Quick Access, Brief Edition

Part 1 Foundations for Writers



1 Ten Troublesome Mistakes Writers Make

1. Sentence fragments

2. Comma splices and run-on sentences

3. Mistakes in subject-verb agreement

4. Mistakes in pronoun-antecedent agreement

5. Unclear pronoun reference

6. Illogical shifts within sentences

7. Mistakes with modifiers

8. Mistakes with homonyms

9. Comma errors

10. Apostrophe errors



2 Thinking Critically

2A How do I engage in critical thinking?

2B How do the rhetorical appeals help me think critically?

2C How do inductive and deductive reasoning help me think critically?

2D How do I avoid logical fallacies to think critically?

3 Reading Critically



3A How do I read written material critically?

3B How do I read closely and actively as a critical reader?

3C How do I "read" images critically?



Part 2 Writing Processes



4 Ten Steps for Writing Essays



4A How do I adapt writing processes for myself?

4B How do I think like a writer?

4C How do I decide on the purpose and audience for each essay?

4D How do I plan a writing portfolio?

4E How do I expand my ideas about my topic?

4F How does a thesis statement help me plan?

4G How does outlining help me write?

4H How do I get started on a first draft?

4I How do I revise effectively?

4J How do I edit and proofread effectively?



5 Composing Paragraphs

5A What is a paragraph?

5B How can I write effective introductory paragraphs?

5C How can I write effective topic sentences?

5D How can I write effective body paragraphs?

5E How can I use rhetorical strategies to develop effective body paragraphs?

5F How can I write effective concluding paragraphs? 000



6 Designing Documents

6A How can I design documents effectively?

6B How do I use photographs and graphics effectively?





Part 3 Frames for College Writing

WHAT ARE FRAMES for college writing?

7 Personal Essays

7A What is a personal essay?

7B How do I plan and revise personal essays?

7C What is a frame for a personal essay?

7D What sentence and paragraph guides can help me generate ideas?

7E A student's personal essay



8 Informative Essays

8A What are informative essays?

8B How do I plan and revise informative essays?

8C What is a frame for an informative essay?

8D What are sentence and paragraph guides for an informative essay?

8E A student's informative essay



9 Arguments

9A What is an argument?

9B How do I plan and revise arguments?

9C What are frames for arguments?

9D What are some sentence and paragraph guides for arguments?

9E A student's argument essay



10 Proposal or Solution Essays

10A What are proposal or solution essays?

10B How do I plan and revise proposal or solution arguments?

10C What is a frame for a proposal or solution essay?

10D What are some sentence and paragraph guides for proposal/solution essays?

10E A student's solution essay



11 Essays Analyzing Literary or Other Works

11A What is an essay that analyzes literary or other works?

11B How do I plan and revise an analysis essay?

11C What is a frame for an analysis essay?

11D What are some sentence and paragraph guides for analysis essays?

11E A student's essay analyzing a literary work

11F A student's analysis of two Web sites





Part 4 Research Writing and Documentation

12 Finding and Evaluating Sources

12A What are sources and what tools do I use to find them?

12B How do I search for articles in periodicals?

12C How do I search for books?

12D How do I use reference works?

12E How do I search for media?

12F How do I search for government documents?

12G How do I evaluate the sources I find?

12H What is field research?

13 Ten Steps for Writing a Research Paper

13A How do I plan my college-level research paper?

13B How do I use a search strategy to find sources for my research paper?

13C How do I take effective notes while conducting my research?

13D How do I develop a working and an annotated bibliography?

13E What are frames for research papers?

13F How do I synthesize sources when writing my research paper?

13G How do I avoid plagiarism in writing my research paper?

13H How do I use quotations correctly in my research paper?

13I How do I use summary and paraphrase in my research paper?

13J How do I draft, revise, and edit my research paper?

14 MLA-Style Documentation and Format

14A What is MLA documentation style?

14B What is MLA in-text parenthetical documentation?

14C What are MLA examples for parenthetical citations?

14D What are MLA guidelines for a Works Cited list?

14E What are MLA examples for sources in a Works Cited list?

14F What are MLA guidelines for content or bibliographic notes?

14G What are MLA format guidelines for research papers?

14H A student's MLA-style research paper



15 APA-Style Documentation and Format

15A What is APA documentation style?

15B What are APA in-text parenthetical citations?

15C What are APA examples for in-text citations?

15D What are APA guidelines for a References list?

15E What are APA examples for sources in a References list?

15F What are APA format guidelines for research papers?

15G A student's APA-style research paper



Part 5 Grammar, Style, Punctuation, and Mechanics

16 Parts of Speech and Parts of Sentences

Parts of Speech

16A What is a noun?

16B What is a pronoun?

16C What is a verb?

16D What is a verbal?

16E What is an adjective?

16F What is an adverb?

16G What is a preposition?

16H What is a conjunction?

16I What is an interjection?

Parts of Sentences

16J What are subjects and predicates?

16K What are direct and indirect objects?

16L What are complements, modifiers, and appositives?

16M What is a phrase?

16N What is a clause?

16O What are sentence types?

17 Verbs

17A How do verbs function?

17B What are the forms of main verbs?

17C What are auxiliary verbs?

17D Should I use lie or lay?

17E What are verb tenses?

17F What are indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods?

17G What is "voice" in verbs?

18 Subject-Verb Agreement

18A What is subject-verb agreement?

18B Can I ignore words between a subject and its verb?

18C How do verbs work when subjects are connected by and?

18D How do verbs work when subjects are connected by or?

18E How do verbs work with indefinite pronouns ?

18F How do verbs work with who, which, and that?

18G How do verbs work with one of the . . . who?

18H How do verbs work in other complicated types of subject-verb agreement?

19 Pronouns: Agreement, Reference, and Case

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

19A What is pronoun-antecedent agreement?

19B How do pronouns work when and connects antecedents?

19C How do pronouns work when or connects antecedents?

19D How do pronouns work when their antecedents are indefinite pronouns?

19E How do pronouns work when antecedents are collective nouns?

Pronoun Reference

19F How can I avoid unclear pronoun reference?

19G How do pronouns work with it, that, this, and which?

19H When do I use you for direct address?

19I When do I use who, which, and that?

Pronoun Case

19J What is pronoun case?

19K What are personal pronouns?

19L How can I select the correct case?

19M Which case is correct when and connects pronouns?

19N How can I match case in appositives?

19O How does the subjective case work after linking verbs?

19P When do I use who, whoever, whom, and whomever?

19Q What case do I use after than and as?

19R What case do I use with infinitives and -ing words?

19S What case do I use for -self pronouns?

20 Adjectives and Adverbs

20A What are differences between adjectives and adverbs?

20B What's wrong with double negatives?

20C Do adjectives or adverbs come after linking verbs?

20D What are correct comparative and superlative forms?

20E Why should I avoid using too many nouns as modifiers?

21 Sentence Fragments

21A How can I recognize sentence fragments?

21B How can I correct a fragment that starts with a subordinating word?

21C How can I correct a fragment that lacks a verb?

21D How can I correct a fragment that lacks a subject?

21E How can I correct a fragment that's a part of a compound predicate?

21F What are intentional fragments?

22 Comma Splices and Run-On Sentences

22A What are comma splices and run-on sentences?

22B How can I correct comma splices and run-on sentences?

23 Problems with Sentence Shifts

23A How can I be consistent in person and number?

23B How can I be consistent in subject and voice?

23C How can I be consistent in mood?

23D How can I be consistent in verb tense?

23E How can I be consistent in direct and indirect discourse?

23F What happens in sentences with mixed parts?

23G How do elliptical constructions and comparisons work?

24 Misplaced Modifiers

24A How can I correct misplaced modifiers?

24B How can I correct squinting modifiers?

24C How can I correct split infinitives?

24D How can I keep modifiers from disrupting a sentence?

24E How can I correct dangling modifiers?

25 Conciseness

25A How can I write concisely?

25B How can I avoid redundant writing?

25C How can I avoid wordy sentence structures?

25D How can combining sentence elements help me be concise?

25E How do action verbs improve conciseness?

26 Coordination and Subordination

26A How does coordination show that ideas are equivalent?

26B How can I avoid problems with coordination?

26C How does subordination work to express nonequivalent ideas?

26D How can I avoid problems with subordination?

27 Sentence Style

27A What is parallelism?

27B How can I avoid faulty parallelism?

27C How should I use parallelism with conjunctions?

27D How does parallelism strengthen my message?

27E What is sentence variety?

27F How does a sentence's subject affect emphasis?

27G How does adding modifiers affect writing style?

27H How does inverting standard word order affect emphasis?

28 Word Choice

28A What is word choice?

28B What tools do I need for college-level word choice?

28C What word concepts do I need to know?

28D What word choices are suitable for college-level writing?

28E How does figurative language enrich my word choice?

28F How can I increase my vocabulary power?



29 Spelling

29A How are plurals spelled?

29B How are suffixes spelled?

29C What is the ie, ei rule?

29D How are commonly confused words and homonyms spelled?

29E What else leads to spelling errors?

30 Commas

30A When do I use commas?

30B How do I use a comma to set off introductory words?

30C How do I use a comma before a coordinating conjunction?

30D How do I use commas with a series?

30E When do I use a comma between adjectives?

30F How do commas work with nonrestrictive and restrictive elements?

30G How do I use commas with quoted words?

30H What other word groups do I set off with commas?

30I How do I use commas in dates, names, places, addresses, letter format, and numbers?

30J How can a comma prevent a misreading?

30K How can I avoid other comma errors?

31 Semicolons

31A When can I use a semicolon instead of a period between independent clauses?

31B When do I need to use a semicolon to replace a comma?

32 Colons

32A How do I use a colon with a list, an appositive, or a quotation?

32B When can I use a colon between sentences?

32C What conventional formats call for colons?

33 Apostrophes

33A How do I use an apostrophe to show that a noun is possessive?

33B How do I use an apostrophe to show that an indefinite pronoun is possessive?

33C Do I ever use an apostrophe with hers, his, its, ours, yours, and theirs?

33D Do I ever add an apostrophe to a verb that ends in -s ?

33E How do I use apostrophes in contractions?

33F Do I use an apostrophe with letters, numerals, symbols, and terms?

34 Quotation Marks

34A How do I use quotation marks with short direct quotations?

34B How do I use quotation marks with long direct quotations?

34C How do I use quotation marks to indicate spoken words?

34D How do I use quotation marks with titles?

34E How do I use quotation marks to indicate terms, translations, and irony?

34F When are quotation marks wrong?

34G How do I use quotation marks with other punctuation?

35 Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points

35A When should I use a period?

35B When should I use a question mark?

35C When should I use an exclamation point?

36 Other Punctuation Marks

36A When should I use a dash?

36B When should I use parentheses?

36C When should I use brackets?

36D When should I use ellipsis points?

36E When should I use a slash?

37 Hyphens

37A When should I hyphenate at the end of a line?

37B When should I hyphenate prefixes and suffixes?

37C When should I hyphenate compound words?

37D When should I hyphenate spelled-out numbers?

38 Capitals

38A When should I capitalize a "first" word?

38B How should I capitalize quotations?

38C When should I capitalize nouns and adjectives?

39 Italics (Underlining)

39A How do I choose between italics and quotation marks?

39B When should I use italics for emphasis?

40 Abbreviations

40A What abbreviations can I use with times and amounts?

40B How should I use abbreviations with people's names?

40C How do I use Jr., Sr., II, III, 2nd, and 3rd?

40D When can I abbreviate names of countries, organizations, and government agencies?

40E What abbreviations can I use in addresses?

40F When can I use etc. and other Latin abbreviations?

41 Numbers

41A When should I spell out numbers in words?

41B How should I write dates, addresses, times, and other numbers?

Part 6 Tips for Multilingual Writers

A Message to Multilingual Writers

42 Singulars and Plurals

42A What are count and noncount nouns?

42B Which determiners should I use with singular and plural nouns?

42C Which forms are correct for nouns used as adjectives?

43 Articles

43A How should I use articles with singular count nouns?

43B How should I use articles with count and noncount nouns?

43C How should I use the with proper nouns?

44 Word Order

44A What are standard and inverted word orders?

44B Where should I place adjectives?

44C Where should I place adverbs?

45 Prepositions

45A How should I use in, at, and on to show time and place?

45B How should I use prepositions in phrasal verbs?

45C How should I use prepositions with the passive voice?

45D How should I use prepositions in expressions?

46 Gerunds and Infinitives

46A What verbs use a gerund, not an infinitive, object?

46B What verbs use an infinitive, not a gerund, object?

46C How does meaning change if an infinitive object or a gerund follows stop, remember, or forget?

46D Do sense verbs change meaning with a gerund or an infinitive object?

46E How should I choose between -ing and -ed forms of adjectives?

47 Modal Auxiliary Verbs

47A How do modal auxiliary verbs differ from be, do, and have?

47B Which modal auxiliary verbs express ability, necessity, advisability, or probability?

47C Which modal auxiliary verbs express preference, plan, or past habit?

Part 7 Special Writing Situations



48 An Overview of Writing Across the Curriculum

48A What is writing across the curriculum?

48B How do audience and purpose work across the curriculum?



49 Writing in the Humanities

49A What are the humanities?

49B What are types of writing in the humanities?

49C What documentation styles are common in the humanities?



50 Writing in the Social Sciences

50A What are the social sciences?

50B What are different types of papers in the social sciences?



51 Writing in the Natural Sciences

51A What are the natural sciences?

51B What are different types of papers in the natural sciences?



52 Creating Multimedia Texts

52A What are multimedia texts?

52B How do I plan and organize an oral presentation?

52C How do I use multimedia in presentations?

52D How do I create video and sound recordings?



53 Writing in Online Environments

53A What is writing for online environments?

53B How do I write for a blog?

53C How do I write for a wiki?



54 Workplace Writing

54A What is workplace writing?

54B How do I write effective business e-mails and letters?

54C How do a write an effective resume?



55 Writing with Others

55A What is writing with others?

55B How can I collaborate with other writers?

55C How can I give useful feedback to others?

55D How can I benefit from others' help?



Terms Glossary

Usage Glossary

Credits

Index