The major struggle facing all beginning Chinese language students is to learn to recognize, read and write hundreds of Chinese characters. The Second 100 Chinese Characters adopts a structural approach that helps students to overcome this initial difficulty and quickly master the basic Chinese characters that are fundamental to this language. Intended for beginning students, this book contains characters that have been carefully selected and sequenced for rapid and effective learning. Each Chinese character is shown separately on a single page, together with its English definitions, hanyu pinyin romanization, alternate form (if any), a stroke order guide and ample space for writing practice. Printed in gray lines, the stroke order guides introduce the students to the standard stroke sequences used in writing the characters, by tracing over them. After learning the correct stroke order and direction, the students can then practice writing the characters on their own, thus reinforcing recognition and memorization. Large boxes with grid lines for correct proportions are provided. Related compounds and phrases containing each character are also included to assist in vocabulary building.

Three indexes (alphabetically by the English meanings, by hanyu pinyin romanizations, and by radicals) are provided at the back of the book for quick and easy reference, along with extra sheets of blank boxes for writing practice.