Good Books on Writing
(abbreviations correspond to campus locations: HL= Hege Library; ASC= The Learning Commons; CB= College Bookstore)
Books on Writing and Editing
Cook, Claire Kehrwald, Line by Line: How to Improve Your Writing (1986; CB, ASC).
A professional guide to the craft of editing, highly recommended by the ASC staff.
Daiker, Donald et al., The Writer's Options (1993; ASC--multiple copies).
A collection of exercises which will help you expand your syntactic repertoire via artful appositives, participial phrases, absolutes, and the like.
Elbow, Peter, Writing with Power (1981; CB, HL [PE 1409/E3.9])
A helpful, engaging book by one of the leading authorities in the field. "Presents a broad spectrum of writing techniques . . . techniques for getting words on paper, for revising, for dealing with audience, and for getting feedback."
Gibaldi, Joseph and Walter S. Achtert, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 3rd. ed. (1994; CB, ASC)
The official word on the MLA documentation style.
Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones (1986; CB)
A Zen-inspired set of meditations on "freeing the writer within."
Lanham, Richard, Analyzing Prose (1983; HL [PE 1421/.L295])
A high-level analysis of the nuts and bolts of prose style.
---------------, Revising Prose, 2nd ed. (1987; ASC, HL [PE 1421/.L297])
A revision handbook focusing on style. You may see a videotape (also called "Revising Prose") in your first-year English class based on this book and the "Paramedic Method" which appears in it.
Norton, Melissa, Writing Research Papers (1984; ASC, CB)
A thoughtful, congenially written guide to the process.
Spatt, Brenda, Writing from Sources (1983; HL [PE 1478/S6.5])
Covers all the types of papers which involve use of primary or secondary sources (not just research papers).
Strunk, Will and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 3rd ed. (1979; CB, HL [PE 1408/S772]).
The classic short guide to a professional style.
Trimble, John, Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (1975; ASC, multiple copies).
If you were to read one book on how to write good papers, this is it. It is conversational--also short, free of the cumbersome apparatus of most writing books, and overflowing with helpful tips.
Turabian, Kate, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 5th ed. (1996; CB).
A standard guide. Some teachers require its use.
Zinsser, William, On Writing Well, 3rd ed. (1988; CB, ASC -- multiple copies)
Another classic, by a former professional journalist who taught non-fiction writing at Yale.
Writing in the Disciplines
Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing (1987; ASC)
Barnet, Sylvan, A Short Guide to Writing About Literature, 7th ed. (1995; ASC-- multiple copies)
Bart, F. and L. Frankel, The Student Sociologist's Handbook, 4th ed. (1986; CB)
Biddle, Arthur W., and Daniel J. Bean, Writer's Guide: Life Sciences (1987, ASC)
-----------------, and Kenneth M. Holland, Writer's Guide: Political Science (1987, ASC)
Bond, Lynne A., and Anthony S. Magistrale, Writer's Guide: Psychology (1987, ASC)
Day, Robert A., How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper (1979; ASC)
Hult, Christine, Researching and Writing in the Humanities and Arts (1996)
-----------------, Researching and Writing in the Sciences and Technology (1996)
-----------------, Researching and Writing in the Social Sciences (1996)
Maimon, Elaine P., et al., Writing in the Arts and Sciences (1981; ASC)
A useful overview of writing throughout the college. It features separate sections on writing in the humanities, the social sciences, the natural sciences.
McCloskey, Donald M., The Writing of Economics (1987; ASC)
Miles, Thomas H., Critical Thinking and Writing for Science and Technology
(1990; ASC)
Mullins, Carolyn, A Guide to Writing and Publishing in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (1977; HL [H 91/m8])
Nash, Walter, ed., The Writing Scholar: Studies in Academic Discourse (1990; HL [P 211/.W74])
Sociology Writing Group, A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers (1986; CB)
Steffens, Henry J. and Mary Jane Dickerson, Writer's Guide: History (1987; ASC)
Steinberg, Robert, The Psychologist's Companion (1988; CB)
Watters, Ann and Marjorie Ford, A Guide for Change: Resources for Implementing Community Service Writing, (1995)
Writers on Writing
Brande, Dorothea, Becoming a Writer (1981; CB)
"A reissue of a classic work published in 1934 on writing and the creative process."
Cowley, Malcolm and George Plimpton, eds., Writers at Work/ The Paris Review Interviews, 8 volumes (1977- ; HL [PN 453/ .W732-9])
A storehouse of interviews with 20th-century writers of fiction, poetry, drama. From Faulkner and Frost and Hellman to Gordimer, Dickey and Ionesco.
Dillard, Annie, The Writing Life (1989; HL [PS 3554/.I398])
Hall, Donald, ed., The Modern Stylists: Writers on the Art of Writing (1968, HL [PE 1421/H3])
Hartill, Rosemary, Writers Revealed (1989; HL [PR888/.R5])
Kakutani, Michiko, The Poet at the Piano (1989; HL [PN 453/.K34])
Portraits of writers--as well as film makers and other artists--at work.
Wager, Walter, ed., The Playwrights Speak (1967; HL [PN 453/W28])
Waldrep, Tom, ed., Writers on Writing (1985; HL [PE 1408/.W7715])
Welty, Eudora, One Writer's Beginnings (1983)
Examples of Excellent Non-fiction Prose
Wolff, Geoffrey, et al.,eds., The Best American Essays (annual series; HL [PS 688/ .B47])
See also the non-fiction prose of the following writers (all in Hege Library): John McPhee, Stephen Jay Gould, Annie Dillard, Edward Hoagland, Alice Walker, Lewis Thomas, Loren Eisely, Joan Didion, James Baldwin, E. B. White, Virginia Woolf, and George Orwell.
NOTE: The The Learning Commons has numerous English handbooks, rhetorics, and guides to research.