Sheridan Warner Baker (1918–2000)

Outstanding textbook on writing. I have just had an opportunity to reread it, actually study it and I am truly amazed at the interesting new information Baker adds. It is itself well written and one feels that in using this book one has a personal teacher interest in his or her progress.

This book is organized with readings to teach essay writing. However, just read as selected essays without doing the exercises it is an excellent read. The selection from Thoreau is worth the price of the book.

Addresses the "problems of exposition" by stating the Big Ideas (find your Thesis, your Structure {beginning, middle, end}), and then proceeding to the elements (your Paragraphs, your Words, the heart of rhetoric).

Concludes with a Handbook of Grammar and Glossary of Usage, ie. un sens plus aux mots de la tribu.

This is rhetoric primarily for freshman English, but it has also proved useful to the advanced student and to many others who have found themselves facing a blank page and the show more problems of exposition. (Preface, January 1969)

Style in writing is something like style in a car, a woman, or a Greek temple--a kind of linear mastery of materials that stands out from the landscape and compels a second look. (Chapter 1, Thesis) show less

Available at the CIIA, College Hall 310, WWU and Western Libraries