QA Compact: Quick Access

Quick Find Road Map

If you sometimes feel a bit unsure as you write, try using the QUICK FIND ROADMAP to get you back on track to effective writing. The roadmap reflects some of the most common writing errors that frustrate writers. To find the information you need, choose the item that best describes the issue you are facing and then turn to the pages referenced.

WORDS AND SENTENCES

Write complete sentences instead of fragments.

Join independent clauses correctly by avoiding comma splices and run-ons.

Match grammatical forms within sentences to avoid shifts and keep sentences clear.

Make sentences with introductory phrases and with modifiers clear.

Know when to use its or it's.

GRAMMAR

Match subjects and verbs in number and person.

Match pronouns to the word or words they refer to.

Use correct verb endings.

Choose verbs that correctly express time in tense and form.

Describe relationships with the correct prepositions for time and place.

PUNCTUATION

Use commas after introductory elements.

Use commas in compound sentences.

Use commas to set off nonrestrictive elements.

Do not use commas to set off restrictive elements.

Use commas with a series of three or more elements that share the same grammatical form.

Use apostrophes correctly.

STYLE AND WORD CHOICE

Choose the best words for your meaning.

Make your writing to the point and concise.

QA Compact is a new first edition, value-priced handbook from trusted authors Lynn Troyka and Doug Hesse. Brief and spiral-bound, it features a two-color design, includes four select tabs, and exercises. QA Compact is accompanied by a PDF eBook and additional exercises on the Web.

The Troyka/Hesse family of handbooks provides the most balanced coverage of writing process, grammar, research, and topics important to today’s students. Both respected teachers and authors, Troyka and Hesse give practical advice to students about the writing they will do in composition courses, in other classes, and in the world beyond. Offering instructors a full range of choices in handbooks, the Troyka/Hesse family of handbooks is available in a variety of formats, also including web-based and customized, so instructors can select the handbook that best fits their course needs.

LYNN QUITMAN TROYKA, Professor of Writing, at the City University of New York (CUNY), has taught at Queensborough Community College and in the graduate Language and Literacy program at City College. Former editor of the Journal of Basic Writing, her writing and research appears in major journals and various scholarly collections. She conducts workshops in the teaching of writing. Lynn is co-author of Quick Access Reference for Writers, Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall (2007), QA Compact, First Edition, Prentice Hall (2007), Canadian editions of her Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers and Quick Access Reference for Writers, Structured Reading, Seventh Edition, Prentice Hall (2007), and Steps in Composition, Eighth Edition, Prentice Hall (2004). Dr. Troyka received the 2001 CCCC Exemplar Award, the highest CCCC award for scholarship, teaching, and service; the Rhetorician of the Year Award; and the TYCA Pickett Award for Service. She is a past chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC); the Two-Year College Association (TYCA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE); the College Section of NCTE; and the Writing Division of the Modern Language Association. ”This information,” says Dr. Troyka, “tells what I’ve done, not who I am. I am a teacher. Teaching is my life’s work, and I love it.”

DOUG HESSE, Professor of English and Director of Writing at the University of Denver as of fall 2006, previously held several positions at Illinois State University, including Director of the Honors Program, Director of Writing Programs, and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. Dr. Hesse earned his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. In addition to teaching at Illinois State, he’s also taught at the University of Findlay, Miami University (as Wiepking Distinguished Visiting Professor), and Michigan Tech. Dr. Hesse has had numerous national leadership roles in the teaching of writing. He is past Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the nation’s largest professional association of college writing instructors. A past president, as well, of the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), Hesse edited that organization’s journal, Writing Program Administration. He is a member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Executive Committee and the Modern Language Association (MLA) Division on Teaching as a Profession Executive Committee. He is the author of 45 articles and book chapters, in such journals as College Composition and Communication, College English, JAC, Rhetoric Review, the Journal of Teaching Writing, and others, and in such books as Essays on the Essay; Writing Theory and Critical Theory; The Writing Program Administrator’s Sourcebook; Literary Nonfiction; The Private, the Public, and the Published; Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies; and others. He is also co-author, with LynnTroyka, of the Quick Access Reference for Writers, Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall (2007) and Quick Access Compact, First Edition, Prentice Hall (2007). Illinois State University named him Outstanding University Researcher. “Of all these accomplishments,” says Dr. Hesse, “the one that matters most to me is being named Distinguished Humanities Teacher at Illinois State. That one came from my students and suggests that, in however small a way, I’ve mattered in their educations and lives.”