Disciplinary-Specific Writing Guides

Here is a short list of writing guides you may want to reference in your W course, organized by discipline. 

Online:

Print:

  • Herbert, Trevor. Music in Words: A Guide to Researching & Writing about Music. London: The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, 2012. Print.
  • Holoman, D. Kern. Writing about Music: a Style Sheet. 2d ed. Berkeley, et al.: Univ. of California Press, 2008.
  • Woodworth, Marc and Ally-Jane Grossan. How to Write About Music: Excerpts from 33 1/3 Series, Magazines, Books, and Blogs with Advice from Industry Leading Writers. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.

Online:

Print:

  • Katz, Michael Jay. From Research to Manuscript: A Guide to Scientific Writing. 2nd Ed. Springer Science, 2009.  ($32)
  • Markel, Mike. Technical Communication. Tenth Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. ($95)

Online:

Print:

  • Baglione, Lisa M. Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods. 2nd Edition. 2011 ($25)

Online:

Print:

  • Cuba, Lee J. A short guide to writing about social science, 4th New York: Longman, 2002. Print. ($12-59).
  • Feak, Christine, and John M. Swales. Telling A Research Story: Writing A Literature Review. Michigan Series In English For Academic & Professional Purposes. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan U. Press 2009. Print. ($13)
  • Publication manual of the American psychological association. Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 2001. Print. ($14).

Online:

Print:

  • Emerson, Robert and Rachel I. Fretz. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Second Edition. Chicago Guides to Writing Editing, and Publishing. 2nd Ed. U. Chicago Press, 2011. ($13)
  • Lamott, Ann. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor 1995. ($13)

Online:

Print:

  • Dunn, Dana S. A short guide to writing about psychology. 3rd Ed. New York: Longman, 2010. Print. ($45)

Online:

Print:

  • Williams, Joseph M., et al. Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition. London: U. of Chicago Press, 2010. Print. ($40)

Our favorite all-purpose guides:

  • Bean, John C. and Dan Melzer. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. 3rd Ed. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass, 2021. Print.
  • Cioffi, Frank L. The Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers. 2nd Ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017. Print.
  • ———. Stellar English: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Grammar & Style. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024. Print.
  • Palmquist, Mike. The Bedford Researcher. 4th Ed. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2011. Print. 
  • Trimble, John. Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing. 3rd Ed. New York: Longman, 2010. Print. 
  • Truss, Lynn. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Gotham 2006. 
  • Lunsford, Andrea. EasyWriter: A Pocket Reference. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. Spiral-bound.
  • Williams, Joseph and Joseph Bizup. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 12th Ed. New York: Longman, 2016.  

CONSPICUOUS ABSENCE: You may notice no entry for Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. According to a Chronicle of Higher Ed‘s appraisal commemorating its 50-year anniversary, the guide is benign at best and inconsistent, imprecise, and misleading at worst on both matters of grammar and style. A particularly damning assessment from the piece’s author, linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum, follows:

The book’s toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own egregious flouting of its own rules. They can’t help it, because they don’t know how to identify what they condemn (“50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice” April 17, 2009).