Guidelines for Text Selection: First-Year Writing

Spring 2010 Guidelines

Back to The First Year Writing Program - for Faculty

Text Selection Process:

Book order forms should be submitted to Phyllis Brooks for review.  Do not complete book orders online.  Submit all book order forms, even if they are for courses other than the first-year writing courses.  A director will contact you if there are questions or problems.  If you would like to talk over book order selections, you can do so in person or over e-mail. Please feel free to contact Maria, Tom, or Emily.

To get a desk copy of a recommended book, please see Phyllis.  We order a number of extra copies and are happy to give them out until we run out.  If we don't have your text, please contact the representative directly.  You can have your copy sent directly to your home, which may be more convenient.  A complete list of representatives is at the bottom of this page.

Please submit book orders by December 1st. 

Guidelines:

Our practice is to recommend a range of texts.  If you would like to use an alternate text that is not on our list, review course criteria carefully and then be sure to attach a brief description (web page is fine) of your alternative text.

As always, the teacher survey on the texts has been very useful in informing these guidelines.  We have removed some unpopular texts from the recommended list. Also, we now have a Textbook Review Committee, members of which have worked diligently and impressively to review existing and new texts; their recommendations were made to the directors who have made final recommendations. Thank you to all, and particularly to the Textbook Committee members: Christa Setteducati Verem, Aaron McClendon, Timothy Wenzell, Rochelle Sullivan, Suzan Russell, with Barbara Hamilton as chair.

Price information comes from the publisher, and these prices will be raised by the bookstore. If the edition is at least one year old the bookstore will also have used books, which generally are about 20 to 25 percent lower than the new price.

ENWR100 Introduction to Writing

Hacker, Diana.  A Writer’s Reference, Montclair State University edition.  (This is the only option for a handbook, and will be ordered directly from the publisher for your classes; you do not need to include it in your book order.)

Text to be determined.

ENWR105 College Writing I: Intellectual Prose

Required: Hacker, Diana.  A Writer’s Reference, Montclair State University edition.  (This is the only option for a handbook, and will be ordered directly from the publisher for your classes; you do not need to include it in your book order; see below for details.)

In addition to the handbook, a reader that requires students to read intellectually engaging essays (not fiction) about other issues of the day.   As a reminder, in choosing a text it is important to remember that the following additional course aim: "To develop as a writer is to become an active participant in the intellectual discourse of our culture and to cease to be a passive recipient of information and ideology. College Writing I: Intellectual Prose asks students to explore, amongst other issues, issues of marginalization—an experience that many of our students have already encountered or participated in, even if they are not aware of it. By increasing students’ awareness of their own subject positions and enabling them to find an entry point to such discussions, this course helps students to develop the ability for critical reflection and discursive agency." (Proposal for College Writing I)

Recommended 105 Readers:

McCormick, Kathleen.  Reading Our Histories, Reading Our Cultures, 2nd ed.  Longman, 2003. ISBN:0-321-12369-7. 

This reader asks students to examine what might be seen as “current” issues through historical perspectives.  A cultural studies reader that emphasizes process, the focus tends to be on American (and Western) issues and it clearly invites critical analysis of contemporary society.  It’s a smart reader that asks students to do the kind of work that good students end up doing.  Faculty response to this book is generally good, though many faculty note that students don’t always like it, and that it doesn't’t work quite as well as hoped. (10 faculty recommend, 4 are ambivalent, 2 don't recommend)

Miller, James S.  Acting Out Culture: Reading and Writing.  Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.  ISBN: 0-312-45416-3.

A new book (released December 2008) that “is the first thematic composition reader to focus students’ attention beyond what rules and norms govern their everyday behavior to how the rules themselves have been shaped over time. The author, James Miller, has drawn on his cutting-edge expertise in cultural analysis to help students inquire into those social norms and respond with writing that positions them as citizens making informed decisions about their world” (Bedford/St.Martin’s site).  If you like the premise of Signs of Life in the USA (which is in a new edition this year, as well), then you will probably want to consider this reader.

Greene and Lidinsky.  From Inquiry to Academic Writer: A Text and a Reader.  Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.  ISBN: 0312451652. 

The most popular among faculty this fall, this reader is focused on reading and writing arguments which, as teachers know, is also the focus of the course.  If an instructor wants to really have the class reader help with teaching students to write arguments, than this is a good choice.  There’s a lot to help students practice the skills of writing arguments, and teachers would do well to use some of the pedagogical materials as homework or in-class work.   The readings are arranged topically, and they are about important, current topics and arguments in our culture.  The readings are good models for students in that they are not primarily first-person narratives and they demonstrate careful argumentation.  There’s good coverage of various points of view on each issue covered – fairer, more thorough, than most.  This looks like a very good choice for this class. (8 faculty recommend; 2 are ambivalent; 0 do not recommend)

ENWR106 College Writing II: Writing and Literary Study

Required: a multicultural fiction/poetry/short story reader.

College Writing II is a continuation of College Writing I (with its emphasis on the process of writing including attention to revision, drafting, and instructor and peer feedback on writing) with a focus on literary study.  In this regard, the course aims to teach students a range of interpretive techniques and approaches that will enable them to further their skills of analysis, while also coming to an understanding of some of the particular qualities of poetry, fiction and drama and to address larger questions about the purpose and function of literature.  The course is not a survey that attempts to cover a period or offer "greatest hits."  

Recommended 106 Readers:

Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen. Literature: The Human Experience, 10th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0-312-60169-0. Price: $52.95.

The text is broad in its scope with an interesting blend of diverse writers spanning continents and centuries.  The editors chose engaging selections grouped under broad themes students usually respond to: Innocence and Experience, Conformity and Rebellion, the Presence of Death, and so on. Under each thematic unit works are arranged by genre. The first part of the book contains a solid section on Reading, Responding to, and Writing about Literature emphasizing a process approach, with sample papers written for different kinds of literary assignments. Throughout the book are Case Studies including one section of Poems about Paintings with high quality reproductions. The glossary of critical approaches and glossary of literary terms are written in clear, accessible language for non-majors. A free Instructor’s Manual and Companion Site for students will be available online but is not yet up for review.  After each selection the editors include two kinds of questions. The Writing Topics are simplistic and too narrow, but the Making Connections assignments often pair classics with contemporary works in a fruitful way. Although not as explicit as Schilb and Clifford in framing the cultural studies approach to literary study that this course intends, this texts works easily within our curriculum and course goals.

Schilb, John and John Clifford. Making Literature Matter. 4th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s,2009. ISBN: 0-312-47491-1. NET Price: $58.00 Web support at  http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/makinglitmatter. Special ISBNs: Making Literature Matter + free Literactive CD-ROM: ISBN 0-312-54545-2; Making Literature Matter + free i-claim CD-ROM: ISBN 0-312-54548-7.

This text raises questions about the role of literature in society (as the course proposal expects), includes a brief section on critical response, and has appropriate text selection: multi-cultural, predominantly but not exclusively American and British 19th and 20th century texts.  Included are units on individual literary texts placed along side secondary source materials that might be useful for the documented essay. The teaching apparatus is reasonable (though extensive) and in keeping with the new direction of the course.  This book is very popular, even more so than the one below.  It might be true that the assignments generated for this book are getting pretty familiar, which is to say that there may be more plagiarism associated with this text.  A sample syllabus is available for this text on the main web site. (15 faculty recommend, 3 are ambivalent; 1 does not recommend)

Schilb and Clifford. Making Arguments about Literature. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. ISBN 0-312-43147-3. NET Price: $48.00. Web support at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/argumentsaboutlit. Special ISBNs: Making Arguments about Literature + free Literactive CD-ROM: 0-312-43433-2; Making Arguments about Literature + free i-claim CD-ROM: 0-312-44857-0.

A shorter (and less expensive) version of Making Literature Matter.  Also, more focus on argumentation, including discussion of key terms and concepts of argumentation.  This is less popular with teachers than the previous one, and at least one teacher noted feeling limited in reading selections. (7 recommend, 3 are ambivalent; 1 do not recommend).

Recommended with Reservations

Booth, Alison, Hunter, J. Paul, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition. ISBN-13: 978-0-393-92615-6. Net Price: $52.50.

This text comes with an audio CD of anthologized writers reading from their own works and includes significant web support from two websites: the impressive http://wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/, and http://wwnorton.com/literature.  The litweb site is specific to the text and includes questions, suggestions, and ways of reading some of the pieces in the text; these selections are highlighted in the text’s table of contents.  The 9th edition text also contains a pedagogically strong, significant section devoted to writing about literature, and all reviewers mentioned the usefulness of the questions at the end of each piece.  The text includes a wide-ranging selection of authors (traditional and contemporary, canonical and non-canonical), with particularly impressive drama and poetry selections. This edition would be a good choice for those willing to move between hard copy and Internet resources to supplement instruction. What is challenging about this text is that it can be easily used to teach literature solely from a new critical, decontextualized framework. Neither the table of contents or pedagogical material (in the text itself) frame the material in the broad, literature as cultural text methodology that this course demands. Thus it requires that instructors develop this aspect on their own -- entirely possible, but an additional responsibility for instructors.

Novels: When this course was not writing intensive, teachers were encouraged to select a novel to supplement their anthology.  I can't quite bring myself to speak against novels.  However, given that the course is focused on writing instruction and therefore the process of writing, and includes a required documented essay and attention to some critical strategies, something has to give.  To that end we have removed the essay component (which is well represented in 105), but perhaps the novel should go as well.  I leave the decision up to you, though if you do choose a novel, keep it short.

Handbook:

In the past, teachers were required to order a handbook for 100 and 105, and students were advised to keep their 105 handbooks for use in their 106 classes.  As a result of this policy, there were several different handbooks in circulation, all of them providing roughly the same information (particularly MLA documentation).  Starting with the Fall semester, 2009, all students will be required to buy the same handbook, A Writer’s Reference, 6th edition.  This will be a special edition of the handbook, with a preface designed especially for students in First-Year Writing classes at Montclair State; this preface includes much of the standard material from the First-Year Writing Program website.  These handbooks should NOT be included in your book order; instead, they will be ordered for your classes directly from the publisher. For you information, the net price on the handbook is $45.50.

Remember that you need to use the handbook in class.  Very briefly, here are a few ways they can be used.

--You may require students to bring the handbook to class when you are having an editing workshop (every two weeks or so), and at those times you can demonstrate how to use the index to look up a challenging issue (e.g., effect/affect or that/which). 

--It is also useful to sections for review when commenting on papers. 

--When students come for a conference, pulling out the handbook to answer a question models how the handbook--not just a teacher--can help out with usage, grammatical, and mechanical problems. 

--This handbook will also have a section on ESL that teachers should read, and to which teachers can refer ESL students. 

--Finally, in 105 faculty need to point students to the MLA section and make sure students know how to read those pages so that they cite appropriately, first in unit papers (using the class text) and second in the documented essay.

The special preface is designed for the benefit of teachers as well as students.  Most of the information provided in it is descriptive rather than prescriptive; it is there to function as a guide you as you plan your courses and write your syllabi.  It will also allow you to greatly shorten your syllabi!

But the aim is to provide consistency for the program, rather than absolute unanimity.  It will be necessary for you to interpret this material, and to communicate it to your students using terms and language that best reflect your own teaching style.  As always, if you have any questions about the program or a particular course, you should not hesitate to contact one of the directors.

Publisher Reps:

Pearson:Longman, Prentice-Hall, McGraw-Hill: Laura Kennedy, Laura.kennedy@pearson.com
Cengage Learning, Ulana Campbell, Ulana.campbell@cengage.com
Bedford/St. Martin: Kathryn Treadway, KTreadway@bfwpub.com
Norton: Marc Sherman, marcsherman@WWNORTON.com

 

November 16, 2009