A Student's Companion to Lunsford Handbooks with 2021 MLA Update

PART 1 Succeeding in College
1 Becoming a college writer
a Be open-minded about the “rules” of good writing
b Adopt good habits of mind

2 Building your confidence
a Grow your level of confidence
b Identify strengths and set goals
c Learn from your experiences and choices
d Develop a network

3 Time management
a The case for time management
b Taking charge of your time
c Four time-wasting habits to avoid
d Two tools to keep you on track

4 College ethics and personal responsibility
a What is cheating?
b The case for integrity
c Tools teachers use when they suspect cheating
d How to be a more responsible student: Ten tips
e How to paraphrase (to avoid plagiarism)

5 College etiquette
a Four truths
b Starting out
c Classroom rules
d Collaborating with others: The group project
e Communicating with your professor

PART 2 Succeeding in Your Writing Course
6 Developing active reading strategies
a On-ramps for reading assignments
b Pay attention to titles
c Read for patterns
d Understand vocabulary
e Identify main ideas
f Outline what you read
g One additional strategy: Converse with a reading

7 Strengthening peer review and collaboration skills
a What is peer review?
b Tips for offering feedback to a peer
c Tips for working with feedback from a peer
d What is collaboration?
e Tips for collaborating effectively

8 Outlining and planning your writing
a Use an informal outline to plan
b Use a formal outline to plan
c Use headings to plan
d Use a map to plan

9 Writing for an audience
a The link between audience and purpose
b Specific and specialized audiences
c Thinking about content, tone, vocabulary, and exigence
d Questions to help identify audience characteristics
e Comparing sample paragraphs

10 Graphic organizers for common types of writing
a A basic essay
b An analytical essay
c A compare-and-contrast essay
d An argument essay
e An annotated bibliography
f A proposal

11 Graphic organizers for common types of paragraphs
a Example
b Illustration
c Narration
d Description
e Process
f Comparison and contrast
g Analogy
h Cause and effect
i Classification and division
j Definition
k Reiteration

12 Using sentence guides to develop academic writing skills
a Presenting information and others’ views
b Presenting your own views
c Persuading by putting it all together

13 Integrating sources: Quotation sandwiching (MLA style)
a Integrating a single source
b Integrating more than one source (synthesizing)

14 Revising paragraphs and essays
a Tips for revising globally
b Tips for revising sentences

PART 3 Practicing Reading, Writing, and Research Skills
15 Reading exercises
Exercise 15-a Using titles as on-ramps for reading
Exercise 15-b Using patterns of organization as on-ramps for reading
Exercise 15-c Using vocabulary as an on-ramp for reading
Exercise 15-d Examining a reader’s annotations
Exercise 15-e Using on-ramps to annotate and understand a reading
Exercise 15-f Talking back to a reading

16 Thesis statement exercises
Exercise 16-a Choosing effective thesis statements
Exercise 16-b Writing a thesis statement for an argument essay
Exercise 16-c Building strong thesis statements

17 Topic sentence exercises
Exercise 17-a Choosing suitable topic sentences
Exercise 17-b Writing topic sentences
Exercise 17-c Writing unified paragraphs

18 MLA research exercises
Exercise 18-a Avoiding plagiarism in MLA papers
Exercise 18-b Avoiding plagiarism in MLA papers
Exercise 18-c Recognizing common knowledge in MLA papers
Exercise 18-d Integrating sources in MLA papers
Exercise 18-e Integrating sources in MLA papers
Exercise 18-f MLA documentation: In-text citations
Exercise 18-g MLA documentation: Works cited
Exercise 18-h MLA documentation

19 Plagiarism exercises
Exercise 19-a Is this plagiarism?
Exercise 19-b Developing responsibility

20 Paraphrase and summary exercises
Exercise 20-a Building understanding (writing a summary)
Exercise 20-b Using your own words and structure (writing a
paraphrase)
Exercise 20-c Writing paraphrases and summaries

PART 4 Practicing Sentence-Level Skills
21 Active verbs
Exercise 21-a Active verbs (Editing sentences)
Exercise 21-b Active verbs (Editing sentences)
Exercise 21-c Active verbs (Editing paragraphs)

22 Parallelism
Exercise 22-a Parallelism (Editing sentences)
Exercise 22-b Parallelism (Editing sentences)
Exercise 22-c Parallelism (Editing paragraphs)

23 Misplaced and dangling modifiers
Exercise 23-a Misplaced and dangling modifiers (Editing sentences)
Exercise 23-b Misplaced and dangling modifiers (Editing sentences)
Exercise 23-c Misplaced and dangling modifiers (Editing paragraphs)

24 Sentence variety
Exercise 24-a Sentence variety (Editing sentences)
Exercise 24-b Sentence variety (Editing sentences)
Exercise 24-c Sentence variety (Editing paragraphs)

25 Sentence fragments
Exercise 25-a Sentence fragments (Editing sentences)
Exercise 25-b Sentence fragments (Editing sentences)
Exercise 25-c Sentence fragments (Editing paragraphs)

26 Run-on sentences
Exercise 26-a Run-on sentences (Editing sentences)
Exercise 26-b Run-on sentences (Editing sentences)
Exercise 26-c Run-on sentences (Editing paragraphs)

27 Subject-verb agreement
Exercise 27-a Subject-verb agreement (Editing sentences)
Exercise 27-b Subject-verb agreement (Editing sentences)
Exercise 27-c Subject-verb agreement (Editing paragraphs)

28 Pronoun reference
Exercise 28-a Pronoun reference (Editing sentences)
Exercise 28-b Pronoun reference (Editing sentences)
Exercise 28-c Pronoun reference (Editing paragraphs)

29 Pronoun and noun case
Exercise 29-a Pronoun and noun case (Editing sentences)
Exercise 29-b Pronoun and noun case (Editing sentences)
Exercise 29-c Pronoun and noun case (Editing paragraphs)

30 Verbs
Exercise 30-a Verbs (Editing sentences)
Exercise 30-b Verbs (Editing sentences)
Exercise 30-c Verbs (Editing paragraphs)

31 Articles
Exercise 31-a Articles (Editing sentences)
Exercise 31-b Articles (Editing sentences)
Exercise 31-c Articles (Editing paragraphs)

32 Commas and unnecessary commas
Exercise 32-a Commas and unnecessary commas (Editing sentences)
Exercise 32-b Commas and unnecessary commas (Editing sentences)
Exercise 32-c Commas and unnecessary commas (Editing paragraphs)

33 Apostrophes
Exercise 33-a Apostrophes (Editing sentences)
Exercise 33-b Apostrophes (Editing sentences)
Exercise 33-c Apostrophes (Editing paragraphs)

34 Quotation marks
Exercise 34-a Quotation marks (Editing sentences)
Exercise 34-b Quotation marks (Editing sentences)
Exercise 34-c Quotation marks (Editing paragraphs)
Answers to exercises