College Writing Skills with Readings ISE

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 Librarya collection of more than 100 new and classic stories that appeal to readers of any age.

College Writing Skills with Readings, 11th edition, emphasizes writing skills as well as process. By identifying a set of 4 fundamental skills critical to effective writing, College Writing Skills with Readings encourages students to see writing as a skill that can be learned and a process that must be explored. These 4 skills, or bases, for effective writing are as follows: Unity: Discover a clearly stated point, or topic sentence, and make sure that all other information in the paragraph or essay supports that point. Support: Support the points with specific evidence, and plenty of it. Coherence: Organize and connect supporting evidence so that paragraphs and essays transition smoothly from one bit of supporting information to the next. Sentence skills: Revise and edit so that sentences are error-free for clearer and more effective communication. These four bases are essential to all effective writing, whether it be a narrative paragraph for a personal journal, a cover letter for a job application, or an essay for an academic assignment.

Part 1 - Essay Writing1.An Introduction to Writing2.The Writing Process3.The First and Second Steps in Essay Writing4.The Third Step in Essay Writing5.The Fourth Step in Essay Writing6.Four Bases for Revising Essays7.Developing an EssayPart 2 - Patterns of Essay Development8.Description9.Narration10.Exemplification11.Process12.Cause and/or Effect13.Comparison and/or Contrast14.Definition15.Division-Classification16.ArgumentPart 3 - Researching, Writing and Documenting17.Information Literacy18.Summarizing and Paraphrasing19.Writing a Source-Based Essay20.Writing a Research EssayPart 4 - Handbook of Sentence SkillsSection I - Grammar21.Subject and Verbs22.Fragments23.Run-Ons24.Regular and Irregular Verbs25.Subject-Verb Agreement26.More about Verbs27.Pronoun Agreement and Reference28.Pronoun Types29.Adjectives and Adverbs30.Misplaced Modifiers31.Dangling ModifiersSection II - Mechanics and Punctuation32.Capital Letters33.Numbers and Abbreviations34.Apostrophe35.Quotation Marks36.CommaSection III - Word Use37.Commonly Confused Words38.Effective Word ChoiceSection IV - Tests39.Editing TestsPart 5 - Readings for WritersIntroduction to the ReadingsBuilding Self-AwarenessEducation and LearningChallenging Societal ValuesIndexInstructor's Guide