Course Match

An Easy Guide to Writing, 1/e

BASIC APPROACH

(Note: This textbook was published by our college division for use by students at post-secondary institutions whose writing skills are below the level needed to succeed in college English. Please review this text carefully to ensure appropriateness of content for your students.)

Geared to basic writers, An Easy Guide to Writing offers students a fresh approach to learning sentences. It explains grammar in an easy-to-understand instruction (represented by the bike analogy) and transitions students to future English classes (represented by the glossary)—it bridges both worlds making the abstract concrete. This book gives students instruction on how to write effective sentences and offers guided practice in writing complex sentences (such as sentence combining exercises). An Easy Guide to Writing gives students a sense of how sentences work, presenting punctuation as an integral part of creating meaning. This book also includes instruction on whole discourse so that students can incorporate grammar, punctuation, and usage in the context of their papers.

FEATURES

• Clear, straightforward information—Short, easy-to-understand explanations throughout.
  • Help students retain an overview of the material, remember what they have read, and find what they are looking for when using the book as a reference tool.
• Student Models—The chapters on paragraphs and essays include student models, helping students see what they are aiming for.
• Abstract terms made concrete—Explaining the subject as the who or what and the predicate as the what about it helps students see the sentence as a carrier of meaning.
  • Students realize that asking Who or what? and What about it? will reveal the subject and predicate, even in sentences that would have once been confusing. More importantly, students can now analyze their own sentences and more readily identify fragments.
• The Bike analogy—Throughout this book the image of a bike is featured to explain how sentences work. The subject is one "wheel," giving the "who" or "what." The predicate is the other "wheel," giving the "what about it." These two parts connect to form a stable structure, which can then carry additions. These additions (such as dependent clauses and appositives) are like baskets that can be placed on the front, the middle, or the back of the bike.
  • Through this image, students see how the whole communicates meaning, how the parts relate to the whole, and how punctuation signals these connections.
• Abundant examples—Support the instruction throughout the book.
  • Examples ground the paragraph and essay instruction, making the abstract concrete; and example sentences are highlighted in bold blue to help students see ahead of time what they are aiming for.
• Variety of exercises—Sentence combining, sentence completion, original sentence generation, and paragraphs for editing to reinforce the instruction.
• Self tests—The first exercise in each section is called a "Self Test" because the answers are included in the back of the book.
  • Students can check their comprehension, catch their errors, and through the explanations correct any misunderstandings before moving on to subsequent exercises.
• Charts and How-To boxes—Visuals, which highlight practical applications, make information more easily accessible for students.
• Numerous writing prompts—Over 100 thought-provoking topics giving students a variety of choices for developing ideas.
• Glossary—Grammatical terms used in the book are defined (often with examples) in the glossary.
  • Reinforce the instruction—students can turn to this resource for a quick review of grammatical terms.

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