Product Review

In Nuts & Bolts, editor Thomas Newkirk details the evolution of the University of New Hampshire's writing program, drawing heavily from the oral culture -- or "lore" -- of the program. Then seven experienced practitioners contribute chapters dealing with the issues that beginning writing teachers often struggle with:

• How can I sequence a writing course?
• How can in-class writing exercises develop writing
• What is the place of reading in a writing course?
• What is my role in writing conferences?
• How can I help students self-evaluate?
• How do I teach editing?
• How should I grade?

Nuts & Bolts deals with these questions in a lucid, jargon-free, and specific way. While filled with examples of student work and classroom exercises, it is more than a sampler of things that "work." Each contributor is careful to show how classroom work comes out of careful thinking about course objectives; readers are invited to eavesdrop on this decision making process.

An unabashedly practical book, Nuts & Bolts will be the single most useful book a college writing teacher could own.