The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing

by Michael Harvey

OUT OF PRINT EDITION  - 2nd Edition now available

"With concision and wit, Harvey shows college students how to write papers that are clear, cogent--and also stylish." --James Miller, Editor, Dædalus

Genres: Writing, School, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks, Read For School, College

128 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Sara]

Hilarious

[Annalie Buscarino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written by a respected professor at my school. Dr. Harvey is quite engaging and inspiring and a majority of the student body and the staff look up to him. I believe he teaches in the business department, but he runs writing intensive courses. As an English major, however, I don’t necessarily agree with all of his instruction or style, which he is strict about in class. He grades solely according to his opinion about how to structure essays, and that is the mindset he used in writing this book. I was waiting for Dr. Harvey to cite sources throughout when disclosing the fundamentals for writing essays, but was disappointed. Since those sources were absent from his book, I’m not exactly sure how I feel about his credibility. Of course, instructional books such as these are always helpful, but I wasn’t entirely convinced with this one.

[Chase Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful if you desire or are required to know the nuts and bolts of college writing. Concise and jam packed with helpful hints. The writer stays true to his own admonition to concision and no fluff writing!

[Allyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok so ngl this book made me annoyed bc my teacher emphasized on eliminating nominlizations and expletives. oh and follow the who did what structure for all sentences. it made my writing sound like kindergarten writing and basic.

[TopBob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good writing tips, well-written. Flow and gracefulness were the highlights if I remember correctly.

A lot of review from high school English save for nominalizations and prepositions, which were new to me.

[Jeffrey Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An indispensable guide for college writers. Good companion with The Elements of Style

[Natasha Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of (if not the best) book on writing I've ever read!

[John Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely calm tone and great examples. He uses the same layout template that you find in Elements of Style. Any professional writer knows all this stuff--almost all of it--but it's worth consulting.

[TK · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that introduces some of the fundamental, though not simple at times, elements to good writing. I found the depth of material and the examples explained the concepts very well, and will allow me to apply them in my own writing.

Rather then a comprehensive study on good writing, the author has 'cherry picked' certain elements, and structured them into sections, for the reader to focus on. This does not come across as incomplete and strengthened the fundamentals being taught. A warning though, this book will not provide much on developing arguments or provide direction on what to write (for example developing thesis statements) or how to build an argument. But focus's on how to write and particularly the fundamentals such as clarity, flow, punctuation, gracefulness, and paragraphs. I particularly liked the sections on clarity (using verbs over nominalisations, active vs passive voice), flow (e.g., consistent characters, pointers) and paragraphs which provided clarity, for me, on how to move from one idea to the next in writing without sounding stilted or in-concise.

A book I will definitely be referring to in the future.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great refresher of good writing. I appreciated the simplicity of this book and all the ideas: some concrete rules, others about the craft and indivituality of writing style. The only thing that wasn't great about this book was its examples. Most of the examples were taken from actual texts; it is difficult to get an author's origianl meaning in a few sentences, and rather than the examples enhancing the point, they were often confusing. Other than that the book is really full of helpful information and reminders about how to write successfully.

[Bekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book ever! Well, one of them. Seriously, this little book not only provides a fantastic reference for writing, grammar and citations - it's also hilarious. The authors chose the perfect writing excerpts to demonstrate their points. My favourite is the chapter on using active and passive voice effectively. This book helped me during my undergrad and it might just help you too!

[Cecelia Munzenmaier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Students typically dread documentation, but Harvey makes citing sources as painless as possible. He goes beyond how to format in-text citations and bibliography entries to show how to integrate sources into a text. Students who master the art of integration should see an immediate improvement in their grades.

[Corey]

Just the refresher I needed as I take a break from the college life.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a patronizing tone.

[Stuart R]

Very useful book.

[AngelLeah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this reference book. It's short and simple! Great tips on writing and a reminder of the rules. This is one I will keep after I'm done with school.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.