University Academic Writing for International Students: A Usage-based Approach

Reviewed by Laura Zumwalt, Adjunct Faculty Member, Tidewater Community College on 6/24/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The textbook takes students from narrative (a beginner writing assignment) through Persuasive (which is an end goal for many writing instructors). But we do find a dearth of information regarding argumentation all by itself. There is mention of verbal argumentation in discussion, but no real study of written argumentation (as a chapter).
For many textbook authors, argumentation is the "big Kahuna" of the semester/the big research paper. It is concerning that it is glossed over in moving straight to persuasive, which the authors deem as less formal (not necessarily.) Upon closer inspection, the chapter related to persuasion does indeed cover formulating argumentative strategies such as taking a position on one side or another, and they do address refuting the opposition. But argumentation should present both sides of the situation with respect and research with the end goal of educating the reader and allowing him/her to decide, (not necessarily changing his/her mind). However, persuasion is a different animal. Good persuasion suggests a change in beliefs or behavior and provides a call to action often providing (baby steps) to effect the change. The opposition for persuasion is inertia and ennui. It doesn’t seem that they are treated with enough attention to the differences between the two and knowing which approach is appropriate under which circumstances, especially if they are not aware of the nuances that accompany argumentation, and lack understanding what a neutral stance is.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

No blatantly false information is presented through the chapters. There is a pretty good review of formulating Thesis Statements and rating them. The examples, discussion, and open approach leaving space for the instructor to provide guidelines, are all good ideas. However, it is not clear how this would work with open textbooks (or should they be taking notes too?)

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Writing from readings is a good idea for a chapter discussion. Just as native English speakers often have trouble with new vocabulary, international students may have those issues much more frequently. This provides ways to approach vocabulary in context. It would be helpful for on-going difficulties. Writing for Information section could be longer with more examples and explanations. After we learn to write, we write to learn and to showcase what we've learned. International students would do well to keep these end goals in mind. But newer examples are always a good idea. They seem to be formulated in such a way that updates could be added frequently. I did recall seeing a source from 2005 used in an example. That is borderline archaic. Students are often taught to use extant literature for many writing assignments.

Clarity rating: 5

It all seems very clear. It might be clearer with more examples and explanations, especially in the in the "Avoiding Plagiarism" section.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is consistently full of long explanations that spell out each concept. Not all topics are given the same length and breadth of commentary, but that is appropriate for the type of book this is.

Modularity rating: 5

The different sections could easily be used out of order or as a supplement even to class exercises and essay assignments. Subject headings and pre-reading content clues are abundant and effective in helping an instructor in dividing the information into "chunks". This would be effective in an online, asynchronous class as well.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics can build on one another if that is the instructors' aim. But as previously noted, it is easily amenable to using in the order of the instructor's choice. It does seem to move from the simple to more complex writing. The summaries, descriptive and evaluative writing are at the end, which ensure that instructors can easily find them.

Interface rating: 5

Some users may find initial difficulty navigating through the chapters. They might get to the bottom of a page and not know where to go next. Perhaps some arrows or directions about where to go next would help alleviate some navigating around clicking on +s. Make sure students know where to go for the next page, or section or if that was the end of the lesson or section of reading.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

This is well-written. No notable errors found.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The issues discussed in examples are world issues. They integrative and unifying. As these topics fade, it is a matter of using more current examples as they become available. There does not seem to be any cultural insensitivity.

Comments

The "Organizing of an Essay" would be much stronger with a complete formal outline approach. There is a start of one with topic sentences for the varying parts, but no formal structure introduced. While it is widely known that outlines need not accompany final drafts of documents, but that doesn't mean students shouldn't write them anyway. Aside from organizing thoughts and research, outlines also provide a very easy approach to discuss the direction of their essays with their professors (especially if the outlines are formatted properly.) If a student approaches an instructor and asks, “would you read over my rough draft to make sure I'm doing this right?" The professor is likely to say no (no time, possible unfair advantage, etc). But if the same student asks the professor to glance at his outline to see that he is on the right track, the professor is much more likely to provide the glance as it merely depicts the highlights. International students could make good use of outlines in this fashion. Because of this omission (numbered lists aren't enough), this instructor would not teach from the book for this chapter and would substitute a more extensive use of proper outlining technique as students will need that in their speech classes as well.