The Condensed ESL Writer's Handbook

Book excerpt: The CondensedESL Writer’s Handbook is a reference work for ESL students who are taking college-level courses. Because its purpose is to provide help with the broad variety of writing questions students may have when working on school assignments, the text focuses on English for Academic Purposes. Unlike other handbooks on the market, this book’s sole purpose is to address the issues of primary importance to language learners. The Condensed Handbook complements a student writer’s dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar reference book. It would be suitable as a text for an advanced ESL writing course. The Condensed Handbook is concise and easily navigated; is accessible, with clear and direct explanatory language; and limits its focus to the grammatical and style aspects of writing and reference material. Included as special features in the Condensed Handbook are: • The explanatory language is appropriate for ESL students, in contrast to the more complex and idiomatic language of other English handbooks. • The level of detail is more manageable for ESL students, compared to what is in other English handbooks. • Many of the examples of paragraphs and exercise sentences were written by ESL students; this encourages users of this Handbook to realize that they too can also become effective writers. • Additional samples of MLA and APA reference entries. The Full Handbook (978-0-472-03403-1) and Workbook (978-0-472-03404-8) are also available.