The journey to better grades starts here. Since writing and research is part of almost every college course, you need an accessible, easy-to-understand reference guide that can provide answers to the many grammar, writing, researching and documentation questions you#x19;ll have. The Longman Pocket Writer#x19;s Companionis an inexpensive, pocket-sized guide that answers all your writing questions and more.#xA0; Offering a distinctive focus on writing for different audiences #x13; academic, public, and workplace #x13; this handbook enables you to communicate more effectively, while its superior support for writing across the curriculum and up-to-date documentation coverage will help you get better grades in all of your courses. #xA0; Why You Need this New Edition #xA0; A new Ten Serious Errors sectionhelps you recognize and correct major errors that make it hard for readers to understand your writing, including fragments, run-ons, unnecessary commas, and more. #xA0; A new chapter on Assessing Writing(Ch. 10) offers you strategies for seeing your own writing objectively as well as tips for anticipating how others might evaluate your work.#xA0; #xA0; A new chapter on Writing for General Education Courses(Ch. 8) helps you analyze your college assignments.#xA0; You#x19;ll also find tips to help you with the most common writing tasks across the General Education curriculum (such as writing summaries, annotated bibliographies, and essay exams) helping you to write more effectively in all your courses.#xA0;#xA0; #xA0; A new chapter on Writing in the Disciplines(Ch. 9) will help you write papers common in the majors (such as interpretations, textual and visual analyses, abstracts, lab reports, and researched reports) to set you up for success as your college career progresses. #xA0; New documentation entries illustrate how to cite sources such as blogs and podcasts,genres so new that they aren#x19;t covered in many texts.#xA0; #xA0; New student sample pages in the CMS and CSE Style chapters(Chs 19, 20) ensure that you see sample student research writing in all four of the major academic documentation styles. #xA0; New Source Samples in the MLA and APA Style chapters(Chs 17, 18) show you where in the original source you can find all the information you need for citation.

Handbook Menu

Guide for Using This Handbook

Part 1: Writing and Reading

1. Writing and Reading in Communities

1a. Understanding your writing situation

1b. Moving from reading to writing

1c. Paying attention to the writing process

2. Developing a Thesis

2a. Creating a thesis statement

2b. Designing an appropriate thesis

3. Providing Support and Reasoning Clearly

3a. Reasoning critically

3b. Providing support

3c. Evaluating support

4. Paragraphing for Readers

4a. Focusing paragraphs

4b. Making paragraphs coherent

4c. Developing paragraphs

5. Matching Style and Strategy to a Community of Readers

5a. Recognizing a community’s style

5b. Adjusting to a community’s style

5c. Recognizing a community’s expectations

6. Designing Documents for Readers

6a. Planning your document

6b. Laying out your document

6c. Using type features

6d. Using visuals

6e. Sample documents

7. Constructing an Argument

7a. Identifying an issue

7b. Developing an argumentative thesis

7c. Developing reasons and supporting evidence

7d. Presenting counterarguments

7e. Reasoning logically

8. Writing for General Education Courses

8a. General academic writing assignments

8b. Writing goals and plans

8c. Common types of general academic writing

9. Writing in the Disciplines

9a. Writing in the arts and humanities

9b. Common types of writing in the arts and humanities

9c. Writing in the natural and social sciences

9d. Common types of writing in the natural and social sciences

10. Assessing Writing

10a. Assessing your own writing

10b. Assessing someone else’s writing

10c. Understanding how others assess your writing

10d. Assessing your portfolio

Part 2: Conducting Research

11. Planning and Conducting Research

11a. Recognizing research topics

11b. Identifying keywords

11c. Developing research questions

11d. Developing critical search strategies

11e. Maintaining a working bibliography

11f. Keeping track of sources and notes

11g. Assembling your research materials

12. Finding Library and Database Resources

12a. Finding library resources

12b. Locating books and documents

12c. Locating periodicals and other documents

12d. Finding research databases

12e. Locating databases for articles and documents

13. Finding Web Resources

13a. Finding Web and Internet resources

13b. Searching efficiently

13c. Locating appropriate Web resources

14. Reading and Synthesizing Sources

14a. Summarizing

14b. Paraphrasing

14c. Synthesizing

14d. Questioning

15. Evaluating Sources Critically

15a. Evaluating appropriateness

15b. Evaluating accuracy and reliability

15c. Evaluating search engine results.

15d. Evaluating point of view or bias

15e. Evaluating Web sources critically

15f. Turning inquiry into writing

16. Avoiding Plagiarism and Integrating Sources

16a. Avoiding plagiarism

16b. Deciding what to document

16c. Documenting sources for different audiences

16d. Integrating quotations

16e. Integrating sources into your text

16f. Integrating visual and webbed sources

Part 3: Documenting Sources

17. MLA Style

Guide to MLA Formats

17a. MLA in-text (parenthetical) citations

17b. MLA list of works cited

17c. MLA sample pages

18. APA Style

Guide to APA Formats

18a. APA in-text (parenthetical) citations

18b. APA reference list

18c. APA sample pages

19. CMS Style

Guide to CMS Formats

19a. CMS notes

19b. CMS bibliography

19c. CMS sample pages

20. CSE Style

Guide to CSE Formats

20a. CSE in-text citations

20b. CSE reference list

20c. CSE sample pages

Part 4: Writing Correctly

21. Fragments

21a. Recognizing sentence fragments

21b. Editing sentence fragments

21c. Using partial sentences

22. Comma Splices and Fused Sentences

22a. Recognizing comma splices

22b. Recognizing fused sentences

22c. Editing comma splices and fused sentences

23. Pronoun Reference

23a. Recognizing unclear pronoun reference

23b. Editing pronoun reference

24. Agreement

24a. Recognizing agreement

24b. Editing subject-verb agreement

24c. Editing pronoun-antecedent agreement

25. Correct Forms

25a. Recognizing and editing verb forms

25b. Editing for clear tense sequence

25c. Recognizing pronoun forms

25d. Editing pronoun forms

25e. Recognizing adjectives and adverbs

25f. Editing adjectives and adverbs

25g. Recognizing and editing comparisons

Part 5: Writing Clearly

26. Clear Sentences

26a. Recognizing unclear sentences

26b. Editing for clear sentences

27. Mixed Structures

27a. Recognizing mixed and incomplete sentences

27b. Editing mixed and incomplete sentences

28. Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

28a. Recognizing misplaced modifiers

28b. Editing misplaced modifiers

29. Unnecessary Shifts

29a. Recognizing shifts in person and number

29b. Editing shifts in person and number

29c. Recognizing shifts in tense

29d. Editing shifts in tense

30. Parallelism

30a. Recognizing faulty parallelism

30b. Editing for parallelism

31. Coordination and Subordination

31a. Recognizing coordination

31b. Recognizing subordination

31c. Editing for coordination and subordination

32. Conciseness

32a. Recognizing wordiness

32b. Editing for conciseness

33. Language Choices

33a. Recognizing and editing language varieties

33b. Recognizing and editing disrespectful language

Part 6: Writing with Conventions

34. Commas

34a. Recognizing commas that join sentences

34b. Editing commas that join sentences

34c. Recognizing commas that set off sentence elements

34d. Editing commas that set off sentence elements

34e. Editing disruptive commas

34f. Editing commas with words in a series

35. Semicolons and Colons

35a. Recognizing semicolons that join sentences

35b. Editing semicolons that join sentences

35c. Editing semicolons in a complex series

35d. Recognizing and editing colons

36. Apostrophes

36a. Recognizing apostrophes that mark possession

36b. Editing apostrophes that mark possession

36c. Recognizing apostrophes that mark contractions

36d. Editing apostrophes that mark contractions

37. Quotation Marks

37a. Recognizing marks that set off quotations

37b. Editing marks that set off quotations

37c. Editing quotation marks with titles

38. Italics and Underlining

38a. Recognizing conventions for italics (underlining)

38b. Editing for conventions for emphasis

39. Capitals

39a. Recognizing capitals that begin sentences

39b. Editing capitals that begin sentences

39c. Editing capitals that begin words

40. Abbreviations

40a. Recognizing and editing abbreviations

40b. Editing to use abbreviations sparingly

41. Numbers

41a. Recognizing when to spell or use numbers

41b. Editing numbers in general text

42. Hyphens

42a. Recognizing hyphens that join words

42b. Editing hyphens that join words

42c. Editing hyphens that divide words

43. Spelling

43a. Using the computer to proofread for spelling

43b. Recognizing and editing spelling errors

44. Other Marks and Conventions

44a. Recognizing and editing parentheses

44b. Recognizing and editing dashes

44c. Recognizing and editing brackets

44d. Recognizing and editing ellipses

44e. Recognizing and editing slashes

44f. Recognizing and editing end marks

44g. Recognizing and editing electronic addresses

44h. Combining marks

Ten Serious Errors

1. Fragment

2. Fused sentence

3. Unclear pronoun reference

4. Lack of subject-verb agreement

5. Dangling modifier

6. Shift

7. Misused or missing apostrophe

8. Unnecessary commas

9. Misused or missing quotation marks

10. Double negative

Glossary of Usage and Terms

Index

Guide to ESL Advice

Detailed Contents

Symbols for Revising and Editing

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

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The Longman Pocket Writer's Companion MLA Update Edition

9780205741793

0205741797

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