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Lester Faigley holds the Robert Adger Law and Thos. H. Law Professorship in Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. He was the founding director of the Division (now Department) of Rhetoric and Writing at Texas in 1993, and he served as the 1996 Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Faigley has published over twenty books and editions, including Fragments of Rationality (Pittsburgh, 1992), which received the MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize.
Part 1 Composing
1 Think as a Writer
a Think About the Process of Communication
b Think About Your Audience
c Think About Your Credibility
2 Read and View with a Critical Eye
a Become a Critical Reader
b Become a Critical Viewer
3 Plan and Draft
a Establish Goals and Find a Topic
b Write a Working Thesis
c Determine Your Organization
d Focus Your Paragraphs
e Write Effective Beginning and Ending Paragraphs
4 Revise, Edit, and Proofread
a Evaluate Your Draft
b Learn Strategies for Rewriting
c Edit for Specific Goals
d Proofread Carefully
e Review the Writing of Others
5 Write Arguments
a Position Arguments and Proposal Arguments
b Find an Arguable Topic and Make a Claim
c Organize and Write a Position Argument
d Make a Proposal
e Organize and Write a Proposal Argument
6 Write in Academic Genres
a Write an Observation
b Write a Case Study
c Write a Rhetorical Analysis
d Write an Essay Exam
7 Write in Online and Multimedia Genres
a Compose Blogs and Discussion Posts
b Create Multimedia Projects
PART 2 Planning Research and Finding Sources
Research Map: Conducting Research
8 Plan Your Research
a Analyze the Research Task
b Find and Narrow a Topic
c Determine What Kind of Research You Need
d Draft a Working Thesis
e Create a Working Bibliography
9 Find Sources
a Develop Strategies for Finding Sources
b Find Sources in Databases
c Find Sources on the Web
d Find Print Sources
e Keep Track of Sources
10 Evaluate Sources
a Determine the Relevance of Sources
b Evaluate Database and Print Sources
c Evaluate Web Sources
11 Plan Field Research
a Know What You Can Obtain from Field Research
b Conduct Interviews
c Administer Surveys
d Make Observations
PART 3 Incorporating and Documenting Sources
12 Use Sources Effectively and Avoid Plagiarism
a Decide When to Quote and When to Summarize and Paraphrase
b Take Notes Effectively
c Use Quotations Effectively
d Integrate Quotations
e Use Summaries and Paraphrases Effectively
13 Understand and Avoid Plagiarism
a What Is Plagiarism?
b Which Sources Do You Need to Acknowledge?
14 MLA Documentation
MLA Documentation Map
a Citing Sources in an MLA-Style Project
b Creating the List of Works Cited
c In-text Citations in MLA Style
d Illustrated Samples and Index of Works Cited
e Journals, Magazines Newspapers, and Other Print Sources
f Books
g Library Database Sources
h Web Sources and Other Online Sources
i Visual Sources
j Multimedia Sources
k Sample Research Paper with MLA Documentation
15 APA Documentation
a In-text Citations in APA Style
b Illustrated Samples and Index of References
c Periodical Sources
d Books
e Online Sources
f Visual and Multimedia Sources
g Sample Pages from a Research Paper with APA Documentation
16 CMS Documentation
a The Elements of CMS Documentation
b Books and Nonperiodical Sources
c Periodical Sources
d Online Sources
e Sample Pages with CMS Documentation
17 CSE Documentation
a In-Text References in CSE Style
b Books and Nonperiodical Sources
c Periodical Sources
d Online Sources
e Sample Pages with CSE Documentation
Part 4 Effective Style and Language
18 Write with Power
a Recognize active and passive voice
b Use action verbs
c Find agents
d Vary your sentences
19 Write Concisely
a Eliminate unnecessary words
b Reduce wordy phrases
c Simplify tangled sentences
20 Write with Emphasis
a Manage emphasis within sentences
b Forge links across sentences
c Use parallel structure with parallel ideas
21 Find the Right Words
a Be aware of levels of formality
b Be aware of denotation and connotation
c Use specific language
d Write to be inclusive
e Recognize international varieties of English
Part 5 Understanding Grammar
22 Fragments, Run-ons, and Comma Splices
a Fragments
b Run-on sentences
c Comma splices
23 Subject-Verb Agreement
a Agreement in the present tense
b Singular and plural subjects
c Indefinite pronouns as subjects
d Collective nouns as subjects
e Inverted word order
f Amounts, numbers, and pairs
24 Verbs
a Basic verb forms
b Irregular verbs
c Transitive and intransitive verbs
25 Pronouns
a Pronoun case
b Pronoun agreement
c Avoiding sexist pronouns
d Vague reference
26 Shifts
a Shifts in tense
b Shifts in mood
c Shifts in voice
d Shifts in person and number
27 Modifiers
a Choose the correct modifier
b Place adjectives carefully
c Place adverbs carefully
d Hyphens with compound modifiers
e Revise dangling modifiers
28 Grammar for Multilingual Writers
a Nouns
b Articles
c Verbs
Part 6 Understanding Puncutation and Mechanics
29 Commas
a Commas with introductory elements
b Commas with compound clauses
c Commas with nonrestrictive modifiers
d Commas with items in a series
e Commas with coordinate adjectives
f Commas with quotations
g Commas with dates, numbers, titles, and addresses
h Commas to avoid confusion
i Unnecessary commas
30 Semicolons and Colons
a Semicolons with closely related main clauses
b Semicolons together with commas
c Colons in sentences
d Colons with lists
31 Dashes and Parentheses
a Dashes and parentheses to set off information
b Dashes and parentheses versus commas
c Other punctuation with parentheses
32 Apostrophes
a Possessives
b Contractions and omitted letters
c Plurals of letters, symbols, and words referred to as words
33 Quotation Marks
a Direct quotations
b Titles of short works
c Other uses of quotation marks
d Other punctuation with quotation marks
e Misuses of quotation marks
34 Other Punctuation Marks
a Periods
b Question marks
c Exclamation points
d Brackets
e Ellipses
f Slashes
35 Capitalization, Italics, Abbreviations, Numbers
a Capital letters
b Italics
c Abbreviations
d Acronyms
e Numbers
Glossary of Grammatical Terms and Usage
Index
Credits
Revision Guide
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