The Little, Brown handbook / H. Ramsey Fowler, Jane E. Aaron.

CONTENTS

Preface for Instructors v
Preface for Students: Using This Book xiii
Introduction: Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing 1
1. Fostering a critical perspective 2
2. Thinking and reading critically 2
3. Writing critically 18


Part I
The Whole Paper and Paragraphs 23

1. Developing an Essay 24
a. The writing situation and the writing process

2
b. Discovering and limiting a subject 26
c. Defining your purpose 30
d. Considering your audience 31 e. Developing your topic 36
f. Developing your thesis 47
g. Organizing your ideas
xviii Contents
2. Drafting and Revising the Essay 63
a. Writing the first draft 63 b. Revising the first draft 67
c. Editing the revised draft 73
d. Proofreading and submitting the final draft 77
e. Giving and receiving comments 80 f. Preparing a writing portfolio 82


3. Writing and Revising Paragraphs 85

a.Maintaining paragraph unity 87
b.Achieving paragraph coherence 92
c. d. Developing the paragraph 104
Writing special kinds of paragraphs
117
e. Linking paragraphs in the essay 123

4. Reading and Writing Arguments 126
a. Reading arguments critically 126 b. Recognizing fallacies 138
c. Developing an argument 144
d. Using reason and evidence 147 e. Reaching your readers 152
f. Revising your argument 156
g. Examining a sample argument 157



Part II
Grammatical Sentences J 61

5. Understanding Sentence Grammar 162
a. Understanding the basic sentence 163
b. Expanding the basic sentence with single words 171 c. Expanding the basic sentence with word groups 173 d. Compounding words, phrases, and clauses 188
e. Changing the usual order of the sentence 193
f. Classifying sentences 195

6. Case of Nouns and Pronouns 198
a Compound subjects and complements 199


b. Compound objects 200
c.lIVe or us with a noun 201
d. e. Appositives 201
Pronoun after than or as in a comparison
202
f. Subjects and objects of infinitives 202
g. Case of who 202
h. Case before a gerund 205


7. Verbs 207
Verb Fonns 207
a. Regular and irregular verbs 209
b. Sit and set; lie and lay; rise and raise 212 c. Omitted -s and -ed endings 213
d. Helping verbs 214
Tense 219
e. Appropriate tense for meaning 219
f. Sequence of tenses 222
Mood 227
g. Subjunctive verb forms 228

Voice 230
h. Active versus passive voice 231
Other Complications 232
i. Verb plus gerund or infinitive ESL 232 j. Verb plus particle ESL 234


8. Agreement 238
a. Agreement between subject and verb 239
b. Agreement between pronoun and antecedent 246


9. Adjectives and Adverbs 252
a. Adjectives only to modify nouns and pronouns 253
b. Adjectives after linking verbs to modify subjects 253 c. Adjectives to modify objects; adverbs to modify verbs
254
d. Short forms and -ly forms of adverbs 254
e. Comparative and superlative forms 255 f. Double negatives 257
g. Overuse of nouns as modifiers 258
h. Present and past participles as adjectives ESL 2 ~
i. A, an, the, and other determiners ESL 259

xx Contents

Part III
Clear Sentences 265

10. Sentence Fragments 266
a. Tests for senlence completeness; revision of fragments 267
b. Subordinate clause 270
c. Verbal or prepositional phrase 270
d. Other fragments 271
e. Acceptable uses of incomplete sentences 273


11. Comma Splices and Fused Sentences 274

Comma Splices 276
a. Main clauses not joined by coordinating conjunction 276
b. Main clauses related by a conjunctive adverb or transitional expression 277
Fused Sentences 279
c. Main clauses with no conjunction or punctuation 279

12. Pronoun Reference 282
a. Clear reference to one antecedent 282
b. Clear placement of pronoun and antecedent

284
c. .Reference to specific antecedent 285
d. Indefinite use of it, they, you 286
e. Clear use of it 287
f. Appropriate use of relative pronouns 287


13. Shifts 290

a. Person and number 291
b. Tense and mood 292
c.
d. Subject and voice 294-
Indirect and direct quotations and questions

294

14. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 297

Misplaced Modifiers 297
a. Clear placement of modifiers 297


b. Limiting modifiers 298
c. Squinting modifiers 299
d. Separation of subjects, verbs, and objects 300
e. Separation of parts of infinitive or verb phrase
300
f. Position of adverbs ESL 301
g. Order of adjectives ESL 302
Dangling Modifiers 303
h. Dangling modifiers 303


15. Mixed and Incomplete Sentences 307

Mixed Sentences 307
a. Mixed grammar 307
b. Mixed meaning (faulty predication) 309

Incomplete Sentences 312
c. Compound constructions 312 d. Comparisons 312
e. Careless omissions 314




Part IV
Effective Sentences 317

16. Using Coordination and Subordination 318
a. Coordinating to relate equal ideas 318
b. Subordinating to distinguish main ideas 323 c. Choosing clear connectors 328


17. Using Parallelism 331
a. Using parallelism for coordinate elements 331 b. Using parallelism to increase coherence 336


18. Emphasizing Main Ideas 338 a. Arranging ideas effectively 338 b. Repeating ideas 342
c. Separating ideas 343
d. Preferring the active voice 344
e. concise 345


19. Achieving Variety 347
a. Varying sentence length ~nd structure 348 b Varying sentence beginnings 351
c.' Inverting the normal word order 353
d. Mixing types of sentences 354

Part V
Punctuation 357

Chart: Commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, parentheses 358

20. End Punctuation 360

The Period 360
a. With statements, mild commands, and indirect questions 360
b. With abbreviations 361
The Question Mark 361
c. With direct questions 361 d. To indicate doubt 362
The Exclamation Point 363
e. With emphatic statements, interjections, and commands 363
f. Overuse 363


21. The Comma 365

a. Main clauses linked by coordinating conjunction 365
b. Introductory elements 368
c. Nonrestrictive elements 370
d. Absolute phrases 375
e. Phrases expressing contrast 376
f. Series and coordinate adjectives 376
g. Dates, addresses, place names, long numbers 378 h. With quotations 380
i. To prevent misreading 382
j. Misuse and overuse 382

22. The Semicolon 388

a. Main clauses not joined by a coordinating conjunction 388

23. The apostrophe
24. Quotation marks
25. Other punctuation marks


PART VI: MECHANICS

26. Capitals
27. underlining (italics)
28. Abbreviations
29. Numbers
30. word division


PART VII: EFFECTIVE WORDS
31. choosing and using words
using dictionaries
improving your vacabularly
spelling


PART VIII: RESEARCH WRITING
beginning a research project
working with sources and writing the paper
documenting sources
e.tc

PART IX: SPECIAL WRITING SITUATIONS
essay examinations
business writing

Includes index.

"Includes 1998 MLA guidelines"--Cover.