Collegiate English Handbook

Collegiate English Handbook offers several important advantages. It is a teaching handbook. Each chapter is written in clear language with detailed explanations. Francis L. Fennel discusses writing, with an emphasis on understanding the process or writing-how owe does it, not how one corrects it. If certain linguistic patterns must be changed, as at times they must, the emphasis is on understanding why mistakes are made and what can be done about them. The author gave this book both a logical structure and clear transitions. This handbook can be assigned to a class they same way as other textbooks--working from the first chapter to the last, for example, using the exercises to strengthen the students' mastery of each skill. Yet the chapter subsections and other signposts also allow students to use the book conveniently as a reference work. The advice this handbook offers is as up to date as possible taking into account modern technology available to students and professors. Collegiate English Handbook respects the diversity and flexibility of modern English, summarizing the practice of good writers rather than simply issuing orders, such as 'Don't do X'. This handbook gives lengthier treatment to the problems students encounter more often (such as run-on sentences, sentence fragments, subject-verb agreement, and even spelling). The great majority of examples, exercises, and sample assignments are drawn from student and professional writing and from actual writing assignments given in a wide variety of classes, therefore they have the flavor of 'real' writing. The tone of this handbook is different from that in other English handbooks. It is more informal and less didactic. Complementing the tone are numerous marginal quotes and some cartoons that provide relevant comments. They offer a respite, but more important, they remind us that writing is indeed a part of a larger world 'out there'. They also help to restore perspective, to make us aware again of the fact that writing is after all