The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Nonfiction Review

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(More customer reviews)I won't lie, it's a big book. When I first saw it I was a bit scared of it. But the stories are wonderful and worth the read. Do not try to read it all in one shot but take time to appreciate the stories. The book came new, and now sits in my book shelf a bit worn out after a year of flipping through it's pages and annotating. It came on time and with no issues. Kudos to the book seller! :]

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With a wide variety of genres, authors, subjects, and styles, The Norton Reader offers the largest and most thoughtfully chosen collection of essays available in one volume. Fifty-four new essays maintain the Reader's long-standing balance of classic and contemporary, canonical and lesser-known selections. The Eleventh Edition also includes important new coverage of visual and spoken texts-over fifty photographs, paintings, drawings, and other images that were originally published with the essays, as well as a new prose form chapter on the spoken word. Available in this Shorter Edition, with fourteen thematic chapters, The Norton Reader has been carefully designed to support a wide range of teaching styles and situations.

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Prentice Hall Literature: The British Tradition Timeless Voices Timeless Themes Review

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(More customer reviews)First, a caution: one might expect that any high school literature textbook meets certain basic standards. Unfortunately, this is not the case. And it turns out not to have been an easy thing to identify which publisher offers the level of support necessary to meet basic objectives.
I hope this review will save you some trouble! Look for Prentice Hall.
Prentice Hall's literature textbooks provide a nearly definitive anthology of English language literature and other major works of historic importance, and offer very strong support for classroom instruction. Wherever possible, the literature excerpts are complete works; in other cases, the samples are of sufficient length to provide an effective representation of style and content.
Serving on my county's textbook selection committee provided me with disturbing insights into some ways that some schools prepare for end-of-year testing. When I reviewed literature textbooks from several major publishers, I found the comparison quite shocking. You can make this comparison for yourself by perusing on-line the tables of contents for textbooks offered by various publishers.
The Prentice Hall textbooks are all quite strong. Textbooks by the other three publishers reviewed by our committee were impoverished and spare, teaching exclusively to end-of-year tests. Instead of providing materials to teach the basic skills which are intended to be assessed by those end-of-year tests, the other publishers focused on providing practice in test-taking -- i.e., in bubble-filling and guessing games. For example, one slim volume contained less than one third the text of the Prentice Hall anthology, and offered only a scant selection of writings, all of questionable merit. Among those writings proposed for use in literary analysis were several Garfield cartoons. I have nothing against Garfield cartoons; however, it is not possible to develop skills in critical analysis by reviewing such simple fare.
Students must be exposed to great literature before they can recognize or reproduce effective writing. Students must be provided with substantive information and assisted to develop real skills before they can respond confidently to end-of-year test questions. Instead of learning strategies for guessing, that time should best be devoted to the development of real knowledge and useful skills.
Fortunately, there is at least one company which still provides the materials necessary for an effective preparatory education in language arts. Prentice Hall's high school literature textbooks provide a solid foundation for teaching classic and modern literature to college-track high-school students. Instead of Garfield cartoons and one-line excerpts from some other literary selections, the Prentice Hall textbooks include representative works by many great authors, and challenging questions to help the student learn to think carefully and communicate clearly -- arguably the most important objectives for the language arts curriculum.
A small sample of some of the authors included in the Prentice Hall 11th grade American Literature text is as follows: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Phyllis Wheatley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, Mary W. Shelley, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sojourner Truth, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Stephen Crane, Willa Cather, Jack London, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Thurber, Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Frost, William Safire, Amy Tan, John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sylvia Plath, James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, Arthur Miller -- and many more.
Nicely done.


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Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is just what I was looking for when it comes to teaching rhetoric in my AP English Language classes. I wish my district had the money to buy at least a class set for my classroom. Rhetoric is a struggle for some students. The activities in this book will be just perfect for those students. I am expecting to see a great improvement in my scores on the student's rhetorical analysis essays this next school year.

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Knowing every rule and writing with perfect correctness will take your students only so far in their quest for excellence. For, beyond grammar, there's rhetoric -- language use that separates craftspersons from scribblers. Readers, too, must be able to discuss how a writer presents a case or constructs an argument. The higher scores on nearly all state assessments and college entrance exam rubrics demand knowledge of rhetorical devices and their effects. When your students are ready to go from adequate to superb, this is the book you'll use to help them. This book is a fantastic choice for teachers looking for a supplement for their AP Language or academic writing classes. Teacher's editions are available from the publisher but are only sold to teachers and schools.

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Literature and Society: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Nonfiction (4th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I respectfully disagree with reviewer Jeffrey Leeper; this is a solid text for a college-level introductory course in literature. The selections assume an intelligent reader, which covers most of my students.
I specifically chose this text because I wanted to approach the course from a societal perspective, and I was impressed by the editors'/authors' arrangement: "Growing Up and Growing Older," "Women and Men," "Money and Work," "Peace and War," and "Varieties of Protest." Sometimes, I switch works into other categories, for example, Sylvia Plath's poetry and play THREE WOMEN from "Growing Up and Growing Older" to "Varieties of Protest." But that's a matter of personal preference.
Mr. Leeper is probably correct that a professor may not want to use this particular text for an introductory literature course emphasizing a standard approach or for a writing about literature course. But, certainly, for a higher-level thematic course, such as Literature and Society, this text would no doubt offer an excellent choice.
I like the variety of works; this text could easily cover one or even two semesters of literature, covering not only fiction and poetry thoroughly, but also drama, including known and lesser known playwrights: William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry, Susan Glaspell and Alice Childress, among others. I would like to see more in-depth creative nonfiction, but, for now, I supplement the text with an inexpensive trade edition of HIROSHIMA. In later editions, the editors might consider adding some longer current and classic creative nonfiction selections, such as memoirs, journalistic features, and biography.
I have only one quibble: cost. I teach at a medium-sized, four-year college in Pennsylvania; most of our students come from blue collar families who struggle to pay for books and supplies, and I like to assign inexpensive books that won't break their budgets.
In this case, however, quality wins out over price, and I can only hope that my students feel that they're getting their money's worth.

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An enriching introduction to the diverse and exciting world of literature, this anthology offers a broad collection of short fiction, poetry, drama and nonfiction selections written by a diverse group of writers who represent different social classes, races, genders, cultures, and sexual orientations. Organizes selections around five socially relevant themes–Growing Up and Growing Older; Women and Men; Money and Work; Peace and War; and Varieties of Protest. Shows how literary technique serves larger purposes–the recreation of experience, the exploration of ideas, the analysis of social issues–and how these larger purposes themselves shape literary form. Explains the ways in which literary form creates meaning, and provides a strong emphasis on writing about literature throughout, with a full chapter on all stages of the writing process –generating ideas, developing a thesis, discovering a form, drafting, revising, and editing–plus numerous excerpts from sample papers and journals.

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The Norton Introduction to Literature (Shorter Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Great for college students and even teachers looking to add some extra material to their lessons. Alot of great stories and plays, good to buy even if you just enjoy good literature!

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The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition, is an unparalleled collection of the very best classic and contemporary stories, poems, and plays in an inviting format that accommodates many different teaching styles, reading tastes, and pedagogical needs.
Now offering a new contextual chapter, a completely rewritten section on writing about literature, refreshed pedagogy throughout the book, new student-writing samples, and 54 new literary selections, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Shorter Ninth Edition, is more flexible and attractive than ever before.

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