The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers with MLA Guide

The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers, 3/e, explores the connection between reading and writing, helping students develop an intuitive understanding of grammar conventions and encouraging them to adjust their writing style to meet the needs of varying audiences. A comprehensive reference to the processes of writing and research, The Longman Handbook emphasizes the reader-writer connection in two key ways. The “Read, Recognize, Revise” approach to editing grammar and style encourages students to use their own experience as readers to help them spot critical errors in their writing and to apply specific strategies from the text to correct them. In addition, the text highlights the expectations of various communities of writers and readers; emphasizing the academic community, it also includes unique coverage of the public and workplace communities. It outlines the kinds of writing students can expect to find in each, and offers guided advice on how best to write within the context of the community they are addressing. New material on oral presentations and online communication ensures that students are prepared to compose in contexts that extend from disciplines across the curriculum, to situations outside the classroom as well.

Table of Contents:
Preface for Students and Instructors. A Guide to Using The Longman Handbook. I. WRITING, READING, AND THINKING: Joining Communities. 1. Readers, Writers, and Community Expectations. Recognizing Academic, Work, and Public Communities. The Composing Process: Realities and Myths. Entering Electronic Communities. 2. Strategies for Critical Reading and Reflection. Reading Analytically. Reading Interpretively. Journals: Bridging Reading and Writing. Strategies for Effective Speaking. Effective Oral Presentation. Managing Speech Anxiety. Group Presentations and Other Public Forums. 4. Planning Strategies for College, Work, and Public Writing. Generating Ideas and Information. Structuring Ideas and Information. Creating Generalization-Support Patterns. Planning in Electronic Environments. Planning: Paper in Progress. 5. Defining Your Purpose and Thesis. Analyzing Your Purpose. Using Rhetorical Purposes to Guide Your Decisions. Defining a Main Idea or Thesis. 6. Considering Your Audience. Defining Your Audience. Characterizing Your Readers. Adapting Your Content, Structure, and Style. Addressing Communities of Readers. II. DRAFTING AND REVISING: SHAPING YOUR WRITING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY. 7. Drafting. Moving From Planning to Drafting. Using Drafting Strategies. Drafting Collaboratively. Drafting: Paper in Progress. 8. Revising. Making Major Revisions. Making Minor Revisions. Revising Collaboratively. Revising: Paper in Progress. 9. Focusing, Linking, and Developing Paragraphs. Recognizing and Revising Paragraph Focus. Revising for Focus. Recognizing and Revising Paragraph Coherence. Revising for Coherence. Recognizing and Revising Paragraph Development. Using Special-Purpose Paragraphs in Academic, Work, and Public Settings. 10. Creating Clear, Emphatic, and Varied Sentences. Creating Clear Sentences. Creating Direct Sentences. Creating Emphasis. Revising for Variety. III. REPRESENTING YOURSELF: CREATING YOUR PLACE IN A COMMUNITY. 11. Presenting Yourself Through Language Choices. Understanding Home and Community Language Varieties. Understanding How Dialect Influences Writing. 12. Representing Yourself Through Critical Reasoning. What Is Critical Reasoning? Critical Reasoning in Academic, Public, and Work Communities. Building a Chain of Reasoning: Practical Suggestions. Representing Yourself Through Critical Reasoning. 13. Writing in Online Communities. Writing Online. Communicating With Email. Participating in Online Communities. Writing For the World Wide Web. Avoiding Plagiarism When Working Online. 14. Designing Documents. Goals of Document Design. Principles of Document Design. Plan Your Documents. Laying Out Your Document. Using Type. Using Visuals. Model Documents. IV. EDITING AND PROOFREADING: MEETING COMMUNITY EXPECTATIONS. 15. The Editing and Proofreading Process. Editing Your Own Writing. Editing Collaboratively. Editing on the Computer. Proofreading. Editing Grammar. 16. Recognizing Sentence Elements and Sentence Patterns. Using Words. Recognizing Sentence Parts: Subjects and Predicates. Recognizing Phrases. Recognizing Subordinate Clauses. Recognizing Different Sentence Types. 17. Choosing Appropriate Forms of Nouns and Pronouns. Recognizing Pronoun Case. Editing Common Problems with Pronoun Case. Choosing Who and Whom. 18. Choosing Appropriate Verb Forms. Recognizing and Editing Simple Present and Past Tense Verbs. Recognizing and Editing Problems with Participles. Editing Progressive and Perfect Tenses Editing Troublesome Verbs Recognizing Active and Passive Voice Creating Clear Tense Sequence Recognizing the Subjunctive Mood 19. Making Sentence Parts Agree. Creating Subject-Verb Agreement (Simple). Creating Subject-Verb Agreement (Complex). Editing for Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement. 20. Using Adjectives and Adverbs. Recognizing What Adjectives and Adverbs Do. Avoiding Confusion Between Adjectives and Adverbs. Choosing Correct Forms for Comparatives and Superlatives. Avoiding Double Negatives. Editing for Sentence Problems. 21. Sentence Fragments. Recognizing Sentence Fragments. Editing Sentence Fragments. Using Partial Sentences. 22. Comma Splices and Fused Sentences. Recognizing Comma Splices and Fused Sentences. Editing Comma Splices and Fused Sentences. 23. Pronoun Reference. Recognizing and Editing Pronoun Reference That Is Not Clear. Recognizing and Editing Pronoun Reference That Is Not Specific. Matching Who, Which, and That to Antecedents. 24. Misplaced, Dangling, and Disruptive Modifiers. Recognizing and Editing Misplaced Modifiers. Recognizing and Editing Dangling Modifiers. Recognizing and Editing Disruptive Modifiers. Using Absolute Phrases Effectively. 25. Shifts. Recognizing and Editing Shifts in Person and Number. Recognizing and Editing Shifts in Tense and Mood. Recognizing and Editing Shifts in Voice. Avoiding Shifts Between Direct and Indirect Quotation. 26. Mixed and Incomplete Sentences. Editing Mixed Sentences. Editing Incomplete Sentences. 27. Building Parallelism. Building Parallelism. Recognizing and Editing Problems with Parallelism. Creating Parallelism Beyond the Sentence. Creating Parallelism in Lists. 28. Coordination and Subordination. Recognizing and Creating Coordination. Recognizing and Editing Problems with Coordination. Recognizing and Creating Subordination Recognizing and Editing Problems with Subordination. Editing for Word Choice. 29. Choosing Appropriate Words. Thinking About Word Choice. Using Precise Diction. Using Strategies for Editing Diction. 30. Using Dictionaries and Building Vocabulary. Choosing Dictionaries to Serve Your Needs. Using a Dictionary. Using Dictionaries in the Age of Technology. Building Vocabulary. 31. Wordiness. Editing for Common Types of Wordiness. Editing for Clichés, Generalizations, and Overblown Language. 32. Avoiding Sexist and Discriminatory Language. Recognizing and Editing Sexist Language. Avoiding Discriminatory Language. Editing for Punctuation. 33. Commas. Using Commas to Help Join Sentences. Using Commas to Set Off Introductory Phrases. Using Commas to Set off Nonrestrictive Modifiers. Using Commas to Set Off Parenthetical Expressions. Using Commas in a Series. Separating Coordinate Adjectives with a Comma. Using Commas with Dates, Numbers, Addresses, Place Names, People's Titles, and Letters. Using Commas with Quotations. Using Commas to Make Your Meaning Clear. Avoiding Commas that Do Not Belong. 34. Semicolons and Colons. Using Semicolons. Using Colons. 35. Apostrophes. Using Apostrophes to Mark Possession. Using Apostrophes to Mark Contractions and Omissions. 36. Quotation Marks. Marking Quotations. Using Block Quotations. Writing Dialogue. Labeling Titles of Short Works. Indicating Special Meanings of Words and Phrases. Indicating Irony, Sarcasm, and Authorial Distance. 37. Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points. Using Periods. Using Question Marks. Using Exclamation Points. 38. Special Punctuation Marks. Using Parentheses. Using Brackets. Using Dashes. Using Ellipses. Using Slashes. Proofreading for Mechanics and Spelling. 39. Capitalization. Using a Capital at the Beginning of a Sentence. Using Capitals for Proper Nouns and Adjectives. 40. Italics (Underlining). Following Conventions for Underlining (Using Italics). Underlining for Emphasis. 41. Hyphens and Word Division. Using Hyphens to Divide Words. Using Hyphens to Join Words. 42. Numbers. Spelling Out Numbers or Using Numerals. Following Special Conventions. Avoiding Too Many Numbers. 43. Abbreviations. Using Familiar Abbreviations. Using Abbreviations Sparingly. 44. Strategies for Spelling. Spelling As You Write. Recognizing and Correcting Spelling Errors. Using Long-Term Strategies to Improve Your Spelling. Spelling and the Computer. V. USING RESEARCH STRATEGIES: READING AND WRITING WITHIN A RESEARCH COMMUNITY. 45. Participating in Research Communities: Academic, Work, and Public. Recognizing Research Communities. Developing a Research Question. Mapping Research Communities. Planning Your Research. 46. Using Print and Electronic Resources. Developing Search Strategies. Identifying Print and Electronic Resources. Search Strategies for Electronic Environments. 47. Reading Critically and Evaluating Sources. Reading Print and Electronic Sources Analytically. Reading Print and Electronic Sources Critically. 48. Turning Research into Writing. Moving From Research Questions To a Plan and a Thesis. Planning and Drafting Your Paper. Integrating Print and Electronic Sources into Your Writing. 49. Understanding Documentation and Avoiding Plagiarism. Recognizing When to Document Sources. Understanding Plagiarism. Avoiding Plagiarism. 50. Doing Fieldwork. Preparing Surveys, Polls, and Questionnaires. Conducting Interviews. Ethnographies. VI. USING CITATION STYLES. 51. Documenting Sources: MLA. Using In-Text Citations. Creating MLA In-Text Citations. Informative Footnotes and Endnotes. Creating an MLA List of Works Cited. Sample MLA Paper. 52. Documenting Sources: APA. Using In-Text Citations. Using Content Footnotes. Creating APA In-Text Citations. Creating an APA Reference List. Sample APA Paper. 53. Documenting Sources: Science (CSE) and Engineering. Recognizing Elements of Scientific and Engineering Styles. Analyzing the Documentation Style of a Publication. Creating Scientific In-text Citations (CSE/CBE). Creating a Scientific Reference List (CSE/CBE). 54. Documenting Sources: CMS. Using Endnotes and Footnotes. Creating CMS Notes. Creating a CMS Bibliography. VII. WRITING STRATEGIES. 55. Writing Argumentative Papers Across the Disciplines. Recognizing Occasions for Argument. Develop Your Stance. Focus on a Purpose and Create a Thesis. Develop Your Reasons and Supporting Evidence. Develop a Point: Argument in Progress. Using Critical Thinking to Strengthen Your Argument. The Documented Argument or Position Paper. 56. Writing Point-Driven Papers Across the Curriculum. The Critique. The Review. The Point-Driven Essay. 57. Reading and Writing About Literature. Reading Literary Texts. Writing About Literary Texts. The Text Analysis. 58. Writing Informative Papers Across the Disciplines. Developing and Presenting Informative Writing. Developing an Interview Paper: Informative Writing in Progress. The Short Informative Documented Paper. The Literature Review. The Lab Report. The Abstract. The Annotated Bibliography. The Informative Essay Exam. 59. Developing Business Writing. Using General Strategies to Learn the Principles of Successful Business Writing. Using Specific Strategies to Learn the Business Writing Process. Writing Business Letters. Writing Memos. Writing Email. Writing Résumés and Letters of Application. Glossary of Usage and Terms.