Books you don't have to buy, but I do

Beyond the required books I have listed in the syllabus, I will be teaching from these books. You are not required to have them, but I have found them to be helpful on different aspects of writing and reporting.

The final arbiter in any disputes that might arise on grammar in this class will be:

Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner, 2003, Oxford University Press, New York

The stylebook I will use is:

Associated Press Stylebook 2007, Norm Goldstein, editor, 2007, The Associated Press, New York

Advice on interviewing comes from this book:

The Craft of Inverviewing, John Brady, 1976, Vintage Books, New York

Much of what I have to say about journalism (beyond my own experience) will come from these books:

The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories, Dennis Jackson and John Sweeney, editors, 2002, Allworth Press, New York

Inside Reporting : A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism, Tim Harrower, 2007, McGraw Hill, Boston

On style, diction, rhythm and just plain wise words on writing in general, I go to:

The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, 1972, Macmillan Publishing, New York

The New Oxford Guide to Writing, Thomas S. Kane, 1988, Oxford University Press, New York

Economical Writing, Deirdre N. McCloskey, 2009, Waveland Press, Long Grove, Ill.

Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide, Mark Kramer and Wendy Call, editors, 2007, Penguin Group, New York

My quick reference books on grammar are:

Plain English Handbook: A Complete Guide to Good English, J. Martin Walsh and Anna Kathleen Walsh, 1959, McCormick-Mathers Publishing, Wichita, Kan.

Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors, Brian S. Brooks, James L/ Pinson and Jean Gaddy Wilson, 2006, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston

For questions on punctuation, I turn to the section in the back of the AP Stylebook, but a more entertaining book on punctuation is:

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss, 2003, Gotham Books, New York

And last but not least, this is where I go for help on questions about math:

Math Tools for Journalists, Kathleen Woodruff Kickham, 2003, Marion Street Press, Oak Park, Ill.