Quick Access Brief, from trusted authors Lynn Troyka and Doug Hesse, provides both composition students and instructors with the support they need to be successful, and is designed for easy, economical access to the most important concepts in writing.    The Troyka/Hesse family of handbooks provides the most balanced coverage of the writing process, grammar, research, and topics important to today’s students.  Both respected teachers and authors, Troyka and Hesse give practical advice to students about the writing they will do in composition courses, in other classes, and in the world beyond.  Offering instructors a full range of choices in handbooks, the Troyka/Hesse family of handbooks is available in a variety of formats, including an eText in MyWritingLab and customized options, so instructors can select the handbook that best fits their course needs.

Table of Contents:
Part 1             Foundations for Writers      1          Ten Troublesome Mistakes Writers Make   1.      Sentence fragments  2.      Comma splices and run-on sentences   3.      Mistakes in subject–verb agreement   4.      Mistakes in pronoun–antecedent agreement   5.      Unclear pronoun reference   6.      Illogical shifts within sentences   7.      Mistakes with modifiers   8.      Mistakes with homonyms   9.      Comma errors   10.  Apostrophe errors      2          Thinking Critically  2A       How do I engage in critical thinking?                        2B       How do the rhetorical appeals help me think critically?   2C       How do inductive and deductive reasoning help me think critically?   2D       How do I avoid logical fallacies to think critically?   3          Reading Critically                3A       How do I read written material critically?                  3B       How do I read closely and actively as a critical reader?                    3C       How do I “read” images critically?      Part 2              Writing Processes     4          Ten Steps for Writing Essays                 4A       How do I adapt writing processes for myself?               4B       How do I think like a writer?               4C       How do I decide on the purpose and audience for each essay?               4D       How do I plan a writing portfolio?               4E        How do I expand my ideas about my topic?               4F        How does a thesis statement help me plan?               4G       How does outlining help me write?               4H       How do I get started on a first draft?               4I         How do I revise effectively?               4J         How do I edit and proofread effectively?     5          Composing Paragraphs                5A       What is a paragraph?               5B       How can I write effective introductory paragraphs?               5C       How can I write effective topic sentences?               5D       How can I write effective body paragraphs?               5E        How can I use rhetorical strategies to develop effective body paragraphs?               5F        How can I write effective concluding paragraphs?   000             6          Designing Documents                6A       How can I design documents effectively?               6B       How do I use photographs and graphics effectively?       Part 3              Frames for College Writing   WHAT ARE FRAMES for college writing? 7          Personal Essays                       7A       What is a personal essay?               7B       How do I plan and revise personal essays?               7C       What is a frame for a personal essay?               7D       What sentence and paragraph guides can help me generate ideas?               7E        A student’s personal essay   8          Informative Essays                 8A       What are informative essays?               8B       How do I plan and revise informative essays?               8C       What is a frame for an informative essay?               8D       What are sentence and paragraph guides for an informative essay?               8E        A student’s informative essay   9          Arguments                  9A       What is an argument?               9B       How do I plan and revise arguments?               9C       What are frames for arguments?               9D       What are some sentence and paragraph guides for arguments?              9E        A student’s argument essay    10        Proposal or Solution Essays              10A     What are proposal or solution essays?               10B     How do I plan and revise proposal or solution arguments?               10C     What is a frame for a proposal or solution essay?               10D     What are some sentence and paragraph guides for proposal/solution essays?              10E      A student’s solution essay    11        Essays Analyzing Literary or Other Works                11A     What is an essay that analyzes literary or other works?               11B     How do I plan and revise an analysis essay?               11C     What is a frame for an analysis essay?               11D     What are some sentence and paragraph guides for analysis essays?              11E      A student’s essay analyzing a literary work               11F      A student’s analysis of two Web sites       Part 4              Research Writing and Documentation   12        Finding and Evaluating Sources   12A     What are sources and what tools do I use to find them?   12B     How do I search for articles in periodicals?   12C     How do I search for books?   12D     How do I use reference works?   12E     How do I search for media?   12F      How do I search for government documents?   12G     How do I evaluate the sources I find?   12H     What is field research?   13        Ten Steps for Writing a Research Paper   13A     How do I plan my college-level research paper?   13B     How do I use a search strategy to find sources for my research paper?   13C     How do I take effective notes while conducting my research?   13D     How do I develop a working and an annotated bibliography?   13E      What are frames for research papers?   13F      How do I synthesize sources when writing my research paper?   13G     How do I avoid plagiarism in writing my research paper?   13H     How do I use quotations correctly in my research paper?   13I       How do I use summary and paraphrase in my research paper?   13J       How do I draft, revise, and edit my research paper?   14        MLA-Style Documentation and Format                14A     What is MLA documentation style?               14B     What is MLA in-text parenthetical documentation?             14C     What are MLA examples for parenthetical citations?                14D     What are MLA guidelines for a Works Cited list?                 14E      What are MLA examples for sources in a Works Cited list?              14F      What are MLA guidelines for content or bibliographic notes?                      14G     What are MLA format guidelines for research papers?                      14H     A student’s MLA-style research paper             15        APA-Style Documentation and Format                15A     What is APA documentation style?               15B     What are APA in-text parenthetical citations?                       15C     What are APA examples for in-text citations?                       15D     What are APA guidelines for a References list?               15E      What are APA examples for sources in a References list?               15F      What are APA format guidelines for research papers?                       15G     A student’s APA-style research paper              Part 5              Grammar, Style, Punctuation, and Mechanics   16        Parts of Speech and Parts of Sentences          Parts of Speech 16A     What is a noun?          16B     What is a pronoun?     16C     What is a verb?           16D     What is a verbal?         16E      What is an adjective?  16F      What is an adverb?     16G     What is a preposition?   16H     What is a conjunction?            16I       What is an interjection?          Parts of Sentences     16J       What are subjects and predicates?      16K     What are direct and indirect objects? 16L      What are complements, modifiers, and appositives?  16M     What is a phrase?        16N     What is a clause?         16O     What are sentence types?        17        Verbs   17A     How do verbs function?         17B     What are the forms of main verbs?     17C     What are auxiliary verbs?        17D     Should I use lie or lay?           17E      What are verb tenses?   17F      What are indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods?     17G     What is “voice” in verbs?        18        Subject–Verb Agreement       18A     What is subject–verb agreement?       18B     Can I ignore words between a subject and its verb?  18C     How do verbs work when subjects are connected by and?    18D     How do verbs work when subjects are connected by or?      18E      How do verbs work with indefinite pronouns            ? 18F      How do verbs work with who, which, and that?        18G     How do verbs work with one of the . . . who?            18H     How do verbs work in other complicated types of subject–verb agreement?            19        Pronouns: Agreement, Reference, and Case  Pronoun–Antecedent Agreement         19A     What is pronoun–antecedent agreement?       19B     How do pronouns work when and connects antecedents?    19C     How do pronouns work when or connects antecedents?       19D     How do pronouns work when their antecedents are indefinite pronouns?    19E      How do pronouns work when antecedents are collective nouns?      Pronoun Reference    19F      How can I avoid unclear pronoun reference? 19G     How do pronouns work with it, that, this, and which?           19H     When do I use you for direct address?           19I       When do I use who, which, and that? Pronoun Case 19J       What is pronoun case?            19K     What are personal pronouns?  19L      How can I select the correct case?      19M     Which case is correct when and connects pronouns?   19N     How can I match case in appositives?            19O     How does the subjective case work after linking verbs?        19P      When do I use who, whoever, whom, and whomever?          19Q     What case do I use after than and as?            19R     What case do I use with infinitives and -ing words? 19S      What case do I use for -self pronouns?           20        Adjectives and Adverbs         20A     What are differences between adjectives and adverbs?         20B     What’s wrong with double negatives?           20C     Do adjectives or adverbs come after linking verbs?   20D     What are correct comparative and superlative forms?            20E      Why should I avoid using too many nouns as modifiers?      21        Sentence Fragments    21A     How can I recognize sentence fragments?     21B     How can I correct a fragment that starts with a subordinating word?           21C     How can I correct a fragment that lacks a verb?                    21D     How can I correct a fragment that lacks a subject?    21E      How can I correct a fragment that’s a part of a compound predicate?          21F      What are intentional fragments?         22        Comma Splices and Run-On Sentences         22A     What are comma splices and run-on sentences?         22B     How can I correct comma splices and run-on sentences?       23        Problems with Sentence Shifts           23A     How can I be consistent in person and number?        23B     How can I be consistent in subject and voice?           23C     How can I be consistent in mood?     23D     How can I be consistent in verb tense?          23E      How can I be consistent in direct and indirect discourse?     23F      What happens in sentences with mixed parts?           23G     How do elliptical constructions and comparisons work?       24        Misplaced Modifiers   24A     How can I correct misplaced modifiers?        24B     How can I correct squinting modifiers?         24C     How can I correct split infinitives?     24D     How can I keep modifiers from disrupting a sentence?         24E      How can I correct dangling modifiers?          25        Conciseness     25A     How can I write concisely?    25B     How can I avoid redundant writing? 25C     How can I avoid wordy sentence structures? 25D     How can combining sentence elements help me be concise?   25E      How do action verbs improve conciseness?   26        Coordination and Subordination        26A     How does coordination show that ideas are equivalent?       26B     How can I avoid problems with coordination?          26C     How does subordination work to express nonequivalent ideas?        26D     How can I avoid problems with subordination?         27        Sentence Style                 27A     What is parallelism?    27B     How can I avoid faulty parallelism?   27C     How should I use parallelism with conjunctions?      27D     How does parallelism strengthen my message?          27E      What is sentence variety?       27F      How does a sentence’s subject affect emphasis?       27G     How does adding modifiers affect writing style?      27H     How does inverting standard word order affect emphasis?   28        Word Choice               28A     What is word choice?             28B     What tools do I need for college-level word choice?                         28C     What word concepts do I need to know?                  28D     What word choices are suitable for college-level writing?                 28E      How does figurative language enrich my word choice?                     28F      How can I increase my vocabulary power?      29        Spelling           29A     How are plurals spelled?         29B     How are suffixes spelled?       29C     What is the ie, ei rule?             29D     How are commonly confused words and homonyms spelled?          29E      What else leads to spelling errors?      30        Commas          30A     When do I use commas?         30B     How do I use a comma to set off introductory words?         30C     How do I use a comma before a coordinating conjunction?  30D     How do I use commas with a series?  30E      When do I use a comma between adjectives?               30F      How do commas work with nonrestrictive and restrictive elements?            30G     How do I use commas with quoted words?   30H     What other word groups do I set off with commas?  30I       How do I use commas in dates, names, places, addresses, letter format, and numbers?       30J       How can a comma prevent a misreading?      30K     How can I avoid other comma errors?            31        Semicolons      31A     When can I use a semicolon instead of a period between independent clauses?       31B     When do I need to use a semicolon to replace a comma?      32        Colons    32A     How do I use a colon with a list, an appositive, or a quotation?        32B     When can I use a colon between sentences?  32C     What conventional formats call for colons?   33        Apostrophes    33A     How do I use an apostrophe to show that a noun is possessive?       33B     How do I use an apostrophe to show that an indefinite pronoun is possessive?        33C     Do I ever use an apostrophe with hers, his, its, ours, yours, and theirs?        33D     Do I ever add an apostrophe to a verb that ends in -s            ?   33E      How do I use apostrophes in contractions?    33F      Do I use an apostrophe with letters, numerals, symbols, and terms? 34        Quotation Marks         34A     How do I use quotation marks with short direct quotations?            34B     How do I use quotation marks with long direct quotations? 34C     How do I use quotation marks to indicate spoken words?    34D     How do I use quotation marks with titles?     34E      How do I use quotation marks to indicate terms, translations, and irony?    34F      When are quotation marks wrong?     34G     How do I use quotation marks with other punctuation?        35        Periods, Question Marks, and Exclamation Points     35A     When should I use a period?  35B     When should I use a question mark?  35C     When should I use an exclamation point?      36        Other Punctuation Marks        36A     When should I use a dash?     36B     When should I use parentheses?         36C     When should I use brackets?  36D     When should I use ellipsis points?      36E      When should I use a slash?     37        Hyphens          37A     When should I hyphenate at the end of a line?          37B     When should I hyphenate prefixes and suffixes?       37C     When should I hyphenate compound words?               37D     When should I hyphenate spelled-out numbers?        38        Capitals           38A     When should I capitalize a “first” word?       38B     How should I capitalize quotations?  38C     When should I capitalize nouns and adjectives?        39        Italics (Underlining)    39A     How do I choose between italics and quotation marks?        39B     When should I use italics for emphasis?         40        Abbreviations    40A     What abbreviations can I use with times and amounts?         40B     How should I use abbreviations with people’s names?          40C     How do I use Jr., Sr., II, III, 2nd, and 3rd?    40D     When can I abbreviate names of countries, organizations, and government agencies?          40E      What abbreviations can I use in addresses?    40F      When can I use etc. and other Latin abbreviations?   41        Numbers          41A     When should I spell out numbers in words?   41B     How should I write dates, addresses, times, and other numbers?      Part 6              Tips for Multilingual Writers   A Message to Multilingual Writers    42        Singulars and Plurals   42A     What are count and noncount nouns?              42B     Which determiners should I use with singular and plural nouns?      42C     Which forms are correct for nouns used as adjectives?          43        Articles            43A     How should I use articles with singular count nouns?           43B     How should I use articles with count and noncount nouns?  43C     How should I use the with proper nouns?      44        Word Order    44A     What are standard and inverted word orders?           44B     Where should I place adjectives?       44C     Where should I place adverbs?           45        Prepositions     45A     How should I use in, at, and on to show time and place?      45B     How should I use prepositions in phrasal verbs?        45C     How should I use prepositions with the passive voice?         45D     How should I use prepositions in expressions?          46        Gerunds and Infinitives          46A     What verbs use a gerund, not an infinitive, object?    46B     What verbs use an infinitive, not a gerund, object?    46C     How does meaning change if an infinitive object or a gerund follows stop, remember, or forget?   46D     Do sense verbs change meaning with a gerund or an infinitive object?         46E      How should I choose between -ing and -ed forms of adjectives?      47        Modal Auxiliary Verbs           47A     How do modal auxiliary verbs differ from be, do, and have?            47B     Which modal auxiliary verbs express ability, necessity, advisability, or probability?            47C     Which modal auxiliary verbs express preference, plan, or past habit?            Part 7              Special Writing Situations     48        An Overview of Writing Across the Curriculum               48A     What is writing across the curriculum?               48B     How do audience and purpose work across the curriculum?        49        Writing in the Humanities                49A     What are the humanities?               49B     What are types of writing in the humanities?               49C     What documentation styles are common in the humanities?                                                              50        Writing in the Social Sciences               50A     What are the social sciences?               50B     What are different types of papers in the social sciences?                                                   51        Writing in the Natural Sciences               51A     What are the natural sciences?               51B     What are different types of papers in the natural sciences?                           52        Creating Multimedia Texts                 52A     What are multimedia texts?               52B     How do I plan and organize an oral presentation?               52C     How do I use multimedia in presentations?               52D     How do I create video and sound recordings?                                       53        Writing in Online Environments               53A     What is writing for online environments?              53B     How do I write for a blog?               53C     How do I write for a wiki?     54        Workplace Writing                                                                  54A     What is workplace writing?               54B     How do I write effective business e-mails and letters?               54C     How do a write an effective resume?     55        Writing with Others               55A     What is writing with others?               55B     How can I collaborate with other writers?               55C     How can I give useful feedback to others?               55D     How can I benefit from others’ help?     Terms Glossary Usage Glossary  Credits Index