The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing by Cheryl Glenn

The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing Reviews

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  Hannah

  Had to read for class this semester. Honestly it was so boring at times but also made super great points. It is an anthology of sorts so that’s kinda what happens. I loved the articles about standard language ideology, for I think talking about the nature of conformist language in U.S. college composition classes is something we need to talk about more in academic discourse.
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  Daudi Mlengela

  Writing skills are very important for college and secondary school students. English teachers at college or secondary school must teach their students writing to make them quality in the job market. no doubt, employers want their employees who are well skilled in writing. We do correspondence with our customs out there through emails, so teaching writing is indispensable work for English teachers. Cheryl Glenn knows this before and designs a smooth way for teachers to pass through on their way forward teaching writing. conducting peer review sessions, grading skills, workshops, conferences, writing assignments, useful websites are some of the strategies used for the classroom. However, guidelines on how to prepare for the course including prompts for designing a workable class schedule, syllabus, and major assignments throughout the semester are skillfully included. Teaching style based on theory and pedagogy, teaching delivery, everyday activities, successful writing assignments and delivery pedagogy, teaching invention, teaching arrangements and form and evaluation students essays are chapters in this book. I highly recommend this book for Tanzanians English teachers at college and secondary school level who want to take their students to an international level different from what and how they usually used to for years now.
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  Elizabeth

  There's a good amount of standard but solid advice in the early chapters of this book, but I found the third part, which consisted of reprints of articles about writing from the past few decades to be oddly curated and not very useful given the overall point to the book. Put slightly differently, they made the collection swing from being practice-driven to theory-driven in a way that didn't feel entirely helpful for the purposes that the overall volume is pitched.
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  Tatiana Putra

  School book… first couple of chapters are pretty basic but good ideas/ how to’s. I like how they emphasized that the teacher, when teaching writing, should view themselves as more-so a coach than a grammar nazi.
  *didn’t finish but read enough for it to count
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  Meghan Moore

  This is a comprehensive book on teaching writing to college-level students. I'm looking forward to applying the information I learned in this book to all of my English classes, despite levels.
• 
  Maddie

  sorry lol
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  Karyn

  I wish I'd known about this book during my first year of teaching. Glenn & Goldthwaite take teachers through the whole process, from syllabus writing to assigning grades. The writers are never condescending, and they provide useful lists of articles and books for further reading. As a veteran teacher, I skimmed through most of the introductory stuff, but found good ideas about grading and group work in the classroom that have the potential to (I hope) revitalize my teaching and give me back some free time. My only complaint stems from my current situation: The St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing is written primarily for Teaching Assistants, who teach an ideal course load of 1-2 classes per semester. Some of the strategies described (grading and commenting on student work stand out as the most applicable examples) cannot possibly work for teachers of 3 and 4 sections. (Or, they cannot work for me because the standard freshman year syllabus requires me to assign 4 papers, leaving little to no room for revision or for the reading of drafts.) Still, the book forces me to ask the important question: how can I make my current system flexible enough to consider options like revision?
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  D'Argo Agathon

  Being someone who has teaching experience, this wasn't all that useful for me. However, the first half of the book breaks down (in rather expansive detail) all of the things that a first year teacher should think about. The latter half of the book drops in some theory, but all in all, I don't think this is a particularly bad book. If you are looking at the teaching profession (esp. college), I'd at least skim this.
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  Diana Glyer

  This book covers both theoretical and practical issues in teaching writing, specifically directed to those who teach Freshman Writing Courses. It is excruciatingly specific and includes a truly wonderful selection of scholarly essays about writing instruction. I highly recommend it: there's nothing better to walk new college-level writing teachers step-by-step through a new writing course.
  
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  Kathryn Marie

  A very useful and critical read for composition/writing instructors. I learned a lot about my field and myself as an instructor by becoming familiar with the major and fundamental theoretical issues and the various perspectives of the scholars of the composition field. Highly recommend for those interested in or currently teaching writing.
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  Jennifer

  A very useful book for those who teach or tutor in writing. There were a great number of assignments and in-class activities that I highlighted, and will eventually use myself. The essays in the back of the book are also really great.
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  Rebecca Cantor

  This book saved my life when I started teaching. I remember pouring over the "The First Class" section the night before... terrified!
• 
  Molly

  Copies given to all U of MN graduate students teaching University Writing (09-10 school year).