The Working Reader

Forty short selections for essay-level developmental writers focus on work and the workplace. Writing activities focus on the types of writing that students will be required to do when they start to work, such as reports, memorandums, business letters, and charts and graphs.

Mary Lou Conlin completed her education at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, earning a B.A. and M.A. in English, and a Ph.D. in education with concentrations in special education, reading, and curriculum. Conlin worked for over twenty-five years teaching English Composition and developing curriculum for developmental reading and writing at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. She developed individualized reading and writing instruction, and also established a Learning Center staffed with instructional assistants and tutors who provided both individual and small group instruction. In addition, Conlin developed computer-assisted instruction and tracking in the early 1980s.Her publications include PATTERNS, PATTERNS PLUS, CONCEPTS OF COMMUNICATION: WRITING, and CONCEPTS OF COMMUNICATION: READING. The Concepts texts, a modular series, became the basis for the individualized program provided through the Learning Center. Other publications include SIMON PERKINS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE, a biography of an early land agent of the Western Reserve published by the Western Reserve Historical Society.