Preface for Instructors
About the Author
Introduction
1. *Approaches to Style
Style as Identity
Style as Embellishment
The Plain Style
Style in Context: Making Rhetorically Smart Choices
Style in Academic Writing
2. The Sentence's Working Parts
Clause Structure
Transformations Within the Clause
Extending the Clause
Joining Independent Clauses
Modifiers
Dependent Clauses
Adverb Clauses
Adjective Clauses
Noun Clauses
3. Well-Focused Sentences: The Subject-Verb Pair
Populated Prose
Active Voice and Passive Voice
Variation in Sentence Focus
Sharpening the Focus
Double-Check Sentences with Abstract Subjects
Double-Check Sentences with There in the Subject Position
Keep Subject Phrases Short
Uncover Subjects Buried in Introductory Phrases
Transform Nouns to Verbs
4. Well-Balanced Sentences: Coordination and Parallel Structure
Coordination
Parallel Structure
Correlative Conjunctions
Variation in Coordinate Series
Length
The Echo Effect: Pairs
The Echo Effect: Repetition
5. Well-Developed Sentences: Modification
Early Modifiers and Paragraph Cohesion
The Crescendo Effect: The Pleasures of the Periodic Sentence
The Crescendo Effect: The Pleasures of the Periodic Sentence
Leaping and Lingering: The Pleasures of the Cumulative Sentence
6. Adding Color with Adjectivals
The Structure of Adjective Clauses
Choices in Crafting Adjective Clauses
Who or Whom?
Should an Adjective Clause Be Set Off with Punctuation?
Which or That — or Not?
Reducing Adjective Clauses
Adjective Phrases
7. Adding Action with Verbal Phrases
Functions of Verbal Phrases
Managing Emphasis with Verbal Phrases
Reducing Clauses to Create Verbal Phrases
Dangling Modifiers
8. Layering Meaning with Appositives and Absolutes
Noun Phrases in Apposition
Identifying People
Defining Terms
Filling in Examples or Explanations
Renaming with a Twist
Other Structures in Apposition
That Clauses
Verb Phrases
Prepositional Phrases
Absolute Phrases
9. Special Effects: Expectations and Exceptions
Focus on the Subject
Completeness and Explicitness
Sentence Variety
Model Texts for Writers
Louise Erdrich, Shamengwa
*Drew Gilpin Faust, "We Should Grow Too Fond of It": Why We Love the Civil War
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Sin Boldly
*Barack Obama, A More Perfect Union
Tim O'Brien, On the Rainy River
*Ted Olson, The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage
*Oliver Sacks, Papa Blows His Nose in G
David Sedaris, Genetic Engineering
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
*Lily Wong Fillmore, Loss of Family Languages: Should Educators Be Concerned?
Glossary of Grammatical Terms
Index
*new to this edition