Steps to Writing Well with Additional Readings,
12th Edition

Part I: THE BASICS OF THE SHORT ESSAY.
1. The Reading-Writing Connection.
How Can Reading Well Help Me Become a Better Writer? Becoming an Analytical Reader. Steps to Reading Well. Sample Annotated Essay: College for Grown-Ups. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment: Reading Multimodal Texts Analytically. Steps to Reading Multimodal Texts Well. Sample Annotated Advertisement. Writing a Summary. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Benefiting from Class Discussions. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Chapter 1 Summary.
2. Prewriting.
Getting Started. Selecting a Subject. Finding Your Essay’s Purpose and Focus. Prewriting Techniques. After You’ve Found Your Focus. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Discovering Your Audience. How to Identify Your Readers. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Keeping a Journal (Talking to Yourself Does Help). Chapter 2 Summary.
3. The Thesis Statement.
What Is a Thesis? What Does a Working Thesis Do? Can a Working Thesis Change? Guidelines for Writing a Good Thesis. Avoiding Common Errors in Thesis Statements. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Using the Essay Map. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Chapter 3 Summary.
4. The Body Paragraphs.
Planning the Body of Your Essay. Composing the Body Paragraphs. The Topic Sentence. Focusing Your Topic Sentence. Placing Your Topic Sentence. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Paragraph Development. Paragraph Length. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Paragraph Unity. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Paragraph Coherence. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Paragraph Sequence. Transitions between Paragraphs. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Chapter 4 Summary.
5. Beginnings and Endings.
Suggestions for Writing a Good Lead-In. Avoiding Errors in Lead-Ins. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. How to Write a Good Concluding Paragraph. Avoiding Errors in Conclusions. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. How to Write a Good Title. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Chapter 5 Summary.
6. Drafting and Revising: Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking.
What Is Revision? When Does Revision Occur? Myths about Revision. Can I Learn to Improve My Revision Skills? Preparing to Draft. Some Basic Tips for Drafting. Some Hints When Drafting on a Computer. Some Hints When Handwriting a Draft. Writing Centers, Computer Classrooms, and Electronic Networks. Procrastination: Enemy of Critical Thinking, Thief of Time. I. Revising for Purpose, Thesis, and Audience. II. Revising for Ideas and Evidence. What Is Critical Thinking? Thinking Critically as a Writer. Critical Thinking and Visual Literacy. III. Revising for Organization. IV. Revising for Clarity and Style. V. Editing for Errors. VI. Proofreading. A Final Checklist for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay: The Fear No One Talks About. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Collaborative Activities: Group Work, Peer Revision Workshops, and Team Projects. Benefiting from Collaborative Activities. Guidelines for Peer Revision Workshops. Guidelines for Small-Group Work. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Some Last Advice: How to Minimize Frustration. Chapter 6 Summary.
7. Effective Sentences.
Developing a Clear Style. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Developing a Concise Style. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Developing an Engaging Style. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Developing an Emphatic Style. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Chapter 7 Summary.
8. Word Logic.
Selecting the Correct Words. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Selecting the Best Words. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Applying What You’ve Learned to Your Writing. Chapter 8 Summary.
Part One Summary: The Basics of the Short Essay.
Part II: PURPOSES, MODES, AND STRATEGIES.
9. Development by Example.
Why and How to Use Examples In Your Writing. Developing Your Essay. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: If You Want to Get to Know a New Place, Go For a Run. Sample Student Essay 2: A Small Guy with a Big Heart. Professional Essay: So What’s So Bad about Being So-So? A Revision Checklist Worksheet. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 9 Summary.
10. Process Analysis.
Types of Process Analysis Essays. Developing Your Essay. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: An Experiment in Spending Less. Sample Student Essay 2: From the Shower to the Stage. Professional Essay (Informative Process): Cheesemaking is a Complex Science. Professional Essay (Directional Process): “Preparing for the Job Interview: Know Thyself.” A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 10 Summary.
11. Comparison and Contrast.
Developing Your Essay. Which Pattern Should You Use? Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay (Point-by-Point Pattern): “When It’s Time to Study, Get Out of Your Pajamas.” Sample Student Essay (Block Pattern): “More Than Just the Crust: New York and Chicago Style Pizza.” Professional Essay (Point-by-Point Pattern): “The Power of Women United: From Seneca Falls to the Women’s March”. Professional Essay (Block Pattern): “Two Ways of Viewing the River.” A Revision Checklist. A Special Kind of Comparison: The Analogy. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 11 Summary.
12. Definition.
Why Do We Define? Developing Your Essay. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: "Slang Rebels." Sample Student Essay 2: "Oxford English Dictionary: Laureate." Professional Essay: "What is Vernacular Art?" A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 12 Summary.
13. Division and Classification.
Division. Classification. Developing Your Essay. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: “The Native American Era at Mesa Verde.” Sample Student Essay 2: "Online Learning-Effects on Students." Professional Essay (Classification): “A Bottlenose Dolphin? Or Tursiops Truncats? Why Biologists Give Organisms Those Strange, Unpronouncable Names.” Professional Essay (Division): “What Is REALLY in a Hot Dog?” A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 13 Summary.
14. Causal Analysis.
Developing Your Essay. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: "To Fish and Be Fished: A Tinder-fied Game of Love." Sample Student Essay 2: "Online Learning: Effects on Students." Professional Essay: “Are the Internet and AI Affecting Our Memory?” A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 14 Summary.
15. Argumentation.
Developing Your Essay. Problems to Avoid. Common Logical Fallacies. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: “Better Information Equals Healthier Eating.” Sample Student Essay 2: "Is Our Ground Water Supply in Danger?" Professional Essays (Paired): “Mandatory Voting Won’t Cure Dismal Turnout” and “Required Voting Yields Benefits.” Analyzing Advertisements. Divergent Viewpoints: Gun Ownership in America. Competing Products: Sources of Energy. Popular Appeals: Spending Our Money. Practicing What You’ve Learned. A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 15 Summary.
16. Description.
How to Write Effective Description. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment: “Automat” by Edward Hopper. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: “Treeclimbing.” Sample Student Essay 2: "Thanksgiving Joys." Professional Essay: "The Story of an Eyewitness." A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 16 Summary.
17. Narration.
Writing the Effective Narrative Essay. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned: “Tornado Over Kansas” by John Steuart Curry. Essay Topics. A Topic Proposal for Your Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: "Sole Provider." Sample Student Essay 2: "How I Got to Japan." Professional Reading: “The Most Important Day.” A Revision Checklist Worksheet. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 17 Summary.
18. Writing Essays Using Multiple Strategies.
Choosing the Best Strategies. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Sample Student Essay: “Pass the Broccoli--Please!” Professional Essay: “Why Parents Need to Let Their Children Fail.” A Revision Checklist. Reviewing Your Progress. Using Strategies and Sources. Chapter 18 Summary.
Part III: SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS.
19. Conducting Research and Using Sources.
Focusing Your Topic. Beginning Your Library Research. General Reference Works. Library Catalogs. Databases. Special Collections. Beginning Your Online Research. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Conducting Primary Research. The Personal Interview. The Questionnaire. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Preparing a Working Bibliography. Choosing and Evaluating Your Sources. Preparing an Annotated Bibliography. Taking Notes. Distinguishing Paraphrase from Summary. Incorporating Your Source Material. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Avoiding Plagiarism. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Chapter 19 Summary.
20. Documenting Sources.
MLA Style. MLA Citations in Your Essay. Compiling a Works Cited List: MLA Style. Sample Works Cited Entries: MLA Style. Electronic Sources: MLA Style. Practicing What You’ve Learned. APA Style. APA Citations in Your Essay. Compiling a Reference List: APA Style. Sample Reference List Entries: APA Style. Electronic Sources: APA Style. Footnote and Bibliography Form. Using Supplementary Notes. Examples (MLA Style). Sample Student Essay Using MLA Style: “Pervasive Computing and Privacy Rights: Who Owns Your Emotions?” Sample Student Essay Using APA Style: “Pervasive Computing and Privacy Rights: Who Owns Your Emotions?” Chapter 20 Summary.
21. Classroom Writing Assignments: Exams, Timed Essays, and Presentations.
Writing Well under Pressure. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Writing the Summary-and-Response Essay. Sample Student Essay 1: Summary and Response Essay on “College for Grown-Ups.” Sample Student Essay 2: "The Moon is Down." Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Writing for Classroom Presentations. Steps to Effective Presentation. Guidelines for Effective Delivery. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Chapter 21 Summary.
22. Writing about Literature.
Using Literature in the Composition Classroom. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Suggestions for Close Reading of Literature. Steps to Reading a Short Story. Annotated Story: “The Story of an Hour.” Sample Student Essay 1: “A Breath of Fresh Air.” Steps to Reading a Poem. Annotated Poem: “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer.” Sample Student Essay 2: “Two Ways of Knowing.” Guidelines for Writing about Literature. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned (Story): “Geraldo No Last Name” by Sandra Cisneros. Practicing What You’ve Learned (Poems): “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden; “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Suggestions for Writing. Chapter 22 Summary.
23. Writing in the World of Work.
Composing Business Letters. Traditional Business Letter Format. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Sample Business Letter. Creating Memos. Sending Professional E-Mail. Problems to Avoid. Writing Cover Letters and Designing Résumés. Effective Cover Letters. Effective Résumés. Problems to Avoid. Sample Résumés. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Preparing Interview Notes and Post-Interview Letters. Chapter 23 Summary.
24. Living in a Digital World.
Speed of Technology. Artificial Intelligence in the World. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Generative AI. Positive and Negative Applications. Problems to Avoid. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Multi-Modal Composition. Responsible Choices. Chapter 24 Summary.
MindTap® Online Chapter. Writing about Film.
Using Film in the Composition Classroom. Guidelines for Writing about Film. Problems to Avoid. Sample Student Essay: “Catch the Blackbird.” Practicing What You’ve Learned. Professional Essay: “The Theory of Everything.” Suggestions for Writing. Glossary of Film Terms.
Part IV: A CONCISE HANDBOOK.
Parts of Speech. Sentence Components and Classifications.
25. Major Errors in Grammar.
Assessing Your Skills: Grammar (Self-scored Diagnostic Test). Errors with Verbs. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Errors with Nouns. Errors with Pronouns. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Errors with Adverbs and Adjectives. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Errors in Modifying Phrases. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Errors in Sentences. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Answers to the Grammar Assessment.
26. A Concise Guide to Punctuation.
Assessing Your Skills: Punctuation (Self-scored Diagnostic Test). Punctuation Guidelines. The Period. The Question Mark. The Exclamation Point. Practicing What You’ve Learned. The Comma. Practicing What You’ve Learned. The Semicolon. Practicing What You’ve Learned. The Colon. Practicing What You’ve Learned. The Apostrophe. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Quotation Marks. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Parentheses. Brackets. The Dash. Practicing What You’ve Learned. The Hyphen. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Italics and Underlining. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Ellipsis Points. The Slash. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Answers to the Punctuation Assessment.
27. A Concise Guide to Mechanics.
Assessing Your Skills: Mechanics (Self-scored Diagnostic Test). Capitalization. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Abbreviations. Numbers. Practicing What You’ve Learned. Assignment. Spelling. Answers to the Mechanics Assessment.
Part V: ADDITIONAL READINGS.

• Jean Wyrick

  Jean Wyrick is Professor Emerita of English at Colorado State University, where she was director of composition for 11 years. She has more than 25 years of experience teaching writing, training writing teachers, and designing writing/writing-across-the-curriculum programs. Her other textbooks include THE RINEHART READER and DISCOVERING IDEAS. She has presented over 100 workshops and papers on the teaching of writing, American literature, American studies, and women's studies.

• Chris Field

  Chris Field is an Associate Professor of English in the Languages, Literature, and Philosophy department at Tennessee State University, where he has served as the First-Year Composition Coordinator since 2016. In his more than 20 years of teaching at the collegiate level, he has taught a variety of composition and literature courses, and he has mentored countless students and colleagues. His previous works include Beyond the Frontier, Volume IV: Innovations in First-Year Composition (2025), Tell Me a Story: Using Narratives to Break Down Barriers in Composition Courses (2017), and "I'm Just a Comic Book Boy": Essays on the Intersection of Comics and Punk (2019).

• Audrey Wick

  Audrey Wick is Professor of English at Blinn College in Texas. She has teaching experience in a wide range of modalities but currently splits her time with face-to-face and online instruction. She was honored with an annual Teaching Excellence Award at her institution. In addition to academia, she enjoys fiction writing with a variety of contemporary novels to her name.

• SCAFFOLDED CHAPTERS ON THE WRITING PROCESS: Chapters unfold in the natural way that students engage with written work, by first establishing reading/writing connections and then moving through the process of essay creation, starting with prewriting.

• A FRESH TAKE ON WRITING ADVICE: Students are encouraged to think about writing in meaningful ways, including through the use of STEAM -- Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math -- sidebars that invite connections from the English classroom to these various fields.

• NEW CHAPTERS AND ENGAGING REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS: Chapters on "Writing in the World of Work" and "Living in a Digital World” help arm students for the future and provide instructors with unique, engaging content that addresses professional workplace skills and artificial intelligence.

• COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES THAT STRETCH ACROSS MODALITIES: These optional applications for the classroom help students feel part of a larger community of writers, no matter their method of taking the class.

• EASY-TO-NAVIGATE CHAPTER REDESIGN: Learning objectives, chapter summaries, prereading activities, revision checklists and more are part of chapters throughout the textbook guiding students on their learning process.

• FIVE PARTS MAKE ONE GREAT WRITING GUIDE: Part One offers guidance on the composing process. Part Two discusses how to compose using the strategies of exposition, argument, description and narration. Part Three covers assignments such as the research paper, literary analysis, essay exam, oral presentation and business writing. Part Four addresses common errors in grammar, punctuation and mechanics. Part Five presents over 30 readings organized by rhetorical strategy to complement the major assignments in Part Two, including brand new selections.

• COMPREHENSIVE DISCUSSION OF THE WRITING PROCESS (Part One, Chapters 1−8): Find the most extensive content of any available rhetorical writing guide. Chapter 1 is devoted to the reading/writing connection, then detailed attention is given to each stage of the prewriting, composing and revising processes in Chapters 2–8.

• THE MOST PROFESSIONAL READING SELECTIONS OF ANY RHETORICAL WRITING GUIDE: Over 50 in all, the text provides students with numerous models for their own writing. Popular selections from journalists, novelists, poets and humorists have been retained, while new selections on current issues with fresh voices on changing trends, social media, food, science and education have also been added.

Cengage provides a range of supplements that are updated in coordination with the main title selection. For more information about these supplements, contact your Learning Consultant.

Instructor's Companion Website for Wyrick's Steps to Writing Well with Additional Readings
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