The Longman Concise Companion

Part 1 Writing and Reading



1 Communities of Writers and Readers

a Academic, Public, and Work Communities

b Electronic Communities



2 Generating and Organizing Ideas

a Generating Ideas

b Organizing Ideas and Information



3 Purpose, Thesis, and Audience

a Identifying Your Focus and Purpose

b Creating a Thesis

c Understanding Your Readers



4 Drafting

a Moving from Planning to Drafting

b Drafting Collaboratively



5 Revising, Editing, and Proofreading

a Making Major Revisions

b Making Minor Revisions

c Revising Collaboratively

d Writing Correctly

e Editing

f Proofreading



6 Reading Critically

a Reading for Understanding

b Reading Analytically and Critically

c Using Journals to Turn Reading into Writing



7 Paragraphs

a Recognizing Unfocused Paragraphs

b Revising for Paragraph Focus

c Recognizing Incoherent Paragraphs

d Revising for Paragraph Coherence

e Recognizing Poorly Developed Paragraphs

f Revising for Paragraph Development

g Using Special-Purpose Paragraphs



Part 2 Reasoning and Presenting



8 Making Language Choices

a Choosing a Style

b Recognizing Home and Community Language Varieties

c Meeting Language Expectations



9 Reasoning Critically

a Recognizing Critical Reasoning

b Building a Chain of Reasoning

c Representing Your Reasoning



10 Writing in Online Communities

a Online Expectations

b Email Conventions

c Online Communities

d Writing for the World Wide Web

e Avoiding Plagiarism and Behaving Ethically Online



11 Designing Documents

a Goals of Document Design

b Planning a Design

c Laying Out Your Document

d Using Type

e Using Visuals

f Sample Documents





Part 3 Writing for Specific Audiences



12 Persuasive Arguments

a Recognizing Occasions for Argument

b Developing Your Stance

c Developing Reasons and Evidence

d Acknowledging Other Perspectives

e Arguing Logically

f Writing a Position Paper



13 Academic Writing Across the Curriculum

a Goals of academic writing

b Analyzing academic audiences

c General academic writing tasks

d Types of general academic writing

e Short documented paper

f Lab report

g Essay exam

h Annotated bibliography

i Literature review

j Writing in the arts and humanities

k Original or researched interpretation

l Writing in the social and natural sciences

m Research report



14 Reading and Writing About Literature

a Reading Literary Texts

b Writing About Literary Texts

c Sample Literary Analysis



15 Public Writing

a Goals of Public Writing

b Analyzing Public Audiences

c Types of Public Writing

d Public Flyer

e Letter to the Editor

f Speaking in Public Settings



16 Workplace Writing

a Goals of Workplace Writing

b Analyzing Workplace Audiences

c Understanding Workplace Writing Tasks

d Types of Workplace Writing

e Business Letter

f Memo

g Resume and Application Letter

h Speaking in the Workplace



Part 4 Researching and Writing



17 Getting Started: Researching and Writing

a Beginning Your Research

b Types of Research Writing

c Developing a Research Question

d Developing a Preliminary Thesis

e Creating a Research File and a Timeline

f Reading and Note Taking

g Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Synthesizing



18 Library Resources and Research Databases

a Developing a Search Strategy and Working Bibliography

b Searching Library Resources and Databases

c General Resources

d Books and Online Catalogs

e Periodicals, Print or Electronic Indexes, and Government Documents

f Online Databases

g Evaluating Library Sources



19 Web and Internet Resources

a Developing a Web and Internet Search Strategy

b Search Engines

c Web Sites and Internet Resources

d Evaluating Web and Internet Sources



20 Fieldwork

a Interviewing

b Surveying, Polling, or Using Questionnaires

c Conducting an Ethnographic Study

d Obtaining Consent and Approval for Research on Human Subjects



21 Avoiding Plagiarism

a Recognizing Plagiarism

b The Problem of Intention

c Recognizing When to Document Sources

d Working with Common Knowledge

e Citing Sources Responsibly

f Citing Sources in Context



22 Integrating Sources

a Choosing Purposes for Your Sources

b Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Synthesizing



23 Writing, Revising, and Presenting Your Research

a Reviewing Your Research Questions

b Reviewing Your Purpose

c Building from a Thesis to a Draft

d Revising and Editing

e Presenting Your Research



Part 5 Documenting Sources



24 Five Serious Documentation Problems

a Wrong Kind of Citation Entry

b Missing Citation Information

c Wrong Citation Details

d Misplaced In-text Citations

e Incorrect In-text Citation Format



25 MLA Documentation Style

a MLA In-Text (Parenthetical) Citations

b MLA List of Works Cited

c Sample MLA Paper



26 APA Documentation Style

a APA In-text Citations

b APA Reference List



27 CMS Documentation Style

a Using CMS Endnotes or Footnotes

b Creating CMS Endnotes or Footnotes

c Creating a CMS Bibliography



28 CSE Documentation Style

a CSE In-text Citations

b CSE Reference List



Part 6 Editing Grammar



29 Ten Serious Errors

a Fragment

b Fused Sentence

c Unclear Pronoun Reference

d Lack of Subject-Verb Agreement

e Dangling Modifier

f Shift

g Misused or Missing Apostrophe

h Unnecessary Commas

i Missing or Misused Quotation Marks

j Double Negative



30 Words Working in Sentences

a Nouns and Articles

b Pronouns

c Verbs

d Adjectives

e Adverbs

f Prepositions

g Conjunctions

h Interjections



31 Sentence Parts and Patterns

a Subjects and Predicates

b Phrases

c Subordinate Clauses

d Different Types of Sentences



32 Using Verbs

a Simple Present and Past Tense Verbs

b Editing Present Tense Verbs

c Editing Past Tense Verbs

d Complex Tenses and Helping Verbs

e Editing Progressive and Perfect Tenses

f Editing Troublesome Verbs (lie, lay, sit, set)

g Clear Tense Sequence

h Subjunctive Mood

i Active and Passive Voice



33 Using Pronouns

a Pronoun Forms

b Editing Common Pronoun Forms



34 Making Sentence Parts Agree

a Agreement

b Creating Simple Subject-Verb Agreement

c Creating Complex Subject-Verb Agreement

d Creating Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement



35 Using Adjectives and Adverbs

a What Adjectives and Adverbs Do

b Editing Adjectives and Adverbs



Part 7 Editing Sentence Problems



36 Sentence Fragments

a Sentence Fragments

b Editing Sentence Fragments

c Using Partial Sentences



37 Comma Splices and Fused Sentences

a Comma Splices

b Fused Sentences

c Editing Comma Splices and Fused Sentences



38 Creating Pronoun Reference

a Unclear Pronoun Reference

b Editing for Clear Pronoun Reference



39 Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers

a Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers

b Editing Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers



40 Making Shifts Consistent

a Shifts in Person and Number

b Shifts in Tense and Mood

c Shifts in Active or Passive Voice

d Shifts Between Direct and Indirect Quotations



41 Mixed and Incomplete Sentences

a Mixed Sentences

b Editing Mixed Sentences

c Incomplete Sentences



42 Parallelism

a Faulty Parallelism

b Editing for Parallelism



43 Coordination and Subordination

a Creating Coordination

b Creating Subordination

c Editing Coordination and Subordination



44 Clear and Emphatic Sentences

a Unclear Sentences

b Editing for Clear Sentences



Part 8 Editing Word Choice



45 Being Concise

a Common Types of Wordiness

b Editing for Conciseness



46 Choosing Appropriate Words

a Recognizing the Demands of Context and Purpose

b Editing for Precise Diction



47 Using Respectful Language

a Editing Gender Stereotypes

b Editing Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Stereotypes



48 Building Your Language Resources

a Recognizing Your Language Resources as a Writer

b Turning to the Dictionary and the Thesaurus



Part 9 Editing Punctuation



49 Commas

a Joining Sentences

b Setting Off Sentence Elements

c Setting Off Nonessential Modifiers

d Separating Items in a Series

e Separating Adjectives in a Sequence

f Dates, Numbers, Addresses, Place Names, People's Titles, and Letters

g Commas with Quotations

h Commas to Make Your Meaning Clear

i Eliminating Commas that Do Not Belong



50 Semicolons and Colons

a Semicolons

b Colons



51 Apostrophes

a Apostrophes that Mark Possession

b Apostrophes that Mark Contractions and Omissions



52 Marking Quotations

a Using Quotation Marks

b Titles of Short Works

c Highlighting Words, Special Terms, and Tone of Voice



53 Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points

a Periods

b Question Marks

c Exclamation Points



54 Other Punctuation Marks

a Parentheses

b Brackets

c Dashes

d Ellipses

e Slashes

f Symbols in Electronic Addresses

g Combining Punctuation Marks



Part 10 Proofreading for Mechanics and Spelling



55 Capitalizing

a Capitalizing to Begin Sentences

b Capitalizing Proper Names and Titles



56 Italicizing (Underlining)

a Italics (Underlining) in Titles

b Italics for Specific Terms

c Underlining for Emphasis



57 Hyphenating

a Hyphenating to Join Words

b Hyphenating to Divide Words



58 Using Numbers

a Spelling Out Numbers

b Using Numerals



59 Abbreviating

a Familiar Abbreviations

b Proofreading for Appropriate Abbreviations



60 Spelling

a Starting with Your Spell Checker

b Watching for Common Patterns of Misspelling

c Proofreading for Commonly Misspelled Words



Glossary of Usage

Answers to Selected Exercises

Index

Credits

Guide to ESL Advice

Symbols for Revising and Editing