Spotlight on Critical Skills in Essay Writing provides valuable content on paragraph, essay, and research writing while focusing on the critical skills needed for post-secondary writing success. The text covers basics such as summarizing, comparing and contrasting, evaluating, analyzing, persuading, researching and synthesizing information. As well, this text offers vocabulary and reading comprehension development.
This new second edition features new chapters on academic writing, critical reading, and grammar fundamentals.
Chapter 1: Critical Reading Skills (new)
Chapter 2: Writing as Process: Prewriting
Chapter 3: Writing Phases: Planning to Presentation
Chapter 4: The Paragraph
Chapter 5: The Essay
Chapter 6: Critical Skills: Summarizing and Paraphrasing
Chapter 7: Critical Skills: Evaluating
Chapter 8: Academic Writing or Research-Based Writing: An Overview (new)
Chapter 9: Expository Writing
Chapter 10: Critical Skills: Argumentation
Chapter 11: Structuring Argument
Chapter 12: Critical Skills: Researching
Chapter 13: Writing the Research Paper
Chapter 14: Research Papers: APA style (new separate chapter; was part of 12)
Chapter 15: Research Papers: MLA Style (new separate chapter; was part of 12)
Chapter 16: Revising and Proofreading: Editing and Style Notes
Chapter 17: English Grammar Fundamentals (new)
Chapter 18: Developing a Vocabulary for College
· New chapters on academic writing, critical reading, and grammar fundamentals
· The chapter on writing narrative essays (was Chapter 5) has been removed in response to reviewer feedback
· 11 new readings
· New 2009 MLA style updates have been added
• A new chapter on critical reading skills (Chapter 1) covers topics such as analyzing organization, identifying writers’ claims and evidence, and using techniques such as skimming, scanning, and marginal notes.
• A new chapter on academic writing (Chapter 8) explains the features and purposes of academic writing and discusses plagiarism.
• The chapter on expository writing (now Chapter 9) has been moved later in the book to follow some of the introductory skills.
• The chapters previously titled “Critical Skills: Persuasion” and “Structuring Persuasion” have been refocused on argument rather than persuasion, as appropriate for academic writing, and are now titled “Critical Skills: Argumentation” (Chapter 10) and “Structuring Argument” (Chapter 11).
• Chapter 13, “Writing the Research Paper,” now includes a step-by-step guide to writing a research paper covering topics such as selecting a topic, creating an outline, taking notes, and writing drafts.
• The chapter on documentation styles has been split into two separate chapters covering APA style (Chapter 14) and MLA Style (Chapter 15), with a complete sample essay in each.
• A new chapter on grammar fundamentals (Chapter 17) includes self-tests and review tests for each topic.
• Readings have been dispersed throughout the text, appearing at the end of chapters.
• All readings are followed by comprehension questions and writing assignments.
• New 2009 MLA style updates have been added.
Each chapter contains the following:
· Chapter Objectives
· Introduction
· Self-Test (Chapters 16—18 only)
· Exercises, some with answer rules, brief readings
· Sample formatted essays, with annotations
· Set-off examples
· Boxed material, including “tips”
· Schematic diagrams
· Boldface key terms
· Review Tests
· Assignments
· Bonus Exercises (selected chapters only)
· Checkouts (including information on Employability Skills 2000+)
· Readings, with Comprehension Questions, Critical Comprehension Questions, and Assignments, and including complete source/credit information
End Matter:
• Answer Key (for selected exercises)
• Index
Carole Anne May is an English Instructor and Chair of Access to Career and Academic Programs at Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia.