The Writer's Options: Lessons in Style and Arrangement

I used a much earlier edition of this book when I was teaching freshman composition at the university level years ago, and I highly recommend it. It's simply the best book I've ever found for helping students learn about sentence structure. Even skilled writers can learn from simply reading this book. They can learn even more by trying the exercises themselves.

The Writer's Options reads like a grammar work for writers who hate grammar. So don't tell anyone - there is grammar inside this book. This book teaches writers different types of sentences (and grammar) while showing how these sentences overlap. Underneath the surface, the Writer's Options teaches how grammar works. The book's not so interested in IDing each word in a sentence - for that, see "Doing Grammar" by the same author - but in showing how you'd make each kind of sentence. The examples in the book show and reinforce the explanations, which give just enough info so that you can use that part of the grammar. Even better, each chapter builds on previous lessons so that (usually) old sentence types can be reviewed as new ones are introduced. Further props are given to a part of writing that is always essential but rarely taught: revision. In particular, both tone and paragraph-level rewrites really help focus a first draft into a final one. With this book, what problems exist are few. Not every sentence type is covered, more complex constructions are eschewed, and others are not covered in deep detail. For people needed more grammar instruction, you won't find it here. Other books might have a broader list of sentence patterns as well. Students who hail from other countries or natives expecting grammatical instruction may not get what they're hoping for in this book. Yet by the end of the exercises in the book they'll be putting things together, just the same.

The latest edition of THE WRITER'S OPTIONS brings even more sentence and paragraph combining excercises to the student. The easily accessible (often with a touch of humor) helps students to develop sophisticated grammatical constructions that improve the quality of writing. The book also deals with writing strategies (prewriting and drafting, for example). Text frequently used in high school AP Language and Composition courses even though it is aimed at 1st and 2nd year of college composition courses.