Description

The Little, Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises packages the authority and currency of its best-selling parent, The Little, Brown Handbook, in a briefer book with a spiral binding, tabbed dividers, and more than 150 exercises.

A bestseller since publication, The Little, Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises provides reliable and thorough coverage of handbook basics--the writing process, grammar and usage, research and documentation--while also giving detailed discussions of critical reading, academic writing, argument, writing in the disciplines, and public writing. Widely used by both experienced and inexperienced writers, The Little, Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises works as both a comprehensive classroom text and an accessible reference guide.

The Little, Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises has a sibling without exercises. Otherwise identical, both books build on their best-selling features with five emphases: (1) media-rich eText and iPad versions, including video tutorials, podcasts, sample documents, exercise, and checklists;(2)academic writing, including a new chapter on joining the academic community, new coverage of genre, more on summary and academic integrity, and four new sample academic papers; (3) research writing, including new material on finding and evaluating Web sites, social-networking sites, blogs, wikis, and multimedia; (4) thorough and up-to-date documentation guidelines, including the most recent versions of MLA, APA, Chicago, and CSE styles with models of new media in each style and new annotated sample sources; (5) thewriting process, including new material on genre and strengthened discussions of the thesis and paragraphs.

Features

• A concise and authoritative reference, the handbook provides the help students need on the writing process, grammar, usage, research writing, and more.
• An accessible reference, the handbook features helpful endpapers, convenient tabbed dividers, helpful summary and checklist boxes, and a clean, attractive page design.
• Meticulous attention to research writing across the disciplines emphasizes managing information, using the library as Web gateway, evaluating and synthesizing sources, avoiding plagiarism, and documenting sources.
• A broad range of student academic writing includes an annotated MLA research paper and sample essays illustrating the writing process, academic writing, argument, writing about literature, and APA style.
• Extensive presentation of critical thinking and argument includes techniques of critically reading texts and images, specific suggestions for writing arguments, and two sample student papers.
• Detailed help for students whose first language or dialect is not standard American English emphasizes both rhetorical and grammatical issues. It is thoroughly integrated into the text so that students can find what they need without knowing which problems they do and don’t share with native speakers. A convenient guide to the material provides advice for mastering SAE and pulls together all the integrated coverage in one place.
• Clear, cross-disciplinary examples and over 150 sets of exercises in connected discourse illustrate rhetorical and grammatical concepts with realistic college writing.
• A unique approach to terminology includes transparent headings in the text and menus that avoid or explain terms and “Key terms” boxes in the text that provide essential definitions and thus minimize cross-references and page flipping.

New to this Edition

• A rich media package accompanies both the e-text and iPad versions of this handbook. The resources are linked to specific text passages in both the print and the e-book versions:
  • Nearly 150 video tutorials illustrate key principles, offering tips and guidance on peer review, critical reading, evaluating sources, avoiding plagiarism, and many other topics.
  • Over 25 audio podcasts discuss common misconceptions about grammar, usage, punctuation, and mechanics and answer students’ frequent questions.
  • Over 50 sample documents represent the wide range of writing that students do in composition as well as in their other courses, the workplace, and the community.
  • Over 100 exercises from the handbook as well as additional exercises in MyCompLab offer students opportunities to sharpen their writing, grammar, and research skills.
  • Over 20 editable checklists from the handbook allow students to adapt key summaries for their own use.
• More on academic writing:
  • A new Chapter 8, “Joining the Academic Community,” provides tips for succeeding in face-to-face and online classes and for writing responsibly in academic situations.
  • A new emphasis on genre helps students understand and negotiate the requirements of many academic-writing assignments.
  • Four new sample papers illustrate academic writing: a literacy narrative, critique of a text, a proposal argument, and a literary argument.
  • The key topics of academic integrity, summarizing, synthesis, and avoiding plagiarism receive stress throughout the handbook.
  • A new chapter on essay exams gives helpful tips for writing under pressure and includes an annotated sample exam.
• More on research writing and documentation:
  • A revised chapter on avoiding plagiarism and documenting sources provides even more examples of deliberate and accidental plagiarism, new examples of material that must be cited, and updated advice about avoiding plagiarism with online sources.
  • Comprehensive discussion of finding and evaluating online sources—Web sites, social-networking sites, blogs, wikis, multimedia—helps students discern purposes and distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources.
  • Updated, annotated samples of key source types illustrate MLA and APA documentation, showing students how to find and format the bibliographical information they need for each type.
  • Updated source lists provide reliable starting points for research in every discipline.
• More on the writing process:
• A new emphasis on genre as a key element of every writing situation, affecting content, format, and readers’ expectations.
• Expanded discussion of thesis covers developing a thesis question and moving from the question to a thesis statement.
• A new informative paper on college football shows techniques for achieving whole-essay unity and coherence.
• The revised chapter on paragraphs opens with a discussion of relating paragraphs in the essay, expands on the discussion of coherence, and includes many new examples.
• A new, comprehensive chapter on presenting writing covers designing print and electronic documents, creating and using visuals and other media in multi-modal writing projects, and giving oral presentations.
• More on visual and media literacy:
  
• The new chapter on presenting writing and the chapter on finding research sources give practical tips for creating, selecting, and integrating visuals and multimedia into college writing projects, and writing for the Web.
• Thorough discussions of critically reading advertisements, graphs, and other visuals appear in the chapters on crit

Table of Contents

Preface for Students

Preface for Instructors  

 

PART 1   THE WRITING PROCESS

 

1    The Writing Situation  

   a    Assessment

   b Subject

   c    Purpose

   d    Audience

   e Genre

2 Invention  

   a Journal keeping

   b Observing

   c Freewriting

   d    Brainstorming

   e Drawing

   f   Asking questions

3 Thesis and Organization  

   a Thesis statement

   b Organization

4 Drafting 

   a Starting to draft

   b Maintaining momentum

   c Sample first draft

5 Revising and Editing  

   a Revising the whole essay

   b Sample revision

   c Editing the revised draft

   d Formatting and proofreading

   e    SAMPLE FINAL DRAFT (RESPONSE ESSAY) 

   f   Collaborating

   g Preparing a writing portfolio

6 Paragraphs  

   a Relating paragraphs in the essay

b Unity

   c Coherence

   d Development

   e Introductions and conclusions

7 Presenting Writing  

   a Academic writing

   SAMPLE MARKETING REPORT

   b Visuals and other media

   c Web writing

   SAMPLE WEB SITE

  SAMPLE PAPER ON A BLOG

 

PART 2   WRITING IN AND OUT OF COLLEGE

 

8 Joining the Academic Community  

   a Getting the most from college courses

   b Becoming an academic writer

   c Developing academic integrity

   d Communicating in an academic setting

9 Critical Thinking and Reading  

   a Techniques of critical reading

   b Summarizing

c Developing a critical response

   d Viewing visuals critically

10   Academic Writing  

   a Purpose, audience, and genre

b    Writing in response to texts

   c Structure and content

   d Language

   e SAMPLE CRITICAL RESPONSE

11   Argument  

   a Elements of argument

   b Reasonableness

   c Organization

   d Visual arguments

   e SAMPLE ARGUMENT 

12   Essay Exams  

   a Preparing

   b Planning

   c Starting

   d Developing

   SAMPLE ESSAY EXAM

   e    Rereading

13   Oral Presentations  

   a Organization

   b Delivery

   SAMPLE POWERPOINT SLIDES

14   Public Writing  

   a Business letters and résumés

   SAMPLE LETTER AND RÉSUMÉS

   b Memos, reports, and proposals

   SAMPLE MEMO AND REPORT  

   c Community work

   SAMPLE FLYER AND NEWSLETTER

 

PART 3   CLARITY AND STYLE

 

15   Emphasis  

   a Effective subjects and verbs

   b Sentence beginnings and endings

   c Coordination

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