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Composing With Confidence: Writing Effective Paragraphs and Essays, 7/E
Alan Meyers, Harry S. Truman College

ISBN-10: 0321276469
ISBN-13: 9780321276469

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2006
Format: Paper; 544 pp
Published: 03/10/2005

Suggested retail price: $45.40
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This student-friendly, value-priced Seventh Edition of Composing with Confidence focuses on the writing of paragraphs and essays within the composing process. Fast-paced, high-interest, continuous discourse materials that make the book fun for students to read and work with.

 

Students are guided step-by-step through the composing process, but are provided with options in prewriting, discovery, outlining, and predicting. Each chapter in the unit on the rhetorical modes offers student model paragraphs and essays, as well as professional models. Each chapter in this unit includes a well-wrought paragraph assignment, an optional essay writing assignment, and at least five alternative assignments—several of them in response to readings—to allow for maximum instructional flexibility.

 

Original contributions from well-known authors, textbook writers, professors, and editors offer students advice and insights into the composing practices of professionals. And a full unit of fifteen readings from professional as well as student writers establishes the reading/writing connection, while providing students with additional models and prompts for writing.

 

A full unit on sentence-level issues of grammar and mechanics offers students instruction in only those skills that they need to master to make their writing clear and grammatically correct. Each chapter in the unit ends with two "Editing for Mastery" exercises, in which students must find and correct errors in extended prose passage. The answers to the first exercise are provided in an appendix. "Tips" boxes and "If Your First Language Is Not English" boxes also provide short, specific, and practical advice to students.

  • Well-known authors, professors, textbook writers, and editors share insights and excitement about the craft of writing which, in turn, motivates students to improve their own writing.
  • Optional collaborative activities–outlining classroom-tested methods that produce results–have been added to expand learning opportunities, guide peer review, and offer additional flexibility in teaching.
  • ESL (English as a Second Language) boxes throughout the book address the specific needs of this growing segment of the basic writing population.
  • "A Word About Words," offers short word histories and discussions of the roots of English from many languages.
  • There are two Editing for Mastery exercises at the end of all Troubleshooting chapters, with the answers to the first exercise provided in an appendix.
  • A chapter on Writing on the Job offers instruction in and models of a job application letter, a résumé, and two memos.
  • The "Blueprints for Success" conclude each unit with a two-page visual summary of key points and topics for easy reference.

  • Combined Modes. A new approach to the rhetorical modes incorporates the field’s increasing recognition of modes as types of writing that are often mixed and combined in essays and even in paragraphs. Students are urged to see passages of description, narrative, comparison-contrast and others, as one means by which they can achieve a larger purpose in writing. Each mode is examined for the contribution it can make to a writer’s larger and ultimately more complex purpose. New questions for analysis and writing assignments also encourage students to regard the modes within the context of purpose and audience.
  • An entirely new chapter on summary and response. This chapter highlights the important skills of summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting as well as distinction between what is plagiarism and what is not.
  • An expanded chapter on workplace writing, includes job applications by e-mail and a section on writing reports in the workplace.
  • New readings and models. One-third of the model paragraphs and readings are new to this edition. These new materials have been selected with an eye to balance in exemplifying rhetorical modes, combinations of modes and with a keen sense of topics in which students are interested.
  • Prompts for writing assignments and assignments based on readings. These visual prompts inspire student writing, as do new suggestions for writing that follow readings, both within chapters and in the Reading Selections at the back of the book.
  • Visual aids to learning. The 7th edition has retained the well-received blueprint diagrams for paragraph and essay writing as well as the two-page summary spreads, “Synthesis for Success,” at the end of each unit.

I. WRITING AS A COMPOSING PROCESS.

1. The Reasons for Writing.

2. The Composing Process.

3. Composing a Powerful Paragraph.

4. Composing an Effective Essay.

Unit I Synthesis for Success.

II. STRENGTHENING WRITING.

5. Developing Ideas.

6. Achieving Coherence.

7. Writing Directly and Vividly.

8. Creating Sentence Variety.

Unit II Synthesis for Success.

III. COMPOSING TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS AND ESSAYS.

9. Composing a Description.

10. Composing Narratives.

11. Explaining a Process.

12. Drawing Comparisons and Contrasts.

13. Making Classifications.

14. Composing Definitions.

15. Examining Causes or Effects.

16. Summarizing and Responding.

17. Persuading an Audience.

18. Writing Essay Exams.

19. Writing on the Job.

Unit III Synthesis for Success.

IV. TROUBLESHOOTING.

20. Writing Complete Sentences.

21. Joining Sentences Through Coordination and Subordination.

22. Checking Subject-Verb Agreement and Noun Plurals.

23. Checking Past-Tense and Past-Participle Forms.

24. Achieving Consistency.

25. Using Pronouns.

26. Strengthening Modifiers.

27. Using Apostrophes, Hyphens, and Capital Letters.

28. Checking Punctuation.

29. Checking Sound-alike and Look-alike Words.

Unit IV Synthesis for Success.

READING SELECTIONS.

Andy Rooney, “Talking Trash.”

Jo Goodwin Parker, “What Is Poverty?”

Gloria Uduando, “Reflections.”

Karen P. Bellitto, “A Tale of Two Gravies.”

Bob Greene, “From a Grandpa, Above and Beyond” and “Love Finds a Way.”

Gale Lawrence, “Baby Birds.”

Suzanne Britt, “Neat People vs. Sloppy People.”

Judith Viorst, “Friends, Good Friends–and Such Good Friends.”

Linda Hogan, “Walking.”

Judith Ortiz Cofer, Excerpt from “The Story of My Body.”

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Where My Mother’s Voice Led Me.”

Marcus Marbry, ”Living in Two Worlds.”

Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue.”

Andrew Sullivan, “Why the M Word Matters to Me.”

The Economist, “The World Is Too Fat Too Bad.”

Answer to Chapter Exercises.


Quotations and Proverbs.


Glossary.

For Developmental Writing - Paragraph/Essay


  • Eighty Practices
    Hairston
    © 1991 | Longman | Cloth | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0673534227 | ISBN-13: 9780673534224


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