Real Stories

Real Stories is an all-inclusive developmental writing and reading textbook. Based on the author's innovative and class-tested methods, this book has been designed to meet the needs and appeal to the interests of a diverse, multi-cultural student population. It is comprised of three sections. 1. The Process of Writing covers the basic building blocks of writing and how to assemble them. This section covers paragraph form, prewriting, the topic sentence, and types of paragraphs. Additional units cover editing and proofreading steps, revision, and writing the final copy. For the advanced student, an optional unit explains essay form, the thesis statement, and the construction, planning, and writing of essays. 2. Time Savers for Grammar and Punctuation includes every major aspect of a developmental text: simple, compound, and complex sentences, how to find and eliminate run-ons, comma splices, and fragments, the use of commas, nouns, capitalization, direct quotations, verb tenses, and irregular verbs. A provided answer key permits students to proceed at their own pace and chart their progress. 3. The Reader is a reader created for students by other students. It contains carefully selected examples of developmental writing students' personal stories. Students are asked how the peer model might be improved in terms of unity, content, coherence, or length. Thought-provoking questions help develop analytical skills and open the way for group discussion of moral, ethical, political, and social issues.