Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Writing First ~ an annotated textbook

Here's the newest book at my house.  (Well, to be honest, it hasn't arrived yet because I'm posting this using the college's wi-fi.)  I usually teach Religions of the World, but agreed to teach two sections of Developmental Writing at Chattanooga State this fall.  I have an undergraduate degree in English and have taught remedial writing before, so I now have a 16-page syllabus and a 711-page textbook.  The catalog course description says:
"Continued study and application to achieve writing skills needed for college; student will write unified, coherent paragraphs and essays in acceptable, standard form; will also produce a research essay."
Writing First: Practice in Context by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, 4th edition (2009), is supposed to help students master basic writing skills.  With my guidance, of course.  The class starts at the end of August, but my planning and studying starts now -- with the instructor's annotated edition of this book.  Guess what I'll be reading tonight.

3 comments:

Helen's Book Blog said...

That sounds like quite a task: teaching writing. Is this a required course? I hope you have fun students and enjoy teaching it!

Susan Tidwell said...

Teaching! How exciting, you will be great.

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Helen, it's remedial writing, for those who need it. Therefore, it isn't required of all students. I have fun teaching, and when I taught it before, the students who groaned at the thought of writing went out and got me an award that says something like Best English Teacher, though I don't consider English my field. I am, however, a word person and a philosopher (philosophy is simply another way of looking at words and ideas). See my blog about words I like, here:
http://joyfulnoiseletter.blogspot.com/

Susan, I love teaching and will even teach something outside my preferred field, just so I can teach. My expertise is in world religions, but I have also taught grammar, punctuation, writing, Old Testament, philosophy, humanities, assertiveness, communication skills, stress management, and a number of other continuing education workshops. As I said, I love to teach!