...this situation sounds familiar, you may find it reassuring to know that many professionals undergo these same strange compulsions before they begin writing. Jean Kerr, author of Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels—or anything—in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories. To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful. But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task. Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that 1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader, and 2. More than anything, you want to communicate those ideas to your reader. These reminders may seem obvious to you, but without a solid commitment to your own opinions as well as to your reader, your prose will be lifeless and boring. If you don’t care about your subject, you can’t very well expect anyone else to. Have confidence that your ideas are...
Words: 234754 - Pages: 940
...PROLOGUE Fortress of the Light Pedron Niall's aged gaze wandered about his private audience chamber, but dark eyes hazed with thought saw nothing. Tattered wall hangings, once battle banners of the enemies of his youth, faded into dark wood paneling laid over stone walls, thick even here in the heart of the Fortress of the Light. The single chair in the room heavy, high-backed, and almost a throne - was as invisible to him as the few scattered tables that completed the furnishings. Even the white-cloaked man kneeling with barely restrained eagerness on the great sunburst set in the wide planks of the floor had vanished from Niall's mind for the moment, though few would have dismissed him so lightly. Jaret Byar had been given time to wash before being brought to Niall, but both his helmet and his breastplate were dulled from travel and battered from use. Dark, deep-set eyes shone with a feverish, urgent light in a face that seemed to have had every spare scrap of flesh boiled away. He wore no sword - none was allowed in Niall's presence - but he seemed poised on the edge of violence, like a hound awaiting the loosing of the leash. Twin fires on long hearths at either end of the room held off the late winter cold. It was a plain, soldier's room, really, everything well made but nothing extravagant except for the sunburst. Furnishings came to the audience chamber of the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light with the man who rose to the office; the...
Words: 244946 - Pages: 980
...Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published, in different form, by Paolini International, LLC in 2002. Copyright © 2002 by Christopher Paolini. KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. www.randomhouse.com/teens LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Paolini, Christopher. Eragon / Christopher Paolini. p. cm. — (Inheritance ; bk. 1) SUMMARY: In Alagaësia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters. eISBN 0-375-89036-X [1. Fantasy. 2. Dragons—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.P19535Er 2003 [Fic]—dc21 2003047481 SAPHIRA’S EYE (From the original Front Cover done by the author) This book is dedicated to my mom, for showing me the magic in the world; to my dad, for revealing the man behind the curtain. And also to my sister, Angela, for helping when I’m blue. TABLE OF CONTENTS .........................................................................................................................5 SAPHIRA’S EYE............................................................................................5 (From the original...
Words: 163497 - Pages: 654
...Growing Up Asian in Australia file:///D|/ /Calibre Library/Wei Zhi/Growing Up Asian in Australia (799)/text/part0000.html[2014-6-18 23:54:32] Growing Up Asian in Australia file:///D|/ /Calibre Library/Wei Zhi/Growing Up Asian in Australia (799)/text/part0000.html[2014-6-18 23:54:32] Growing Up Asian in Australia Growing up Asian in Australia file:///D|/ /Calibre Library/Wei Zhi/Growing Up Asian in Australia (799)/text/part0001.html[2014-6-18 23:54:33] Growing Up Asian in Australia Growing up Asian in Australia ...................................... Alice Pung Edited by file:///D|/ /Calibre Library/Wei Zhi/Growing Up Asian in Australia (799)/text/part0002.html[2014-6-18 23:54:33] Growing Up Asian in Australia Published by Black Inc., an imprint of Schwartz Media Pty Ltd Level 5, 289 Flinders Lane Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia email: enquiries@blackincbooks.com http://www.blackincbooks.com Introduction and this collection © Alice Pung & Black Inc. Individual works © retained by the authors. Reprinted 2008 . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2008. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the publishers. Photo of Hoa Pham by Alister Air. Photo of Joy Hopwood by Yanna Black. The National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Pung, Alice (ed.) Growing up...
Words: 113124 - Pages: 453
...GAME CHANGE OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out...
Words: 160589 - Pages: 643
...62118 0/nm 1/n1 2/nm 3/nm 4/nm 5/nm 6/nm 7/nm 8/nm 9/nm 1990s 0th/pt 1st/p 1th/tc 2nd/p 2th/tc 3rd/p 3th/tc 4th/pt 5th/pt 6th/pt 7th/pt 8th/pt 9th/pt 0s/pt a A AA AAA Aachen/M aardvark/SM Aaren/M Aarhus/M Aarika/M Aaron/M AB aback abacus/SM abaft Abagael/M Abagail/M abalone/SM abandoner/M abandon/LGDRS abandonment/SM abase/LGDSR abasement/S abaser/M abashed/UY abashment/MS abash/SDLG abate/DSRLG abated/U abatement/MS abater/M abattoir/SM Abba/M Abbe/M abbé/S abbess/SM Abbey/M abbey/MS Abbie/M Abbi/M Abbot/M abbot/MS Abbott/M abbr abbrev abbreviated/UA abbreviates/A abbreviate/XDSNG abbreviating/A abbreviation/M Abbye/M Abby/M ABC/M Abdel/M abdicate/NGDSX abdication/M abdomen/SM abdominal/YS abduct/DGS abduction/SM abductor/SM Abdul/M ab/DY abeam Abelard/M Abel/M Abelson/M Abe/M Aberdeen/M Abernathy/M aberrant/YS aberrational aberration/SM abet/S abetted abetting abettor/SM Abeu/M abeyance/MS abeyant Abey/M abhorred abhorrence/MS abhorrent/Y abhorrer/M abhorring abhor/S abidance/MS abide/JGSR abider/M abiding/Y Abidjan/M Abie/M Abigael/M Abigail/M Abigale/M Abilene/M ability/IMES abjection/MS abjectness/SM abject/SGPDY abjuration/SM abjuratory abjurer/M abjure/ZGSRD ablate/VGNSDX ablation/M ablative/SY ablaze abler/E ables/E ablest able/U abloom ablution/MS Ab/M ABM/S abnegate/NGSDX abnegation/M Abner/M abnormality/SM abnormal/SY aboard ...
Words: 113589 - Pages: 455
...THE STUDENT'S PRACTICAL DICTIONARY ; fNdkoq ; CONTAINING English words with English and Hindi Meanings and Pronunciation in Deva Nagri Character with an Appendix containing Familiar Foreign Words and Phrases and Abbreviations in Common use. FIFTEENTH EDITION Thoroughly Revised,Improved,Enlarged and Illustrated PRICE 3 RUPESS ALLAHABAD RAM NARAIN LAL PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER 1936 ISCII text of dictionary taken from from TDIL's ftp: anu.tdil.gov.in pub dict site I N 1.m I Pron 1.m a Det 1.ek, abatement N abbey N 1.kmF, GVtF, GVAv, mdApn, b A, 2.yAg, smAE ag jF vZmAlA kA Tm a"r tTA -vr, 2.tk mphlA kESpt pzq vA -tAv , aback Adv 1.acAnk, ekAek, 2.pFC abandon VT 1.CoX nA, yAg nA, yAgnA, tjnA, d d 2.EbnA aAj^ nA nOkrF CoXnA, apn kodrAcAr aAEd mCoX nA, d , nA d d abandoned A 1.CoXA h,aA, Enjn-TAn, 2.EbgXA h,aA, iEdy lolp, lMpV, drAcArF, aAvArA , , abandonment N 1.pZ yAg, sMpZ aAmosg, EbSkl CoX nA d , abate VI 1.km honA, GVnA, DFmA honA abate VT 1.km krnA, GVAnA, DFmA krnA, m@ym krnA, rok nA, smA krnA d 1 1.IsAiyo kA mW, gz\ArA, kVF, mW, , , 2.mht aADFn sADao kF mXlF k , abbot N 1.mht, mWDArF, mWAEDkArF abbreviate VT 1.km krnA, s" krnA, CoVA krnA, p sAr EnkAlnA abbreviation N 1.s" , GVAv, sAr, lG,!p, skt, p 2.sE" pd yAf, fNd yA pd kA lG!p ^ , abdicate VTI 1.-vQCA s CoXnA, yAg krnA, tjnA, pd yAg krnA abdication N 1.pd yAg abdomen N 1.X, V, k"F, udr p p , abdominal A 1.udr sMbDF, V kA p abduct VI 1.BgA l jAnA, EnkAl l...
Words: 164153 - Pages: 657