College Writing Skills with Readings [Paperback]

John Langan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 734 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 6th edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072871326
• ISBN-13: 978-0072871326
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Langan has taught reading and writing at Atlantic Cape Community College near Atlantic City, New Jersey, for over twenty-five years. The author of a popular series of college textbooks on both writing and reading, John enjoys the challenge of developing materials that teach skills in an especially clear and lively way. Before teaching, he earned advanced degrees in writing at Rutgers University and in reading at Rowan University. He also spent a year writing fiction that, he says, "is now at the back of a drawer waiting to be discovered and acclaimed posthumously." While in school, he supported himself by working as a truck driver, a machinist, a battery assembler, a hospital attendant, and an apple packer. John now lives with his wife, Judith Nadell, near Philadelphia. In addition to his wife and Philly sports teams, his passions include reading and turning on nonreaders to the pleasure and power of books. Through Townsend Press, his educational publishing company, he has developed the nonprofit "Townsend Library"--a collection more than thirty new and classic stories that appeal to readers of any age.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars World's Worst Textbook, July 16, 2006

By 

English Geek "English Geek" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: College Writing Skills with Readings, 6th Edition (Text, Student CD, User's Guide, and Online Learning Center powered by Catalyst) (Paperback)

I teach developmental writing at a local community college. My department decided on this book long before I started teaching there. I've found the grammar section of this book useless. anytime I have ever assigned a chapter for my students to read from it, they all complained in unison that it was "boring, too broad, and way too confusing." There is not a single note in the entire text about how to combine sentences using subordination, coodination, or relative pronouns, much less how to punctuate them.

With the writing section, there is one decent chapter on how to write a thesis statement. The chapters on the individual rhetorical patterns, on the other hand, present students with two student models and a professional essay, but no explanation or exercises on how to actually write an illustrative or descriptive or definition essay. As a result, I am a slave to the copy machine. Since I am required to make my students buy this useless book, I photocopy material for students to use to initially help them learn the material. I then use the material from Langan's as additional practice, just so students don't feel like they wasted valuable money.

Even the companion website is a pain. I thought of using the companion website for my students, but I found it particularly confusing to get around. In addition, it is next to impossible for me me to assign anything from the website because nothing can be printed, emailed, or pasted.

5.0 out of 5 stars College Writing Skills, July 4, 2009

By 

Kimberly A. Morano "kimz" (kimz) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: College Writing Skills with Readings, 6th Edition (Text, Student CD, User's Guide, and Online Learning Center powered by Catalyst) (Paperback)

Excellent book, it is definitely worth the money. After reading this book, you will be able to write perfect essays. Very good explanations on theses.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good, September 7, 2005

By 

A. Albritton (ID, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: College Writing Skills with Readings, 6th Edition (Text, Student CD, User's Guide, and Online Learning Center powered by Catalyst) (Paperback)

i think this book is really good if you struggle with english. It has really helped me already.