Writing With Clarity and Style

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Textbook for Advanced Placement English Classes
Review: Preparing high school students for the Advanced Placement (AP) Exam in English Language or Literature requires teachers to look beyond the typical high school literature and composition textbooks. Robert Harris has done a wonderful job of defining, explaining and demonstrating the uses of the figures of speech and tropes that AP students are expected to know. Most handbooks of rhetorical devices define them and give examples, but Prof. Harris gives the AP student the most essential information: the reasons writers choose certain figures of speech. In other words, he explains the impact that stylistic choice has on the reader. In writing an analysis of text on the AP exam, the students must be able to provide this information.

A novice teacher of AP classes will be especially grateful for this book. Not only has Prof. Harris done a fine job in explaining and illustrating the devices, he has grouped related devices in chapters and provided exercises as well. I have recommended Writing with Clarity and Style to our director of curriculum as the textbook for my AP English Language and Literature classes.