Sideris has taken note of composition guides available to freshman writers, and he has not liked what he has seen. Most composition guides are either stale or patronizing; all but a few either put students to sleep or take an overbearing maternal tone. Knowing freshman writers deserve much better than formulaic how-to guides or emotion-stroking affirmations of hidden talent, Sideris set about reinvigorating the genre with a book different from other composition guides. Thinking Originally and Writing Well: A Practical Guide to Composition from the Frontlines is a practical textbook you will actually enjoy reading. Most of it is narrative, and the many examples it offers are of the kind students can relate to easily. Sideris writes about composition with wit, and from the perspective of one who has graded several thousand papers. He describes the missions to think originally and write well for what they are: intense battles for the freshman writers' academic lives.