A General Introduction to English Writing
I. Writing in Our World / I
II. Types of Writing / 2
1. Narration / 2
2. Description / 5
3. Exposition / 7
III. Writing Well / 15
1. Writing for Your Readers / 15
2. Good Writing / 15
From Sentence to Paragraph
I. Sentence Structure / 30
1. Elements of a Sentence / 31
2. Kinds of Sentences / 33
3. Clause Connectors / 35
4. Coordination and Subordination / 38
5. Parallelism / 45
II. Paragraph Structure /51
1. The Basic Paragraph / 52
2. Four Elements of the Paragraph / 52
3. Mechanics in Writing a Paragraph / 54
III. Basic Paragraph-Building Skills / 56
1. Taking Four Pre-Writing Steps / 56
2. Making Our Topic Sentence a Helpful Guide / 61
3. Loading Our Topic Sentence with a Strong Controlling Idea / 75
4. Writing a Helpful Outline in Advance / 80
5. Gaining Unity / 90
6. Gaining Coherence from Logical Order / 96
7. Gaining Coherence from Transitions / 102
8. Gaining Better Unity and Coherence from Punctuation / 111
IV. Sentence Problems / 134
1. Sentence Fragments / 134
Fragments Without Verbs / 134
Fragments Without Subjects / 135
Fragments Without Subjects and/or Verbs / 135
Fragments of Dependent Clauses / 136
2. Choppy Sentences / 138
3. Run-Together Sentences / 138
4. Stringy Sentences / 140
5. Confusing Shifts / 141
Confusing Shifts in Person / 142
Confusing Shifts in Tense / 143
Confusing Shifts in Subject and Voice / 143
Confusing Shifts in Mood or Speech / 144
Confusing Shifts in Number / 145
Mixed Sentence Construction / 145
6. Incomplete Constructions / 147
Careless Omissions / 147
Incomplete Comparisons / 148
7. Amabiguous Pronoun Reference / 150
A Pronoun with Two or More Possible Antecedents / 150
A Pronoun Without Clearly Expressed Antecedent / 151
The Pronouns It, They, and You with Indefinite Antecedents / 151
The Pronouns Th/s, That and Which Referring to General Ideas / 152
A Pronoun Too Far Away from Its Antecedent / 152
8. Dangling Modifiers / 153
Dangling Participial Modifiers / 154
Dangling Gerunds in Prepositional Phrases / 154
Dangling Infinitive Modifiers / 155
Dangling Abbreviated Clauses / 155
9. Misplaced Modifiers / 157
Misplaced Prepositional Phrases / 157
Misplaced Adjective Clauses / 158
Misplaced Adverbial Modifiers / 158
I0. Wordiness / 160
Needless Repetition / 160
Needless Expansion / 161
Awkward Cliches / 162
Overwritten Style / 162
From Paragraph to Theme
I. Introduction / 165
II. Three Kinds of Paragraphs / 166
1. The Introductory Paragraph / 167
2. The Body Paragraph / 173
3. The Concluding Paragraph / 177
III. Basic Theme-Building Skills / 179
1. Getting the Theme Well-Unified with an Effective Thesis Statement / 180
2. Getting the Theme Coherent with Transitions Between Paragraphs / 185
3. Developing the Theme Under the Guidance of a Well-Organized Outline / 189
Process Theme in Time Order / 194
Descriptive Theme in Order of Importance / 199
Theme of Classification in Order of Importance / 202
Theme of Comparison and Contrast in Order of Importance / 203
Theme of Cause and Effect in Order of Importance / 204
Theme of Exemplification in Time Order, or Order of Importance / 208
IV. Sample Themes Observed / 210
Smnmarv and Book Report
I. Summary Writing / 223
II. Book Report Writing /231
Correction Symbols /235
Partial Answers to Exercises /236
Bibliography / 243