Textbook Resources

ENG 1310/ENG 1320 HANDBOOKS

• *Bedford Handbook, 12e, Bedford Bookshelf
• *EasyWriter with Exercises, 8e, Bedford Bookshelf
• EmpoWord by Shane Abrams (OER)
• The Evolving Essay  + Active Voices + Signs: A Grammar Handbook (Top Hat Bundle)
• **OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook (OER)
• The Writer's Mindset (1320), McGraw Hill

*With a Bedford Bookshelf (ISBN 9781319543280) adoption, students have access to all Bedford titles.

**The Top Hat bundle (ISBN: 9781778775130) includes all three e-books.  

ENG 1310 Readers

• Academic Writing, Broadview
  • FYE Textbook Committee review: Academic Writing offers an interesting variety of interdisciplinary essays and resources for students. The topical sections are well-structured and analyzed for student understanding. Exercises seem useful, though I would suspect the instructor would need to match the class structure to the text more than cherry-pick readings for the most effective implementation of this textbook. Topics of identity and class do appear but do not take center-stage.
• Back to the Lake, 5/e. Norton  
• *Emerging, 5e, Bedford Bookshelf
• *Language Awareness, 14e, Bedford Bookshelf
• *Let's Talk: A Pocket Rhetoric, Bedford Bookshelf
• The Norton Reader, 16/e. Norton.  
• Reading the World: Ideas That Matter, 4/e, Bedford Bookshelf 
• The Seagull Book of Essays, 4/e. Norton  
• *Ways of Reading, 12e, Bedford Bookshelf
• *A World of Ideas,11e, Bedford Bookshelf
• *Writing about Writing, 5e, Bedford Bookshelf

*With a Bedford Bookshelf (ISBN 9781319543280) adoption, students have access to all Bedford titles.

1320 Readers

• *Academic Writer with 2021 MLA Update, 5e, Bedford Bookshelf
• *Current Issues and Enduring Questions, 13e, Bedford Bookshelf
• Everyone’s an Author/with Readings, 4/e. Norton 
• *Everything's an Argument with Readings, 9e, Bedford Bookshelf
• The Norton Introduction to Literature, Norton 
  • Utility: This literature reader provides a welcome opportunity for First-Year English teachers to implement a variety of fiction, drama, and poetry readings into English 1320 lessons, specifically preparing students for literary concepts and analysis they will need in their sophomore literature courses. Norton Introduction to Literature provides a flexible set of sections, some of which focus on thematic topics and others centered on literary concepts such as character, figurative language, and  symbolism. The text also includes non-fiction excerpts for historical context as well as formal literary writing from scholarship. The “Suggestions for Reading” could provide opportunities for research, and “Suggestions for Writing” contains numerous prompts to focus literary analysis writing. The chapters on the literature research essay include lessons and samples of quotes and citation, so these could supplement the current MLA instruction in the EasyWriter or Bedford Handbook. 
  • Concerns: The main drawback of this text would not be in the book itself, but in how it will be used by instructors who prioritize literary analysis over the more general skills needed for writing in students’ own disciplines. Of course, students should be doing outside library and online research, but instructors should be careful to use the literary texts as a jumping point for real-world research topics and avoid making 1320 solely into an intro lit. course, which it is not. I would urge restraint, as well, in the number of readings given to students, so they can practice the decision-making and self-motivated research about concepts and ideas they may need or want for their future academic and professional goals.
  • Conclusion: This text serves as a strong option for instructors that seek a reader that bridges the gap between literary analysis and writing about the world that literature attempts to represent. The sheer variety of readings and tools might tempt instructors to structure the course on literary concepts, but I would suggest that the required, 1250-word major essay be researched beyond a piece of literature to a real-world topic, even if the literature inspires this topic. While writing on literature during 1320 will serve students for sophomore literature classes, we should consider that these courses assign a range from 500-750 word analysis essays, but students’ future fields could require more comparable depth to the FYE-mandated benchmark research essay.
• They Say/I Say with Readings, 6/e. Norton 
• They Say/I Say without Readings, 6/e. Norton  

*With a Bedford Bookshelf (ISBN 9781319543280) adoption, students have access to all Bedford titles.

Reader/Handbook Bundles 

TOP HAT BUNDLE:  ISBN: 9781778775130

ENG 1310/ENG 1320 Handbooks:

1. The Evolving Essay 
2. Active Voices: The Language and College and Composition
3. Signs: A Grammar Handbook.