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Writing Courses

Course	Title	Author	Publisher	Comments
BE 111	Steps in Composition	Troyka and Nudelman	Prentice Hall, 8th Ed.	Very comprehensive text. Students enjoy using it. I still like the approach to grammar, but I use the rest of the book less each time. Very comprehensive – I like the approach to sentence completeness. In addition, the readings are very thought-provoking. The students enjoy the variety of stories, vocabulary and grammar exercises; excellent writing topics
	Checkpoints	Page and Taggail	Pearson/Longman 5th Ed.	Clear, direct, easy to use and not too long
	English Brush-Up	Langan and Goldstein	McGraw Hill, 4th Ed.	Advantages: clean, clear format; covers essential writing skills in concise form; easily understandable, but on appropriate level of difficulty; not too long; comparatively affordable price Disadvantages: may be too concise and plain for some instructors; does not contain readings or supplementary material
	Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings	Fawcett	Houghton Mifflin, 7th Ed.	Excellent for meeting the needs of our BE 111 students Wonderful exercises and examples; challenging vocabulary and readings; weak grammar section that needs to be supplemented; excellent teacher website, test bank and student website Excellent – good examples and sample paragraphs
	English Writing Skills	Langan	McGraw Hill	Expensive; lots of good material; sentence writing exercises in the back. Overall, if students keep the book, it can be a valuable resource.
	Sentence Skills: Form A	Langan	McGraw Hill, 8th Ed	Has good website available, thorough text; a bit dry (and too expensive) but minimal terminology and sticks to basics; clearly and concisely explained; numerous exercises with answers in back for students
	At a Glance: Sentences	Brandon	Houghton Mifflin	Extremely concise (almost too concise) explanation of sentences with exercises à a few errors and no answers supplied to students, but extremely inexpensive and easy to bring to class.
	The Least You Should Know About English	Brandon	Houghton Mifflin	Haven’t used it in a while, but it has clear, concise explanations of grammar/sentences with numerous exercises supplied.
BE 112	College Writing Skills with Readings	Langan	McGraw Hill, 6th Ed.	Excellent. Helps prepare students for ACT Excellent for grammar; supplement with articles and stories The section on the “Bases for Writing Essays” has become a bit wordy (and ‘stuffy’) in later editions; however, still an excellent primer for BE 112 students; does quite well in preparing them for EN 101 and EN 102 and later college and life writing This text really helps students improve their grammar, mechanics, formatting. It is highly recommended.
	Getting Your ACT Together	Rochford	Kendall/Hunt	Excellent. Helps prepare students for ACT I use this about three weeks before the ACT for specific preparation. Excellent source for grammar. This is the most practical way to help students learn the ACT format so that they can pass the test Useful for preparing for the ACT test
	Steps in Composition	Troyka and Nudelman	Prentice Hall, 8th Ed.	Love the book, but it’s become far too expense and too heavy. Has most of the fundamentals appropriate to the level – readings and vocabulary Sample essays are good, as is discussion of run-ons and fragments
	Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings	Fawcett	Houghton Mifflin, 7th Ed.
	The Writer’s Way	Rawlins	Houghton Mifflin, 6th Ed.
	Exploring Writing	Langan	McGraw Hill	A better, more compact version of this text is College Writing Skills with Readings (7th Ed).
	Steps for Writers	Eggers	Pearson/Longman	Excellent grammar exercises Good explanations; exercises keyed to three levels of difficulty: usually quite good, but I wish there were more; good mix of student and professionally written sample essays; affordable
BE 201	Grassroots with Readings	Fawcett	Houghton Mifflin, 8th Ed.	Good for 201 Excellently organized., but difficult vocabulary; excellent exercises; CDs available This textbook works well with the 201 students
	The Prentice Hall Grammar Workbook		Prentice Hall	Advantages: clear, clean format; high level vocabulary; interesting sentence content; comparatively affordable price. Disadvantages: does not cover all important topics, especially verbs.
	Fundamentals of English Grammar (with answer key)	Azar	Pearson Education, 3rd Ed.	Very good!
	Great Paragraphs	Folse et al	Houghton Mifflin, 2nd Ed.	Love the book! Easy to understand
	Writing Skills: Success in 20 Minutes a Day	Olson	LearningExpress	Good secondary, enrichment text
	Fundamentals of Academic Writing	Fawcett	Houghton Mifflin	Very inadequate I terms of illustrations and practice exercises. It is geared for a low level class
	Basic Grammar in Use	Murphy	Cambridge, 2nd Ed.	This is a no-frills grammar text. There isn’t a lot of complicated grammar explanation. The author provides examples and exercises. The students find the book accessible.
BE 203	Writing in Context	Kirszner Mandell	Bedford/St. Martins	The move from paragraph to essay is very smooth
	Grassroots with Readings	Fawcett	Houghton Mifflin, 8th Ed.	Keep coming back to this text because of all the illustrations, readings and exercises; supplement with handouts Very good practical exercises; good readings
	Introduction to Academic Writing	Oshima and Hogue	Pearson Longman, 3rd Ed.
	Think about Editing	Asher	Thomson Heinle
	In Our Own Words	Mlynarczyk and Haber	Cambridge
BE 205	Composing with Confidence	Meyers	Pearson Longman, 7th Ed.
	Great Essays	Folse et al.	Houghton Mifflin, 2nd Ed.	Good for clarity of essay parts; good sample essays (easy, yet topical); effective student questions on parts of essay
	Getting Your ACT Together	Rochford	Kendall/Hunt, 2nd Ed.	Use mostly for 1) prompts and 2) brainstorming lists for reasons based. on specific prompts Fabulous! Fantastic! Very helpful.
	An Inductive Approach to English Grammar and Composition	Rochford	Kendall/Hunt	Good book! Needs more explanations for the grammar
	Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings	Fawcett	Houghton Mifflin, 7th Ed.	A good book
	Evergreen		Houghton Mifflin, 8th Ed.
	Grammar Troublespots: A Guide for Student Writers	Raimes	Cambridge, 3rd Ed.
	Destinations 2	Herzfeld-Pipkin	Thomson Heinle
	Writing Talk: Paragraphs and Short Essays with Readings	Winkler McEwen-Metherel	Pearson/Prentice Hall	I like the editing/common errors section of this textbook, but I’m not so happy with the content portion. I only use about a third of the book. I’m thinking of not assigning it again.