Writing Center Texts for Instructors – Annotated Bibliography of a Few of Our Offerings

The Writing Center maintains a small library of reference books, English language instruction books, grammar and punctuation guides, books on tutoring, and books on teaching writing. Students and instructors may check out books for one week. Below is a small listing of texts that might be of particular interest to faculty. These are in order of interest, as I perceive it.

Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to integrating Writing, Critical Thinking and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

The perfect blend of scholarly and practical, Bean’s book covers essentials such as designing writing assignments, reading, commenting on and grading student writing, helping students read difficult texts, and classroom practices that enhance critical thinking. 

Lipson, Charles. Doing Honest Work in College: How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism and Achieve Real Academic Success. Second ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Written for students, but a valuable resource for instructors as well. Lipson explains how to take notes, identifies many tricky issues in paraphrasing and in citing, and finishes with quick guides to all the major citation styles. The last chapter is a fine list of citation FAQs.

Leki, Ilona. Understanding ESL Writers: A Guide for Teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1992.

A classic text, helpful for anyone responding to non-native writing in the classroom. Also covers classroom expectations and behaviors of English language learners.

Shipley, David, and Schwalbe, Will. Send: The Essential Guide to Email for the Office and Home. New York: Knopf, 2007.

Plenty of people have asked me for material on e-mailing. This one is both cute and useful. Business instructors may find this book particularly pertinent. Instructors in other areas may want it for lessons on general e-mail etiquette and for the idea of knowing your audience.

Black, Laurel Johnson. Between Talk and Teaching: Reconsidering the Writing Conference. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1998.

Most instructors probably haven’t been trained in how to deal with students one-on-one in office hours. More reflective and theoretical than how-to, this book nevertheless sheds light on a neglected corner of our teaching practice.

Mitchell, Mark L., Jolley, Janina M., and O’Shea, Robert P. Writing for Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2004.

A great book to recommend for beginning psych students, but also for students in other disciplines that use APA style. Lots of samples make this easy to learn from.

Krantz, Steven G. A Primer of Mathematical Writing. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 1997.

Highly recommended by math faculty for math students.

Is there a similar primer in your discipline that you’d like the Writing Center to have on hand for your students? Please let me know.

--Angela Woodward