Includes index.

Getting ready to write -- Preparing to learn about writing -- Thinking through the writing process -- Understanding the paragraph -- Using patterns of organization to develop your paragraphs -- How to write an essay -- Understanding the essay -- Effective titles, introductions, and conclusions -- Writing with SUCCESS for an essay exam -- Subjects, verbs, and simple sentences -- Compound and complex sentences -- Writing clear sentences -- Sentence variety -- Sentence clarity: point of view, number, and tense -- Parallelism -- Recognizing and avoiding errors -- Run-ons: comma splices and fused sentences -- Fragments -- Misplaced and dangling modifiers -- Subject-verb agreement: present tense -- The past tense of verbs -- The past participle -- Nouns and pronouns -- Adjectives and adverbs -- Punctuation and mechanics -- The comma -- The apostrophe -- Quotation marks -- End punctuation: period, question mark, exclamation point -- Capitalization -- Understanding expression -- Revising for effective expression -- Improving your spelling -- Mastering often confused words -- Dialects and standard English -- Reading selections -- Reading selections -- Eighteen Reading selections -- Appendix: The writing portfolio.