The Humble Essay

Unlike other composition books, The Humble Essay is written for students who wisely have no intention of becoming English majors. It provides the concepts they need to write thoughtful and effective college essays, but it does so with brevity, humor, and jargon-free language that will not put them gently to sleep. If you or your students need to learn to write college essays without falling asleep, this could well be the book you're looking for.

The Humble Argument is so much more than a writing textbook. It gives you tools, tips, and tricks that actually explain what a writer does. It doesn’t sugarcoat the process or dumb down the very real challenges that entering a college writing space requires. This book is more like a friend. It’s the kind of friend that will coach you through a tough time and encourage you, and it will make you laugh while you go through it. It’s the kind of friend who holds your hair back when you’re sick of writing and gives you the courage to try again. Roy K. Humble is the kind of writing teacher who understands the struggle of learning how to write arguments like a college student and doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear. His lessons here are profound, but in the sense that they are delivered by someone who wants you to feel included in the conversation about what good college writing should be. He writes to students in language they can understand without becoming English majors and with just enough humor to keep them reading. He writes for faculty, moving step by step through the unadorned guiding principles of effective formal writing so that faculty have a great framework on which to build their classes. Perhaps most importantly, Humble understands that the price of a book matters to students, so his books are affordable. From every perspective, Humble gets it. The Humble Argument has students covered on these important topics: Understanding argument as an idea Grasping the stages of the writing process Organizing an argument around rhetorical principles Thinking for yourself as a college student Crafting a careful and clear thesis Gathering and synthesizing evidence to support a thesis Guiding readers through a thoughtful, persuasive essay

The Humble Essay is so much more than a writing textbook. It gives you tools, tips, and tricks that actually explain what a writer does. It doesn’t sugarcoat the process or dumb down the very real challenges that entering a college writing space requires. This book is more like a friend. It’s the kind of friend that will coach you through a tough time and encourage you, and it will make you laugh while you go through it. It’s the kind of friend who holds your hair back when you’re sick of writing and gives you the courage to try again. Roy K. Humble is the kind of writing teacher who understands the struggle of learning how to write like a college student and doesn’t just tell you what you want to hear. His lessons here are profound, but in the sense that they are delivered by someone who wants you to feel included in the conversation about what good college writing should be. He writes to students in language they can understand without becoming English majors and with just enough humor to keep them reading. He writes for faculty, moving step by step through the unadorned guiding principles of effective formal writing so that faculty have a great framework on which to build their classes. Perhaps most importantly, Humble understands that the price of a book matters to students, so his books are affordable. From every perspective, Humble gets it. The Humble Essay has students covered on these important topics: Understanding the college essay as an idea Grasping the stages of the writing process Organizing the college essay around cohesive paragraphs Thinking for yourself as a college student Gathering and synthesizing sources and information Guiding readers through a thoughtful college essay

How does humility feature as a part of human experience, and how can opportunities to decenter the self empower us through present day circumstances? Radical Humility is a collection of essays written by people attempting to be humble at a time when public humility is scarce. Contributors come from a diverse group of experts, activists, makers, scholars, and practitioners: philosophers, psychologists, artists; a librarian, a farmer, a lawyer, a U.S. Navy Captain, and others who've reflected upon the role of humility. Some are leading scholars in their field; others are as-yet unpublished writers. All--the farmer, the librarian, the journalist, the sailor--speak to the ordinary everyday actions that offer significant opportunity for restraint and reflection to empower us personally and politically. For every person who feels uneasy and diminished after subjecting the most intimate parts of their lives to Likes and Followers, and for every person who is uneasy with presidential boasting and disregard for truth, Radical Humility's writers' perspectives are crucial at this turning point in our personal and political lives. Contributors: Aaron Ahuvia, Russell Belk, Charles M. Blow, Richard C. Boothman, Agnes Callard, Lynette Clemetson, Tyler Denmead, Nadia Danienta, Mickey Duzyj, Kevin Em, Eranda Jayawickreme, Kevin Hamilton, Eranda Jayawickreme, Troy Jollimore, Melissa Koenig, Aric Rindfleisch, Valerie Tiberius, and Ami Walsh

THE HUMBLE ESSAY presents the basics of formal writing with an informal style that college students are not only willing but able to read. The first half of this expanded third edition presents a close look at what the college essay is. The second half presents a process that shows students how to educate themselves about a topic, develop an idea worth sharing, and then present that ideas effectively.

The Humble Essay introduces student writers to the three main things that the college essay expects from them -- stick to one main idea, follow the rules of formal writing, and learn something new. It then teaches students how to meet those expectations with step by step coaching. This unusual textbook is written in readable and even enjoyable language so that students are more likely to actually read the book, learn these guidelines, and start to put them to use in their own writing. As one student says, "Honestly? It's the only textbook I've ever read from start to finish."

A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author of Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth. How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the truth-speaker who will tell the story a personal narrative needs to tell? That is the question The Situation and the Story asks--and answers. Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras. This book, which grew out of fifteen years teaching in MFA programs, is itself a model of the lucid intelligence that has made Gornick one of our most admired writers of nonfiction. In it, she teaches us to write by teaching us how to read: how to recognize truth when we hear it in the writing of others and in our own.

In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle’s company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players. Whether you’re a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.