Full Description
Clear, Precise, Direct provides a concise set of strategies to help students improve their writing skills at the sentence level with a focus on application and revision. Students will learn the key principles of clear, effective writing and practice applying them to their own work through a series of lessons, exercises, and peer writing samples.
Contents
From the Publisher ; Preface ; Acknowledgements ; 1. WRITE NOW: START, DEVELOP, REVISE ; Where to Start ; Examples of Freewriting ; Two Composition Approaches ; Beginning with Storytelling ; - "The Stovepipe Hole" by Elizabeth Clark ; - "Cell Phone" by Peter Palladini ; Academic Writing ; Revision ; Types of Editing ; How and Where to Edit ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 2. ECONOMY ; The Morality of Wordiness ; Forms of Wordiness ; Editing Wordiness in Academic Writing ; Peer Models for Emulation ; - "My Mom and Bramalea" by Julie Michelangelo ; - "The Pet Owner's Burden" by Emilia Di Luca ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 3. STRONG VERBS ; Concrete Verbs ; Less-than-Concrete Verbs ; Abstract Verbs ; The Greater Consequences of Dead Verbs ; Academic Writing and Strong Verbs ; Final Thoughts ; Peer Models for Emulation ; - "Going to Chinese School" by Jennifer Lee ; - "Stealing Spirituality: The Non-Native Use of Native American Spirit Guides" by Graeme Scallion ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 4. ACTIVE VOICE ; Word Order ; Active Voice ; Passive Voice ; The Morality of Passive Voice ; The Permanence of Passive in Various Fields ; Is it Ever Okay to Use Passive? ; Academic Writing and Active Voice ; Final Thoughts on Active and Passive ; Peer Models for Emulation ; - "Jafar Uncle's Chocolates" by Nabila Rizvi ; - "A Flourishing of Humans" by Sara Menuck ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 5. STRONG NOUNS ; The Problem of Pronouns ; Examples of Unclear Pronouns ; Pronouns and Repetition ; The Morality of Unclear Pronouns ; Inclusive Pronouns ; Subject-Verb Agreement ; Adjective-Pronoun Agreement ; Academic Writing, Strong Nouns, and Vague Pronouns ; Final Thoughts on Nouns and Pronouns ; Peer Models for Emulation ; - "Two Weeks at Notre Dame Hospital" by Eric Ramadi ; - "Tobacco Cigarettes as a Cause of Urinary Bladder Cancer" by Elizabeth Dancey ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 6. ORIGINAL LANGUAGE ; Examples of Cliches ; Why Would Any Writer Use Cliches? ; Is it Ever Okay to Use a Cliche? ; Original Phrasing ; Fresh Figurative Language ; Academic Writing and Original Language ; Final Thoughts on Figurative Language and Originality ; Peer Models for Examination ; - "Christine" by Adam Giles ; - "Financial Hardship among Former Professional Athletes and Its Contributing Factors" by Taylor Lush ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 7. PARALLELISM ; The Grammar Behind Parallelism ; Surface and Under-the-Surface Parallelism ; Single-Element Parallelism: Part I ; Single-Element Parallelism: Part II ; Multiple-Element Parallelism ; Academic Writing and Parallelism ; Interview-based Articles ; Doing the Interview ; The Questioner and the Listener ; Writing Interviews ; Peer Models for Emulation ; - "Two Hard Years" by Joyce Ong ; - "Solace in Obsolescence: Vinyl in the Age of Free Music" by Nicole Brewer ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; 8. SENTENCE VARIATION AND SOUND ; Sentence Patterns ; Short Sentences ; Long Sentences ; Variation of Long and Short for Effect ; Academic Writing and Sentence Variation ; Sound ; Personal Essays ; The Power of the Personal Essay ; Writer as Cultural Observer ; Writer as Activist ; Personal Essays and the Truth ; Three Rhetorical Elements ; Peer Model Writing for Emulation ; - "I Wear My Too-black Skin with Pride" by Petura Burrows ; - "Saints and Monsters: The Psychology of Altruism and Malice" by Nick Zabara ; Chapter Summary ; Further Readings ; Appendix: Research and Citations ; Glossary ; Credits ; Works Cited ; Index
