·Why Learn to Write 1
INTRODUCTION 1
·About This Book 2
·How to Practice Writing 3
Chapter 1 Writers at Work 8
1.1 Secrets for Writing Well 8
1.2 The Process of Writing 8
PART ONE THE PREWRITING STAGE 8
BOOK ONE THE BASICS 8
1.3 The Writing Situation 10
1.3.1 Audience awareness 10
1.3.2 Purpose of writing 13
Chapter 2 Getting Ready 19
2.1 Gathering Information 19
2.2 Deciding on the Thesis Statement 21
2.2.1 Positioning the thesis statement 21
2.2.2 A good thesis statement 22
2.3 Writing an Outline 24
PART TWO THE WRITING STAGE 28
Chapter 3 Paragraph Writing 31
3.1 Writing Effective Topic Sentences 31
3.2 Writing Effective Paragraphs 36
3.2.1 Unity 36
3.2.2 Coherence 37
3.2.3 Transitions 38
3.3 Ways of Developing Paragraphs 47
3.3.1 Structure of a paragraph 47
3.3.2 Paragraph development 49
Chapter 4 Introduction and Conclusion 71
4.1 Writing the Introduction 71
4.1.1 Functions of a formal introduction 71
4.1.2 Ten ways of writing an introduction 73
4.2 Writing The Conclusion 78
Chapter 5 Writing Effective Sentences 83
5.1 Basic Knowledge of Sentences 83
5.1.1 Terms to know 83
5.1.3 Kinds of sentences 85
5.1.2 Sentence patterns 85
5.2.1 Improve sentences in grammar 88
5.2 Writing Better Sentences 88
5.2.2 Improve sentences in meaning 95
5.2.3 Improve sentences in rhetoric 101
PART THREE THE REVISING EDITING STAGE 112
Chapter 6 Revising 112
6.1 The First Proofreading 112
6.2 The Second Proofreading 114
7.1 Punctuation Errors 115
Chapter 7 Editing 115
7.2 Capitalization 120
7.3 Word Division 121
7.4 Making the Final Copy 122
BOOK TWO APPRECIATING DIFFERENT TYPES OF WRITING 126
Chapter 8 Developing Different Types of Writing 126
8.1 Narration 126
8.1.1 Learn to narrate 126
·A Funy Thing Happened to Me 128
8.1.2 Text appreciation 128
·The Present 130
8.2 Describe 134
8.2.1 Learn to describe 134
8.2.2 Text appreciation 136
·Chestnut Street 136
·The Richest Man in America,Down Home 137
8.3 Exposition 141
8.3.1 Learn to explain 141
8.3.2 Text appreciation 143
·Why I Teach 143
·How to Improve Your Study Habits 146
8.4 Argument 148
8.4.1 Learn to argue 148
8.4.2 Text appreciation 154
·Why Should We Learn to Write 154
·Daydream a Little 157