Selected Books on Writing and Teaching Writing
Baker, Sheridan. The Practical Stylist. 8th ed. New
York: Longman, 1998.
Elbow, Peter. Writing without Teachers. New York: Oxford UP, 1973.
---. Writing With Power:
Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process. 2nd ed. New York:
Oxford UP, 1998.
*Emig, Janet. The Composing Process of Twelfth Graders. Urbana: NCTE,
1971.
Erasmus, Desiderius. Copia: Foundations of Abundant Style. 1512.
*Flower, Linda S., et al., eds. Making Thinking Visible: Writing,
Collaborative Planning, and Classroom Inquiry. Urbana:
NCTE, 1994.
*Fox, Tom. The Social Uses of Writing. Norwood: Ablex, 1990.
Glaser, Joe. Understanding Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing.
New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
Gordon, Karen Elizabeth. The Deluxe Transitive Vampire. New York:
Pantheon, 1993. [there are several others by Gordon]
Gowers, Ernest. The Complete Plain Words. New York: State Mutual, 1987.
Hale, Constance. Sin and Syntax. New York: Broadway, 1999.
Hall, Donald, and Sven Birkerts. Writing Well. 9th ed. New York: Longman,
1998.
Harvey, Michael. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003.
*hooks, bell. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston:
South End, 1989.
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
New York: Anchor, 1995.
Lang, Berel. Writing and the Moral Self. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Murphy, James J. Quintilian on the Teaching of Speaking and Writing.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.
Murray, Donald. A Writer Teaches Writing. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1985.
---. The Craft of Revision. 5th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth,
2003.
O’Connor, Patricia T. Woe Is I. New York: Grosset, 1996.
Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. New York: Morrow, 1994.
*Quintilian. Institutio Oratorica. 4 vols.
Rilke, Ranier Maria. Letters to a Young Poet. [many English translations;
some think Mitchell’s is the best]
*Rose, Mike. Writer’s Block: The Cognitive Dimension. Carbondale:
Southern Illinois UP, 1984.
*Shaughnessy, Mina P. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of
Basic Writing. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.
*Smitherman, Geneva. Talkin’ and Testifyin’. Boston: Houghton, 1977.
Strunk, William, and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Trimble, John R. Writing with Style. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice
Hall, 2000.
Truss, Lynn. Eats, Shoots
& Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. New York: Gotham,
2004.
Williams, Joseph. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Chicago: U of Chicago
P, 1995.
Zinsser, William K. On Writing Well. New York: Harper, 1998.
* = more or less pedagogical works (generally more specialized, advanced)