The complete idiot's guide to writing well

Part 1 Write Now	p. 1
1 Why Writing Matters	p. 3
The Power of the Pen	p. 4
Captain of Your Fate	p. 6
Take a Letter	p. 9
It's as Easy as A, B, C	p. 10
Break the Code	p. 12
2 The Write Way	p. 15
Trick or Treat	p. 16
Cop an Attitude	p. 18
Model Behavior	p. 20
Four Play	p. 22
3 Pack the Essentials	p. 27
The People's Court	p. 28
How's That Again? Logic	p. 29
Take Aim: Purpose	p. 31
Crowd Control: Audience	p. 31
Hitting the Right Note: Tone	p. 34
Details, Details, Details	p. 35
Simply Irresistible: Style	p. 37
4 Words, Words, Words	p. 39
There's a Word for It	p. 39
Royal Words	p. 41
And the Commoners	p. 43
Words to Live By	p. 43
More Than Meets the Eye: Denotation and Connotation	p. 46
How's That Again?	p. 49
Use Nonbiased Language	p. 50
Formal and Informal English	p. 51
5 Clause and Effect	p. 55
Going Through a Phrase: Phrases	p. 56
Prepositional Phrases	p. 58
Verbal Phrases	p. 60
Appositive Phrases	p. 63
Tighten Up	p. 64
Clause-ality	p. 64
6 Sentence Sense	p. 69
I Know It When I See It	p. 70
Superb Sentences	p. 71
Sentence Style	p. 72
Sorry Sentences	p. 78
7 Paragraphs Plus	p. 83
Appearance vs. Reality	p. 84
Don't Leave Home Without It: Topic Sentences	p. 86
Build Me Up, Buttercup: Supporting Sentences	p. 90
Sweet Endings: Concluding Sentences	p. 93
Part 2 The Writing Process	p. 95
8 Write This Way	p. 97
Get the Big Picture	p. 98
Blueprint for Success: Planning	p. 99
Topic Time	p. 100
Narrowing Your Topic	p. 102
Getting the Facts: Researching	p. 106
Shaping and Drafting	p. 107
Spit and Polish: Revising and Editing	p. 109
The Proof's in the Pudding--and the Writing: Proofreading	p. 110
Brain Freeze	p. 111
9 A Place for Everything, and Everything in Its Place	p. 113
Special Delivery	p. 113
A Method to All This Madness	p. 118
Time Marches On: Chronological Order	p. 119
It's What's Up Front That Counts: Order of Importance	p. 121
Asked and Answered: Question and Answer	p. 122
Space, the Final Frontier: Spatial Order	p. 124
10 Making Your Bones	p. 127
Start at the Very Beginning: Introductions	p. 128
Body Talk	p. 135
End Game: Conclusions	p. 140
11 Personal Best: Revising and Editing	p. 145
Judgment Day	p. 146
Less Can Be More: Revise by Deleting	p. 147
All Dressed Up and Ready to Go: Revise by Elaborating	p. 149
Little Things Matter a Lot: Revise Punctuation	p. 151
Come Again? Revise by Rewording	p. 152
It's a Lock: Revise for Unity	p. 154
A Master at Work	p. 156
Part 3 Write for Success	p. 159
12 You Got Some 'Splaining to Do, Lucy: Exposition	p. 161
The Perfect Couple: Cause and Effect	p. 162
Neat and Tidy: Classify-Divide	p. 166
Alike and Different: Comparison and Contrast	p. 168
You Could Look It Up: Definition	p. 169
"How to" Essays: Process Analysis	p. 171
13 Tell Me a Story: Narration	p. 173
Narrative Building Blocks	p. 174
Get Cookin'!	p. 180
Life Line: Personal Narratives	p. 182
14 Why Not See It My Way?: Persuasion and Argumentation	p. 185
It Won't Be Greek to You	p. 186
A + B = C: Appeal to Reason	p. 186
Take the High Road: Appeal to Ethics	p. 190
Tug the Heartstrings: Appeal to Emotion	p. 191
The Moment of Truth	p. 192
My Way or the Highway: Acknowledging the Opposition	p. 193
How's That Again? Logical Fallacies	p. 195
15 Picture This: Description	p. 199
Help Is on the Way!	p. 200
Make a Deposit in the Idea Bank	p. 201
Take the Plunge	p. 202
Color My World	p. 203
Music to the Eyes	p. 205
Tools of the Trade	p. 208
An Affair to Remember	p. 209
16 Writing Across the Curriculum	p. 211
Different Strokes for Different Folks	p. 212
Playing with the Big Kids	p. 215
Full Credit	p. 218
Two's Company, Three's a Crowd--Unless You're Writing	p. 219
Part 4 Just Shoot Me Now: Research Papers and Term Papers	p. 223
17 Paper Chase	p. 225
Inquiring Minds Want to Know	p. 226
Time Flies When You're Having Fun	p. 228
Subject to Change	p. 232
Subjects vs. Topics	p. 236
The Heart of the Matter: Writing a Thesis Statement	p. 238
18 Seek and Ye Shall Find	p. 241
Basic Training	p. 241
Book Learning	p. 242
Mags and Rags	p. 247
Researching on the I-Way	p. 248
You're Not Done Yet	p. 253
19 Cast a Critical Eye	p. 255
An Embarrassment of Riches	p. 256
On the Right Track	p. 262
Working the Crowd	p. 264
20 In the End Zone	p. 267
Backed by the Best	p. 268
Credit Given Here	p. 270
MLA Internal Documentation	p. 271
CMS Footnotes and Endnotes	p. 272
Stop, Thief!	p. 275
Light at the End of the Tunnel	p. 277
Frontmatter	p. 279
Part 5 More Big Deals	p. 281
21 In the Hot Seat: Writing Under Pressure	p. 283
What, Me Worry?	p. 284
What's the Big Idea?	p. 285
Write This Way	p. 288
The Golden Rules	p. 289
Before the Test	p. 289
When the Meter's Running	p. 291
22 All the World's a Stage: Writing Speeches	p. 297
The Big Three	p. 298
Information, Please: Speeches That Inform	p. 300
Point Counterpoint: Speeches That Persuade	p. 303
Life of the Party: Speeches That Entertain	p. 305
23 Letter Perfect	p. 313
Drop Me a Line	p. 314
Stamp of Approval	p. 316
People Who Like People: Social Notes	p. 320
Letters of Opinion	p. 324
24 Professional Edge: Writing on the Job	p. 327
The Desk Set	p. 328
Appearance Is Reality	p. 330
Have I Got News for You!	p. 332
Onward and Upward: Resumes and Cover Letters	p. 335
25 You've Got Mail!	p. 341
Writing.com	p. 342
Bits and Bytes	p. 345
Johnny B Good: "Netiquette"	p. 348
Part 6 Picture Perfect	p. 353
26 Grammar 101	p. 355
Woe Is I	p. 356
Sentence Errors	p. 358
Punctuation Errors	p. 359
Grammar Errors	p. 360
Usage Errors	p. 363
27 Spelling Ace	p. 369
Spelling Bee	p. 370
Spelling Rules!	p. 372
Good Things Come in Small Packages: Contractions	p. 376
9/10th of the Law: Possessives	p. 377
Crowd Control: Plurals	p. 378
How's That Again?: Pronunciation	p. 379
Silent but Deadly: Silent Letters	p. 380
Spelling Demons	p. 381
28 Mark Me: Punctuation	p. 385
End Runs: Period, Question Mark, and Exclamation Mark	p. 386
Big Man on Campus: The Comma	p. 388
Hot Shot: The Semicolon	p. 390
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: The Colon	p. 391
The Dynamic Duo: Quotation Marks	p. 392
Wild Things: The Hyphen, Dash, and Ellipsis	p. 393
Pair Off and Square Off: Parentheses and Brackets	p. 394
A Triple Threat: The Apostrophe	p. 395
29 A Capital Affair	p. 399
Capital Punishment	p. 399
A Tall Order: Capitalization	p. 400
Short and Sweet: Abbreviations	p. 403
You Can Count On It: Numbers	p. 407
Appendixes
A Sample Term Papers	p. 409
B Documentation Format	p. 429
Index	p. 435

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Author Notes

Table of Contents