高校英文写作教材系列。全书分为四大部分。第一部分为英语写作知识与技巧概述，引用语言学的新成果，分析对比了东西方不同民族的思维表达方式和习惯，提出了怎样才能写出地道英语的原则。第二、三部分介绍从句子到段落，再到篇章的写作知识与技巧，让学生通过知识与技巧的运用，实现用英语写作短文、传递信息和表达思想的目标。第四部分介绍两种特殊形式的英文写作——文章概要和读书报告的写作，适应大学英语教育的普遍要求。

A General Introduction to English Writing

I. Writing in Our World / I

II. Types of Writing / 2

1. Narration / 2

2. Description / 5

3. Exposition / 7

III. Writing Well / 15

1. Writing for Your Readers / 15

2. Good Writing / 15

From Sentence to Paragraph

I. Sentence Structure / 30

1. Elements of a Sentence / 31

2. Kinds of Sentences / 33

3. Clause Connectors / 35

4. Coordination and Subordination / 38

5. Parallelism / 45

II. Paragraph Structure /51

1. The Basic Paragraph / 52

2. Four Elements of the Paragraph / 52

3. Mechanics in Writing a Paragraph / 54

III. Basic Paragraph-Building Skills / 56

1. Taking Four Pre-Writing Steps / 56

2. Making Our Topic Sentence a Helpful Guide / 61

3. Loading Our Topic Sentence with a Strong Controlling Idea / 75

4. Writing a Helpful Outline in Advance / 80

5. Gaining Unity / 90

6. Gaining Coherence from Logical Order / 96

7. Gaining Coherence from Transitions / 102

8. Gaining Better Unity and Coherence from Punctuation / 111

IV. Sentence Problems / 134

1. Sentence Fragments / 134

   Fragments Without Verbs / 134

   Fragments Without Subjects / 135

   Fragments Without Subjects and/or Verbs / 135

   Fragments of Dependent Clauses / 136

2. Choppy Sentences / 138

3. Run-Together Sentences / 138

4. Stringy Sentences / 140

5. Confusing Shifts / 141

  Confusing Shifts in Person / 142

  Confusing Shifts in Tense / 143

  Confusing Shifts in Subject and Voice / 143

  Confusing Shifts in Mood or Speech / 144

  Confusing Shifts in Number / 145

  Mixed Sentence Construction / 145

6. Incomplete Constructions / 147

   Careless Omissions / 147

   Incomplete Comparisons / 148

7. Amabiguous Pronoun Reference / 150

   A Pronoun with Two or More Possible Antecedents / 150

   A Pronoun Without Clearly Expressed Antecedent / 151

   The Pronouns It, They, and You with Indefinite Antecedents / 151

   The Pronouns Th/s, That and Which Referring to General Ideas / 152

   A Pronoun Too Far Away from Its Antecedent / 152

8. Dangling Modifiers / 153

   Dangling Participial Modifiers / 154

   Dangling Gerunds in Prepositional Phrases / 154

   Dangling Infinitive Modifiers / 155

   Dangling Abbreviated Clauses / 155

9. Misplaced Modifiers / 157

   Misplaced Prepositional Phrases / 157

  Misplaced Adjective Clauses / 158

  Misplaced Adverbial Modifiers / 158

I0. Wordiness / 160

Needless Repetition / 160

Needless Expansion / 161

Awkward Cliches / 162

Overwritten Style / 162

From Paragraph to Theme

I. Introduction / 165

II. Three Kinds of Paragraphs / 166

1. The Introductory Paragraph / 167

2. The Body Paragraph / 173

3. The Concluding Paragraph / 177

III. Basic Theme-Building Skills / 179

 1. Getting the Theme Well-Unified with an Effective Thesis Statement / 180

2. Getting the Theme Coherent with Transitions Between Paragraphs / 185

3. Developing the Theme Under the Guidance of a Well-Organized Outline / 189

   Process Theme in Time Order / 194

   Descriptive Theme in Order of Importance / 199

   Theme of Classification in Order of Importance / 202

   Theme of Comparison and Contrast in Order of Importance / 203

   Theme of Cause and Effect in Order of Importance / 204

   Theme of Exemplification in Time Order, or Order of Importance / 208

IV. Sample Themes Observed / 210

Smnmarv and Book Report

I. Summary Writing / 223

II. Book Report Writing /231

Correction Symbols /235

Partial Answers to Exercises /236

Bibliography / 243