Reply to Mike: If you adjust your topic orientation a bit, from Sexisim in Hollywood to Gender in Hollywood, you'll find quite a few books of interest to your writing students. Try Molly Haskell's HOLDING MY OWN IN NO MAN'S LAND. She writes lucidly with wit and wisdom on topics and issues students might actually feel some acquaintance. Of course, many other books on gender--how about opening up the writing topics to include male as well as female images?--are also accessible to beginning students. Maybe off-list, I could send you more titles and some descriptions of each...excerpted from a book I'm editing now (Film and Gender: Myth, Power, and Change). You might look for books not aimed at scholars, whose penchant for passive voice verbs, wordiness, allusions to theories and theorists, tortuous syntax, and arguments from other scholars produce, for the young writer exactly the sort of reading experience to avoid. Scholarly writing is a obfuscatory craft one could hope young college students might avoid for as long as possible. They have problems enough already. Instead, why not use experts with the wisdom of scholars but with the panache and insight to reach a broader, intelligent audience. Haskell's books meet this standard. Also, June Sochen's recent book, FROM MAE TO MADONNA: WOMEN ENTERTAINERS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICA might prompt your students to clear, informed writing about the subjects of gender and film/tv. If you like a feminist approach, try Susan Jeffords' HARD BODIES: HOLLYWOOD MASCULINITIES IN THE REAGAN ERA. Enough for here. These books seem to have been edited well enough and pitched carefully enough that they may be more useful to the beginning writer on a journey to practice good writing by seeing it in action. - Gary ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]