Part One An Overview of the Essay 1
Ⅰ What Is an Essay? 2
1 The Basic Structure of an Essay 2
2 Essays in Different Types of Writing 4
1）Narration and the narrative essay 4
2）Description and the descriptive essay 8
3）Exposition and the expository essay 9
4）Argumentation and the persuasive essay 10
Ⅱ What Is a Research Paper? 11
Part Two Writing an Essay 21
Ⅰ Planning and Shaping the Essay 22
1 Choosing and Limiting a Topic 22
1）Choosing a topic 22
2）Limiting the topic 28
2 Determining Our Purpose and Audience 29
1）Determining our purpose and writing a statement of purpose 29
2）Identifying our audience and adjusting our tone 31
3 Gathering Material 39
4 Formulating a Thesis Statement 39
1）Elements of the thesis statement 39
2）Functions of the thesis statement 40
3）Advantages of an early thesis statement 41
4）Locations of the thesis statement 41
5）Some reminders when writing our thesis statement 41
5 Organizing and Outlining the Essay 44
1）Qualities of outline 44
2）Types of outline 45
3）Rules for writing an outline 45
Ⅱ Drafting the Essay 52
1 Writing the Introductory Paragraph 52
2 Writing the Concluding Paragraph 58
3 Gaining Unity and Coherence 61
4 Developing the Essay by Different Patterns of Organization 68
1）Developing the essay by process-and-analysis 70
2）Developing the essay by division-and-classification 74
3）Developing the essay by cause-and-effect 81
4）Developing the essay by comparison-and-contrast 87
5）Developing the essay by exemplification 95
6）Developing the essay by definition 99
5 Essay Checklist 108
Ⅲ Revising the Essay 109
1 Revising the Essay 109
1）Revising for content and organization 109
2）Revising for style 110
2 Editing the Essay 118
3 Dealing with the Final Draft 124
4 Proofreading 125
Part Three Writing a Research Paper 131
Ⅰ Learning About the Central Information System of Modern Academic Library 132
Ⅱ Doing Prewriting Work 133
1 Choosing and Limiting a Topic 133
2 Doing Preliminary Reading 136
3 Writing a Preliminary Bibliography 150
4 Writing a Preliminary Outline and Thesis 151
5 Reading and Taking Notes 153
6 Revising the Outline and the Thesis 156
Ⅲ Writing the First Draft 161
Ⅳ Rewriting the Paper 168
1 Revising the Draft 168
2 Editing and Documenting the Paper 168
1）MLA style 169
2）APA style 196
3）CMS style 205
4）CBE style 206
3 Dealing with the Final Draft 216
4 Proofreading 218
Part Four Making Good Use of the Language 227
Ⅰ Striving for Clarity 228
Ⅱ Striving for Accuracy 231
Ⅲ Practicing Economy 233
1 Dropping Needless Repetition 233
2 Avoiding Needless Expansion 235
3 Removing Unnecessary Introducers 236
4 Cutting Down on Prepositions 236
5 Eliminating Dead Nouns 237
6 Omitting the Piling-ion Words 237
Ⅳ Gaining Appropriateness 243
1 Attending to Word Formality 243
2 Avoiding Overwritten Style 245
3 Avoiding Awkward Clichés 246
4 Avoiding Abuse of Euphemisms 246
Part Five Using Punctuation Marks Correctly 253
Ⅰ End Punctuation Marks 254
1 Period(.) 254
2 Question Mark(?) 257
3 Exclamation Point(!) 258
Ⅱ Internal Punctuation Marks 260
1 Comma(,) 260
2 Semicolon(;) 268
3 Colon(:) 271
4 Dash(-) 277
5 Virgule(/) 279
Ⅲ Enclosing Marks 281
1 Quotation Marks("")('') 281
2 Parentheses(()) 286
3 Brackets([]) 290
Ⅳ Punctuation of Individual Words and of Terms 292
1 Apostrophe(') 292
2 Ellipsis Points(...) 295
3 Hyphen(-) 296
Two-Letter Abbreviations for US States 299
Proofreaders'Marks 300
Correction Symbols 302
Bibliography 304