Top
| Part 1: THE BASICS OF THE SHORT ESSAY | |
| 1. Prewriting | |
| Getting Started | |
| Selecting a Subject | |
| Finding Your Essay's Purpose and Focus | |
| Pump-Primer Techniques | |
| After You've Found Your Focus | |
| Discovering your Audience | |
| How to Identify Your Readers | |
| Keeping a Journal (Talking to Yourself Does Help) | |
| Chapter 1 Summary | |
| 2. The Thesis Statement | |
| What Is a Thesis? What Does a "Working Thesis" Do? Can a "Working Thesis" Change? Guidelines for Writing a Good Thesis | |
| Avoiding Common Errors in Thesis Statements | |
| Using the Essay Map | |
| Chapter 2 Summary | |
| 3. The Body Paragraphs | |
| Planning the Body of Your Essay | |
| Composing the Body Paragraphs | |
| The Topic Sentence | |
| Paragraph Development | |
| Paragraph Length | |
| Paragraph Unity | |
| Paragraph Coherence | |
| Paragraph Sequence | |
| Transitions between Paragraphs | |
| Chapter 3 Summary | |
| 4. Beginnings and Endings | |
| How to Write a Good Lead-In | |
| Avoiding Errors in Lead-Ins | |
| How to Write a Good Concluding Paragraph | |
| Avoiding Errors in Conclusions | |
| How to Write a Good Title | |
| Chapter 4 Summary | |
| 5. Drafting and Revising: Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking | |
| What Is Revision? When Does Revision Occur? Myths about Revision | |
| Preparing to Draft: Some Time-Saving Hints | |
| A Revision Process for Your Drafts | |
| What is Critical Thinking? Thinking Critically as a Writer | |
| A Final Checklist for Your Essay | |
| Benefiting from Revision Workshops | |
| Some Last Advise: How to Play with Your Mental Blocks | |
| Chapter 5 Summary | |
| 6. Effective Sentences | |
| Developing a Clear Style | |
| Developing a Concise Style | |
| Developing a Lively Style | |
| Developing an Emphatic Style | |
| Chapter 6 Summary | |
| 7. Word Logic | |
| Selecting the Correct Words | |
| Selecting the Best Words | |
| Chapter 7 Summary | |
| 8. The Reading-Writing Connection | |
| How Can Reading Well Help Me Become a Better Writer? How Can I Become an Analytical Reader? Writing a Summary | |
| Chapter 8 Summary | |
| The Basics of the Short Essay: Part One Summary | |
| Part 2: PURPOSES, MODES, AND STRATEGIES | |
| 9. Exposition | |
| The Strategies of Exposition | |
| Strategy One: Development by Example | |
| Professional Essay: "So What's So Bad about Being So-So?" Strategy 2: Development by Process Analysis | |
| Professional Essays: "To Bid the World Farewell" and "How to Write a Personal Letter" | |
| Strategy Three: Development by Comparison and Contrast | |
| Essay Topics | |
| A Topic Proposal for Your Essay | |
| Professional Essays: "Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts" and "Two Ways of Viewing the River" | |
| Strategy Four: Development by Definition | |
| Professional Essay: "The Munchausen Mystery" | |
| Strategy Five: Development by Division and Classification | |
| Professional Essay: "Mystery!" 10. Argumentation | |
| Developing Your Essay | |
| Pro/Con Professional Essays: "Grandparents' Rights" | |
| Analyzing Advertisements | |
| 11. Description | |
| How to Write Effective Description | |
| Professional Essay: "Still Learning from My Mother" | |
| 12. Narration | |
| Writing the Effective Narrative Essay | |
| Professional Essay: "Sister Flowers" | |
| 13. Writing Essays Using Multiple Strategies | |
| Professional Essay: "Don't Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgements" | |
| Part 3: SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS | |
| 14. Writing a Paper Using Research | |
| Focusing Your Topic | |
| Beginning Your Library Research | |
| Preparing a Working Bibliography | |
| Choosing and Evaluating Your Sources | |
| Preparing an Annotated Bibliography | |
| Taking Notes | |
| Incorporating Your Source Material | |
| Avoiding Plagiarism | |
| Choosing the Documentation Style for Your Essay | |
| MLA / APA Styles | |
| Using Supplementary Notes | |
| 15. Writing about Literature | |
| Using Literature in the Composition Classroom | |
| Suggestions for Close Reading of Literature | |
| Steps to Reading a Story | |
| Annotated Story: "The Story of an Hour" | |
| Steps to Reading a Poem | |
| Annotated Poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" | |
| Guidelines for Writing about Literature | |
| 16. Writing In-Class: Exams and "Response" Essays | |
| Steps to Writing Well Under Pressure | |
| Writing the Summary-and-Response Essay | |
| 17. Writing in the World of Work | |
| Composing Business Letters | |
| Sample Business Letter | |
| Creating Memos | |
| Sending Professional E-Mail | |
| Designing Résumés | |
| Sample Résumé | |
| Part 4: A CONCISE HANDBOOK | |
| 18. Major Errors in Grammar | |
| Errors with Verbs | |
| Errors with Nouns | |
| Errors with Pronouns | |
| Errors with Adverbs and Adjectives | |
| Errors in Modifying Phrases | |
| Errors in Sentences | |
| 19. A Concise Guide to Punctuation | |
| The Period | |
| The Question Mark | |
| The Exclamation Point | |
| The Comma | |
| The Semicolon | |
| The Colon | |
| The Apostrophe | |
| Quotation Marks | |
| Parentheses | |
| Brackets | |
| The Dash | |
| The Hyphen | |
| Underlining | |
| The Ellipsis Mark | |
| 20. A Concise Guide to Mechanics | |
| Capitalization | |
| Abbreviations | |
| Numbers | |
| Part 5: ADDITIONAL READINGS | |
| 21. Exposition: Development by Example | |
| "Darkness at Noon" by Harold Krents | |
| "Black Men and Public Space" by Brent Staples | |
| "Rambos of the Road" by Martin Gottfied | |
| 22. Exposition: Process Analysis | |
| "Ditch Diving" by Tom Bodett | |
| "The Jeaning of America" by Carin C | |
| Quinn | |
| "Autumn Leaves" by Diane Ackerman | |
| 23. Exposition: Comparison/Contrast | |
| "Columbus and the Moon" by Tom Wolfe | |
| " My Real Car" by Bailey White | |
| "Still Connected to the Border" by Pat Mora | |
| 24. Exposition: Definition | |
| "The Heroes Among Us" by Stephen M | |
| Wolf | |
| "Insulting the French: 'Bistro-Style' Airplane Food" by Dave Barry | |
| " What Is Poverty?" by Jo Goodwin Parker | |
| 25. Exposition: Division/Classification | |
| "A Brush with Reality: Surprises in the Tube" by David Bodanis | |
| "Party Manners" by Richard Grossman | |
| "College Pressures" by William Zinsser | |
| 26. Exposition: Causal Analysis | |
| "Kids in the Mall" by William Severini Kowinski | |
| "The Violence Is Fake, The Impact Is Real" by Ellen Goodman | |
| "The Teacher Who Changed My Life" by Nicholas Gage | |
| 27. Argumentation | |
| Pro/Con Argument: The Extended School Year | |
| "U | |
| Kids Need More School Time" by Ellen Goodman | |
| "The School Year Needs to Be Better, Not Longer" by Colman McCarthy | |
| "A Scientist: 'I Am the Enemy'" by Ron Kline | |
| "Sack Athletic Scholarships" by Roger Rosenblatt | |
| 28. Description | |
| "A Day at the Theme Park" by W | |
| Bruce Cameron | |
| "Hush, Timmy-This Is Like a Church" by Kurt Anderson | |
| "The Man in the Water" by Roger Rosenblatt | |
| 29. Narration | |
| "38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" by Martin Gansberg | |
| "Take the Plunge…" by Gloria Emerson | |
| "The Talkies" by James Lileks | |
| 30. Essays for Further Analysis: Multiple Strategies and Styles | |
| " I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr | |
| " Once More to the Lake (August 1941)" by E | |
| White | |
| "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" by Alice Walker | |
| 31. Literature | |
| "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks | |
| "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley | |
| "A Mystery of Heroism" by Stephen Crane |
