Updated with many new references, this entertaining book gives students advice on ways to enliven their essay assignments with vivid images, avoid the dull passive voice, and construct smooth, well-crafted sentences that flow together to create unified themes. Short quizzes called Brain Ticklers appear throughout the text. Painless titles offer informal, student-friendly approaches to each subject, emphasizing interesting details, supplementing the text with amusing insights, and outlining potential pitfalls clearly and step by step. Students begin to understand how disparate details all fit together to form a clear picture. Timelines, ideas for interesting projects, and Brain Tickler quizzes in many of these titles help to take the tedium out of study and improve each student's grades.