It can be daunting to make the transition into university English courses and other classes requiring essay writing.Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing Skills for University Students helps bridge the gap between high school and college, providing students with preparation for the challenges of essay writing and post-secondary level analysis of complex reading materials.The text addresses the topic from a number of facets. It includes composition guidance to overcome mental blocks, targeted planning for the writing task, and coverage of the basic essay structure requirements. Through exposure to writing from various authors, students summarize and analyze readings, leading into the task of preparing a properly formatted and developed research paper for submission. Editing strategies round out the process, along with an appendix of marking terms. Introduction to Academic Reading and Writing Skills for University Students:features removable pages for focused and practical in-class exercises, plus a variety of charts and templates to clarify concepts and to develop concrete examples.begins with a review of study skills and note-taking strategies, then moves through a comprehensive review of grammar to boost competence and confidence.provides the perfect challenge for students of various backgrounds, whether or not English is their first or second language.
AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroductionWriting in the Twenty-First Century, and Why It Still Matters SECTION 1STUDY SKILLS FOR UNIVERSITY—A New Playing Field Discussion and Writing Opportunity: What Type of Learner Are You? (Diagnostic Writing)Listening and Note-TakingChartingSentence MethodCornell NotesOther Useful TechniquesReview Exercise: Choosing and Developing Your StrategySECTION 2GRAMMAR—Working with the Building Blocks of Communication Discussion and Writing Opportunity: How Can We Achieve "Clear Writing"? (Personal Reflection)An Overview of the Parts of SpeechNouns: Abstract and Concrete, Common and Proper, Countable and UncountablePronouns: Gender, Number, and CaseAdjectives: Possessives, Comparatives and Superlatives, Present and Past Participial FormsVerbs: Regular and Irregular, Transitive and Intransitive, Tense and Form, Active and Passive VoiceAdverbs: Modification of Verbs, Adjectives, and (other) AdverbsConjunctions: Subordination and Coordination, Correlatives, Conjunctive AdverbsPrepositions: Position and IdiomInterjections: Levels of FormalityAn Overview of Sentence StructurePhrasesClauses: Main (Independent) and Subordinate (Dependent)Grammatical Types of Sentence Structures: Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-ComplexStylistic Types of Sentence Structures: Loose, Periodic, and Balanced (Parallelism)Common Errors: Fragments, Run-Ons, Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers, Mixed ConstructionsEssentials of PunctuationPeriod and EllipsisCommaSemicolonColonDashExclamationQuotationApostropheQuestion MarksReview Exercise: A Comprehensive Grammar InventorySECTION 3COMPOSITION STRATEGIES—The Art of Rhetoric Discussion and Writing Opportunity: From Exposition to Persuasion—An E-mail to a ProfessorParagraphingParagraph FormatTopic SentencesParagraph DevelopmentUnity and CoherenceTransitionsDrafting the EssayOvercoming Mental Blocks: Freewriting, Mind Mapping, Brainstorming, and QuestioningOutliningExpository and Persuasive WritingHow to Convince an Oppositional AudienceCrafting a Viable Thesis StatementUnderstanding Logic: Inductive and Deductive Reasoning, Syllogisms, FallaciesFallacies: When Logic Goes WrongDevelopmental Strategies: Cause and Effect, Process, Classification and Division, Comparison andContrastPresentationsReview Exercise: Putting Together a Logical ArgumentSECTION 4RHETORICAL ANALYSIS—Reflections on Writing Discussion and Writing Opportunity: From Personal Response to Objective AnalysisComprehensionSummarizingCritical ReadingProtocols for Critique and AnalysisSample Rhetorical Analysis EssayReview Exercise: Analyze This! Choose an Essay from the Cited ReadingsSECTION 5WRITING RESEARCH ESSAYS—Charting Your Journey Discussion and Writing Opportunity: Formulating a Research TopicChoosing Research Sources: "No Wikipedia" and BeyondUsing Secondary SourcesAvoiding Plagiarism, Starting with an Original OutlineAnnotations, Citations, and BibliographiesWhen to Use and Not to Use the Personal Approach: Debates and PresentationsProtocols for Citation and Document FormatReview Exercise: Documentation DilemmasSECTION 6EDITING—Fine-Tuning Your Work Discussion and Writing Opportunity: Creating a Targeted ChecklistProofreading StrategiesAcademic/Professional Writing Style: Avoiding Colloquialisms, Slang, Clichés, Vague, and Informal LanguageSpelling Checks and Grammar ChecksFinding and Correcting GlitchesReview Exercise: Peer EditingSECTION 7READINGS Fables by Aesop"On Education Politics: Book Eight" by Aristotle (translated by Benjamin Jowett)The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (excerpted)"Language" by Ralph Waldo EmersonAn Essay Concerning Human Understanding (excerpted)"On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill"Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell"The President's War Message" by Franklin D. Roosevelt"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan"Walden" (excerpted) by Henry David Thoreau"Simplicity" by William ZinsserAPPENDIX OF MARKING TERMS