We write to communicate what we learn, what we discover, and what we want to promote. Regardless of the academic discipline we study, we will write within it, and every discipline has its own standards and formats for written work as well as its own methods of research. Longman's The Short Guide Series, under the editorship of Sylvan Barnet and Marcia Stubbs, reviews writing in nine general and specific disciplines: Art, Biology, Chemistry, Film, History, Literature, Music, Science, and the Social Sciences.
Within each of these short guides to writing, you will find material related to critical thinking and reading, approaches to interpretation and analysis, research methodology, and writing format and style (including documentation guides) that are specific to the discipline. These guides are intended to both supplement and complement your coursework. The companion web sites also provide summaries of each guide, links to discipline-specific sites that will help you with research and writing, and some exercises that use Internet resources.
We hope that when you use the material in The Short Guide Series, you find a new world of communicating about your area of study that allows you to broaden and deepen your knowledge and think about the discipline more thoughtfully and thoroughly.
Short Guide to Writing About Art
Sixth Edition
Barnet, Sylvan, Tufts University
A Short Guide to Writing About Art, 6/E, the best-selling text of its kind, encourages students to form their own opinions about art, and then equips them with the tools they need to write effective essays. This handy guide addresses a wealth of fundamental matters, including description versus analysis; the value of peer review; documenting sources; and editing the final essay.
A Short Guide to Writing about Biology
Fourth Edition
Pechenik, Jan A., Tufts University
Emphasizing writing as a means to examining, evaluating, sharing, and refining ideas, A Short Guide to Writing about Biology helps students get more out of their biology courses and prepares them for work beyond the classroom. More than a "writing guide," this book teaches students to think as biologists and to then express that thinking clearly and concisely through their writing and speaking. With comprehensive coverage on how to read and evaluate articles, how to interpret and describe the results of statistical tests, how to maintain laboratory and field notebooks, and how to communicate information concisely and convincingly to professional and general audiences, this book is a "must have" for any biology student. This edition also provides considerable emphasis on the Internet and work with computers in Biology.
A Short Guide to Reading and Writing about Chemistry
Second Edition
Beall, Herbert, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Trimbur, John, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Emphasizing writing as a means to examining, evaluating, sharing, and refining ideas, A Short Guide to Writing about Chemistry helps students get more out of their Chemistry courses and prepares them for work beyond the classroom. This book covers the kinds of readings and writing that chemistry students are called on to do–from introductory to more advanced work–in academic and industrial settings, and in public life. With comprehensive coverage on topics including graphing programs, ACS formats, Science Citation Index, Merck Index, and writing abstracts, this book is a "must-have" for any chemistry student. This edition also provides updated coverage on the Internet, working with computers, and electronic sources.
A Short Guide to Writing About History
Third Edition
Marius, Richard, Harvard University
An ideal supplement in any history course that requires writing, A Short Guide to Writing About History, Third Edition, stresses thinking and writing like an historian. This engaging and practical little text helps students get beyond merely compiling dates and facts; it teaches them how to incorporate their own ideas into their papers and to tell a story about history that interests them and their peers. Covering both brief essays and the documented source paper, the text explores the writing and researching processes, different modes of historical writing including argument and concludes with guidelines for improving style. This edition includes new sections on using, evaluating, and citing online sources, an updated full-length sample research paper, and new writing samples from diverse historical areas to illustrate concepts.
A Short Guide to Writing About Literature
Eighth Edition
Barnet, Sylvan, Tufts University
Cain, William E., Wellesley College
Emphasizing writing as a process and incorporating new critical approaches to literature, A Short Guide to Writing about Literature, 8/e, provides accessible, step-by-step instruction for improving students' written work related to literature. Ideal as a supplement to any course where writing about literature or literary studies is emphasized.
A Short Guide to Writing About Music
Bellman, Jonathan, University of Northern Colorado
Written in a clear and conversational style, A Short Guide to Writing About Music examines a wide range of writing assignments for music courses at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum. Employing a variety of writing samples as a means to illustrate effective writing, this brief and inexpensive text teaches writers how to deftly research and write about music.
A Short Guide to Writing About Science
Porush, David, Rensselar Polytechic Institute
Using examples and illustrations from chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering, this helpful guide gives readers simple step- by-step procedures for keeping lab notebooks and writing lab reports, formal research papers, and science essays.
A Short Guide to Writing About the Social Sciences
Third Edition
Cuba, Lee J., Wellesley College
Comprehensive and well balanced, this writing guide is designed to help students prepare effective documents for their social science courses. The revised third edition includes important coverage on efficiently using the Internet and the World Wide Web as well as the library and other traditional information resources.
A Short Guide to Writing about Film
Fourth Edition
Corrigan, Timothy, Temple University
A Short Guide to Writing about Film walks students through the process of converting the fun and pleasure of watching a movie into the satisfaction of articulating ideas about that movie. With numerous student and professional examples along the way, it moves from note taking and first drafts to polished essays and research projects, demonstrating how an analysis of a film becomes more subtle and rigorous as part of a compositional process. A Short Guide to Writing about Film draws on students' love and knowledge of films—ranging from movies that students easily recognize to ones they may only have read or heard about—as a way of encouraging and developing writing skills.
