English Graduate Studies Lending Library—List of Books & Brief Descriptions

 


 

All books are available in Ross 203 for 3-week check out.

 


Blueprint Your Bestseller: Organize and Revise Any Manuscript with the Book Architecture Method by Stuart Horwitz
In Blueprint Your Bestseller, Stuart Horwitz offers a step-by-step process for revising your manuscript that has helped bestselling authors get from first draft to final draft. Whether you’re tinkering with your first one hundred pages or trying to wrestle a complete draft into shape, Horwitz helps you look at your writing with the fresh perspective you need to reach the finish line.
Blueprint Your Bestseller introduces the Book Architecture Method, a tested sequence of steps for organizing and revising any manuscript. By breaking a manuscript into manageable scenes, you can determine what is going on in your writing at the structural level—and uncover the underlying flaws and strengths of your narrative.
For more than a decade this proven approach to revision has helped authors of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as writers across all media from theater to film to TV.


Collaborative Learning – higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge by Kenneth A. Bruffee
In Collaborative Learning, Kenneth Bruffee advocates a far-reaching change in the relations we assume between college and university professors and their students, between the learned and the learning. He argues that the nature and source of the authority of college and university professors is the central issue in college and university education in our time, and that if college and university professors continue to teach exclusively in the stand-up-and-tell-’em way, their students will miss the opportunity to learn mature, effective interdependence—and this, Bruffee maintains, is the most important lesson we should expect students to learn.
The book makes three related points. First, we should begin thinking about colleges and universities, and they should begin thinking about themselves, not as stores of information but as institutions of reacculturation. Second, we should think of college and university professors not as purveyors of information but as agents of cultural change who foster reacculturation by marshaling interdependence among student pers. And third, colleges and universities should revise longstanding assumptions about the nature and authority of knowledge and about classroom authority. To accomplish this, the author maintains, both college students and their professors must learn collaboratively.


Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research by John W. Creswell and Vicki L. Plano Clark
A practical, how-to guide to designing mixed methods studies
Combining the latest thinking about mixed methods research designs with practical, step-by-step guidance, the Second Edition of Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research now covers six major mixed methods designs. Authors John W. Creswell and Vicki L. Plano Clark walk readers through the entire research process, from formulating questions to designing, collecting data, and interpreting results and include updated examples from published mixed methods studies drawn from the social, behavioral, health, and education disciplines.


Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty Edited by Christine A. Stanley and M. Erin Porter
Large classes have become a fact of life in colleges and universities across America; even as academic funding has decreased, class enrollments have continued to rise. Although students, teachers, and administrators are often concerned by the potentially negative impact of uneven teacher-to-student ratios, large classes also offer many potential advantages that are less recognized and not always maximized. In Engaging Large Classes, the authors demonstrate that large classes can be just as stimulating and rewarding as smaller classes. Written by experienced teachers of large classes across a wide range of disciplines and institutions, this book provides faculty members and administrators with instructional strategies and advice on how to enhance large class settings.
This book summarizes many of the core issues related to successfully teaching large classes, including
An honest review of the advantages and disadvantages of large classes Advice on how to design, plan, manage, and fairly assess large classes The universality of large-class issues across disciplines, from classroom management to working with teaching assistants Strategies for using classroom technology, active learning, and collaborative learning Seventeen detailed examples of large classes from a range of higher education institutions The authors not only present an overview of research on teaching large classes, they also equip readers with helpful insight into the mechanics of large-class pedagogy. This book has the potential to change the way academia views the reality of teaching large classes.


Graduate Study for the 21st Century – How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities by Gregory Colón Semenza   (2 copies)
Differing from graduate school “survival guides,” this book is the only book to confront the complex realities of graduate study in the humanities.  Today, many graduate students are still regarded as “apprentices,” despite the fact that they are expected to design and teach their own classes, serve on university committees, attend conferences, and publish regularly.  Attrition rates for American Ph.D. programs are at an all-time high, and of those who finish, only one in three will secure tenure-track jobs.  In a straightforward manner, Gregory Colón Semenza identifies the obstacles along the path of the academic career and provides tangible advice.  Fully revised and updated, this new edition offers shrewd insight on advising, electronic publishing, and the post-financial crisis job market that will help students negotiate the changing landscape of academia.  Semenza ably prepares graduate students and recent graduates for what they really seek: a successful academic career.


Higher Ed: Soup to Nuts – An Exclusive Booklet on Academic Career Development by Vitae
In this exclusive booklet, find out what 13 academic experts have to say about career development, graduate school, mentoring and advising, and scholarly work including:

  • The six stages of graduate education
  • How to negotiate an academic job offer
  • Tips on making the most out of a mentor relationship
  • The no-fail secret to writing a dissertation

How To Complete And Survive A Doctoral Dissertation by David Sternberg
Mastering these skills spells the difference between “A.B.D.” and “Ph.D.”
-refuting the magnum opus myth
-coping with the dissertation as obsession (magnificent or otherwise)
-the fine art of selecting a topic
-writing the dissertation with publication in mind
-when to stand your ground and when to prudently retreat if the committee’s conception of your thesis differs substantially from your own
-dealing with obstructive committee members, and keeping the fences mended
-how to reconsider “negative” findings as useful data
-reviewing your progress, and getting out of the “dissertation dumps”
-defending your paper successfully-distinguishing between mere formalities and a serious substantive challenge
-exploiting the career potential of your dissertation
-and much, much more


How to Get a PhD – A handbook for students and their supervisors by Estelle M. Phillips and D. S. Pugh
This is a handbook and survival manual for PhD students, providing a practical, realistic understanding of the processes of doing research for a doctorate.  It discusses many important issues often neglected, such as time management, and how to overcome the difficulties of communicating with supervisors; and considers the particular problems of groups such as women, part-time and overseas students.  The book also provides practical insights for supervisors, and assists senior academic administrators by examining the responsibilities that universities have for providing an adequate overall service for research students.


How to Prepare a Dissertation Proposal – Suggestions for Students in Education and the Social and Behavioral Sciences by David R. Krathwohl & Nick L. Smith
“What are the core elements of a strong proposal?” “How can I accent the strengths of my study design? “How can computer use facilitate my literature review?” “What is the best way to get my proposal reviewed and approved?” You will find the answers to these and other key issues in this unique “assembly manual” for crafting a complete and convincing dissertation proposal. Three extensively annotated proposals of former students provide examples of the guidance offered and illustrate common types of studies. Whether you study best by example, review, memorization, or problem solving, this book’s format enables you to follow your own pace and style. This is no ordinary step-by-step guide. The authors begin by identifying and defining the basics of a dissertation proposal. With careful consideration, they explore proposal functions and parts, show how to build your study’s chain of reasoning, and carefully review alternate study designs. Chapters are devoted to qualitative studies: (sectioned into case studies, philosophical, and historical investigations); quantitative studies: (sectioned into experimental, causal modeling, and meta-analysis studies); and mixed-method studies: (sectioned into: sample survey, evaluation, development, and demonstration and action projects).


Leveraging the ePortfolio for Integrative Learning by Candyce Reynolds and Judith Patton
The fruit of the authors’ more than 15 years of using and writing about ePortfolios in general education and disciplinary programs and courses, this book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the use of the ePortfolio as a pedagogy that facilitates the integrative learning that is a central goal of higher education.
Faculty and administrators of programs using ePortfolios can use this guide to help their students work individually on an ePortfolio or as part of a class or program requirement. Readers will discover through examples of student portfolios and targeted exercises how to assist students in making their learning visible to themselves, their peers, their instructors and their future employers
While interest in ePortfolios has exploded―because they provide an easier and more comprehensive ways to assess student learning than traditional portfolios, and because they have the potential to transformatively develop students’ ability to connect and apply their knowledge―faculty and administrators all too often are disappointed by the lackluster ePortfolios that students submit. Reynolds and Patton demonstrate how systematically embedding practices in the classroom that engage students in integrative learning practices dramatically improves outcomes. The authors describe easy to use and practical strategies for faculty to incorporate integrative ePortfolios in their courses and curricula, and create the scaffolding to develop students’ skills and metacognition.
The book opens by outlining the underlying learning theory and the key concepts of integrative learning and by describing the purpose, structure and implementation of ePortfolios. Subsequent sections cover classroom practices and assignments to help students understand themselves as learners; make connections between course content, their personal lives, and to the curriculum; bridge theory to practice; and consider issues of audience and communication and presentation in developing their portfolios. The book goes on to cover technological issues and assessment, with a particular emphasis on the use of rubrics; and concludes with explicated examples of ePortfolios created in a first-year program, ePortfolios created by graduating students, career-oriented ePortfolios, and lifelong ePortfolios.
For both experienced faculty and administrators, and readers just beginning to use ePortfolios, this book provides a framework and guidance to implement them to their fullest potential.


Life After Grad School – Getting From A to B by Jerald M. Jellison
Life After Grad School is for students in all academic disciplines, with or without a Ph.D. This book illuminates the transition from academia to a satisfying and well-paying job with a company, government agency, or not-for-profit organization. Realistic and reassuring, it helps students structure their decision about leaving academics, and orients them to the culture of business. Readers learn how to adapt the knowledge and skills developed in grad school for business applications. Written for intelligent, mature students, the book provides practical tools and generates the confidence to find fulfilling alternative careers.


McKeachie’s Teaching Tips – Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers by Wilbert J. McKeachie and Marilla Svinicki
This indispensable handbook provides helpful strategies for dealing with both the everyday challenges of university teaching and those that arise in efforts to maximize learning for every student. The suggested strategies are supported by research and adaptable to specific classroom situations. Rather than suggest a “set of recipes” to be followed mechanically, the book gives instructors the tools they need to deal with the ever-changing dynamics of teaching and learning.


Professors as Writers – A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing by Robert Boice
Here is a proven book to help scholars master writing as a productive, enjoyable, and successful experience — Author, Robert Boice, prepared this self-help manual for professors who want to write more productively, painlessly, and successfully. It reflects the author’s two decades of experiences and research with professors as writers — by compressing a lot of experience into a brief, programmatic framework. Like the actual sessions and workshops in which the author works with writers, this book admonishes and reassures. In the innovative book lies the path for sustained, highly productive scholarly writing!


Strategies for Energizing Large Classes: From Small Groups to Learning Communities: New Directions for Teaching and Learning   Edited by Jean MacGregor, James L. Cooper, Karl A. Smith, Pamela Robinson
The large introductory lecture classes common on most campuses pose a particular challenge to instructors who want to encourage the active student involvement that is a vital part of the learning process. This much-needed volume shows how instructors can energize students in these courses through the innovative use of small-group teaching strategies and new curricular structures. They provide detailed descriptions of both informal turn-to-your-neighbor activities and more formal and intensive small group approaches that have succeeded in making students more active and engaged learners. They also examine efforts to give students in large classes a greater sense of belonging to a community of learners through such techniques as intensive supplemental workshops and clustering multipleclasses, and provide answers to frequently asked questions about using small-group learning in large group settings.This is the 81st issue of the quarterly journal “New Directions For Teaching and Learning.”


Surviving Your Academic Job Hunt – Advice for Humanities PhDs by Kathryn Hume
A guide to securing an academic post in the humanities in a US university, this book includes best-practice examples of application documents & shows how to work up answers to the questions posed in phone, conference, & campus interviews.


Teaching Large Classes in Higher Education – How to Maintain Quality with Reduced Resources  Edited by Graham Gibbs and Alan Jenkins
Over the past 10 years, the number of students enrolled in individual higher-education courses has risen dramatically. Consequently, new challenges are having to be met: course design and teaching methods must be modified if quality is to be maintained.


Teaching Large Classes: Tools and Strategies    by Elisa Carbone
In this useful and practical book, Elisa Carbone offers a wealth of sound advice on how to deal with a large class, from the first day to end of term evaluations. Full of examples taken from many different disciplines, Teaching Large Classes will be an ideal companion for any teacher facing the challenge of the large introductory class.


Teaching Poetry – A Handbook of Exercises for Large and Small Classes by Allan J. Gedalof
This practical handbook offers a wide variety of innovative in-class exercises designed to enliven classroom discussion. Each of these flexible teaching exercises includes straightforward, step-by-step guidelines and suggestions for variation.


Teaching the Large College Class: A Guidebook for Instructors with Multitudes  by Frank Heppner
Teaching large classes is a fact of life for professors at many institutions. In addition to pedagogy, instructors of these courses must also be concerned with legal, ethical, financial, technological, personnel, and management issues. Virtually all introductory courses are large ones, as are the popular intermediate courses at large institutions. Typically, little or no training or instruction is provided to new professors about how to manage large classes successfully. This book is a valuable resource for any college teacher, adjunct or full-time, facing a large class. It will also be useful for college administrators who might want to issue it to teachers, especially adjuncts, assigned to large classes for the first time. A distillation of years of experience by the author?who started his college teaching career in 1969?in teaching large classes and in coaching other professors to do the same, this guide is concise and user-friendly. It employs teaching-as-acting as a common theme, with many practical examples covering all of the major aspects of organizing, managing, and teaching a large lecture course in any field. For more information and excerpts, visit www.largelecture.com


The Academic Job Search Handbook by Mary Morris Heiberger, Julia Miller Vick
This new edition gives specific advice on positioning oneself in the current tight market, including participating effectively in conferences, learning about openings, handling telephone interviews, and negotiating offers. The authors discuss the use of the Internet both to locate positions and to communicate with colleagues and potential employers at all stages of the search. New samples of vitas, cover letters, abstracts, and statements of teaching philosophy, and an up-to-date appendix of scholarly and professional associations (including Web addresses) are also included.


The Chicago Guide to Your Academic Career: A Portable Mentor for Scholars from Graduate School through Tenure by Goldsmith, Komlos & Schine Gold
Written as an informal conversation among colleagues, the book is packed with inside information—about finding a mentor, avoiding pitfalls when writing a dissertation, negotiating the job listings, and much more. The three authors’ distinctive opinions and strategies offer the reader multiple perspectives on typical problems. With rare candor and insight, they talk about such tough issues as departmental politics, dual-career marriages, and sexual harassment. Rounding out the discussion are short essays that offer the “inside track” on financing graduate education, publishing the first book, and leaving academia for the corporate world.
This helpful guide is for anyone who has ever wondered what the fascinating and challenging world of academia might hold in store.
Part I – Becoming a Scholar –
* Deciding on an Academic Career
* Entering Graduate School
* The Mentor
* Writing a Dissertation
* Landing an Academic Job
Part II – The Academic Profession
* The Life of the Assistant Professor
* Teaching and Research
* Tenure
* Competition in the University System and Outside Offers
* The Personal Side of Academic Life


The Chicago Handbook for Teachers – A Practical Guide to the College Classroom by Alan Brinkley, Betty Dessants, Michael Flamm, Cynthia Fleming, Charles Forcey, and Eric Rothschild
Those who teach college students have extensive training in their disciplines, but unlike their counterparts at the high school or elementary school level, they often have surprisingly little instruction in the craft of teaching itself.  The Chicago Handbook for Teachers, Second Edition, is an extraordinarily helpful guide for anyone facing the daunting challenge of putting together a course and delivering it successfully.
Representing teachers at all stages of their careers, the authors, including distinguished historian Alan Brinkley, offer practical advice for almost any situation a new teacher might face, from preparing a syllabus to managing classroom dynamics. Beginning with a nuts and bolts plan for designing a course, the handbook also explains how to lead a discussion, evaluate your own teaching, give an effective lecture, supervise students’ writing and research, create and grade exams, and more.
Its broad scope and wealth of specific tips will make The Chicago Handbook for Teachers useful both as a comprehensive guide for beginning educators and a reference manual for experienced instructors.


The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job by Karen Kelsky
Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including:
-When, where, and what to publish
-Writing a foolproof grant application
-Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV
-Acing the job talk and campus interview
-Avoiding the adjunct trap
-Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right
The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.


The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research by Marian Petre and Gordon Rugg
This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don’t usually mention.
Covering all the key topics of the previous edition, including what a PhD is really about, how to do one well, how to decipher what your supervisor actually means by terms like ‘good referencing’ and ‘clean research question’, and how to design, report and defend your research, the authors continue to offer an accessible, down-to-earth, and insightful account of the whole PhD process. Their advice addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls en route to a successful submission.
Updated throughout, the new edition includes new material on:

  • Critical thinking
  • Research skills
  • The route to research independence
  • Different models of study

The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research is essential reading for anyone considering a PhD or embarking on one. It will tell you the things many students wish someone had told them before they started.


What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain
What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors, students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators.
The short answer is–it’s not what teachers do, it’s what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out–but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn.
In stories both humorous and touching, Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students’ discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.


What They Didn’t Teach You in Graduate School – 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career by Paul Gray and Davie E. Drew
* 199 tips for getting your PhD and surviving and thriving in your first years of teaching
* Irreverent, but serious, guide to what higher education institutions are REALLY like
* Illustrated with original cartoons to bring the hints to life
Just landed your first faculty position? Close to getting your Ph.D., and planning a career in academe? Already in your first job? This insightful guide will help you achieve success.
What will academic life be like? How do you discover its tacit rules? Develop the habits and networks needed for success? What issues will you encounter if you’re a person of color, or a woman? How is higher education changing?
In 199 succinct, and often humorous but seriously practical hints, Paul Gray and David E. Drew share their combined experience of many years as faculty and (recovering) administrators to offer insider advice—the kind that’s rarely taught or even talked about in graduate school.
For instance, Gray and Drew advise you on what you can do to become known in your field and also to be humble about your Ph.D. They also warn you of the danger points along the Ph.D. path, and the possible stumbling blocks with litigious students. Their hints can cover topics as lofty as quantitative and qualitative methods and as mundane—but still as important—as negotiating campus parking.
For easy reference as you climb the academic ladder, the hints are divided into 15 short chapters and 4 appendices covering the stages and responsibilities of faculty life.
As the authors state, “It is a good life and it is a lifestyle for which you even get paid”. These hints will help you both make a valuable contribution to, and get the most from, academe.


Women Don’t Ask by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
Combining fascinating research with revealing commentary from hundreds of women, this groundbreaking book explores the personal and societal reasons women seldom ask for what they need, want, and deserve at home and at work–and shows how they can develop this crucial skill.
By neglecting to negotiate her starting salary for her first job, a woman may sacrifice over half a million dollars in earnings by the end of her career. Yet, as research reveals, men are four times more likely to ask for higher pay than are women with the same qualifications. From career promotions to help with child care, studies show time and again that women don’t ask–and frequently don’t even realize that they can. Women Don’t Ask offers real-life examples of the differences between the negotiating habits of men and women, and guides women in retooling their attitudes and approaches. Discover how to:
• Take the first step–choosing to negotiate at all
• Develop a comfortable, effective negotiation style
• Overcome fear, personal entitlement issues, and gender stereotypes


Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day  by Joan Bolker
Expert writing advice from the editor of the Boston Globe best-seller, The Writer’s Home Companion
Dissertation writers need strong, practical advice, as well as someone to assure them that their struggles aren’t unique. Joan Bolker, midwife to more than one hundred dissertations and co-founder of the Harvard Writing Center, offers invaluable suggestions for the graduate-student writer. Using positive reinforcement, she begins by reminding thesis writers that being able to devote themselves to a project that truly interests them can be a pleasurable adventure. She encourages them to pay close attention to their writing method in order to discover their individual work strategies that promote productivity; to stop feeling fearful that they may disappoint their advisors or family members; and to tailor their theses to their own writing style and personality needs. Using field-tested strategies she assists the student through the entire thesis-writing process, offering advice on choosing a topic and an advisor, on disciplining one’s self to work at least fifteen minutes each day; setting short-term deadlines, on revising and defing the thesis, and on life and publication after the dissertation. Bolker makes writing the dissertation an enjoyable challenge.


Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks – A Guide to Academic Publishing Success by Wendy Laura Belcher
Wendy Laura Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success is a revolutionary approach to enabling academic authors to overcome their anxieties and produce the publications that are essential to succeeding in their fields. Each week, readers learn a particular feature of strong articles and work on revising theirs accordingly. At the end of twelve weeks, they send their article to a journal. This invaluable resource is the only guide that focuses specifically on publishing humanities and social science journal articles.
Key Features

  • Has a proven record of helping graduate students and professors get published:This workbook, developed over a decade of teaching scholarly writers in a range of disciplines at UCLA and around the world, has already helped hundreds to publish their articles in peer-reviewed journals.
  • Demystifies the academic publishing process: This workbook is based on actual research about faculty productivity and peer review, students’ writing triumphs and failures, as well as the author’s experiences as a journal editor and award-winning author.
  • Proceeds step by manageable step: Within the context of clear deadlines, the workbook provides the instruction, exercises, and structure needed to revise a classroom essay, conference paper, dissertation chapter, master’s thesis, or unfinished draft into a journal article and send it to a suitable journal.

Targets the biggest writing challenges: This workbook focuses squarely on the most difficult tasks facing scholarly writers, such as getting motivated, making an argument, and creating a logical whole.