1 Getting to Know Essays 1
1.1 Some Basics of Essays 1
1.1.1 What is an essay？ 1
1.1.2 Why do people write essays？ 1
1.1.3 What are the criteria of a good essay？ 2
1.2 Structure of a Traditional Essay 6
1.2.1 Understanding the components of a traditional essay 6
1.2.2 Identifying the structural characteristics of other texts 7
1.3 Essay Writing 9
1.3.1 Prewriting activities 9
1.3.2 Major steps to follow during the writing process 10
Review Activities 11
2 Getting Started 12
2.1 Developing Ideas 12
Technique 1:Asking＆answering questions 13
Technique 2:Making a list 14
Technique 3:Clustering ideas 16
Technique 4:Freewriting 19
2.2 Choosing a Topic 19
2.3 Expanding a Topic into a Thesis Statement 21
2.4 Outlining 23
Review Activities 26
3 Drafting and Revising 27
3.1 Drafting 27
3.1.1 Taking your ideas down 27
3.1.2 Pacing yourself 28
3.1.3 Further suggestions for drafting 28
3.2 Supporting the Thesis 29
3.2.1 Adding specific information 29
3.2.2 Exploring on a new dimension 30
3.3 Revising 33
3.3.1 Revising for unity 34
3.3.2 Revising for coherence 37
3.3.3 Revising for conciseness 41
3.4 Peer-editing 46
Review Activities 48
4 Editing 50
4.1 Basic Manuscript Form 50
4.2 Punctuation 51
4.2.1 Comma 51
4.2.2 Period 54
4.2.3 Semicolon 55
4.2.4 Colon 55
4.2.5 Quotation marks 56
4.2.6 Dash 57
4.3 Capitalization 58
4.3.1 Proper nouns 58
4.3.2 Personal titles 58
4.3.3 Titles of books,records,stories,essays,plays,and poems 58
4.3.4 Beginning of a sentence,quotation,or line of poetry 59
4.3.5 Other uses 59
4.4 The Final Copy 61
Review Activities 61
5 Word Use 63
5.1 Levels of Language 63
5.2 Denotation and Connotation 66
5.3 Choice of Right Words 68
5.3.1 To be specific and concrete 68
5.3.2 To avoid weak verbs 71
5.4 Trite Expressions 76
5.5 Tips on Enlarging Vocabulary 77
Review Activities 77
6 Building Sentences 79
6.1 Complete Sentences 79
6.2 Types of Sentences 81
6.2.1 Simple sentences 81
6.2.2 Compound sentences 83
6.2.3 Complex sentences 83
6.2.4 Compound-complex sentences 84
6.3 Improving Sentences 86
6.3.1 Varying sentence length 86
6.3.2 Varying sentence constructions 89
6.4 Common Problems in Sentence Building 92
6.4.1 Typical problems with verb uses 92
6.4.2 Typical problems with complete sentences 94
6.4.3 Misplaced and dangling modifiers 98
Review Activities 101
7 Shaping Paragraphs 103
7.1 Paragraph Structure 103
7.1.1 Topic sentences 103
7.1.2 Supporting sentences 106
7.1.3 Concluding sentences 108
7.2 Patterns of Developing Paragraphs 111
7.2.1 Illustration 111
7.2.2 Cause and effect 112
7.2.3 Comparison and contrast 113
7.2.4 Classification 115
7.2.5 Definition 116
7.2.6 Description 117
7.2.7 Process 118
7.3 Writing the Introductory Paragraph 120
7.3.1 Hook 120
7.3.2 Connecting information 123
7.4 Writing the Concluding Paragraph 124
7.4.1 Summarizing the main points previously mentioned 124
7.4.2 Giving a suggestion,a personal opinion or a prediction 125
7.4.3 Pointing out questions or directions for future research 125
Review Activities 126
8 Writing the Whole Essay 128
8.1 Relationship Between Paragraphs and Essays 128
8.2 Four Main Kinds of Essays 132
8.2.1 Narration 132
8.2.2 Description 137
8.2.3 Argumentation 142
8.2.4 Exposition 148
Illustration 149
Process 152
Comparison and contrast 156
Cause and effect 160
Classification 163
Definition 166
Review Activities 170
9 College Writing Projects 171
9.1 Essay Exam 171
9.2 Summary 175
9.3 Book report 183
Review Activities 185
10 Practical Writings 186
10.1 Notices 186
10.2 Formal and Informal Invitations 188
10.3 Business Letters 190
10.4 Job Application Letters and Resumes 192
10.4.1 Job application letters 192
10.4.2 Resumes 194
Review Activities 199
Bibliography 200