Writing Papers in College A Brief Guide

Preface

PART ONE Principles of Reading and Writing

Ch.   1 Reading Critically

Why Read?

Reading for Best Results

Critical Reading in Action

    Lawrence Downes, “The Shy, Egg-Stealing Neighbor You Didn’t Know You Had”

Ch.   2 Reading Visual Images

Reading a Photograph, Drawing, or Advertisement

Reading Charts, Graphs, Tables, and Cartoons

Reading and Evaluating Web Sites

Critical Reading on Your Own

    Christopher Caldwell, “Intimate Shopping: Should Everyone Know What You Bought Today?”

Ch.   3 Active Writing

Choosing a Topic

Determining Your Purpose and Audience

Prewriting

Writing Drafts

One Student Writing: First Draft

    First Draft: John Fousek, “My Roommate”

Ch.   4 Finding and Supporting a Thesis

Understanding the Thesis

Elements of a Good Thesis

Stating Your Thesis

Supporting Your Thesis: Details

Ch.   5 Planning a Paper: Outlining

Making a Formal Outline

Preparing Your Formal Outline

Ch.   6 Writing Your Paper

Writing Your Introduction

Writing the Body Paragraphs

Writing a Strong Conclusion

Ch.   7 Revising for Thought, Content, and Structure

Revising to Improve Your Thesis

Revising for Appropriate Supporting Details

Revising for Better Organization

Revising for Purpose and Audience

Revising for Suitable Structure: Introduction, Body Paragraphs, Conclusion

Ch.   8 Revising to Improve Language

Revising Your Language

Ch.   9 Revising and Editing to Improve Style

Wordiness and Economy

Passive and Active Verbs

Correcting Faulty Parallelism

Faulty Subordination

Revising for Sentence Variety

Ch.   10 Revising and Editing for Additional Style Problems

Triteness

Euphemisms

Repetition, Good and Bad

Slang

Sexist Language

Ch.   11 One Student Writing: Revising and Editing in Action

Peer Review: Learning from Other Students

Revising and Editing: One Student Writing

Proofreading

Putting It All Together

Final Draft: One Student Writing

PART TWO Methods of Development

Ch.   12 Description

Writing Your Descriptive Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   13 Narration

Writing Your Narrative Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   14 Example

Writing Your Example Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   15 Process

Writing Your Process Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   16 Comparison and Contrast

Writing Your Comparison—Contrast Paper

Comparison—Contrast Patterns

Writing Topics

Ch.   17 Classification and Division

Classification and Division in Action

Using Division (or Analysis)

Using Classification

How Are Classification and Division Different?

Reviewing Division Strategies

Writing Your Classification Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   18 Cause and Effect

Writing Your Cause and Effect Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   19 Definition

Writing Your Definition Paper

Writing Topics

Ch.   20 Argumentation

Using Logic

Writing Your Argumentation Paper

Writing Topics

PART THREE Research and Writing from Sources

Ch.   21 Doing Research

Choosing Your Subject

Developing Your Thesis

Doing Preliminary Reading

Preparing Your Preliminary Outline

Finding Sources and Developing a Working Citations List

Ch.   22 Selecting, Organizing, and Integrating Source Material in Your Writing

Taking Notes

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources in Your Paper

Avoiding Plagiarism

Preparing Your Formal Outline

Ch.   23 Writing Your Research Paper and Citing and Documenting Sources

Writing Your Research Paper: An Overview

Documenting Sources in the Humanities: MLA Style

Documenting Sources in the Social Sciences: APA Style

Preparing Your Manuscript

Sample MLA-Style Research Paper

    Elizabeth Kessler, “The Banning of the Polygraph”

A Mini Book of Essential Grammar and Common Errors

Credits

Index

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