Can’t believe it took me this long, but I finally learned where the forward Delete key is on Mac laptops. It’s <fn>+<delete>. Of course, this also works on the new little wireless keyboards that lack a number pad. 
I use the arrow keys all the time. Fairly obviously, the left and right go one character at a time, while up and down move one line vertically. But if you add either the <option> key to those directions, you skip whole words or whole paragraphs at a time. The <command> key goes further: command-left takes you to the front of the line, command-right to the end, command-up goes all the way to the top of the document, and command-down goes all the way down.
Okay, that’s totally useful, but now you should try adding the <shift> key — the key that selects — to all of those maneuvers: shift + arrow keys highlights character by character, but add option or command to shift, and you start selecting whole words, or grafs, or the entire body of text, easy like pie!
Finally, you can also add option or command to the delete key, or the fn-delete, to delete whole words or lines at a time.
I almost never use the mouse when I’m editing text, but sometimes I’ll employ a double-click or triple-click, to select a word or a paragraph, respectively.
(Thanks to Georgianne for deciding that “fn” should be pronounced “effin’.”)
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