Essential Skills for Composing Effectively

Dedication

Part 1 - Where Does Evidence Come From?    1

Modes of Writing    1

Audience    4

Main Idea    6

Types of Evidence    9

Crediting Sources: Avoiding Plagiarism    12

Part 2 - How Can You Read Critically?    17

Annotating    17

Author's Purpose    21

Main Idea    24

Supporting Details    26

Fact Versus Opinion    29

Bias and Propaganda    33

Summarizing, Interpreting, and Evaluating the Reading    37

Part 3 - What Are Typical College Papers?    41

Essays    41

Detailed Summaries    54

Synthesis Papers    61

Research Papers    72

Reaction Papers    82

Review of the Literature Papers    88

Part 4 - What is the Logic to Use?    95

Inductive Reasoning    95

Deductive Reasoning    98

Using the Three Appeals of Argument    101

Using Antithesis and Counterpoints    109

Logical Fallacies    113

Part 5 - What Grammar Elements Will Obscure or Change the Intended Meaning?    115

Sentence Structure: Errors and Well-Developed Sentences    115

Verbs: Tense Forms and Agreement    122

Verb Moods    126

Subject-Verb Agreement    129

Punctuation    131

For Multilingual Student Writers    133

Part 6 - Essential Online Site Resources    141

Part 7 - Editing Sheets    145