Last night, I learned from my Basic Composition students that the college bookstore had 5 books listed for me: two editions of College Writing Skills (one with a CD-ROM), two Keys For Writers (a grammar book which was optional, but showed up required), and Barbara Ehrenreich‘s Nickeled and Dimed. Some students, playing it safe, bought both copies of College Writing Skills and Keys for Writers. Gee, Langan and Raimes must be getting very rich from this, especially Langan as he seems to come out with new editions of College Writing Skills and English Skills every year. I cleared this up with my students that they only needed one copy of Writing Skills and a copy of Nickeled and Dimed, and that Keys for Writers was optional. I then told them they could return the redundant textbooks.
The bookstore frakked up in listing the books as five, when there were only two required and one optional. It could be worse. They could have not had the books for my course in their inventory, and that would delay lessons indefinitely. The copier would become my best friend, but that’s time best spent elsewhere.
I’ve used College Writing Skills in the past (in a previous edition), so I know more or less what I’m going to teach with that book. It has what my class needs to know for an essay (which I’ll keep revisiting until they’ll get sick of it), grammar, and some readings.
I’m looking forward to using Nickeled and Dimed. After giving my students a brief synopsis of the book, I know some of them feel they could write their own version of Ehrenreich’s accounts, more accurately for sure. I look forward to hearing their takes on it and seeing what they write in response.
