这套教材包括基础英语写作、英语应用文写作和高级阶段的英语论文写作。作为基础阶段的教材，应从句子到段落，再到篇章，帮助学生打下坚实的英语写作基础；应用文写作则为增强学生应用英语进行交际的能力添砖加瓦；论文写作应从普通论文讲起，再到学术论文，初步培养学生从事学术研究、撰写学术文章的能力。有很好的可操作性，理论的讲解和技巧的介绍应深入浅出，环环相扣，且能及时和准确地得到操练，转化为学生的“知识”。

Part One A General Introduction to English Writing

I. Writing in Our World

II. Types of Writing

1. Narration

2. Description

3. Exposition

III. Writing Well

1. Writing for Your Readers

2. Good Writing

Part Two From Sentence to Paragraph

I. Sentence Structure

1. Elements of a Sentence

2. Kinds of Sentences

3. Clause Connectors

4. Coordination and Subordination

5. Parallelism

II. Paragraph Structure

1. The Basic Paragraph

2. Four Elements of the Paragraph

3. Mechanics in Writing a Paragraph

III. Basic Paragraph-Building Skills

1. Taking Four Pre-Writing Steps

2. Making Our Topic Sentence a Helpful Guide

3. Loading Our Topic Sentence with a Strong Controlling Idea

4. Writing a Helpful Outline in Advance

5. Gaining Unity

6. Gaining Coherence from Logical Order

7. Gaining Coherence from Transitions

8. Gaining Better Unity and Coherence from Punctuation

IV. Sentence Problems

 1. Sentence Fragments

   Fragments Without Verbs

   Fragments Without Subjects

   Fragments Without Subjects and/or Verbs

   Fragments of Dependent Clauses

2. Choppy Sentences

3. Run-Together Sentences

4. Stringy Sentences

5. Confusing Shifts

   Confusing Shifts in Person

   Confusing Shifts in Tense

   confusing Shifts in Subject and Voice

   confusing Shifts in Mood or Speech

   confusing Shifts in Number

   Mixed Sentence construction

 6. Incomplete Constructions

    Careless Omissions

    Incomplete Comparisons

 7. Ambiguous Pronoun Reference

    A Pronoun with Two or More Possible Antecedents

    A Pronoun Without Clearly Expressed Antecedent

    The Pronouns It, They, and You with Indefinite Antecedents

    The Pronouns This, That and Which Referring to General Ideas

    A Pronoun Too Far Away from Its Antecedent

  8. Dangling Modifiers

    Dangling Participial Modifiers

    Dangling Gerunds in Prepositional Phrases

    Dangling Infinitive Modifiers

    Dangling Abbreviated Clauses

  9. Misplaced Modifiers

    Misplaced Prepositional Phrases

    Misplaced Adjective Clauses

    Misplaced Adverbial Modifiers

  10. Wordiness

     Needless Repetition

     Needless Expansion

     Awkward Cliches

     Overwritten Style

Part There From Paragraph to Theme

I. Introduction

II. Three Kinds of Paragraphs

  1. The Introductory Paragraph

  2. The Body Paragraph

  3. The Concluding Paragraph

III. Basic Theme-Building Skills

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

  2. Getting the Theme Coherent with Transitions Between Paragraphs

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

    Process Theme in Time Order

    Descriptive Theme in Order of Importance

    Theme of Classification in Order of Importance

    Theme of Comparison and Contrast in Order of Importance

    Theme of Cause and Effect in Order of Importance

    Theme of Exemplification in Time Order, or Order of Importance

IV. Sample Themes Observed

Part Four Summary and Book Report

I. Summary Writing

II. Book Report Writing

Correction Symbols

Partial Answers to Exercises

Bibliography