The Empowered Writer

1. Basic Skills Development for Today's Student: Writing and Reading
2. The Writing Situation
3. Kinds of Essays
4. Paragraph Essentials
5. Essay Basics
6. Paragraph Development
7. The Design of an Essay
8. The Expository Essay
9. Summaries
10. Research
11. Using Your Research
12. APA and MLA Citation Styles
13. The Argumentative Essay
14. Sentence Essentials
15. Commas and Other Forms of Punctuation
16. Sentence Constructions
17. Achieving Clarity and Depth in Your Writing
Appendix A: Tense Encounters with Verbs: A Summary
Appendix B: Cultural Idioms for EAL Students
Appendix C: Peer Edit Forms
Appendix D: Answers to Selected Exercises
Appendix E: Glossary
Index

Companion Website includes:
Instructor's Manual:
Chapter overviews
Learning objectives
Key concepts with page references for each chapter
5 extra demonstrative examples per chapter
5 take home essay/writing assignments
5 in-class essay/writing assignments
Related web links
Test Bank:
Over 20 multiple choice and 20 short answer questions per chapter
Over 10 essay response questions
Over 10 sample essay questions
Student Study Guide:
Chapter summaries
Interactive practice quizzes

Eric Henderson teaches in the Department of English at the University of Victoria. He specializes in composition, teaching courses such as 'Reading and Writing across the Disciplines', 'University Writing', 'Remedial English Composition'. His current teaching interests include composition, rhetoric, and writing style.

K. M. Moran is a professor in the Communications Department at Conestoga College. She has taught and created a wide range of courses on various communication-related subjects, including technical writing, composition, and business communication. Kathleen has also taught composition at Humber College and Brock University.

Special Features

• 100% Canadian. Written by Canadians, for Canadians, providing relevant coverage for students in this country.
• Professional essays. Accessible selections by working writers on topics of particular interest to students - such as the history of coffee, gender similarities and differences, hockey violence, and wind farms - engage them with thought-provoking writing and help them develop their own writing skills.
• Sample student essays. Examples of student writing illustrate important rhetorical techniques, showing students that effective writing can be achieved at their level.
• Abundance of exercises. Provides students with exercises to complete on their own and in groups, both pre- and post-reading, helping them become confident writers. Grammar-focused exercises allow students to hone their skills in this important area.
• Comprehensive coverage of critical thinking. Encourages students to question their research in order to produce thoughtful prose.
• Effective approach. An extensively class-tested explanation of the writing process extends beyond formulaic approaches, enabling students to build writing skills that can be adapted for use in any situation.
• Promotes research. Emphasizes this essential aspect of the writing process, giving students the tools to research effectively and to seamlessly integrate their findings into their writing.
• Coverage of rhetorical strategies. Helps students understand how specific rhetorical techniques relate to one another and how to apply rhetorical strategies to their own writing.
• Logical organization. Readings and related instructional information follow one another in the text, making it easy for students to understand key concepts.
• Academic honesty. Offers students easy-to-understand guidelines for avoiding plagiarism and helps them appreciate the seriousness of the issue.
• Student-Friendly Pedagogy:
• Helpful marginal notes. Definitions and writing tips are at students' fingertips in the margins of the text.
• Explanatory visuals. Key concepts in readings and essays are illustrated to assist student comprehension.
• Peer edit forms. Provide students with a template of what to look for when evaluating one another's work.
• Documentation guidelines. Outlines both APA and MLA citation styles, making this a valuable resource for student writers.
• Appendix on cultural idioms for EAL students. English as an Additional Language students will benefit from clarification on idiomatic words and phrases that native English speakers in Canada often take for granted.
• Glossary. Key terms and definitions are provided to facilitate student understanding.
• Key to Selected Answers. Allows students to check their comprehension while also leaving some exercises unsolved so that instructors can assign them as graded work.
• Exercise Types:
• Inter-chapter exercises:
• Activities (e.g. 'How to Summarize' p.157)
• Paragraph exercises (e.g. 'Paragraph Exercises: Coherence' p.82-84)
• Collaborative exercises (e.g. 'Ineffective Opening Statements' p. 93)
• Introduction/Conclusion writing exercises (e.g. 'Writing Effective Introductions' p. 98-100)
• Pre-reading and post-reading exercises (p. 291)
• Grammar exercises (e.g. 'Identifying Parts of Speech' p. 309)
• End-of-chapter review questions
• Documentation exercises
• Partial answer key for questions found in text

• Helpful marginal notes. Definitions and writing tips are at students' fingertips in the margins of the text.
• Explanatory visuals. Key concepts in readings and essays are illustrated to assist student comprehension.
• Peer edit forms. Provide students with a template of what to look for when evaluating one another's work.
• Documentation guidelines. Outlines both APA and MLA citation styles, making this a valuable resource for student writers.
• Appendix on cultural idioms for EAL students. English as an Additional Language students will benefit from clarification on idiomatic words and phrases that native English speakers in Canada often take for granted.
• Glossary. Key terms and definitions are provided to facilitate student understanding.
• Key to Selected Answers. Allows students to check their comprehension while also leaving some exercises unsolved so that instructors can assign them as graded work.
• Exercise Types:
• Inter-chapter exercises:
• Activities (e.g. 'How to Summarize' p.157)
• Paragraph exercises (e.g. 'Paragraph Exercises: Coherence' p.82-84)
• Collaborative exercises (e.g. 'Ineffective Opening Statements' p. 93)
• Introduction/Conclusion writing exercises (e.g. 'Writing Effective Introductions' p. 98-100)
• Pre-reading and post-reading exercises (p. 291)
• Grammar exercises (e.g. 'Identifying Parts of Speech' p. 309)
• End-of-chapter review questions
• Documentation exercises
• Partial answer key for questions found in text