Writing Books

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

American Psychological Association

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 227 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Manually stultifying a discipline 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Manual of the American Psychological Association has been around in successive editions for many years and continues to set the standard for the ways in which psychologists write and communicate their discipline. Publication manuals can be necessary and there is no doubt that when the APA first established the Manual there was a need, in the era of print technology with type setting and proof editing, for precise rules on tabular settings, figure descriptions etc. The problem for today is that the continued need for such rules to guide the printer has become enshrined with a style of writing and reporting that dates from the same era. As has been pointed out several times elsewhere, the Manual was first written at the time when American psychology was dominated by the Behaviorist paradigm and by methodological operationalism. Behaviorism eschewed certain kinds of psychological states and operationalism specified only particular ways in which processes and methods could be described. Both of these paradigms have been long overturned and psychology is no longer confined by such restraints. But still the style is used to restrict the ways that young, incoming members of the profession and science are taught to write and therefore, oftentimes, to think about their subject matter and the people that they are studying. In America such restraints may only be imposed at the level of graduate study and the student will have reserves of thought and style that resist such intrusions. In other parts of the world, such restrictions are imposed from the very beginning of the undergraduate degree. Students therefore learn to think about people and operations in a way that narrows the descriptions and the thought processes that are applied to the issues and problems. If the APA was the only outlet with such restrictions, these effects would be a cause for regret but not despair. The APA style, however, has been adopted by virtually all of psychological publishing houses, so there are few escape routes. It is not a matter simply of putting the references in the correct form; it is about thinking about subject matter in severely restricted ways.
It is probably too late to hope for any change in the ways in which the APA Manual is used and further procreated. But it is a case study, worthy of serious study, of how the past, lived and recorded with good intentions, can continue to stifle the present and the future. The APA Manual has become functionally autonomous, affecting thinking but with little or no continuity with the past. To a degree it is pathological in form and, worse than that, it is a pathogen that is severely infectious.

Editorial Review:

...offers updated information on reporting statistics, writing withour bias, preparing manuscripts with a word processor for electronic production, and publishing research in accordance with ethical principles.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition

Joseph Gibaldi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very Pleased!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was very impressed by the fast service and perfect quality of my Amazon purchase! It came days sooner than I expected and arrived in perfect condition!

Very helpful to international student 5 out of 5 stars.
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I am from a French speaking country and was used to an academic style of writing different from the American method. The Modern Language Association is very helpful to international students in the sense that it helps to achieve a successful writing of research papers in most American colleges and universities. It is an efficient guide to a writing style which is simple and clear in order to satisfy readers. Other important insights from the MLA are the way it helps to avoid plagiarism and to use electronic resources in an academic research paper. The last is most appreciated because of the amount of information one can get from internet.

Must have. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

You must have this book! It is not just for research papers, as the title of the book suggests. Its a necessity for those who wish improve their writing overall.

Excellent for Research 5 out of 5 stars.
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AS a professor and editor of Research; this style guide has detailed information for the serious paper writer; and provides examples that show how to format difficult passages. Used extensively at the Community College level.

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Seventh Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)

Kate L. Turabian

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Dewey. Bellow. Strauss. Friedman. The University of Chicago has been the home of some of the most important thinkers of the modern age. But perhaps no name has been spoken with more respect than Turabian. The dissertation secretary at Chicago for decades, Kate Turabian literally wrote the book on the successful completion and submission of the student paper. Her Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, created from her years of experience with research projects across all fields, has sold more than seven million copies since it was first published in 1937.

Now, with this seventh edition, Turabian’s Manual has undergone its most extensive revision, ensuring that it will remain the most valuable handbook for writers at every level—from first-year undergraduates, to dissertation writers apprehensively submitting final manuscripts, to senior scholars who may be old hands at research and writing but less familiar with new media citation styles. Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the late Wayne C. Booth—the gifted team behind The Craft of Research—and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff combined their wide-ranging expertise to remake this classic resource. They preserve Turabian’s clear and practical advice while fully embracing the new modes of research, writing, and source citation brought about by the age of the Internet.

Booth, Colomb, and Williams significantly expand the scope of previous editions by creating a guide, generous in length and tone, to the art of research and writing. Growing out of the authors’ best-selling Craft of Research, this new section provides students with an overview of every step of the research and writing process, from formulating the right questions to reading critically to building arguments and revising drafts. This leads naturally to the second part of the Manual for Writers, which offers an authoritative overview of citation practices in scholarly writing, as well as detailed information on the two main citation styles (“notes-bibliography” and “author-date”). This section has been fully revised to reflect the recommendations of the fifteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style and to present an expanded array of source types and updated examples, including guidance on citing electronic sources.

The final section of the book treats issues of style—the details that go into making a strong paper. Here writers will find advice on a wide range of topics, including punctuation, table formatting, and use of quotations. The appendix draws together everything writers need to know about formatting research papers, theses, and dissertations and preparing them for submission. This material has been thoroughly vetted by dissertation officials at colleges and universities across the country.

This seventh edition of Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is a classic reference revised for a new age. It is tailored to a new generation of writers using tools its original author could not have imagined—while retaining the clarity and authority that generations of scholars have come to associate with the name Turabian.

A Writer's Reference

Diana Hacker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Having helped nearly 3 million students at 1600 colleges and universities to write well, A Writer’s Reference succeeds because it has always been grounded in classroom experience. Nearly twenty years ago, Diana Hacker reinvented the college handbook by looking at her own students’ needs. She crafted a first-of-its-kind reference that offered practical solutions to college writing problems in a language students could understand and in a format that was easy for them to use. Her many innovations — hand-edited sentences, grammar checker boxes, student-friendly index entries, ESL coverage, and a lay-flat comb binding — have been widely imitated but never improved upon.

In the Hacker tradition, the new contributing authors — Nancy Sommers, Tom Jehn, Jane Rosenzweig, and Marcy Carbajal Van Horn — have crafted solutions for the writing problems of today’s college students. Together they give us a new edition that provides more help with academic writing and that works better for a wider range of multilingual students.

The Elements of Style (Coyote Canyon Press Classics)

William Strunk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 378 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Must For the College Bound 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

We traditionally give this as part of a high school graduation present and have received many notes of thanks over the years.

Simply the Best! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Elements of Style is a short, timeless and foundational book on writing style and grammar. It is exceptionally well written and an essential writers desk reference. The authors stripped away all the fluff and kept the best of the best to help anyone write more clearly and concisely.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

Great Handbook 5 out of 5 stars.
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This is a great handbook to have anywhere you need to write. For the price everyone should have one.

fast, helpful 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Just what I ordered, speedy delivery. When I found I'd mis-ordered, the credit for my return was handled without demur. Excellent merchant.

Editorial Review:

Composition teachers throughout the English-speaking world have been pushing this book on their students since it was first published in 1957. Co-author White later revised it, and it remains the most compact and lucid handbook we have for matters of basic principles of composition, grammar, word usage and misusage, and writing style.

The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of his Life--His Own

David Carr

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, August 2008: In his fabulously entertaining The Kid Stays in the Picture, legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans wrote: "There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth." David Carr's riveting debut memoir, The Night of the Gun, takes this theory to the extreme, as the New York Times reporter embarks on a three-year fact-finding mission to revisit his harrowing past as a drug addict and discovers that the search for answers can reveal many versions of the truth. Carr acknowledges that you can't write a my-life-as-an-addict story without the recent memoir scandals of James Frey and others weighing you down, but he regains the reader's trust by relying on his reporting skills to conduct dozens of often uncomfortable interviews with old party buddies, cops, and ex-girlfriends and follow an endless paper trail of legal and medical records, mug shots, and rejection letters. The kaleidoscopic narrative follows Carr through failed relationships and botched jobs, in and out of rehab and all manner of unsavory places in between, with cameos from the likes of Tom Arnold, Jayson Blair, and Barbara Bush. Admittedly, it's hard to love David Carr--sometimes you barely like the guy. How can you feel sympathy for a man who was smoking crack with his pregnant girlfriend when her water broke? But plenty of dark humor rushes through the book, and knowing that this troubled man will make it--will survive addiction, fight cancer, raise his twin girls--makes you want to stick around for the full 400-page journey. --Brad Thomas Parsons

A Pocket Style Manual

Diana Hacker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not for me 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Ordered this for my sister, not for me. She needed it for a class. It came pretty fast.

very useful in content and portability. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

this book is great because it's compact and has all the info you could ask for involving documentation,grammar,etc.worth the price!

Pocket Size Portfolio 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The pocket size portfolio I received was in great condition and came in a timely manner.

A pocket style manual 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

its an excently book to have handy. its very helpful for every class thats consists of writting.

Great Tool for Your Writing 5 out of 5 stars.
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I am excited to use the MLA tools in this pocket guide for writing my college papers. There is so much in this little book, and was worth ever cent of my purchase. There are lots of little things that students forget like noun/verb agreement, and possession. It is very helpful, and every student should have this!

The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law

Norm Goldstein

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Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whether you're a student struggling through Composition 101 or a professional writer on a quest for perfection, The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law is always ready to fill the role of trusted advisor to your creative genius. Revised and updated in 2000, this version contains a 40-page section on media law, guides for punctuation and bibliographies, and specialized glossaries for business and sports writing, all in addition to its 280-page generalized stylebook.

Within each section, entries are alphabetized, and searching for an answer is a fairly simple process. Tricky words--those that can be hyphenated (know-how) or not (jukebox), homonyms, nonstandard spellings (mo-ped)--are given their own short entries. Larger categories, such as religions, military titles, the Internet, and datelines, have multiple pages devoted to their explanations, but detail and clarity are brought nicely together in each listing. Many entries concern brand names and trademarks--never again will you question whetherpingpong or Ping-Pong should be used in the flier for your table-tennis tournament.

While a few sections of this book--the ones concerning media law, photo captions, filing the wire, and proofreading marks--will most likely be used by professional and student journalists and editors, the majority of this book is an excellent tool for anyone who ever has to write for the public. Whether it's a newsletter for your badminton league, a training manual for your employees, or a press release detailing your company's quarterly earnings, this stylebook will help you turn out well-written copy that gains the approval of every English teacher you've ever had. --Jill Lightner

How Fiction Works

James Wood

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Amazon Best of the Month, July 2008: The first thing you'll notice about How Fiction Works is its size. At 252 pages, it's a marvel of economy for a book that asks such a huge question and right away you'll want to know (as you might at the start of a new novel) what the author has in store. James Wood takes only his own bookshelves as his literary terrain for this study, and that in itself is the most delightful gift: he joins his audience as a reader, citing his chosen texts judiciously--ranging from Henry James (from whom he takes the best epigraph to a book I've ever read) to Nabokov, Joyce, Updike, and more--to explore not just how fiction works, mechanically speaking, but to reflect on how a novelist's choices make us feel that a novel ultimately works ... or doesn't. Wood remarks that you have to "read enough literature to be taught by it how to read it." His terrific bibliography will surely be a boon to anyone's education, but it's his masterful writing that you'll want to keep reading over the course of your life. --Anne Bartholomew

They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing

Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

nifty book 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This nifty little book is a great tool for teaching composition to students who struggle with writing. The explanations and sentence templates clarify the structure of academic argument essays, and give students a foothold in writing. The compact size is a plus. I've recommended it to other teachers in my "Teaching Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities/ADHD" courses and workshops.

Become A Credible Writer 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is valuable for writers who are not yet experienced with writing extensive research papers or entering ongoing debates that demand a summarization of previous arguments. Though much of this book is filled with writing templates which may or may not help writers of nonfiction, they are a good starting point to open up discussions on important issues. Learn how to summarize what someone else has said, or how to give an unbiased overview of past arguments. I'd say this book is essential for high school level writers, or even young college students, but not for creative writers whatsoever.

Editorial Review:

At a time when so many lament the decline of writing skills among Americans, They Say/I Say teaches the core moves of effective argumentative writing. Suggesting that there are certain moves that experienced writers use instinctively, and that the moves can be learned, this book offers a number of imaginative templates for doing so. Praised for "demystifying the tricks of the writer's trade," They Say/I Say grows from Gerald Graff's award-winning Clueless in Academe.