本书分为四大部分。

第一部分为英语写作知识与技巧概述，引用语言学的新成果，分析对比了东西方不同民族的思维表达方式和习惯，提出了怎样才能写出地道英语的原则。

第二部分和第三部分介绍从句子到段落，再到篇章的写作知识与技巧，让学生通过知识与技巧的运用，实现用英语写作短文、传递信息和表达思想的目标。

第四部分介绍两种特殊形式的英文写作——文章概要和读书报告的写作，适应大学英语教育的普遍要求。

Part One A General Introduction to English Writins

Ⅰ Writing in Our World

Ⅱ Types of Writing

1 Narration

2 Description

3 Exposition

Ⅲ Writing Well in English

1 Following the English Thought Pattern

2 Seeking Clarity, Brevity, and Variety

3 Considering Our Purpose and Our Audience's Usage Levels

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 Three 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

 1) Fragments Without Verbs

 2) Fragments Without Subjects

 3) Fragments Without Subjects and / or Verbs

 4) Fragments of Dependent Clauses

  2 Choppy Sentences

  3 Run-Together Sentences

  4 Stringy Sentences

  5 Confusing Shifts

 1) Confusing Shifts in Person

 2) Confusing Shifts in TenSe

 3) Confusing Shifts in Subject and Voice

 4) Confusing Shifts in Mood or Speech

 5) Confusing Shifts in Number

 6) Mixed Sentence Construction

  6 Incomplete Constructions

 1) Careless Omissions

 2) Incomplete Comparisons

  7 Ambiguous Pronoun Reference

 1) A Pronoun with Two or More Possible Antecedents

 2) A Pronoun Without a Clearly Expressed Antecedent

 3) The Pronouns lt, They, and You with Indefinite Antecedents

 4) The Pronouns This, That, and Which Referring to General Ideas

 5) A Pronoun Too Far Away from Its Antecedent

  8 Dangling Modifiers

 1) Danglin Participial Modifiers

 2) Dangling Gerunds in Prepositional Phrases

 3) Dangling Infinitive Modifiers

 4) Dangling Abbreviated Clauses

  9 Misplaced Modifiers

 1) Misplaced Prepositional Phrases

 2) Misplaced Adjective Clauses

 3) Misplaced Adverbial Modifiers

10 Wordiness ~

 1) Needless Repetition

 2) Needless Expansion

 3) Awkward Cliches

  4) Overwritten Style

Part Three From Paragraph to Theme

Ⅰ Introduction

Ⅱ Three Kinds of Paragraph

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

  1) Theme of Process in Time Order

  2) Theme of Description in Order of Importance

  3) Theme of Classification in Order of Importance

  4) Theme of Comparison and Contrast in Order of Importance

  5) Theme of Cause and Effect in Order of Importance

  6) 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