SF Writer

by Ruszkiewicz, John J.; Hairston, Maxine; Seward, Daniel E.

• ISBN13: 9780321089076
• ISBN10: 0321089073
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Summary

With SF Writer 2/e the authors did more than offer a revisionthey created a new kind of handbook. SF Writer 2/e takes the writer in its title seriously. From its opening paragraph to its concluding almanac, the handbook examines the writing process today from the perspective of writers, young and old, learning new roles and reaching new audiences. The style of SF Writer is energetic and witty, the advice fresh and contemporary, the design ground-breaking. Almost every major element of SF Writer is new or significantly revised, beginning with an organization that removes the barriers between writing and research. While most handbooks put the chapters on research in back of the book, SF Writer locates these essential strategies up front, in Part II: Thinking and Research. This new arrangement helps writers appreciate better the connection between college research and other essential activities such as Reading Critically and Writing Persuasively, also examined in Part II. Equally fresh is Part I: Working as a Writer, which presents writing as a dynamic activity grounded in practical choices and familiar genres. And because most college assignments still end in a grade, Working as a Writer also includes an innovative chapter on Evaluating Writing. No other handbook in SF Writer's field covers this sensitive, but important topic. SF Writer breaks new ground, too, in expanding its coverage of document design and writing for the Web. A full section is now devoted to these subjects, featuring fresh material and rich illustrations. Uniquely, SF Writer treats the design of print and electronic documents as a process, like writing itself. SF Writer embodies these design principals in a volume full of carefully chosen images and photographsfrom section dividers that showcase the work of writers to an almanac featuring timelines of notable texts and authors. It's not an accident that SF Writer looks exceptionally fresh and contemporary. In this edition, the media is part of the message. Yet SF Writer doesn't forget its responsibilities as a guide to grammar, mechanics, usage, and documentation. Its coverage in these areas is unsurpassed. Yet even here, new themes are sounded. For example, the model MLA paper is by a student teacher wrestling with a state mandate for competency testing. The model APA research paper comes from an online journal that publishes undergraduate research in psychology. So both papers demonstrate that undergraduates today really can do serious work as writers and reach live audiences.

Table of Contents

PART I Working as a Writer

Writers at Work

Preparing to Write

Making a Point

Creating a Structure

Drafting

Revising, Editing, and Proofreading

Evaluating Writing

PART II Reading, Thinking, and Research

Reading Critically

Writing Persuasively

Finding Information

Evaluating Sources

Using Sources and Quotations

PART III Designing Documents and Web Sites

Designing Documents

Creating Documents and Web Sites

Model Documents

Email

Business letters

Letters of application

Resumes

Professional memos

Messages to online forums

Newsletters

Brochures

Web pages

PART IV Producing Writing

Producing an MLA Paper

Using MLA documentation

MLA models

Sample MLA paper

Producing an APA Paper

Using APA documentation

APA models

Sample APA paper

Producing a CMS Paper

CMS notes

CMS bibliographies

CMS models

Sample CMS pages

CBE Documentation

CBE in-text citations

CBE references

COS Documentation

Using COS Documentation

COS models---Humanities (MLA)

COS models---Sciences (APA)

Writing a Literary Analysis

PART V Shaping Language

Making Choices About Language

Writing Stylish Sentences

Shaping Effective Paragraphs

PART VI Understanding Grammar

The Shape of Sentences

Sentence Fragments, Comma Splices, and Run-ons

Modifiers

Subject-Verb Agreement

Verb Tense, Voice, and Mood

Pronouns

Suggestions for ESL Writers

PART VII Understanding Punctuation and Mechanics

End Punctuation

Commas

Semicolons and Colons

Quotation Marks and Ellipses

Parentheses and Brackets

Dashes, Hyphens, and Slashes

Italics and Capitalization

Apostrophes, Abbreviations, and Numbers

Spelling, Dictionary, Thesaurus

Almanac

Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Usage

Index