Introduction<br > he purpose of Tge Writer s Options is to help you become a<br > better writer.<br > To he p you improve your writing， we have organized The<br > Writer s Optlmts around a series of combining exercises that<br > provide you with disciplined ~iting practice. In fact， the<br > book s first major assumption is that the most direct way to<br > improve writing is to practice writing. Studying g~ammar， analyzing<br > essays， a~d reading books about writing--all these may be useful activ-<br > t es， hut they are not the most efficient way to become a better writer.<br > Writi~ is. The book s second major assumpt on is that )，our writing<br > improves as you come to recognize the language options open to you and<br > then choose， in context， the one that is most appropriate to make your<br > point.<br > The exercises in The Wrltvr s Options are designed to extend your<br > control over an increasingly large number of sentence stractures， para-<br > graph patterns， and broader writing strategies. But at the same time，<br > most of the exercises provide a specific context for testing the appro-<br > priateness of whichever structures， patterns， or strategies you choose.<br > So the exercises work in three direct ways to help improve your writing:<br > the)， give you actual practice in writing sentences， paragraphs， and<br > essays; they help you master new constructions; and they encourage you<br > to make writing decisions in terms of context and purpose. And because<br > there are usually no right or wrong answers， the exercises invite you to<br > play ~dth words and phrases， to experiment with language， and to<br > explore new and exciting ways of expressing your feelings and ide~.，.<br > In doing the ~xereises， as in ~Titing the original compositions that you<br > will submit to your instructor， you will always have choices to make. For<br > example， the first combining exercise in the book asks you to combine<br > the following four sentences as the conclusion of a short descriptive<br > paragraph about hockey:<br >