VGCC Faculty Member’s Book on Grammar Published

Community college students across the South will be using a new book written by Vance-Granville Community College instructor Wendy J. Frandsen of Durham.

Carolina Academic Press, based in Durham, recently published Speaking Southern, Writing English: Essential Grammar Skills, by Frandsen, who heads the English department at VGCC. The same publisher recently released the second edition of Southern Culture: An Introduction, a textbook by Frandsen, VGCC Social Sciences program head Aaron Randall and former VGCC Dean of Arts and Sciences Dr. John Beck. The first edition of that book, based on a course the trio developed at VGCC, was published in 2007.

The premise of Speaking Southern, Writing English is that students naturally write in the dialect that is familiar to them and cannot “hear” their errors; therefore, they must learn to proofread for them. The book is intended to give students basic mastery of grammar in their own writing by giving them simple rules and practical proofreading strategies. “Most of us grow up learning the language of our families, with their dialect, expressions, and vocabularies,” Frandsen wrote in the book’s introduction. “That’s the most valuable language we have because it’s how we communicate with the most important people in our lives – our families. We don’t ever want to forget this language. However, those aren’t the only people we want to communicate with. To be successful in school and work, you have to be able to use standard American English.”

Frandsen’s new book is already being used in developmental English classes at VGCC. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Tennessee, Frandsen began teaching at VGCC in 1987. She was VGCC’s Developmental Studies program head from 1992 until 2005, when she became program head for English.

“We are very proud of Ms. Frandsen and congratulate her on the publication of her newest book!” said Dr. Mike Ellis, VGCC’s Dean of Arts and Sciences. “She is a gifted teacher and a gifted writer and has combined those talents with her more than 20 years of higher education experience to help students all over the region improve their English skills.”

Above: Wendy J. Frandsen, program head and instructor of English at Vance-Granville Community College, holds a copy of her new book, Speaking Southern, Writing English. (VGCC Photo)