Nuts & Bolts: A Practical Guide to Teaching College Composition

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.