• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Voices From Across the Curriculum

B. The Shaping Force of Common Thought Patterns

Deduction and Induction

Deduction

Induction

The Overlap

Thesis Slots

The Shaping Force of Thesis Statements

Try This 15.1: Predicting Essay Shapes from Thesis Shapes

The Shaping Force of Transitions

Try This 15.2: Tracking Transitions

C. The Rhetoric of Form

The Classical Oration Format

Three Common Organizing Strategies

Climactic Order: Saving the Best for Last

Comparisons/Contrasts: Two Formats

Concessions and Refutations: Giving and Taking Away

Try This 15.3: Locating Concessions and Refutations

D. The Idea of The Paragraph

How a Paragraph Says

How Long? Paragraphs, Readers, and Writers

Paragraphs Across the Curriculum: Some Common Patterns

Linking the Sentences in Paragraphs: Minding the Gaps

What a Paragraph Does: The Paragraph as Movement of Mind

Paragraph Structure #1: Topic Sentence, Restriction, Illustration

Try This 15.4: Label the Function of the Sentences in a Paragraph

Paragraph Structure #2: Observation -> Implication -> Conclusion

Paragraph Structure #3: Coordinate and Subordinate Paragraphs

Try This 15.5: Arrange Coordinate and Subordinate Sequences

Try This 15.6: Identify the Structure of Paragraphs

Finding the Skeleton of an Essay: An Example

Guidelines

Assignments

CHAPTER 16 Introductions and Conclusions Across the Curriculum

Introductions and Conclusions as Social Sites

How Much to Say Upfront

What Introductions Do: “Why What I’m Saying Matters”

Putting an Issue or Question in Context

Providing an Introductory Context: A Political Science Professor Speaks

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Introductions and Abstracts in the Sciences

Introductions in the Sciences: Three Professors Speak

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Integration of Citations in a Literature Review: A Brief Example

Introductions in Scientific Papers: A Brief Example

Framing Research Questions and Hypotheses: A Political Science Professor Speaks

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Introductions in the Humanities

How Much to Introduce Upfront: Typical Problems

Digression

Incoherence

Prejudgment:

Avoiding Strong Claims in the Introduction: An Economics Professor Speaks

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Using Procedural Openings

Using Procedural Openings: A Political Science Professor Speaks

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Good Ways to Begin

Challenge a Commonly Held View

Begin with a Definition

Lead with Your Second-Best Example

Exemplify the Topic with a Narrative

What Conclusions Do: The Final “So What?”

Beyond Restatement: Two Professors Speak

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Conclusions in the Sciences: The Discussion Section

Writing Conclusions in the Sciences: Two Professors Speak

Voices From Across the Curriculum

Conclusions in Scientific Papers: A Brief Example

Solving Typical Problems in Conclusions

Redundancy

Raising a Totally New Point

Overstatement

Anticlimax

Try This 16.1: Analyze Paired Introductions and Conclusions

Guidelines

Assignments

CHAPTER 17 Revising for Style: Word Choice

Style is Meaning

Style: A Matter of Choices

How Style Shapes Thought: A Brief Example

“Right” and “Wrong” Words: Shades of Meaning

Word Histories and the OED

Try This 17.1: Tracing Word Histories

What’s Bad about “Good” and “Bad”

Concrete and Abstract Diction

Try This 17.2: Two Experiments with Abstract and Concrete Diction

Latinate Diction

Choosing Words: Some Rhetorical Considerations

Tone

Try This 17.3: Analyzing Tone-Deaf Prose

Formal and Colloquial Styles: Who’s Writing to Whom, and Why Does It Matter?

Try This 17.4: Analyzing Effective Tone

First Person, Second Person or Third Person?

“I”: Pro and Con

Using the First-Person “I”: Three Professors Speak

Voices From Across the Curriculum

“You”: Pro and Con

Jargon

The Politics