Manual de Redacción
This textbook, Manual de redacción by Ignacio Ruiz-Pérez; Michelle Carone; Eloísa Hernández; Claudia Monterroza; and Elida Monteverde, is intended for advanced Spanish students who are pursuing degrees in the areas of international business, bilingual education, Spanish linguistics, literature, translation, and culture to successfully transition from 3000 level courses to 4000 level courses. Each chapter revolves around two main topics stylistic vices and false cognates which include a set of exercises designated to enhance the student learning. To complement the learning experience, each chapter To complement the student learning experience, each chapter includes two essays related to those grammar topics under discussion. Besides this, this project is aligned with the mission of Hispanic serving institutions to enhance retention and graduation rates of first-generation college students through the creation of mentorship programs.
Content is accurate, it does not have too many or major errors. Errors can be fixed very easily
**Examples of errors:
a) Pages 5, 6, 12, 16, 32, 40, 44, use of the accent in solo (sólo).
**According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, the use of an accent in solo is no longer necessary, only when it can cause some type of ambiguity (https://www.rae.es/espanol-al-dia/el-adverbio-solo-y-los-pronombres-demostrativos-sin-tilde ).
b) Page # 31: Barbarismos (Cuando se escriben o pronuncian erróneamente las palabras). I do not think it is a matter of pronunciation in all cases. It might be due to the use of a colloquialism (https://www.rae.es/duda-linguistica/es-correcto-usar-haiga ) or the use of a non-standard form of a word (https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-49120438 ).
Content is up to date; generally, it includes the most recent changes from the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. Should new updates be implemented in the future, editing will not represent a big problem, updates can be easily implemented without requiring major changes to the content or to the structure of the different sections of the textbook.
The text is written in a clear prose for the intended reader, in this case for both the instructor and the student. Terminology and vocabulary are easy to understand. The structure of the textbook is well structured, it presents a logical progression of the different topics, which facilitates its reading.
There is consistency in the use of the terminology throughout the textbook. The structure of the text is also consistent, it presents the basic concepts followed by the more advanced concepts, and each section basically follows the same format, which makes it easy for the intended reader to follow.
The book is organized in two major sections: 1) False cognates, 2) stylistic vices. Each section is subdivided in several subtopics which include the definition of the main topic, false cognates or stylistic vices; antes de leer, lectura, cuestionario sobre la lectura, and ejercicios. Sections can be easily assigned for the duration of the course. It is well organized in different sections which makes it easy to follow and easy for students to learn the content of each major section.
The book is well organized. Topics are introduced in a logical and clear fashion. The textbook is easy to follow because it is well structured and clear, and there is a logical progression of the different topics.
There are no interface issues, intended reader can easily navigate through the digital textbook. Textbook does not contain distorted images (very few images are used in the textbook) or charts. Charts present the information in a consistent format throughout the chapters, and they don’t distract or confuse the intended reader.
Few grammatical errors were found in the textbook.
a) Page # 36: Missing punctuation marks, periods, in some of the sentences.
b) Pages # 11, 23 and 41: Incorrect spelling of the abbreviation of usted using a lower-case letter (ud. Instead of Ud.)
No cultural issues (gender, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, language, religion, social class, etc.) were found within the text. Knowing that Spanish has many dialects, the authors tried to use a dialect that is most common in Latin America.
No