The end of the semester is swiftly approaching, and I’ve forgotten how much I loved being able to add textbooks to my book list for the year. I think a few of these books will be really helpful later on in my program, and I think they even have some great information to pass on to my students when I get back in the classroom.

1. Rhetorical Grammar by Martha Kolln and Loretta Gray

This book is exactly what it sounds like–grammar. So whether you love prepositions and want to know more, or the word preposition fills you with fear, this book has all the answers.

Well, technically, it only has the odd numbered answers in the back of the book, but you get my point.

2. The Sound on the Page by Ben Yagoda

If you like reading what writers have to say about writing, this book is a winner. Personally, I found the style a little hard to follow.
    
  

3. How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish

Short, sweet, and incredibly philosophical. Apparently writing sentences is a lot harder than I thought.

4. They Say/I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

This book is the one I will use the most moving forward. It has a lot of great insight into academic writing, and it gives templates for all of the types of academic sentences or structures you might need. I can definitely see myself using these templates as sentence frames for future students.

5. The Norton Book of Composition Studies

Did you know there’s a field called composition studies? It’s basically where you study the act of writing. Pretty interesting, but it’s not a beach read.

All in all this has been an okay semester for textbooks. Am I the only one crazy enough to hoard these like I do my novels?

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