Between Worlds: A Reader, Rhetoric, and Handbook (5th Edition)

A teaching colleague of mine recommended this text for use in the freshman comp English class I was teaching. Although the text is pricey, it is well worth it, since it operates on the three levels stated in the title. You have a plethora of instructional content (my students appreciated the relevancy of the articles, and enjoyed the one-act play included), plus grammatical instruction, and assistance through the inclusion of rhetorical guidelines. It is an invaluable tool for use in the classroom. The only mistake I made was adding other texts for use in the class--next time around, I will rely more on the use of this textbook (since the cost is higher than many other composition texts), and limit my other fictional reading requirement.

I read this book for an English composition course I took in college two years ago. I normally sell my books back, but Between Worlds is full of short stories and writing tips that I wanted to keep. It's so much more interesting than a standard English comp textbook.