Substance, Style, and Strategy

by Jacobus, Lee A.

• ISBN13: 9780195078374
• ISBN10: 0195078373
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Ideal for courses in advanced composition, Substance, Style, and Strategy offers a comprehensive guide to develop effective writing in every student. It enables students to form a personal style, to write about issues that are substantial and meaningful, and to use a range of strategies forsolving writing problems of all kinds. Recognizing that students often require basic reminders of elementary stylistic principles, the book begins with a review in the first chapter, "Developing a Personal Style," that brings writers up to speed in standard skills. It discusses issues of subject, audience, style, and the writingprocess. Following chapters examine not only the types of essay writing students must do in college but also ways of writing that will be useful to them as developing writers later in life. The author presents workable, direct, and useful strategies for writing effective personal, biographical,argumentative, familiar, and critical essays. Each essay form is discussed in detail and illustrated through examples that are analyzed in depth; these examples are illuminating and instructive because they offer ways of solving problems that all writers confront. The text concludes with a practicalappendix on research materials that outlines the most useful research strategies for modern writers, discussing both print resources and new on-line resources such as Lexis-Nexis, CD-ROM on-line databases and services, and the World Wide Web. Substance, Style, and Strategy stimulates students to develop their thoughts and feelings in skillful, meaningful, and expressive prose, providing them with a thorough grounding in how to be writers for life.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Developing a Personal Style	1	(38)
The Writing Process
Box: Ten Tips for a Vigorous Style
Box: Tips on Polishing Your Prose
Matters of Style
Style: Words and Sentences
Box: Three Considerations for Style
Box: General Rules that Sometimes Work for Word Choice
Box: Rules That Sometimes Work for Paragraphs
Developing Your Own Sense of Style
How Writers Work
The Course in Advanced Writing
Writing the Personal Essay	39	(24)
Maintaining a Journal or Diary
Box: Tips for Keeping a Journal
Sample Journal Entries
The Personal Essay
Richard Ford, "Accommodations"
Box: Ford's Opening Sentences
The Search for Significance
Let Your Story Unfold
Box: Tips for Writing a Personal Essay
Writing the Biographical Essay	63	(38)
Another Person's Life
What We Learn from Writing About People
Catherine S. Manegold, "Kara S. Hultgreen: The Short Flight of a Fighter Pilot"
Following Personal Interests
Gathering Sources for a Biography
Box: General Biographical Resources
Judging Someone's Life
Paul Theroux, "Chatwin Revisited"
Strategies for Writing About Another Person
Joan Didion, "Georgia O'Keeffe"
Suggestions for Interesting Essays About Another Person
Box: Tips That Sometimes Work for Writing About People
4 Writing the Argumentative Essay	101	(50)
What Is an Argument and Why Argue?
Three Appeals in Argument
Box: Three Appeals in Argument
Argument as Information
Box: Argument as Information
Claire Sterling, "Redfellas"
Argument as Inquiry
Box: Argument as Inquiry
Evan S. Connell, "Were Custer's Men Brave?"
Persuasion Through Argument
The Tone of an Argument
Box: Argumentative Tone
Argument as Debate
Katha Pollitt, "Subject to Debate"
Midge Dector, "Welfare Feminism"
Katha Pollitt, "Subject to Debate"
Writing Argumentative Essays
Box: Nine Sources for Arguments
Box: Generally Reliable Suggestions for the Structure of an Argument
Box: Nestorian Order
Box: Tips That Sometimes Work for Writing Argumentative Essays
5 Writing the Familiar Essay	151	(29)
Beginning from Personal Experience
Analyzing Concrete Details
Cynthia Ozick, "North"
Analyzing an Abstraction
Box: Generally Reliable Tips for Dealing with Abstraction
Regina Barreca, "Greed"
Familiar Style
E.M. Forster, "My Wood"
Anonymous, "Coping with Anger"
Box: Generally Reliable Tips for Discovering Significance in Events
Andre James, "Malls and the Gender Gap"
Box: Tips That Usually Help in Writing Familiar Essays
6 Writing the Critical Essay	180	(29)
What Is the Critical Essay?
Thinking Critically About Ideas
Analyzing an Essay: Francis Bacon's "Of Studies"
Thinking Critically About the Arts
Analyzing a Poem: William Wordsworth's "The Sonnet"
Box: Some Usually Reliable Questions for Evaluating a Sonnet
Analyzing Texts
Box: Some Generally Useful Tips for Analyzing Texts
Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince"
The Structure of the Critical Essay
Box: Tips Often Useful Concerning the Structure of the Critical Essay
Heinrich Boll, "The Laugher"
Appendix: Modern Research Methods	209	(40)
Where to Begin
Box: Basic Print Reference Sources
Box: Special Online Resources
Box: CD-ROM Online Databases
Box: Print Resources
Choosing an Interesting Research Subject
Conducting a Search of the Online Catalog
Richard Worsnop, "Gun Control"
The Importance of Your Research
Formal Considerations
Box: Tips That May Help as a Guide to Quoting from Sources
Index	249