Introduction vii
Section I Compositions
Chapter 1 The Outline 2
The Jot Outline 2
The Quick-and-Dirty Outline 6
Chapter 2 The Beginning Paragraph 9
When to Write the Beginning 9
What Goes Into the Beginning (the "Opener")? 10
The Humorous Opener 11
The Startling Opener 11
The Anecdotal Opener 12
The Metaphorical Opener 12
Chapter 3 Argumentative Writing 15
General Topics 15
Abstract Topics 24
Pitfalls 27
Sample Argumentative Composition 28
Chapter 4 Descriptive Writing 31
Description of Places 32
Description of Objects 37
Description of People 37
Sample Descriptive Composition 47
Chapter 5 Explanatory (Process) Writing 52
Beginnings 55
Organization 56
Use of Analogies 57
Connectives and Breathers 59
Endings 60
Sample Explanatory (Process) Composition 60
Chapter 6 Ending the Composition 63
Some Basic Principles 63
Chapter 7 Writing Style 66
General Writing Style 66
The Paragraph 70
Chapter 8 Editing Shortcuts 84
Insertions 85
Deletions 86
Other Editing Symbols 87
Chapter 9 Baffling Words and Usage 89
Chapter 10 An Easy Guide to Punctuation 100
Periods 101
Brackets 103
Parentheses 104
Dashes and Hyphens 105
Ellipses 107
Slash (Virgule) 107
Colon 108
Quotation Marks 109
Apostrophe 110
Semicolon 112
Comma 112
Chapter 11 A New Look at Spelling 119
Foreign Derivatives 122
Mnemonic Devices 123
Appearance of Words 123
Review Past Writing for Error Patterns 125
The Spellers Anonymous Method 126
Section II Writing About Complex Subjects
Chapter 12 Overall Principles 130
Doing the Research 132
Understand the Material 133
Use Unorthodox Techniques 133
First Step in Writing: Translating the Material 136
Second Step: Writing for Readability 138
Chapter 13 Science and Technology 140
Writing About People 141
Writing About a Process 145
Writing About a Phenomenon 147
Chapter 14 Statistics 151
An Overview 152
Writing the Results 156
Chapter 15 Business 160
An Overview 161
The Lemonade Stand-Business Simplified 162
Interpreting an Annual Report 163
Five Factors of Business Success or Failure 168
Raiders, Poison Pills, Takeovers, and Divestitures 171
Stocks 173
Bonds 174
Overall Precepts on Writing About Business 177
Chapter 16 Public Finance 181
Budgets: Gold Mines for Writing Topics 182
Capital Expenditures and Bonds 183
Taxes 184
Summary on Writing About Complex Subjects 191
Section III The Term Paper
Chapter 17 The Preparatory Work 194
Picking a Topic 196
Getting the Information 198
Working With the Data 203
Taking Notes: Carding the Data 208
Some Sample Cards 209
Reliability of Sources 211
Reading and Understanding the Material 215
Chapter 18 The Mechanics of the Paper 217
Form of the Paper 217
Quotations and Excerpts 230
Footnotes/Endnotes 235
The Bibliography 238
Chapter 19 Organizing and Writing the Rough Draft 240
Writing the Text 242
Fine-Tuning 250
Chapter 20 Tables, Graphs, and Other Illustrations 252
Getting Started 253
Types of Illustrations 257
A Final Word About Term Papers 262
Chapter 21 A Portfolio of Sample Illustrations 264
Charts 265
Graphs 270
Maps 271
Section IV College Admission Essays
Chapter 22 The College Admission Essay 274
Preliminaries 275
Pre-Writing Resolutions 276
Checklist of Pre-Writing Resolutions 277
The Changing Essay 280
The Insight Resume 284
Other Essay Forms 287
A Final Word About Essays 292
Appendices 295
Appendix A 296
Internet Research Sources 296
Subject Fields 297
Appendix B 305
Special Reference Works 305
Bibliography 307
Index 313