E-Book Content
Thomas S. Kane
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Acknowledgments
This book is based on The Oxford Guide to Writing: A Rhetoric and Handbook for College Students, and thanks are due once more to those who contributed to that book: my friend and colleague Leonard J. Peters; Professors Miriam Baker of Dowling College, David Hamilton of the University of Iowa, Robert Lyons and Sandra Schor of Queens College of the City University of New York, and Joseph Trimmer of Ball State University, all of whom read the manuscript and contributed perceptive comments; Ms. Cheryl Kupper, who copyedited that text with great thoroughness and care; and John W. Wright, my editor at the Oxford University Press. For the present edition I am again grateful to Professor Leonard J. Peters and to John W. Wright. In addition I wish to thank William P. Sisler and Joan Bossert, my editors at Oxford University Press, who encouraged, criticized, and improved, as good editors do. Kittery Point, Maine December 1987
T.S.K.
Contents
Introduction
3
1. Subject, Reader, and Kinds of Writing 5 2. Strategy and Style 9 3. Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics 13 PART 1
4. 5. 6. 7. PART II. 8. 9. 10. 11. PART
3
The Writing Process
17
Looking for Subjects 19 Exploring for Topics 23 Making a Plan 29 Drafts and Revisions 34
The Essay
43
Beginning 45 Closing 60 Organizing the Middle 67 Point of View, Persona, and Tone 74
The Expository Paragraph
87
12. Basic Structure 89 13. Paragraph Unity 95 14. Paragraph Development: (1) Illustration and Restatement 106
CONTEN