Spring 2007 Book Order (Discourse Chronicle)
Comments(2) [Here is my list of assigned textbooks for my freshman composition students next semester with rationales:
Writer’s Harbrace Handbook (Third Edition)
Texas A&M University uses the Harbrace Handbook as a standard adoption, but our department is not switching to third edition until next year, due to custom cover requests. Despite that, I received permission to assign this new edition early because I learned about a new chapter on visual rhetoric after a recent meeting with its author, Dr. Cheryl Glenn.
Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers (Fifth Edition)
An excellent collection of popular culture essays about topics ranging from Barbie dolls to comic books and film. I chose this text as my reader because my students provided feedback wishing for in-class examples that may seem more familiar to them. I may develop lessons from its readings, but more importantly, I am assigning oral presentations about them as a means of encouraging in-class participation on a regular basis. I am also able to speak better on popular culture than some other topics, thus improving my teaching due to increased confidence over material.
Understanding Comics
Scott McCloud’s text discussing comic books in comic book format. I assigned a few chapters from this book already and students responded extremely well and claim McCloud’s presentation helped them learn difficult concepts such as Aristotle’s Model of Argument (Ethos, Logos, Pathos). Many of its chapters relate with our four paper topics and will act as a supplement to our handbook readings.
Writing Traditions
A compositional exercise workbook containing sample student essays and covers concepts such as summary and paraphrase, plagiarism, MLA format, peer review, and others. Non-negotiable.
Typical American
Gish Jen’s novel about Ralph, a Chinese immigrant graduate student working on his PhD in Engineering, and how him and his family become Americanized. Non-negotiable. BK]
category: Comics, Life, Literacy, Pedagogy, Popular Culture, Rhetoric and Poetics
I used both the Harbrace and Signs of Life in my comp class last spring — and I liked both of the books. Good choices. 🙂
Thanks, Signe! I recently gave my students an informal written evaluation for my own purposes and one of them wished I related better with students (which may seem odd given my background with popular culture), so I am bringing out my full force of popular culture knowledge next semester.