Reading & Writing Handbook for the College Student,
3rd Edition

Part 1: Reading & Writing

1: Thinking Critically

a. Critical Reading Process

b. Determining the Purpose of a Text

c. Determining the Audience of a Text

2: The Writing Process

a. Pre-writing

b. Drafting

c. Revising

d. Editing

e. Reflecting

3: Common Essay Components

a. Introductions

b. Thesis and Purpose Statements

c. Effective Body Paragraphs

d. Conclusions

e. Sample Essay and Organizer

4: Organizational Patterns

a. Cause and Effect

b. Chronological

c. Compare and Contrast

d. Order of Importance

e. Spatial

f. Topical

5: Writing Across the Curriculum

a. Similarities & Differences in Writing Assignments

b. English, Literature, and Language Studies

c. Business Courses

d. History

e. Psychology

f. Lab Sciences

g. Engineering and Technology

Part 2: Effective Sentences

6: Combining Word Groups

a. Coordination

b. Subordination

c. Parallelism

7: Agreement

a. Subject-Verb Agreement

b. Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

8: Modifiers

a. Using Modifiers

b. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

9: Word Choice

a. Clarity and Conciseness

b. Vague vs. Vivid Words

c. Choosing Correct Words

d. Inclusive Language

e. Commonly Misused Words

10: Shifts in Tense and Person

a. Consistency in Tense

b. Consistency in Person

Part 3: Grammar Basics

11: Parts of Speech

a. Nouns

b. Pronouns

c. Verbs

d. Adjectives

e. Adverbs

f. Prepositions

g. Conjunctions

h. Interjections

12: Components of a Complete Sentence

a. Capital Letters and Punctuation Marks

b. Subjects and Verbs

c. Complete Thoughts

Part 4: Punctuation & Mechanics

13: Punctuation

a. Commas

b. Unnecessary Commas

c. Colons

d. Semicolons

e. Apostrophes

f. Quotation Marks

g. Parentheses

h. Brackets

I. Hyphens

j. Ellipses

k. Dashes

14: Spelling

a. Spelling Rules

b. Commonly Confused Words

Part 5: Research

15: The Research Process

a. Making a Research Plan

b. Identifying Types of Sources

c. Finding Sources

d. Evaluating Source Credibility

e. Organizing Research

16: Research Writing

a. Narrowing Your Research

b. Avoiding Plagiarism

c. Integrating Sources into Your Writing

17: MLA

a. Formatting the Document

b. Citing the Document Sources

c. MLA Sample

18: APA

a. Formatting the Document

b. Citing the Document Sources

c. APA Sample

19: CMS

a. Formatting the Document

b. Citing the Document Sources

c. CMS Sample

20: CSE

a. Formatting the Document

b. Citing the Document Sources

c. CSE Sample