Exploring Writing: Paragraphs and Essays

John Langan has taught reading and writing at Atlantic Cape Community College for more than 25 years. The author of a popular series of college textbooks on both writing and reading, John enjoys the challenge of developing instructive materials that are clear and lively. Before teaching, he earned advanced degrees in writing at Rutgers University and in reading at Rowan University. He also spent a year writing fiction that “is now at the back of a drawer waiting to be discovered and acclaimed posthumously.” While in school, he supported himself by working as a truck driver, a machinist, a battery assembler, a hospital attendant, and an apple packer. In addition to his wife and Philly sports teams, his passions include reading and conveying to nonreaders the pleasure and power of books. Through Townsend Press, his educational publishing company, he has developed the nonprofit “Townsend Library”—a collection of more than 100 new and classic stories that appeal to readers of any age. Zoé L. Albright has been involved in diverse aspects of education for 22 years. For the last 18 years, she has been a faculty member at Metropolitan Community College–Longview, teaching developmental writing, composition, and literature. She has created and implemented traditional and online curricula for high school and college English and composition courses and for a variety of literature courses. She continues to research new educational theory and practices. Zoé has most recently served as co-author of English Skills with Readings, ninth edition, and contributing author to other Langan texts. She received her M.A. from Goldsmiths, University of London; B.S. and B.A. from the University of Idaho; and A.A. from Cottey College. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Kansas. Zoé currently resides outside Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband and teenage son.

• EXPLORING WRITING: PARAGRAPHS AND ESSAYSTABLE OF CONTENTSPART 1 Writing: Skills and Process 21. An Introduction to Writing 42. The Writing Process 25PART 2 Basic Principles of Effective Writing 583. The First and Second Steps in Writing 604. The Third and Fourth Steps in Writing 905. Four Bases for Revising Writing 126PART 3 Paragraph Development 1626. Exemplification 1647. Narration 1758. Description 1849. Process 19510. Cause and/or Effect 20611. Comparison and/or Contrast 21612. Definition 23013. Division-Classification 24014. Argument 251PART 4 Essay Development 27015. Introduction to Essay Development 27216. Writing the Essay 28517. Introductions, Conclusions, and Titles 31518. Patterns of Essay Development 329PART 5 Research-Based Writing 36819. Information Literacy 37020. Working with Sources 38521. Writing a Research Paper 417PART 6 Handbook of Sentence Skills 434SECTION I Grammar 43622. Subjects and Verbs 43723. Sentence Sense 44224. Fragments 44525. Run-Ons 45726. Regular and Irregular Verbs 46827. Subject–Verb Agreement 47628. More about Verbs 48129. Pronoun Agreement and Reference 48530. Pronoun Types 49031. Adjectives and Adverbs 49632. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 501SECTION II Mechanics 51133. Capital Letters 51234. Numbers and Abbreviations 519SECTION III Punctuation 52435. Apostrophe 52536. Quotation Marks 53137. Comma 53838. Other Punctuation Marks 546SECTION IV Word Use 55239. Commonly Confused Words 55340. Effective Word Choice 563SECTION V Tests 57041. Editing Tests 571PART 7 Readings for Writers 588INTRODUCTION TO THEREADINGS 590GOALS AND VALUES 594EDUCATION AND LEARNING 646CHALLENGING SOCIETY 679Index 717