Universal Keys for Writers (with 2009 MLA Update Card)

by Raimes, Ann; Jerskey, Maria

• ISBN13: 9780495899969
• ISBN10: 0495899968
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-27
• Publisher: Cengage Learning

Summary

With superior accessibility, clear organization, and comprehensive content, Universal Keys is the easiest-to-use text in the hardback handbook market. Appealing to diverse classrooms, the book includes "Worlds of Writing" boxes on language diversity, an ESL chapter, "The Guide to Language Transfer Errors," and integrated ESL Notes. The respectful, inclusive approach displays an awareness of language diversity issues and reflects the varying backgrounds of students. Lively Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) exercises engage students with high-interest topics from the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences. Clear style coverage with the popular "5 C's of Style" (Cut, Check for Action, Connect, Commit, and Choose the Best Words) helps students to submit their best work. Students receive the most up-to-date information on MLA documentation with the enclosed tri-fold card providing NEW 2009 MLA Handbook formats.

Table of Contents

Writing: Communicating and Presenting Ideas

Writingan Essay

Think Critically as You Read and Write

Read texts critically

Read visuals critically

Write critically

Standard English and its alternatives

Define the Assignment

What are the requirements?

Who is your audience?

What is your purpose?

What is the right tone?

What's the plan?

When is it due?

Generate, Shape, and Focus Ideas

Keep a journal or blog

Freewrite

Brainstorm, list, and map

Learn what others think: electronic classroom conversations

Use journalists' questions and formal prompts

Find and refine an essay topic

Formulate a thesis

Provide evidence and support

Prepare an outline, a purpose statement, or a proposal

Draft and Revise

Get your drafts down

Analyze and revise your drafts

Use feedback and peer review

Write and revise collaboratively

The power of a title

Turn writer's block into building blocks

How are you going to say it?

Build Paragraphs to Build Essays

Paragraph basics

Focus and topic sentence

Unity

Strategies for structuring paragraphs

Strengthening coherence: links, word repetitions, parallel structures, and transitions

Drafting introductions and conclusions

Edit and Proofread

Editing and proofreading

Computer tools for checking (and their limitations)

Computer tools for editing and collaborating

A student's drafts

Using a writing center

Writing through College

Writing an Argument

What makes a good written argument?

What makes a good visual argument?

Select a topic

Formulate an arguable claim (thesis)

Support the claim with reasons and concrete evidence

Identify and appeal to the audience, and establish common ground

Refute opposing views

Structure the argument

Ask Toulmin's four questions

Check your logic

Avoid logical fallacies

Sample arguments: a student's essay and a letter in a community newspaper

Writing about Literature

Reading literature critically

What do you need to say?

Defining the assignment about literature

What do you want to say?

Guidelines for writing about literature

How are you going to say it?

Conventions in writing about literature

Analyzing literature: Ten approaches

Recognizing and analyzing figures of speech

Writing about prose fiction

Writing about poetry

Writing about drama, film, and video

Students' essays on literature

Writing across the Curriculum

Different styles and conventions for different disciplines

Writing in the humanities and arts

Writing in the social sciences

Writing in the sciences, medicine, and mathematics

Community service learning courses

Oral reports and presentations

Preparing a portfolio/e-portfolio

Writing under Pressure

Essay exams

Short-answer tests

Terms used in essay assignments and short-answer tests

Writing with Technology for Academic and Professional Purposes

Designing Documents

Document Design

Features of Microsoft Word for college writing

Typefaces, color, headings, lists, and columns

Visuals: Tables, graphs, maps, and images

Honesty in visuals

Design principles: Brochures, newsletters, and flyers

Presentation for Academic Purposes

College essay format

Academic presentations: PowerPoint and other tools

Posting academic writing online

E-mailing in an academic environment (netiquette)

Writing a personal statement for graduate school admission

Designing a Web Site

Planning and organizing a Web site

Tips for Web site design

Getting feedback

Sample student Web site

Writing for Employment

Preparing your r?sum?: Length and format

Preparing your r?sum?: Content

Electronic r?sum?s

Cover letter: Print or electronic

After the interview

Writing in the Professional World

Writing business letters

Business memos and e-mails

Business presentations and multimedia Language: Style, Accuracy, Punctuation, Fluency

The 5 C's of Style

The First C: Cut

Cut repetition and wordiness

Cut formulaic phrases

As appropriate, cut references to your intentions

Cut redundant words and phrases

Cut material quoted unnecessarily

The Second C: Check for Action

Ask "Who's doing what?" about subject and verb

Use caution in beginning a sentence with there or it

Avoid unnecessary passive voice constructions

The Third C: Connect

Use consistent subjects and topic chains for coherence

Place information at the end of a sentence for emphasis

Explore options for connecting ideas: Coordination, subordination, and transitions

Perhaps begin a sentence with and or but

Connect paragraphs

The Fourth C: Commit

Commit to a point of view

Commit to an appropriate tone

Commit to a confident stance

Commit to sentence variety

The Fifth C: Choose the Best Word

Word choice checklist

Use a dictionary and a thesaurus

Use exact words and connotations

Monitor the language of speech, region, and workplace

Use figurative language for effect, but use it sparingly

Avoid biased and exclusionary language

Avoid pretentious language, tired expressions (clich?s), and euphemisms

CommonSentence Problems

How a Sentence Works

Parts of speech

What a sentence is, needs, and does

The basis of a sentence: Subject and predicate

Phrases

Independent and dependent clauses

Sentence types

Building up sentences

Top Ten Sentence Problems

Sentence Fragments, Run-Ons, and Comma Splices

What is a fragment?

Identifying and correcting a phrase fragment

Identifying and correcting a dependent clause fragment

Identifying and correcting a fragment resulting from a missing subject, verb, or verb part

Identifying and correcting a fragment consisting of one part of a compound predicate

Using fragments intentionally

Identifying run-on (or fused) sentences and comma splices

Correcting run-on sentences and comma splices

Correcting run-on sentences and comma splices occurring with transitional expressions

Sentence Snarls

Avoid fuzzy syntax

Position modifiers appropriately

Avoid dangling modifiers

Avoid shifts in mood, pronoun person and number, and direct/indirect quotation

Make subject and predicate a logical match: avoid faulty predication

Avoid faulty predication with definitions and reasons

Avoid using an adverb clause as the subject of a sentence

Include all necessary words and apostrophes

State the grammatical subject only once

Use parallel structures

Verbs

Verb basics

Forms of regular and irregular verbs

Verbs commonly confused

Do, have, be, and the modal auxiliaries

Time and verb tenses

Present tenses

Past tenses

-ed endings: Past tense and past participle forms

Avoiding unnecessary tense shifts

Tenses in indirect quotations

Verbs in conditional sentences, wishes, requests, demands, and recommendations

Passive voice

How a Sentence Works

What is agreement?

The -s ending

Words between the subject and the verb

Agreement after a linking verb

When the subject follows the verb

Tricky subjects

Collective nouns

Compound subjects with and, or, and nor

Agreement with indefinite pronouns and quantity word

Demonstrative pronouns and adjectives (this, that, these, those) as subject

Possessive pronouns as subject

Agreement with a what clause as the subject

Pronouns

Use the correct forms of personal pronouns

Use appropriate possessive forms of pronouns

Make a pronoun refer to a clear antecedent

Make a pronoun agree in number with its antecedent

Avoid gender bias in pronouns

Be consistent in your perspective

Use the pronoun you appropriately

Use standard forms of intensive and reflexive pronouns

Use who and whom and whoever and whomever correctly

Adjectives and Adverbs

Use correct forms of adjectives and adverbs

Know when to use adjectives and adverbs

Use adjectives after linking verbs

Use correct forms of compound adjectives

Know where to position adverbs

Know the usual order of adjectives

Avoid double negatives

Know the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs

Avoid faulty or incomplete comparisons

Relative Clauses and Relative Pronouns

Use an appropriate relative pronoun: who, whom, whose, which, or that

Distinguish between restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses

Make the verb agree with the antecedent of a subject relative pronoun

Take care when a relative clause contains a preposition

Position a relative clause close to its antecedent

Avoid using a pronoun after a relative clause to rename the antecedent

Use where and when as relative pronouns when appropriate

Punctuation, Mechanics, and Spelling

Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points

Period (.)

Question mark (?)

Exclamation point (!)

Commas

Two checklists--comma: yes, comma: no

Comma before a coordinating conjunction, connecting independent clauses

Comma after an introductory word, phrase, or dependent clause

Comma to set off an extra (nonrestrictive) phrase or clause

Commas with transitional expressions and explanatory insertions

Commas separating three or more items in a series

Commas between coordinate evaluative adjectives

Comma with a direct quotation

Special uses of commas

When not to use commas: Nine rules of thumb

Semicolons and Colons

When to use a semicolon (;)

Semicolon between independent clauses

Semicolons between clauses or items in a series containing internal commas

When not to use a semicolon

When to use a colon

When not to use a colon

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