The Longman Concise Companion

The Longman Concise Companion encourages you to consider how audiences, purposes, and writing conventions differ among academic, public, and workplace communities. You are then offered concrete strategies for adapting your writing to meet varying rhetorical situations. Rather than present grammar as a set of jargon-filled rules, The Longman Concise Companion helps you learn to call upon your own experience as a reader to help you understand how grammar can communicate meaning clearly or hinder understanding.

Table of Contents:
    Part 1  Writing and Reading   1   Communities of Writers and Readers             a  Academic, Public, and Work Communities             b  Electronic Communities   2   Generating and Organizing Ideas             a  Generating Ideas             b  Organizing Ideas and Information   3   Purpose, Thesis, and Audience             a  Identifying Your Focus and Purpose             b  Creating a Thesis             c  Understanding Your Readers   4   Drafting             a  Moving from Planning to Drafting             b  Drafting Collaboratively   5   Revising, Editing, and Proofreading             a  Making Major Revisions             b  Making Minor Revisions             c  Revising Collaboratively             d  Writing Correctly             e  Editing             f  Proofreading   6   Reading Critically             a  Reading for Understanding             b  Reading Analytically and Critically             c  Using Journals to Turn Reading into Writing   7   Paragraphs             a  Recognizing Unfocused Paragraphs             b  Revising for Paragraph Focus             c  Recognizing Incoherent Paragraphs             d  Revising for Paragraph Coherence             e  Recognizing Poorly Developed Paragraphs             f  Revising for Paragraph Development             g  Using Special-Purpose Paragraphs   Part 2   Reasoning and Presenting   8   Making Language Choices             a  Choosing a Style             b  Recognizing Home and Community Language Varieties             c  Meeting Language Expectations   9   Reasoning Critically             a  Recognizing Critical Reasoning             b  Building a Chain of Reasoning             c  Representing Your Reasoning   10  Writing in Online Communities             a  Online Expectations             b  Email Conventions             c  Online Communities             d  Writing for the World Wide Web             e  Avoiding Plagiarism and Behaving Ethically Online   11  Designing Documents             a  Goals of Document Design             b  Planning a Design             c  Laying Out Your Document             d  Using Type             e  Using Visuals             f  Sample Documents     Part 3 Writing for Specific Audiences   12  Persuasive Arguments             a  Recognizing Occasions for Argument             b  Developing Your Stance             c  Developing Reasons and Evidence             d  Acknowledging Other Perspectives             e  Arguing Logically             f  Writing a Position Paper   13  Academic Writing Across the Curriculum             a  Goals of academic writing             b  Analyzing academic audiences             c  General academic writing tasks             d  Types of general academic writing             e  Short documented paper             f  Lab report             g  Essay exam             h  Annotated bibliography             i  Literature review             j  Writing in the arts and humanities             k  Original or researched interpretation             l  Writing in the social and natural sciences             m  Research report   14  Reading and Writing About Literature             a  Reading Literary Texts             b  Writing About Literary Texts             c  Sample Literary Analysis   15  Public Writing             a  Goals of Public Writing             b  Analyzing Public Audiences             c  Types of Public Writing             d  Public Flyer             e  Letter to the Editor             f  Speaking in Public Settings   16  Workplace Writing             a  Goals of Workplace Writing             b  Analyzing Workplace Audiences             c  Understanding Workplace Writing Tasks             d  Types of Workplace Writing             e  Business Letter             f  Memo             g  Résumé and Application Letter             h  Speaking in the Workplace   Part 4  Researching and Writing   17  Getting Started: Researching and Writing             a  Beginning Your Research             b  Types of Research Writing             c  Developing a Research Question             d  Developing a Preliminary Thesis             e  Creating a Research File and a Timeline             f  Reading and Note Taking             g  Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Synthesizing   18  Library Resources and Research Databases             a  Developing a Search Strategy and Working Bibliography             b  Searching Library Resources and Databases             c  General Resources             d  Books and Online Catalogs             e  Periodicals, Print or Electronic Indexes, and Government Documents             f  Online Databases             g  Evaluating Library Sources   19  Web and Internet Resources             a  Developing a Web and Internet Search Strategy             b  Search Engines             c  Web Sites and Internet Resources             d  Evaluating Web and Internet Sources   20  Fieldwork             a  Interviewing             b  Surveying, Polling, or Using Questionnaires             c  Conducting an Ethnographic Study             d  Obtaining Consent and Approval for Research on Human Subjects   21  Avoiding Plagiarism             a  Recognizing Plagiarism             b  The Problem of Intention             c  Recognizing When to Document Sources             d  Working with Common Knowledge             e  Citing Sources Responsibly             f   Citing Sources in Context   22  Integrating Sources             a  Choosing Purposes for Your Sources             b  Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Synthesizing   23  Writing, Revising, and Presenting Your Research             a  Reviewing Your Research Questions             b  Reviewing Your Purpose             c  Building from a Thesis to a Draft             d  Revising and Editing             e  Presenting Your Research   Part 5 Documenting Sources   24  Five Serious Documentation Problems             a  Wrong Kind of Citation Entry             b  Missing Citation Information             c  Wrong Citation Details             d  Misplaced In-text Citations             e  Incorrect In-text Citation Format   25  MLA Documentation Style            a  MLA In-Text (Parenthetical) Citations            b  MLA List of Works Cited             c  Sample MLA Paper     26  APA Documentation Style             a  APA In-text Citations             b  APA Reference List   27  CMS Documentation Style             a  Using CMS Endnotes or Footnotes             b  Creating CMS Endnotes or Footnotes             c  Creating a CMS Bibliography   28  CSE Documentation Style             a  CSE In-text Citations             b  CSE Reference List   Part 6  Editing Grammar   29  Ten Serious Errors             a  Fragment             b  Fused Sentence             c  Unclear Pronoun Reference             d  Lack of Subject-Verb Agreement             e  Dangling Modifier             f  Shift             g  Misused or Missing Apostrophe             h  Unnecessary Commas             i  Missing or Misused Quotation Marks             j  Double Negative   30  Words Working in Sentences             a  Nouns and Articles             b  Pronouns             c  Verbs             d  Adjectives             e  Adverbs             f   Prepositions             g  Conjunctions             h  Interjections   31  Sentence Parts and Patterns             a  Subjects and Predicates             b  Phrases             c  Subordinate Clauses             d  Different Types of Sentences             32  Using Verbs             a  Simple Present and Past Tense Verbs             b  Editing Present Tense Verbs             c  Editing Past Tense Verbs             d  Complex Tenses and Helping Verbs             e  Editing Progressive and Perfect Tenses             f  Editing Troublesome Verbs (lie, lay, sit, set)             g  Clear Tense Sequence             h  Subjunctive Mood             i  Active and Passive Voice             33  Using Pronouns             a  Pronoun Forms             b  Editing Common Pronoun Forms             34  Making Sentence Parts Agree             a  Agreement             b  Creating Simple Subject-Verb Agreement             c  Creating Complex Subject-Verb Agreement             d  Creating Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement             35  Using Adjectives and Adverbs             a  What Adjectives and Adverbs Do             b  Editing Adjectives and Adverbs   Part 7   Editing Sentence Problems   36  Sentence Fragments             a  Sentence Fragments             b  Editing Sentence Fragments             c  Using Partial Sentences   37  Comma Splices and Fused Sentences             a  Comma Splices             b  Fused Sentences             c  Editing Comma Splices and Fused Sentences             38  Creating Pronoun Reference             a  Unclear Pronoun Reference             b  Editing for Clear Pronoun Reference   39  Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers             a  Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers             b  Editing Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers   40  Making Shifts Consistent             a  Shifts in Person and Number             b  Shifts in Tense and Mood             c  Shifts in Active or Passive Voice             d  Shifts Between Direct and Indirect Quotations             41  Mixed and Incomplete Sentences             a  Mixed Sentences             b  Editing Mixed Sentences             c  Incomplete Sentences             42  Parallelism             a  Faulty Parallelism             b  Editing for Parallelism   43  Coordination and Subordination             a  Creating Coordination             b  Creating Subordination             c  Editing Coordination and Subordination   44  Clear and Emphatic Sentences             a  Unclear Sentences             b  Editing for Clear Sentences   Part 8  Editing Word Choice   45  Being Concise             a  Common Types of Wordiness             b  Editing for Conciseness   46  Choosing Appropriate Words             a  Recognizing the Demands of Context and Purpose             b  Editing for Precise Diction             47  Using Respectful Language             a  Editing Gender Stereotypes             b  Editing Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Stereotypes   48  Building Your Language Resources             a  Recognizing Your Language Resources as a Writer             b  Turning to the Dictionary and the Thesaurus   Part 9  Editing Punctuation   49  Commas             a  Joining Sentences             b  Setting Off Sentence Elements             c  Setting Off Nonessential Modifiers             d  Separating Items in a Series             e  Separating Adjectives in a Sequence             f  Dates, Numbers, Addresses, Place Names, People’s Titles, and Letters             g  Commas with Quotations             h  Commas to Make Your Meaning Clear             i  Eliminating Commas that Do Not Belong   50  Semicolons and Colons             a  Semicolons             b  Colons   51  Apostrophes             a  Apostrophes that Mark Possession             b  Apostrophes that Mark Contractions and Omissions   52  Marking Quotations             a  Using Quotation Marks             b  Titles of Short Works             c  Highlighting Words, Special Terms, and Tone of Voice   53  Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points             a  Periods             b  Question Marks             c  Exclamation Points   54  Other Punctuation Marks             a  Parentheses             b  Brackets             c  Dashes             d  Ellipses             e  Slashes             f  Symbols in Electronic Addresses             g  Combining Punctuation Marks   Part 10 Proofreading for Mechanics and Spelling   55  Capitalizing             a  Capitalizing to Begin Sentences             b  Capitalizing Proper Names and Titles   56  Italicizing (Underlining)             a  Italics (Underlining) in Titles             b  Italics for Specific Terms             c  Underlining for Emphasis   57  Hyphenating             a  Hyphenating to Join Words             b  Hyphenating to Divide Words   58  Using Numbers             a  Spelling Out Numbers             b  Using Numerals   59  Abbreviating             a  Familiar Abbreviations             b  Proofreading for Appropriate Abbreviations   60  Spelling             a  Starting with Your Spell Checker             b  Watching for Common Patterns of Misspelling                       c  Proofreading for Commonly Misspelled Words   Glossary of Usage Answers to Selected Exercises Index Credits Guide to ESL Advice Symbols for Revising and Editing