Power Paragraphs is a writing workbook that uses a simple and memorable analogy: that the parts of an essay are like the parts of a sandwich. The "bread" at the top and bottom represents the main idea; the "meat" of the essay is the topic sentences; the "lettuce" develops with supporting ideas; the "mayo" and "mustard" are transitional elements. Add a "garnish" at the top for an interest statement and your sandwich is complete, delicious, satisfying, and easy to read and understand. The book is ideal for writers at all levels because, in one memorable picture, the organizational pattern of any piece of writing can be easily stated and easily understood. Use this book to improve your personal communications or in classes for English language speakers at any level.

Best-selling authors and veteran college writing instructors Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell believe that students learn to write best when they use their own writing as a starting point. In Writing First with Readings: Paragraphs and Essays, the authors take a simple yet effective approach to helping students improve their writing skills: visual writing prompts open every chapter and get students writing immediately. Then, throughout the chapter, students move between their own writing, writing models and instruction, and workbook-style mastery exercises so that they continually revise, rewrite, and improve their own writing. It is this formula that makes writing instruction meaningful and accessible for students. Thoughtful chapters on academic writing and success, research, and critical reading, along with high-interest essays, round out this new edition, making it the perfect introduction to college writing.

The second edition of Writing That Makes Sense takes students through the fundamentals of the writing process and explores the basic steps of critical thinking. Drawing upon over twenty years of experience teaching college composition and professional writing, David S. Hogsette combines relevant writing pedagogy and practical assignments with the basics of critical thinking to provide students with step-by-step guides for successful academic writing in a variety of rhetorical modes. New in the second edition: -Expanded discussion of how to write effective thesis statements for informative, persuasive, evaluative, and synthesis essays, including helpful thesis statement templates. -Extensive templates introducing students to conventions of academic discourse, including integrating outside sources, interacting with other writers' ideas, and dialoguing with multiple perspectives. -Examples of academic writing from different disciplines illustrating essay titles, abstracts, thesis statements, introductions, conclusions, and voice. -Expanded discussion of voice in academic writing, including an exploration of active and passive voice constructions in different disciplines and tips on how to edit for clarity. -A new chapter on writing in the disciplines. -Updated sample student papers. -New readings with examples of opposing views and multiple perspectives.

As the amount of curriculum in today’s classrooms expands and teaching time seems to shrink, teachers are looking for ways to integrate content area and writing instruction. In this revised and expanded edition of Writing Across the Curriculum, Shelley Peterson shows teachers how to weave writing and content area instruction together in their classrooms. The author provides practical and helpful ideas for classroom teachers and content-area specialists to easily incorporate writer’s workshop while teaching in their subject area. New features in this second edition include: • Websites that can be used to teach writing (e.g., wiki’s, weblogs, and digital storytelling) • Examples from grades 4-8 classrooms that show how science, social studies, health, and mathematics teachers can also be teachers of poetry, narrative, and non-narrative writing • New assessment scoring guides • Information on working with struggling writers and supporting English Language Learners • Graphic organizers, templates, and mini-lessons that engage students in learning

Offers exercises for brainstorming, main ideas and details, using descriptive words, sequencing, recognizing cause and effect and using correct punctuation.