Through the Mist and toward the Light : Grammar for the First Year College Writer

Through the Mist and toward the Light: Grammar for the First Year College Writer offers a new approach to grammatical concepts to encourage and improve the grammar proficiency and writing skills for beginning writers. Far from a traditional handbook, the text presents innovative, engaging, practical, and accessible approaches to grammar that is often found difficult to first year college students. 

Section 1 of the text builds on the premise that good sentence structure is based on a student’s ability to identify how each word in a sentence is being used. To that end, the section offers an in-depth look at the parts of speech and the many rules surrounding their correct usage. Section 2 fosters writing proficiency through an analysis of the most often misused punctuation symbols in the writing of first year students, offering detailed exercises to promote correct usage. Section 3 walks students through the common inhibitors to sound sentence structure and rhythm, and focuses on concepts often found challenging for multilingual student writers. The final section helps students transition to the next level of writing proficiency by introducing them to the intricacies of structural and transformational diagramming to engage their own sentence structure, build on what they have learned, and continue to develop their mastery of grammar. 

Through the Mist and toward the Light is an ideal and practical resource for foundational courses in writing and composition. The text can also be used to support freshmen orientation or student success courses or programs.

Dr. Gary Montaño is a professor of English at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas.