideas for Writing about Poetry | |
| |
| |
| Checklist: Asking Questions about Poems | |
| |
| |
| A Range of Critical Approaches | |
| |
| |
| Three Short Works of Fiction | |
| |
| |
| Cat in the Rain | |
| |
| |
| |
| Girl | |
| |
| |
| |
| If You Touched My Heart | |
| |
| |
| |
| Three Poems | |
| |
| |
| Sonnet 73 | |
| |
| |
| |
| Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening | |
| |
| |
| |
| Immigrants | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| Writing Essay Examinations | |
| |
| |
| What Examinations Are | |
| |
| |
| Writing Essay Answers | |
| |
| |
| Questions on Literature | |
| |
| |
| Questions on the Social Sciences | |
| |
| |
| Questions on the Physical Sciences and Mathematics | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Writer's Handbook | |
| |
| |
| |
| Punctuation | |
| |
| |
| A Word on Computer Grammar and Punctuation Checks | |
| |
| |
| Three Common Errors: Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-on Sentences | |
| |
| |
| Fragments and How to Correct Them | |
| |
| |
| Comma Splices and Run-on Sentences, and How to Correct Them | |
| |
| |
| The Period | |
| |
| |
| The Question Mark | |
| |
| |
| The Colon | |
| |
| |
| The Semicolon | |
| |
| |
| The Comma | |
| |
| |
| The Dash | |
| |
| |
| Parentheses | |
| |
| |
| Italics | |
| |
| |
| Capital Letters | |
| |
| |
| The Hyphen | |
| |
| |
| The Apostrophe | |
| |
| |
| Abbreviations | |
| |
| |
| Numbers | |
| |
| |
| Exercises | |
| |
| |
| |
| Usage | |
| |
| |
| A Note on Idioms | |
| |
| |
| Glossary | |
| |
| |
| |
| Manuscript Form | |
| |
| |
| Basic Manuscript Form | |
| |
| |
| Using Quotations (and Punctuating Quotations Correctly) | |
| |
| |
| Corrections in the Final Copy | |
| |
| |
| |
| Readings | |
| |
| |
| Graduation | |
| |
| |
| |
| Nine Beginnings | |
| |
| |
| |
| High Horse's Courting | |
| |
| |
| |
| To Lie or Not to Lie?-The Doctor's Dilemma | |
| |
| |
| |
| Who Shot Johnny? | |
| |
| |
| Debra Dickerson | |
| |
| |
| On Keeping a Notebook | |
| |
| |
| |
| Malcolm, the Aardvark and Me | |
| |
| |
| |
| Women's Brains | |
| |
| |
| |
| Talking Back | |
| |
| |
| |
| Texas, 1961 | |
| |
| |
| |
| Nonviolent Resistance | |
| |
| |
| |
| Why We Crave Horror Movies | |
| |
| |
| |
| Vivisection | |
| |
| |
| |
| Studies in the New Causality | |
| |
| |
| |
| Being Asynchronous | |
| |
| |
| |
| Total Effect and the Eighth Grade | |
| |
| |
| |
| Shooting an Elephant | |
| |
| |
| |
| Rape and the Modern Sex War | |
| |
| |
| |
| Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Future of Work | |
| |
| |
| |
| Conversational Ballgames | |
| |
| |
| |
| Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Modest Proposal | |
| |
| |
| |
| Stephen Cruz | |
| |
| |
| |
| Professions for Women | |
| |
| |
| |
| Last Words | |
| |
| |
| Literary Credits | |
| |
| |
| Photo Credits | |
| |
| |
| Index | |