LB Brief, 3/E
Jane E. Aaron, New York University

ISBN-10: 0205530591
ISBN-13: 9780205530595

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2008
Format: Paper; 640 pp
Published: 02/07/2007

Suggested retail price: $40.00
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LB Brief offers the authority and currency of its best-selling parent, The Little, Brown Handbook, in a briefer, spiral-bound format at an affordable price.

 

As in its previous edition, LB Brief provides students of varying skills and interests with clear, reliable, and accessible explanations of handbook basics–the writing process, grammar and usage, and research writing. The third edition builds on the handbook’s usefulness with three main emphases: (1) writing in and out of college, including an expanded chapter on academic writing, a new chapter study skills and exams, and new coverage of public writing; (2) visual literacy, including more on creating and using illustrations, viewing images critically, and using visuals as research sources; and (3) research writing, including more on using library subscription services and evaluating Web sites, new annotated sample pages from key source types, and new coverage of annotated bibliographies, Web logs, and finding images.

                                                                                                   

Concise and easy to use, LB Brief helps writing students find what they need and then use what they find.

  • Comprehensive coverage at an affordable price. In a convenient spiral binding, LB Brief covers all the essentials of writing and includes over 120 exercises, yet its price is well below that of most tabbed handbooks.
  • Accessibility. Designed for inexperienced writers and handbook users, LB Brief features frequently asked questions inside the front cover and at the start of each chapter; “Key Terms” boxes that define grammar terms on the same page they're used; and more than 50 checklist and summary boxes.
  • Thorough coverage of research writing. Meticulous and practical, LB Brief emphasizes formulating a research question, using the library as Web gateway, evaluating and synthesizing sources, paraphrasing, integrating borrowed material, avoiding plagiarism, and documenting sources.
  • Accessible introductions to critical reading and writing and to argument. Concrete discussions include techniques of critically reading texts and images, suggestions for writing arguments, and two sample student papers. 
  • More than 120 practice exercises. The exercises are in connected discourse and draw on content from across the disciplines. Starred items in each set are answered in the back of the book.
  • Current coverage of writing with computers. Fully integrated throughout the handbook, tips for using computers range from managing files and using spelling and grammar/style checkers to composing e-mail and Web pages to evaluating and documenting online sources.
  • Integrated help for culturally and linguistically diverse writers. “Culture‹–›Language” notes throughout the text provide rhetorical and grammatical help for students whose first language or dialect is not standard American English. Students can find what they need without having to know which problems they do and don’t share with native Standard American English (SAE) speakers. A guide at the end of the book pulls together all the integrated coverage.  
  • Fully integrated Companion Web site. This powerful resource offers online versions of most of the handbook’s exercises, more than 1000 additional interactive exercises, more than 30 video tutorials, hundreds of annotated links to other useful sites, ten documented student research papers from across the curriculum, and, for instructors, password-protected answers to the handbook’s exercises, teaching tips, PowerPoint slides, transparency masters, and more.

  • Expanded coverage of reading and writing in college.   Part 2, “Writing in and out of College”now covers reading and writing in more depth.  New material includes:
  • Expanded chapter on academic writing, covering audience, purpose, language, and other concerns
  • New chapter on study skills and essay exams, covering time management, reading for comprehension, note taking, and preparing for and taking essay exams
  • New coverage of public writing, discussing the processes and rhetorical strategies involved in writing for community organizations. 
  • More model documents than any other brief, affordable handbook on the market. Nineteen sample documents (highlighted in the table of contents) illustrate many varieties of college-level writing — including personal narrative, response to reading, critique, argument, research writing using MLA and APA styles, writing about literature with and without secondary sources, essay exams, and public and online writing.
  • Expanded coverage of visual literacy. New material treats using illustrations, viewing images critically, with new examples, and using visuals as research sources. 
  • Extensively revised chapters on research writing. New material addressing changes in research methods includes:
    • Guidelines on preparing an annotated bibliography
    • More emphasis on library subscription services
    • More on evaluating Web sites, with tips for distinguishing scholarly, personal, commercial, and other kinds of sites.
    • Advice on using Web logs as research sources
    • Coverage of images as research sources, including URLs of image banks
    • Sample pages from key source types, showing students how to find the bibliographic information needed to cite key types
    • Up-to-the-minute documentation coverage in MLA and APA styles
  • “Culture‹–›Language Guide” (back of the book). This expanded guide orients students with advice on mastering standard American English and indexes all of the book’s integrated material for multilingual and multidialect students.

PART ONE: WRITING PROCESS

                                                    

1              The Writing Situation

a              Analysis                                               

b              Subject

c              Audience

d              Purpose

 

2              Invention 

a              Journal keeping

b              Observing

c              Freewriting

d              Brainstorming

e              Clustering

f               Asking questions

g              Reading

 

3              Thesis and Organization 

a              Thesis statement

b              Organization

                Sample Essay

 

4              Drafting 

a              Starting

b              Maintaining momentum

c              Sample First Draft

 

5              Revising and Editing

a              Revising the whole essay

b              Sample revision

c              Editing

d              Formatting; proofreading

e              Sample Final Draft

f               Collaborating

g              Preparing a writing portfolio

 

6              Paragraphs

a              Unity around a central idea

b              Coherence

c              Development

d              Introductions and conclusions

e              Linking paragraphs

 

7              Document Design

a              Academic papers

b              Principles of design

c              Elements of design

d              Illustrations

e              Papers submitted online

f               Readers with disabilities

 

PART TWO: WRITING IN AND OUT OF COLLEGE

 

8              Academic Writing             

a              Academic habits

b              Audience

c              Purpose

d              Structure and content

e              Language

 

9              Study Skills

a              Time management

b              Listening and note taking in class

c              Reading

d              Exams

                Sample Essay Exams

 

10           Critical Reading and Writing

a              Critical reading

b              Critically viewing images

c              Critical writing

                Sample Critique of a Text

 

11           Writing Arguments

a              Elements of argument

b              Writing reasonably

c              Organizing an argument

d              Sample Argument

 

12           Reading and Writing About Literature

a              Writing while reading

b              Critical reading

c              Sample Works and Papers

 

13           Public Writing

a              Business letters and résumés

Sample Letter and Résumés

b              Memos

                Sample  Memo

c              Electronic mail

                Sample E-mail Message

d              Community work

                Sample Newsletter and Brochure

e              Web composition

Sample Web Page

 

14           Oral Presentations

a              Purpose and audience

b              Organization

c              Delivery

                Sample Powerpoint Slides

 

PART THREE: CLARITY AND STYLE

 

15           Emphasis

a              Subjects and verbs

b              Sentence beginnings and endings

c              Coordination

d              Subordination      

 

16           Parallelism

a              With and, but, or, nor, yet

b              With both . . . and, etc.

c              In comparisons

d              In lists, headings, and outlines

 

17           Variety and Details

a              Sentence length

b              Sentence structure

c              Details

 

18           Appropriate and Exact Words

a              Appropriate words

b              Exact words

 

19           Completeness

a              Compounds

b              Needed words

 

20           Conciseness

a              Focusing on subject and verb

b              Cutting empty words

c              Cutting repetition

d              Tightening clauses and phrases

e              Cutting there is or it is

f               Combining sentences

g              Avoiding jargon

 

PART FOUR:  SENTENCE PARTS AND PATTERNS

 

Basic grammar

21           Parts of Speech   

a              Nouns

b              Pronouns

c              Verbs

d              Adjectives and adverbs

e              Prepositions and conjunctions

f               Interjections

 

22           The Sentence      

a              Subject and predicate

b              Predicate patterns

c              Alternative patterns

 

23           Phrases and Subordinate Clauses  

a              Phrases

b              Subordinate clauses

 

24           Sentence Types

a              Simple sentences

b              Compound sentences

c              Complex sentences

d              Compound-complex sentences

 

Verbs

25           Forms

a              Irregular verbs

b              Sit/set; lie/lay; rise/raise

c              -s and -ed forms

d              Helping verbs

e              Verb + gerund or infinitive

f               Verb + particle

 

26           Tense

a              Present tense: sing

b              Perfect tense: have/had/will have sung

c              Progressive tense: is/was/will be singing

d              Consistency

e              Sequence

 

27           Mood

a              Subjunctive: I wish I were

b              Consistency

 

28           Voice

a              Active vs. passive

b              Consistency

 

29           Subject-Verb Agreement  

a              -s and -es endings

b              Intervening words

c              Subjects with and

d              Subjects with or or nor

e              Everyone and other indefinite pronouns

f               Team and other collective nouns

g              Who, which, that

h              News and other singular nouns ending in -s

i               Inverted word order

j               Is, are, and other linking verbs

k              Titles; words being defined

 

Pronouns             

30           Case

a              She and I vs. her and me

b              It was she vs. It was her

c              Who vs. whom

d              Other constructions

 

31           Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

a              Antecedents with and

b              Antecedents with or or nor

c              Everyone, person, and other indefinite words

d              Team and other collective nouns

 

32           Pronoun Reference

a              Clear reference

b              Close reference

c              Specific reference

   d               Definite it and they

   e               Appropriate you

f               Consistency

 

Modifiers             

33           Adjectives and Adverbs

a              Adjective vs. adverb

b              Adjective with linking verb: felt bad

c              Comparisons

d              Double negatives

e              Present and past participles: boring vs. bored

f               A, an, the, and other determiners

 

34           Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

a              Misplaced modifiers

b              Dangling modifiers

 

Sentence Faults  

35           Sentence Fragments

a              Tests

b              Revision

c              Acceptable fragments

 

36           Comma Splices and Fused Sentences

a              Main clauses without and, but, etc.

b              Main clauses with however, for example, etc.

 

37           Mixed Sentences

a              Mixed meaning

b              Tangled grammar

c              Repeated subjects and other parts

 

PART FIVE:  PUNCTUATION

 

38           End Punctuation

a              Period

b              Question mark

c              Exclamation point

 

39           Comma

a              Main clauses with and, but, etc.

b              Introductory elements

c              Nonessential elements

d              Items in series

e              Two or more adjectives

f               Dates, addresses, etc.

g              With quotations

h              Misuses

 

40           Semicolon

a              Main clauses without and, but, etc.

b              Main clauses with however, for example, etc.

c              Main clauses or series items with commas

d              Misuses

 

41           Colon

a              Concluding explanation, series, etc.

b              Salutation; title and subtitle; time

c              Misuses

 

42           Apostrophe

a              Possession

b              Misuses

c              Contractions

d              Plural abbreviations, etc.

 

43           Quotation Marks

a              Direct quotations

b              Within quotations

c              Titles of works

d              Words used in a special sense

e              Misuses

f               With other punctuation

 

44           Other Marks

a              Dash or dashes

b              Parentheses

c              Ellipsis mark

d              Brackets

e              Slash     

 

PART SIX: SPELLING AND MECHANICS

 

45           Spelling

46           Hyphen 

47           Capital Letters

48           Underlining or Italics

49           Abbreviations

50           Numbers             

 

PART SEVEN: RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION

 

51           Research Strategy

a              Planning

b              Research journal 

c              Subject and question

d              Goals for sources

e              Working, annotated bibliography

 

52           Finding Sources

a              Searching electronically

b              Reference works

c              Books

d              Periodicals

e              The Web

f               Other online sources

g              Government publications

h              Images

i               Your own sources

 

53           Working with Sources

a              Evaluating sources

b              Synthesizing sources

c              Gathering information

d              Using summary, paraphrase, quotation

   e               Integrating sources into your text

 

54           Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources         

a              Plagiarism and the Internet

b              What not to acknowledge

c              What must be acknowledged

d              Online sources

e              Documenting sources

 

55           Writing the Paper

a              Focusing and organizing

b              Drafting, revising, and formatting

 

56           MLA Documentation and Format

a              Parenthetical text citations

b              List of works cited

c              Format of paper

d              SAMPLE MLA PAPER   

 

57           APA Documentation and Format     

a              Parenthetical text citations

b              List of references

c              Format of paper

d              SAMPLE APA PAPER

 

Glossary of Usage              

Answers to Selected Exercises         

Index

Success starts here.

• What can I do about writer’s block?
• Is it she and I or her and me? Is it who or whom?
• How do I get started on my research papers?
• How do I use the Web for research?
• How should I cite my sources?

With concise, easy to understand answers to these questions and more, LB Brief will help you succeed in any course that requires reading, writing, or research. An authoritative and accessible reference at an affordable price, this handbook provides complete coverage of writing in and out of college, grammar and usage, punctuation and mechanics, the research process, evaluating and documenting sources, using computers and the Web, and applying for a job, along with over 120 exercises that allow students to practice skills. LB Brief is a tremendous value and an unbeatable resource.

Visit the companion Web site at www.ablongman.com/littlebrown for additional exercises, video tutorials, downloads from the handbook, and Web links on every handbook topic.

View a Sample Chapter PDF:

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