Strategies for Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook » (8th Edition)

Now in its eighth edition, the authors of Strategies for Successful Writing: a Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook have strived to achieve the same steadfast goals that have motivated them from the beginning: create a rhetorically-organized writing guide that combines four books into one convenient and flexible teaching tool while offering students an exceptional value. By having at their disposal a comprehensive textbook that offers ample material for a full-year composition course, instructors teaching a one-term course can make various selections from Chapters 1-17, from whatever types of specialized writing suits the needs of their students, and from the appropriate essays in the reader. As well, because the authors believe strongly that an effective composition textbook should address students directly, they've aimed for a conversational yet clear style that invites students into the book, lessens their apprehensions about writing, and provides a model for their own prose. This style complements the authors' strong student-based approach to writing, and together they help create a text that genuinely meets student needs.

Contents

Preface xiii

To the Student xx

Rhetoric 1

1 Writing: A First Look 3

The Purposes of Writing 4

The Audience for Your Writing 6

The Qualities of Good Writing 10

Writing and Ethics 10

2 Strategies for Successful Reading 13

Orienting Your Reading 13

A First Reading 14

Additional Readings 15

Mastering Reading Problems 17

Reading to Critique 18

Reading As a Writer 18

”The Appeal of the Androgynous Man” by Amy Gross 20

Writing About What You Read 22

3 Planning and Drafting Your Paper 26

Understanding the Assignment 27

Zeroing In on a Topic 27

Gathering Information 34

Organizing the Information 36

Developing a Thesis Statement 39

Writing the First Draft 42

Planning and Drafting with a Word Processor 45

4 Revising and Editing Your Paper 47

Preparing to Revise 48

Considering the Whole Essay 48

Strengthening Paragraph Structure and Development 54

Sharpening Sentences and Words 55

Proofreading Your Draft 57

Writing the Introduction and Conclusion 57

Selecting a Title 57

Revising with a Computer 60

Peer Evaluation of Drafts 61

Collaborative Writing 67

Maintaining and Reviewing a Portfolio 68

5 Narration: Relating Events 70

Purpose 71

Action 71

Conflict 72

Point of View 73

Key Events 74

Dialogue 75

Ethical Issues 76

Writing a Narrative 77

Sample Student Essay of Narration:

“The Beach Bum” by Gail Bartlett 78

CriticalEdge

82

6 Description: Presenting Impressions 84

Purpose 85

Sensory Impressions 85

Dominant Impression 87

Vantage Point 87

Selection of Details 89

Arrangement of Details 90

Ethical Issues 90

Writing a Description 91

Sample Student Essay of Description:

“The Big One” by Rebecca Mutch 93

Critical Edge 95

7 Process Analysis: Explaining How 97

Kinds of Process Analysis Papers 98

Ethical Issues 100

Writing a Process Analysis 100

Sample Student Essay of Process Analysis:

“The ABC’s of CPR” by Kathy Petroski 104

Critical Edge 107

8 Illustration: Making Yourself Clear 109

Selecting Appropriate Examples 110

Number of Examples 110

Organizing the Examples 111

Ethical Issues 112

Writing an Illustration 112

Sample Student Essay of Illustration:

“If It Is Worth Doing” by Janice Carlton 114

Critical Edge 117

9 Classification: Grouping into Categories 119

Selecting Categories 120

Number of Categories 122

Developing Categories 122

Ethical Issues 123

Writing a Classification 124

Sample Student Essay of Classification:

“Undesirable Produce Market Customers” by Clarence DeLong 125

Critical Edge 127

10 Comparison: Showing Relationships 129

Selecting Items for Comparison 130

Developing a Comparison 131

Organizing a Comparison 132

Using Analogy 133

Ethical Issues 134

Writing a Comparison 135

Sample Student Essay of Comparison:

“Different Shifts, Different Actions” by Claire Mutter 136

Critical Edge 139

11 Cause and Effect: Explaining Why 141

Patterns in Causal Analysis 141

Reasoning Errors in Causal Analysis 144

Ethical Issues 146

Writing a Causal Analysis 146

Sample Student Essay of Cause and Effect:

“Why Students Drop Out of College” by Diann Fisher 149

Critical Edge 152

12 Definition: Establishing Boundaries 154

Types of Definitions 155

Ethical Issues 159

Writing an Extended Definition 160

Sample Student Essay of Definition:

“Rediscovering Patriotism” by Peter Wing 162

Critical Edge 165

13 Argument: Convincing Others 168

The Rational Appeal 169

Reasoning Strategies 174

The Emotional Appeal 179

The Ethical Appeal 180

Ferreting Out Fallacies 181

Ethical Issues 185

Writing an Argument 185

Sample Student Essay of Argument:

“The Right to Bear Arms” by Brenda Buehrle 194

Critical Edge 197

14 Mixing the Writing Strategies 199

Why and How to Mix Strategies 199

Ethical Issues 200

Problem/Solution Report 200

Evaluation Report 201

Sample Essay Using Several Writing Strategies:

“Eating Alone in Restaurants” by Bruce Jay Friedman 202

Critical Edge 205

15 Paragraphs 207

Characteristics of Effective Paragraphs 207

Paragraphs with Special Functions 222

16 Effective Sentences 228

Sentence Strategies 228

17 Diction, Tone, Style 242

Toward Clear Diction 242

Toward Rhetorical Effect 247

Special Stylistic Techniques 256

Eliminating Flawed Diction 260

18 The Essay Examination 264

Studying for the Examination 264

Types of Test Questions 265

Preparing to Write 265

Writing the Examination Answer 266

19 Writing About Literature 271

The Elements of Literature 271

Ethical Issues 292

Writing a Paper on Literature 293

SAMPLE Student Essay on Literature:

“Scratchy Wilson: No Cardboard Character” by Wendell Stone

295

20 Business Letters and Résumés 299

Letter Language 299

Parts of the Business Letter 301

Preparation for Mailing 303

E-Mail Correspondence 304

Types of Letters 304

Résumés 313

Ethical Issues 315

Research Guide 317

21 The Research Paper 319

Learning About Your Library 320

Choosing a Topic 321

Assembling a Working Bibliography 326

Taking Notes 348

Organizing and Outlining 354

Ethical Issues 357

Writing Your Research Paper 357

Sample Student Research Paper:

“House Arrest: An Attractive Alternative to Incarceration” by Keith Jacque 360

Using a Computer 374

22 Documenting Sources 381

Preparing Proper MLA and APA Bibliographic References 381

Handling In-Text Citations 396

Handling Quotations 402

Avoiding Plagiarism 404

23 Additional Research Strategies: Interviews, Questionnaires, Direct Observations 407

The Value of Primary Research 407

General Principles for Primary Research 408

Ethical Issues 409

Interviews 410

SAMPLE Student Interview Report:

“Budget Cuts Affect State Police: An Interview Report with Officer Robert Timmons” by Holly Swain 412

Questionnaires 413

SAMPLE Student Questionnaire:

“Survey on Public Smoking” 416

SAMPLE Student Questionnaire Report:

“Findings from Smoking Questionnaire Distributed to Bartram College Students” by Kelly Reetz 419

Direct Observations 420

SAMPLE Student Observation Report:

“Observations of an Inner-City Apartment Building” by Caleb Thomas 423

Reader 427

Rhetorical Table of Contents

Narration 428

“The Perfect Picture”by James Alexander Thom 428

“Sound and Fury”by Dan Greenburg 430

“Momma’s Encounter”by Maya Angelou 433

“For My Indian Daughter”by Lewis Sawaquat 437

Description 440

“When the Full Moon Shines Its Magic over Monument Valley”by John V. Young 440

“The Barrio”by Robert Ramirez 442

“Assembly Line Adventure”by Lesley Hazleton 446

“Once More to the Lake”by E. B. White 450

Process Analysis 455

“Fast Track to Perfection”by Ian Dunbar 456

From “The Spider and the Wasp”by Alexander Petrunkevitch 459

“Let’s Get Vertical!”by Beth Wald 462

“Can Generation Xers Be Trained?by Shari Caudron 465

Illustration 470

“Binge Drinking, A Campus Killer”by Sabrina Rubin Erdely 470

“Rambos of the Road”by Martin Gottfried 474

“Going for Broke”by Matea Gold and David Ferrell 477

“The Company Man”by Ellen Goodman 482

Classification 484

“What Are Friends For?”by Marion Winik 485

“The Men We Carry in Our Minds”by Scott Russell Sanders 487

“A Tale of Four Learners”by Bernice McCarthy 491

“Which Stooge Are You?”by Ron Geraci 497

Comparison 501

“Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”by Bruce Catton 502

“Conversational Ballgames”by Nancy Masterson Sakamoto 505

“Barbie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”by Mariflo Stephens 509

“Private Language, Public Language”by Richard Rodriguez 512

“Coming Home”by Marjorie Waters 516

Cause and Effect 518

“Old Father Time Becomes a Terror”by Richard Tomkins 519

“Why Marriages Fail”by Anne Roiphe 524

“Black Men and Public Space”by Brent Staples 527

“Refuse to Live in Fear”by Diana Bletter 530

Definition 532

“The Sweet Smell of Success Isn’t All That Sweet”by Laurence Shames 532

“The Blended Economy”by Marc Zwelling 534

“The Insufficiency of Honesty”by Stephen L. Carter 536

“When Is It Rape?”by Nancy Gibbs 541

Argument 549

“Yes, Don’t Impede Medical Progress”by Virginia Postrel 550

“Crossing Lines”by Charles Krauthammer 553

“The Misguided Zeal of the Privacy Lobby”by Alan Ehrenhalt 560

“Halt and Show Your Papers!”by Barbara Dority 563

“I Have a Dream”by Martin Luther King, Jr. 569

“A Journalist’s View of Black Economics”by William Raspberry 573

“Close the Borders to All Newcomers”by Daniel James 579

“Give Us Your Best, Your Brightest”by Stephen Moore 583

Mixing the Writing Strategies 588

“Blur: Cheetahs. Ranchers. Hope.”by Susan Zimmerman 588

From “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”by Deborah A. Sullivan 594

“Gender Gap in Cyberspace”by Deborah Tannen 598

Thematic Table of Contents

Life’s Changes

“The Perfect Picture”by James Alexander Thom 428

“Sound and Fury”by Dan Greenburg 430

“Momma’s Encounter”by Maya Angelou 433

“For My Indian Daughter”by Lewis Sawaquat 437

“Once More to the Lake”by E. B. White 450

“The Company Man”by Ellen Goodman 482

“Barbie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”by Mariflo Stephens 509

“Coming Home”by Marjorie Waters 516

“Old Father Time Becomes a Terror”by Richard Tomkins 519

“I Refuse to Live in Fear”by Diana Bletter 530

“Why Marriages Fail”by Anne Roiphe 524

“Black Men and Public Space”by Brent Staples 527

Who We Are

“The Appeal of the Androgynous Man”by Amy Gross 20

“Sound and Fury”by Dan Greenburg 430

“For My Indian Daughter”by Lewis Sawaquat 437

“The Barrio”by Robert Ramirez 442

“Can Generation Xers Be Trained?”by Shari Caudron 465

“Binge Drinking, A Campus Killer”by Sabrina Rubin Erdely 470

“Rambos of the Road”by Martin Gottfried 474

“Going for Broke”by Metea Gold and David Ferrell 477

“The Company Man”by Ellen Goodman 482

“What Are Friends For?”by Marion Winik 485

“The Men We Carry in Our Minds”by Scott Russell Sanders 487

“A Tale of Four Learners”by Bernice McCarthy 491

“Which Stooge Are You?”by Ron Geraci 497

“Barbie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”by Mariflo Stephens 509

“Why Marriages Fail”by Anne Roiphe 524

“The Sweet Smell of Success Isn’t All That Sweet”by Laurence Shames 532

“The Insufficiency of Honesty”by Stephen L. Carter 536

From “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”by Deborah A. Sullivan 594

“Gender Gap in Cyberspace”by Deborah Tannen 598

Our Relationship to Nature

“When the Full Moon Shines Its Magic over Monument Valley”by John V. Young 440

“Once More to the Lake”by E. B. White 450

From “The Spider and the Wasp”by Alexander Petrunkevitch 459

“Let’s Get Vertical!”by Beth Wald 462

“Blur: Cheetahs. Ranchers. Hope.”by Susan Zimmerman 588

“Yes, Don’t Impede Medical Progress”by Virginia Postrel 550

“Crossing Lines”by Charles Krauthammer 553

Health

“Sound and Fury”by Dan Greenburg 430

“Binge Drinking, A Campus Killer”by Sabrina Rubin Erdely 470

“Rambos of the Road”by Martin Gottfried 474

“Going for Broke”by Matea Gold and David Ferrell 477

“The Company Man”by Ellen Goodman 482

“Old Father Time Becomes a Terror”by Richard Tomkins 519

“Yes, Don’t Impede Medical Progress”by Virginia Postrel 550

“Crossing Lines”by Charles Krauthammer 553

Popular Culture

“The Perfect Picture”by James Alexander Thom 428

“Let’s Get Vertical!”by Beth Wald 462

“Can Generation Xers Be Trained?”by Shari Caudron 465

“Rambos of the Road”by Martin Gottfried 474

“Going for Broke”by Matea Gold and David Ferrell 477

“The Men We Carry in Our Minds”by Scott Russell Sanders 487

“Which Stooge Are You?”by Ron Geraci 497

“Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”by Bruce Catton 502

“Barbie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”by Mariflo Stephens 509

“The Blended Economy”by Marc Zwelling 534

From “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”by Deborah A. Sullivan 594

“Gender Gap in Cyberspace”by Deborah Tannen 598

Contemporary Issues

Women’s Issues

“The Appeal of the Androgynous Man”by Amy Gross 20

“The Men We Carry in Our Minds”by Scott Russell Sanders 487

“Barbie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”by Mariflo Stephens 509

“Why Marriages Fail”by Anne Roiphe 524

“When Is It Rape?”by Nancy Gibbs 541

From “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”by Deborah A. Sullivan 594

“Gender Gap in Cyberspace”by Deborah Tannen 598

Diversity in Our Lives

“Momma’s Encounter”by Maya Angelou 433

“For My Indian Daughter”by Lewis Sawaquat 437

“The Barrio”by Robert Ramirez 442

“Can Generation Xers Be Trained?”by Shari Caudron 465

“A Tale of Four Learners”by Bernice McCarthy 491

“Barbie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”by Mariflo Stephens 509

“Private Language, Public Language”by Richard Rodriguez 512

“Black Men and Public Space”by Brent Staples 527

“I Have a Dream”by Martin Luther King, Jr. 569

“A Journalist’s View of Black Economics”by William Raspberry 573

“Close the Borders to All Newcomers”by Daniel James 579

“Give Us Your Best, Your Brightest”by Stephen Moore 583

“Gender Gap in Cyberspace”by Deborah Tannen 598

Security and Liberty

“Momma’s Encounter”by Maya Angelou 433

“For My Indian Daughter”by Lewis Sawaquat 437

“Black Men and Public Space”by Brent Staples 527

“Refuse to Live in Fear”by Diana Bletter 530

“The Misguided Zeal of the Privacy Lobby”by Alan Ehrenhalt 560

“Halt and Show Your Papers!”by Barbara Dority 563

“Close the Borders to All Newcomers”by Daniel James 579

“Give Us Your Best, Your Brightest”by Stephen Moore 583

Language Use and Abuse

“Sound and Fury”by Dan Greenburg 430

“Momma’s Encounter”by Maya Angelou 433

“For My Indian Daughter”by Lewis Sawaquat 437

“The Barrio”by Robert Ramirez 442

“Conversational Ballgames”by Nancy Masterson Sakamoto 505

“Private Language, Public Language”by Richard Rodriguez 512

“The Blended Economy”by Marc Zwelling 534

“The Insufficiency of Honesty”by Stephen L. Carter 536

“When Is It Rape?”by Nancy Gibbs 541

Struggling with Ethical Issues

“The Perfect Picture”by James Alexander Thom 428

“Momma’s Encounter”by Maya Angelou 433

“Black Men and Public Space”by Brent Staples 527

“The Sweet Smell of Success Isn’t All That Sweet”by Laurence Shames 532

“The Insufficiency of Honesty”by Stephen L. Carter 536

“When Is It Rape?”by Nancy Gibbs 541

“Yes, Don’t Impede Medical Progress”by Virginia Postrel 550

“Crossing Lines”by Charles Krauthammer 553

“The Misguided Zeal of the Privacy Lobby”by Alan Ehrenhalt 560

“Halt and Show Your Papers!”by Barbara Dority 563

“I Have a Dream”by Martin Luther King, Jr. 569

“Close the Borders to All Newcomers”by Daniel James 579

“Give Us Your Best, Your Brightest”by Stephen Moore 583

Handbook 603

Sentence Elements 605

Subjects and Predicates

605

Complements

607

Appositives

608

Parts of Speech

609

Phrases and Clauses

631

Editing to Correct Sentence Errors 641

Revising Sentence Fragments

641

Revising Run—On Sentences and Comma Splices

643

Creating Subject—Verb Agreement

645

Achieving Pronoun—Antecedent Agreement

648

Using Effective Pronoun Reference 651

Managing Shifts in Person

653

Using the Right Pronoun Case

655

Creating Consistency in Showing Time

658

Using Adjectives and Adverbs Effectively

660

Placing Modifiers Correctly

663

Revising Dangling Modifiers

664

Maintaining Parallelism

665

Revising Faulty Comparisons

666

Editing to Correct Faulty Punctuation and Mechanics 669

Apostrophes

669

Commas

672

Semicolons

677

Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points

679

Colons, Dashes, Parentheses, and Brackets

681

Quotation Marks

685

Hyphens

687

Capitalization

689

Abbreviations

692

Numbers

693

Italics

695

Spelling 698

Spelling Rules

698

Helpful Spelling Tips

700

List of TroublesomeWords

701

Glossary of Word Usage 705

CREDITS 728

Subject Index 734