A Student's Companion to Lunsford Handbooks with 2021 MLA Update
First EditionBedford/St. Martin's
©2020ISBN:9781319455828
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Sometimes it’s not about perfect. It’s about practice.
The ebook has been updated to give your students the latest guidance on documenting sources in MLA style and follows the guidelines set forth in the MLA Handbook, 9th edition (April 2021).
A Student’s Companion to Lunsford Handbooks will give you the extra advice and practice that will help you succeed in your first-year writing course. Having the chance to practice key skills and habits will boost not only your confidence but also your performance in the writing course and—surprise!—in your other courses, too. The Companion, designed to be used alongside your other course materials, helps you plan and develop essays, improve sentence editing skills, strengthen your reading skills, and manage your time.
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Learn MoreTable of Contents
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