T he Little, Brown Essential Handbook offers students the essential information they need to develop basic writing, research, and documentation skills. Useful for any level of writing or discipline, it covers academic writing, the writing process, grammar and usage, punctuation, research writing, and documentation--all in a user-friendly, accessible format. The convenient pocket size, four-colour design, spiral binding, and numerous reference aids make the book practical and easy to use--a resource students will actually reference. KEY TOPICS: Academic writing; Writing arguments; Writing in the disciplines; Presenting Writing; Emphasis; Conciseness; Parallelism; Variety and details; Appropriate words; Exact words; Verbs; Forms; Tenses; Mood; Voice; Subject--verb agreement; Pronouns; Forms; Pronoun--antecedent agreement; Pronoun reference; Modifiers; Adjectives and adverbs; Misplaced and dangling modifiers; Sentence faults; Fragments; Comma splices and fused sentences; The comma; The semicolon; The colon; The apostrophe; Quotation marks; End punctuation; Other marks; Spelling and the hyphen; Capital letters; Italics or underlining; Abbreviations; Numbers; Research strategy; Tracking Sources; Finding sources; Evaluating and synthesizing sources; Integrating sources into your text; Avoiding plagiarism; Documenting your sources; MLA documentation and format; APA documentation and format; Chicago documentation and format; CSE and IEEE documentation; Writing Online; Oral Communication; Writing for business MARKET: An essentials handbook suitable for use as a student reference and text for composition courses offered at the college and university level.