Book Description
This easy-to-use handbook features full-length coverage of composition basics in a concise and user-friendly format. Professors will appreciate its thorough attention to the writing process and critical thinking as well as grammar and research. Students will appreciate its user-friendly trim size, spiral bound format, and affordable price.Provides complete, authoritative coverage of the writing process, research and grammar, with detailed discussions of critical thinking and argument, using computers and the Internet for writing and research, the latest guidelines for citing sources correctly in MLA and APA styles, and writing for the workplace. For anyone needing a reference geared to writing and/or researching papers.
Customer Reviews:
Great Handbook.......2006-06-29
I got the spiral bound version and it stays right next to my dictionary on my desk. There are always little things that confuse me when I am typing (which one do I use affect/effect, where do I put this comma or should it be a semicolom, etc.)It is the only book I turn to. The computer can catch most of them, but when my grammar checker is confused, I turn to this great book.
I bought it for a composition course, and even though I sold all the rest of the books needed for school, I kept this one. It is well worth the price for this great guide. I have never before seen so much useful information so nicely compacted. I love the two sections: commonly confused words and frequently misspelled words.
Great guide to help become a critical writing expert.......2005-09-21
This book was an assigned textbook for a college class, however my professor encouraged each class member to consider keeping this small handbook as a great resource for any type of writing. It includes concise suggestions on grammar, critical thinking skills when writing a persuasive paper of any kind. I used it especially for writing essay's and research papers during the term and will definately use it in the future. I am glad that I purchased this book with the ring binder option instead of regular binding. This has been helpful when I'm reviewing a section because it lays flat and folds easily. It is a small book packed with big ideas for better writing.
A guide for writing better.......2000-04-23
This volume is a simple and a useful tool for anyone who is interested in improving his/her writing. This book is organized in 7 parts: Grammar; Sentence Errors; Sentence Clarity and Variety; Punctuation; Mechanics; Diction; and Paragraphs, Essays, and Research Papers. It also includes two glossaries: one of Usage and the other of Grammatical Terms. It offers the basic and essentials of grammar and usage. It also includes the rules for punctuation and the necessary elements for making up good paragraphs, essays, and research papers. This book belongs to a particular kind of reading: the one you never finish to read because you always have to check it if you want to write better! . The amazing adventure of writing is a hard task. As a non native speaker, to write in English could be a terrible nightmare. Doubtless, "The Brief English Handbook" is going to accompany me from now on.
Book Description
Most books on writing assume that the sole purpose of writing is communication. These manuals seldom go beyond teaching how to avoid the problems of punctuation, grammar, and style that at one time or another ensnare the best of writers. Few, if any, of these books explore writing as a way of shaping thought.
V.A. Howard and J.H. Barton, two Harvard researchers in education, take a radically different approach. While they agree with their predecessors that an important function of writing is the clear, direct expression of thought, they point out that many of our thoughts first come into being only when put to paper. By failing to recognize the link between thinking and writing, we fall into the deadlock innappropriately named writer's block.
Thinking on Paper shows how writer's block as well as many other writing problems are engendered by the tendency, supported by traditional approaches, to separate thinking from writing. Drawing on the developing field of symbol theory, Howard and Barton explain why this sepapration is unsound and demonstrate how to improve dramatically our ability to generate and express ideas. For everyone who writes, this is a readable, accessible manual of immense educational and practical value.
Customer Reviews:
The very basics of logic, grammar, and writing strategy.......2005-02-22
The title, positive reviews, and Harvard affiliation of the authors was enough to make this book sound intriguing.
I must say that that I was astonished by the slenderness of the content. In this 150 page volume, the last third is dedicated to an overview of grammar and punctuation, covering basics which almost anyone expecting to be an author probably learned in middle school - or would have in any of several basic writing manuals.
Within the remaining 100 pages the authors do present an interesting breakdown of the writing process into three phases (of Generating and Recording Ideas; Composing Ideas; Expressing Ideas) in Chapters 1 and 2 (20 pages). The authors do explain the psychological importance of keeping these processes separated and helpfully suggest a strategy of portioning your writing time (esp. against a deadline) into roughly equal thirds for these three processes. These suggestions, however, can be adequately presented in a couple hundred words, e.g., as done in reviews, below.
Chapter 3 offers 20 pages on "The Essay" (e.g., It is composed of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion). The authors tell of the importance of developing a thesis and of making connections between points between evidence presented in the body. Indeed!
By the time I had read Chapter 3 it was becoming clear that some of the subtitle's intriguing promises (to aid the reader better to REFINE, EXPRESS, and GENERATE IDEAS) were going to be fulfilled at very rudimentary levels: perhaps as preparation for taking one's very FIRST course in composition.
As for the remainder of the subtitle ("Understanding the Processes of the Mind"), the authors may be forgiven if a mere two (trim) chapters dedicated to that ambitious undertaking (totaling 20 pages) offer very basic insights:
Chapter 4: "Making Sense: Reasoning for Discovery" - basic description of inductive and deductive reasoning; the need for probing one's analysis; considering the plausibility of evidence and assumptions.
Chapter 5: "Writing Sense: Reasoning for Presentation" - covers univeral approaches to arguments (thesis vs. antithesis, etc.) and types of questions (factual, interpretive, evaluative).
Then we round out the volume with:
Chapter 6: "Grammar" (40 pages).
If I were rating this volume as a primer on writing for high school students, I might give it 4 stars, as it IS written clearly (although certainly not grippingly) and covers some basics nicely.
Billed as its title bills it ("Thinking on Paper: Refine, Express, and Actually Generate Ideas by Understanding the Processes of the Mind"), I can give it only 2 stars (the second being for clever marketing by the publisher).
If you have had a composition course or own a basic book on composition, you can learn what this book has to add by scanning the reviews here.
One of the best books on how to write essays.......2004-12-08
This book will help any high school or college student write classic 3+2 essays as well as help anyone write well-reasoned essays for publication.
Here's some of the things that I particularly liked:
"Three propositions" for written communications: "1) Writing is a symbolic activity of meaning-making; 2) Writing for others is a staged performance; and 3) Writing is a tool of understandning as well as of communciation." The authors demonstrate how the writer must first discover what he wants to say ("meaning-making"). Then, the writer must fashion that into something understandable to the reader ("staged performance").
They offer questions the writer needs to ask during the writing process, such as: "What do I want my readers to know?, What do I want my readers to feel? What do I want my readers to do?" The authors also explain why the questions "What?, Why?, Why Not?" are so important to inventive problem-solving.
This book details how an essay should be developed mechanically. Their coverage of developing a Thesis Sentence was most helpful for me.
Here's their definition of a Thesis Sentence: a rational defense and development of an opinion as precisely worded as possible, or, raising a precise question about something controversial and trying to answer it. The authors spend a good deal of time discussing the development of a Thesis Sentence and then how to develop the ideas that support it.
I also found their discussion of Introductions very helpful, particularly that we should not be "Barging into the Topic" nor "Bungling into the Topic" -- both sections in the book describing common errors in Introductions.
The authors discuss reasoning and do a great job showing the benefits and pitfalls in Inductive vs Deductive reasoning. After reading the book you'll be most knowledgeable about the differences and the details of how to develop arguments.
The authors devote a large proportion of their book to the presentation of your argument to your reader, as opposed to the initial development of your argument.
The final section on Grammar was not needed considering the large selection of books on this subject. But the extra Appendix on Inductive and Deductive logic was truly great.
Think of this book as a combination of: how to write in general, how to write a reasoned essay, how to think, how to marshal your arguments in the most convincing way for the reader, how to search for truth.
It's not a large book as it was written very concisely. I highly recommend this book.
John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX
Right to the point..........2003-12-31
This book provide good information and advices. All of them pragamatic. But don't stop there. The harder is to come. To think and write. It's hard yes. But not harder. Howard and Barton helps you to make a good start. And follow you from start to finish.
A very useful read.
A How-to-Write without being superficial.......2003-04-09
This a book that really epitomizes clear writing is a function of clear thinking. The first part of the book deals with the process of writing a first draft. I really liked how it laid out the stages and what was the objectives of each stage with being a cookbook. The last parts deal with reasoning for discovery and then presentation. Can be a quick read, but if you take your time and asborb the steps and the thinking behind, you will be a much better writer.
I don't know if I could've written a book without this book.......2003-01-09
So you've opened a new file and are staring at a blank screen. Now what?
Howard and Barton, two Harvard researchers in education, argue in Ch. 1, "Writing Is Thinking," that writing is about generating ideas, not just communicating them, and that writer's block comes from preoccupation with the "performance" aspect of writing (and also from the myth that you need to wait for flashes of insight from a fickle "muse").
Ch. 2, "From First to Last Draft," explains a process that puts concerns about performance at the very end, where they belong: (1) Record every thought you have on your topic--half-formed thoughts, confused thoughts, silly thoughts, sentences, phrases, lists, feelings, questions--quickly, with no concern about clear formulation, aiming for quantity, not quality. (2) Go over these notes and give topical labels to large and small chunks of text. (3) Retype your notes (don't cut 'n' paste), grouping sections by topic. While this step is fairly simple and mechanical, you'll inevitably do a bit of rethinking, ammending, and revising along the way, but without stirring up performance anxiety. (4) Rearrange the topics into a sensible sequence. (5) NOW work on performance issues.
The remaining chapters are about organizing ideas into an essay format, making an argument, and grammar and punctuation. These chapters may be helpful too, but I think the real gift of this book is not so much that it helps you write well but that it helps you write instead of not writing.
The process works. I can vouch for it. I'm hyper-perfectionistic, but with the help of this book and Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird," I wrote a book without ever getting paralyzed in front of a blank screen.
Book Description
The book is both thought provoking and enjoyable to read and should be read by both novice and long-time college professors of reading and writing.
- Journal of Adolescent ; Adult Literacy
None of the current books on theory deals with students from rural rather than urban backgrounds-first-generation college students whose behaviors do not match those described in the usual texts on basic writers . . . middle-class, working students who grew up in an isolation that affects the way they look at school, learning, and knowledge . . . older students who are willing to risk failure to make a better life for their families.
In It's Not Like That Here, Marcia Dickson provides a clearer picture of what is actually happening in this kind of a classroom. She believes that once you identify your students' needs, you can work to overcome their problems. Her book outlines a course of study, recommends ways of using ethnographic research to draw students in, interprets reading/writing strategies that mark basic writers and readers, and offers examples of assignments as well as ways to evaluate students. Theory and practice are combined in such a way that you see how one informs the other.
Dickson has invented a term to describe the type of reading/writing classroom outlined in her book: the Distanced/Personal Classroom. This classroom incorporates students' personal experiences with the theories of academics to promote a better understanding of both.
It's Not Like That Here will appeal to teachers at two- and four-year colleges who hope to establish a connection between the academic and non-academic communities.
Book Description
Thinking Syntactically takes a new approach to teaching introductory students the skills of relating data to theory and theory to data. The main goal of the book is to create a mindset for scientific thinking and gives students a heightened sensitivity to language that empowers them to go beyond the material taught in class. Though generative in spirit, this textbook does not focus on teaching the details of a specific theoretical approach, but rather enables students to understand and evaluate different approaches more easily.The book is structured around a wide range of exercises that use clear and compelling logic to build arguments and lead up to theoretical proposals. Each step is conceptually and empirically motivated to cultivate the argumentation skills of the reader. Using data drawn from current media sources including newspapers and novels, Liliane Haegeman helps students formulate and test hypotheses.
Customer Reviews:
Very accessible introduction.......2006-01-18
Haegeman's Thinking Syntactically is probably the most accessible introduction to minimalist syntax that is presently available. I used it to supplement more formally-rigorous texts in an intro graduate syntax class and found its contribution to my understanding invaluable. Haegemen starts from a very basic description of auxiliary inversion in English to motivate a theory of main clause structure (while providing supporting examples from many other languages, especialy in the exercises).
Her essential approach is minimalist, although her reliance on good examples and clear discussions of theoretical presuppositions make this a useful model of syntactic argumentation no matter what syntactic theory you are working in (I found it helpful in a GB course). Very little prior knowledge is presupposed- each step that is made in the development of the theory is explained and well-motivated by argument and very good examples. Recommended for anyone starting out in syntax.
Average customer rating:
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Concepts in Use (Reading and Thinking in English)
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Pr (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Education
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| English as a Foreign Language
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Grammar
| English as a Foreign Language
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
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Reading
| English as a Foreign Language
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0194513513 |
Book Description
This Prototype-Construction workbook for junior high school students trains students to think critically about English grammar and to apply it to their writing.
Customer Reviews:
Can't judge a book by its cover.......2007-10-03
One star only because I have to put stars. This is literally NOT a review, but I cannot think of any other place to write this very important relevant fact. How can you sell a book by its title alone? Does it mean "thinking THROUGH grammar" or "THINKING through grammar", which is to say does it mean "a more careful study or grammar" or "letting grammar help you think". I was hoping that I could find anything at all on this detail, which would show up as soon as somebody wrote something about the book. Please describe the book, m/r/s Seller! I would love grammar to be able to help me think, what a novel idea! Cecil.
Product Description
This lively presentation of how to write clearly includes many examples of how to focus your thoughts and create clearly understood writing. It contains many of Dr. Farb's own writing techniques and contains exercises drawn from business periodicals. You will learn how to make clear, forceful sentences, grammatical principles that affect clarity, arranging sentences into logical paragraphs, assembling paragraphs into documents, some basics of proof-reading, and how to develop clear thinking and convey it in writing. Readers will enjoy the approachable, compact, conversational style of the title. Those readers who wish to have an accompanying program with interactivity should also purchase the CD version. This is part of the highly acclaimed UniversityOfHealthCare series on sales and business skills.
Average customer rating:
- Amazing
- Honest Reflection.
|
Being Gazza
Paul Gascoigne ,
John McKeown , and
Hunter Davies
Manufacturer: Headline Book Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
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General
| Football (American)
| Sports
| Subjects
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General
| Soccer
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Sports Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
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ASIN: 0755315421 |
Customer Reviews:
Amazing.......2007-02-04
I don't know anything about soccer players, but wanted to read about bipolar disorder. I love his conversational writing style and all his English-isms throughout the book. I was saddened at how much Paul Gascoigne had to deal with...besides bipolar disorder, as if that's not enough. Yet, it's really heart-warming to see how much he accomplished and continues to accomplish...a great deal more than many who don't have his afflictions.
I don't think anyone would be disappointed reading this book.
Honest Reflection........2006-07-12
Being Gazza is an honest look back at his life by Gascoigne. Before this book I was just familiar with the media image of him as, basically, a clown who threw away his talent by too much partying. Now I understand the medical problems underlying his behavior. The book reveals just how much suffering he has gone through and demonstrates how celebrity helps worsen serious medical problems. Takes a lot of courage to be this frank and the book is an easy read for anyone interested in the person rather than just his football career.
Average customer rating:
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Gazza
Paul Gascoigne
Manufacturer: Headline Book Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Football (American)
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Soccer
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Sports Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
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Similar Items:
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Fowler: My Autobiography
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Keane: The Autobiography
ASIN: 0747268185 |
Average customer rating:
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The Creation of the Anglo-Australian Observatory
S. C. B. Gascoigne ,
K. M. Proust ,
M. O. Robins , and
Sir Robert Wison
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Australia
| Australia & Oceania
| History
| Subjects
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General
| England
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Astronomy
| Astronomy
| Science
| Subjects
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Star-Gazing
| Astronomy
| Science
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General
| Science
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Telescopes
| Experiments, Instruments & Measurement
| Science
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Astronomy
| Astronomy
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
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Astronomy
| Sciences
| New & Used Textbooks
| Stores
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ASIN: 0521353963 |
Book Description
This book is the official history of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), which was built at Coonabarabran in New South Wales beginning in 1968; it came into operation in 1974. The telescope is part of the Anglo-Australian Observatory which provides facilities for research in optical astronomy for scientists from Britain and Australia. Between them, the authors of this book were all involved in different capacities throughout the development of the telescope. As such it gives a detailed and personal record of the scientific, administrative and political developments from the moment negotiations began to the present day. The AAT has been and continues to be an outstanding success and can lay claim to being the best instrumented telescope in the world with a very wide capability and high sensitivity.
Customer Reviews:
the definitive book.......2001-03-11
The AAT is nearly 25 years old, yet it still manages to hold its head high in international comparisons of effective optical telescopes. In terms of citations, the AAT ranks near the top in international terms.
The book is a history of the birth and construction of the telescope. It is the only popular acccount, and as such is an important source of information for anyone wanting to know about this trail-blazing telescope.
The book is a logical sequential account of the birth of the telescope. The writing suffers a little by being shared between three authors, some of whom are more accessible than others; but this is a minor quibble in what is otherwise an authoritative account of an important instrument.
Average customer rating:
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Gazza - Daft as a Brush?
Paul Gascoigne
Manufacturer: Macdonald & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Football (American)
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Soccer
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0356197514 |
Average customer rating:
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Gazza's Football Year
Paul Gascoigne , and
Mel Stein
Manufacturer: Hutchinson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
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General
| Football (American)
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Soccer
| Sports
| Subjects
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ASIN: 0091749638 |
Average customer rating:
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Paul Gascoigne ("FourFourTwo" Great Footballers)
Paul Simpson
Manufacturer: Virgin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
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General
| Football (American)
| Sports
| Subjects
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General
| Soccer
| Sports
| Subjects
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ASIN: 0753505088 |
Average customer rating:
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Paul Gascoigne: the Inside Story
Manufacturer: HarperCollinsWillow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Football (American)
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Soccer
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0002185377 |
Average customer rating:
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Viv (Graham)
Stephen Richards
Manufacturer: Mirage Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Soccer
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
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Criminology
| Crime & Criminals
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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True Crime
| True Accounts
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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ASIN: 1902578007 |
Average customer rating:
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Football Heroes
Stiles, Gascoigne, Wilson, Moore, Robson, Shearer, Ferguson, Hurst, Stanley, Nobby, Paul, Bob, Brian, Bobby, Alan, Alex, Geoff Matthews
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
ASIN: B000GPICAO |
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