Writing Resources

You may not be a professional author, but you still need to know how to write well.  You’ll have to write papers for class while you are taking classes at IHE, cover letters to possible employers when you are applying for jobs, and messages to patients, clients, and anyone else you want to do business with when you are working in your field.  Remember that you can schedule a writing lab online or at the library, where you also can find some good resources on writing.

If you’re a health sciences student and have to write a paper, you might want to read some or all of--or at least skim-- How to Write Health Sciences Papers, Dissertations, and Theses by Shane A. Thomas (call number R119 .T445 2000, ISBN 0443062838).  You can look at a Google Images preview of this book, too.  There is a link to the preview from the book’s page in our online catalog, or you can go to the preview directly at http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0443062838&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true.  This preview shows you the chapter titles and text on some pages, which can help you decide whether or not the rest of the book will be useful to you.

Here are some other books on writing you can find in our library:

Title	Author(s)	Call number	ISBN
The Basic College Writer	Peter Carinio	PE1408 .C38 1990	0673380785
Basics of Writing	A.C. “Buddy” Krizan, Joyce P. Logan	PE1408 .K75 1992	0538705574
College Writing Skills with Reading	John Langan	PE1408 .L3178 2010	9780073371665
Composing with Confidence:  Writing Effective Paragraphs and Essays	Alan Meyers	PE1408 .M519 2003	032108831X
The Curious Researcher:  A Guide to Writing Research Papers	Bruce Ballenger	LB2369 .B246 2009	9780205666119
English and Communication for Colleges	Carol Henson, Thomas L. Means	PE1479 .B87 H457 1995	0538711388
The Gregg Reference Manual:  A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting	William A. Sabin	PE1479 .B87 H457 1995	0538711388
How to Write Science Papers, Dissertations, and Theses	Shane A. Thomas	R119 .T445 2000	0443062838
The Little, Brown Compact Handbook	Jane E. Aaron	PE1112 .A23 2010	9780205651634
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers	Joseph Gibaldi	LB2369 .G53 2003	0873529863
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association	American Psychological Association	BF76.7 .P83 2001	1557987912
Research and Composition:  A Guide for the Beginning Researcher	Joyce Inglish, Joan E. Jackson	LB2369 .I48 1977	013774000X
Sentence Skills:  A Workbook for Writers, Form A	John Langan	PE1441 .L352 2010	9780073371696
Step by Step:  Writing about Literature	Pat McKeague	PE1479 .C7 M2 1999	9780787255640
Wordsmith:  A Guide to College Writing	Pamela Arlov	PE1408 .A69 2010	9780136050544
The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook	Cheryl Glenn, Loretta Gray	PE1408 .W7714 2010	9781428230224
The Writer’s Workplace with Readings:  Building College Writing Skills	Sandra Scarry, John Scarry	PE1413 .S37 2011	9781439082119
The Writer’s World:  Paragraphs and Essays	Lynne Gaetz, Suneeti Phadke	PE1439 .G254 2009	0131409476

Addendum, February 29, 2012:  The IHE Library just received a copy of another book that can help you become a better writer, Ways of Reading:  An Anthology for Writers by David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky (Call number PE1417 .B373 1999, ISBN 031217893X).  According to the Google Books page on this tome (http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN031217893X&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true):

"Much admired, widely adopted, and one-of-a-kind -- Ways of Reading combines lengthy and challenging readings with an innovative and demanding apparatus to engage students in conversations with some of the most powerful voices of our culture."

One way to improve ones writing skills is to read works of great authors.  This book features works by W. E. B. Dubois, Ralph Ellison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michel Foucault, Paulo Freire, Harriet (Brent) Jacobs, Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, Virginia Woolf, and more, offering the reader the opportunity to analyze what makes their writing work so well.