Write Here, Right Now: An Interactive Introduction to Academic Writing and Research

Reviewed by Lizzie Louis, English Instructor, Community College of Aurora on 8/15/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook Write Here, Right Now is correct to advertise itself as a textbook for first year university students because it takes on the air that its readers have mastered certain basic critical reading, writing and thinking skills. It clearly is not written for an audience of first generational college students and/or multiple language learners. Don't get me wrong, I am in no way under estimating the potential and ability of nontraditional college students, but I get sense that this textbook intended audience are traditional college students with solid K through 12 backgrounds. So, I might consider using it if I were still teaching at a private Jesuit university, but as a community college instructor, I’m shopping for something more accessible.

That being said, the textbook does an excellent job at laying out many areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides effective resources for the traditional students, but for the marginalized, under-prepared, disenfranchised student, it does little to connect with students lived experiences beyond in an academically traditional way.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Content is accurate and error free; it is a polished writing. In terms of being unbiased, beyond putting a person of color on the cover, the textbook does little to relate multi-cultural student.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The text is relevant in a traditional educational world. I do appreciate the book addressing current social issues, which makes it adaptable. But, in a COVID 19 reality and a racially charged America, I’m looking for resources that can help me address touchy subjects, to bring students realities and lived experiences into the democratized classroom and address them head out.

Clarity rating: 5

Again, for the audience it is intended for, the book is clear, crisp and precise. For me, it would be a challenge to shift to teaching my students the “Three Storey Thesis” model because it seems more Canadian than America, so I don’t foresee taking on that task. I am a strong component for They Say/I Say: Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, so I was hoping Write Here would prove an excellent OER companion or even take its place, but the Three Storey Thesis makes it unfeasible.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is relevant in a traditional educational world. I do appreciate the book addressing current social issues, which makes it adaptable. But, in a COVID 19 reality and a racially charged America, I’m looking for resources that can help me address touchy subjects, to bring students realities and lived experiences into the democratized classroom and address them head out.

Modularity rating: 4

The videos do a better job at this than the textbook. While the book does reiterate subject matter consistently throughout its 300 plus pages, The Three Storey Thesis makes the textbook and video content a unit, so it might be challenging to dismantle the structure; the textbook seem requires an all or nothing commitment....

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Yes there are. It is risky to except some students to hold back writing until they practice and grasp information and techniques in so many chapters--especially the population I serve: nontraditional, multi-lingual, working students....

Interface rating: 5

From a traditional dominate cultural bent, it is stellar....
Something that caught my attention was that there are videos supplements for each chapter, which are short, visually appealing and available on YouTube—which is a selling point for me because I’m conscious that some students have challenges navigating IT, but sense YouTube is accessible, I could envision my students accessing them.. I am not clear, however, way the authors call it interactive; it comes across more like watch television....

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Clean, crisp, clear. I do think the text has strong modeling capabilities: students learning to write by reading...

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

I think there are some microaggressions: it seemed like the dark skinned people were surrounded by questions and where always puzzled. There was one image with no questions: near the end where I dark skinned man was sitting at a desk.

Comments

In examination of the content, I think that some students would need the video component in order to unpack the density of the text. In addition, after a while the videos felt overwhelming, the images started disappearing and were replace by dense passages of text. I found myself thinking, maybe I feel overwhelmed because I’m watching some many videos back to back, and since students would be encountering the videos over time, the process would not so unbearable.

Reviewed by Stephen Rust, Writing Instructor, Linn-Benton Community College on 8/7/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

If you've been looking for a good OER substitute for THEY SAY/I SAY then WRITE HERE, RIGHT NOW is arguable the right OER writing textbook for you. Write Here focuses on teaching students to write for college by focusing on the mode of rhetorical analysis. Reader are introduced to the importance of close reading and analysis ("they say") before learning to develop their own response and arguments ("I say"). The philosophy here is that good writing begins with good textual analysis skills. Based on my 20 years of teaching, I agree that students often come into college thinking that using "evidence" in an essay amounts to cherry-picking cool sounding statistics and quotes from source articles without deeply engaging with their sources and reading really closely. I try to encourage students to imagine that they are reading their essay alould to the class and that the people they are quoting are sitting in the room. Using quotations in an essay to develop a conversational tone is a strong focal point of this book and I feel like I could really benefit from sharing some of these chapters with my students. Of course, not every writing class needs to focus on reading before writing and not every writing teacher should organize their course the same way. Write Here many not work for you unless you are willing to really buy into the approach taken in the book; this is due largely to the lack of modularity in the book, meaning this would not be an easy textbook to adopt unless you're willing to teach it all they way through in the order presented. Books that focus on sentence-level editing, writing essays that are not based in source analysis, and books that more fully explore rhetorical modes like narrative writing are likely to be more appealing than this one. I would have a hard time adopting this text because it would be difficult to teach the chapters out of order. The wonderful collection of supplemental video essays covering a wide range of topics would also be a little problematic to assign independently of the textbook or out of order because of the issue of self-referentiality. I also feel like the book over-emphasizes the signature element of the 'three-story thesis' and becomes a little formulaic in its approach (which can be seen as a either a pro or a con like the templates in They Say/I Say).

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

At the moment in 2020, Write Here, Right Now remains a highly relevant text. The examples that are referenced, such as the Charles Justice essay "The Ultimate Communication App" referenced throughout the book as the authors show readers how to gather evidence and formulate a three-story thesis is a timely essay well-suited to discussions of writing in digital spaces. The text uses broad language and broad examples like the Justice essay that give the impression that there is not a strong personality behind the book. Hopefully, the team that created the book will keep up current with fresh examples.

Clarity rating: 5

Very clear and easy to follow. Written in lucid accessible prose. Plainspoken context used to introduce technical jargon.

Consistency rating: 4

Consistent terminology and framework. For me the consistently (especially in the videos) leads to some dullness by the time one gets to chapters 6, 7. Perhaps this feeling of dullness would not set in so much for students if reading over 10-15 weeks of a term but for me the consistency of the format did lead to some feelings of boredom by the time I had reviewed all of the chapters and videos).

Modularity rating: 2

While some material can be moved around and reordered, the text is overly self-referential. I feel like if I adopted this book I would have to follow it to the letter because teaching some of the material out of order or using it independently of the book (like the videos) would cause confusion for my students. I could avoid this confusion perhaps if showing some of the videos in class but not if I wanted to use them in an online course. I point this out because the creative commons approach makes these shareable but in practice they would need some contextualization if not used in order as prescribed.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Tightly organized; written by a team by has the feeling of a single-authored book. Again if you feel that starting with close reading is the key to teaching good writing I would strongly encourage you to consider using this text start to finish.

Interface rating: 4

Terrific looking interface; strong use of visual design elements and text design. Navigation is a little clunky on Pressbooks, especially the lack of next/back buttons at the bottom of chapters requiring readers to scroll up and re-navigate the TOC.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Terrific editing.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Western idioms are used occasionally which may pose some minor confusion for English-language learners never to the point where idioms distract meaning. Inclusive ethos.

Reviewed by Lori-Beth Larsen, Instructor, Minnesota State University System on 10/27/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

As I reviewed this book, the starting point is far beyond the skills and knowledge of students in a developmental reading course. I began to look at the value of this book for an introductory writing course and wondered if the level of analysis skill might also be too advanced. However, maybe a simple five-paragraph essay and simple summary are too simplistic for an introductory post-secondary course. Therefore, all areas of the subject are appropriate and comprehensive, but may be too advanced. I would need to use the book to comment more specifically on this.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I only rate this a four because the examples are quite Canada-specific. The content is excellent and accurate. The skills taught are focused on critically analyzing examples, and the examples are Canada-specific. However, the examples being Canada-specific do not overshadow the skills taught. A class outside of Canada could easily use the examples for practice and learning. The content is error-free and accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content of this book is very up-to-date. Some examples, such as an example of an "app to download" may need to be updated as technology changes. However, that doesn't detract from the content of the skill-building exercises. Any necessary updates or supplemental materials will be easy and straightforward to implement. If I were to use this book, I would not find it difficult to use my own examples and supplemental materials. The primary content of analysis and writing are easily applied to other examples.

Clarity rating: 4

Some of the text in this book is fairly "high level". There may be times when a student would struggle to read the lessons. However, the supplemental videos are an excellent resource for reinforcing the lessons. I teach developmental reading and an introductory composition class. Most of the students in these classes would struggle a little to grasp some of the explanations of tasks. However, as outlined in the introduction, a flipped classroom, where the lessons and videos are available online for free, allows students to revisit each lesson as many times as needed to learn the concepts.

Consistency rating: 5

Consistency is a particular strength of this textbook. Each new skill or task builds in concentric circles upon the last skill. Consistent vocabulary is used to describe each skill and/ or task. For example, students are taught to develop a three-storey thesis. The step-by-step, granular, process to do this uses the same process throughout each section.

Modularity rating: 5

The layout and modularity of this textbook is also excellent. It does not include random unrelated snapshots of irrelevant material. Each section is consistent with directions, examples (clearly marked), videos (relevant explanations), and clear tasks. The "For the Instructor" section lays out ideas for using this in the classroom. I could easily imagine how to adapt this textbook with examples and supplemental practice. It would be easy to follow the outline of this textbook through a course with nice stopping points to assign individual practice, peer activities, and discussion.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

As mentioned earlier, this is a particular strength of this textbook. The topics are organized as building blocks where new skills and tasks build upon the previous ones. There are simple clear directions for practicing the skills of analysis and writing. I appreciated the "inside out" analysis and approach to writing. I would add some "pre-reading and finding the main idea" skills at the beginning of a course if I were to use this book. It assumes that students are already proficient in finding the main ideas. However, assuming that, the book then presents thoughtful lessons on how to read slowly, finding the main points of an author's argument. It asks students to build an analytical essay logically, step-by-step.

Interface rating: 5

I found no navigational problems. The book offers clear directions, clearly marked examples, simple embedded video explanations, and clearly marked tasks. There are small pictures, but they are relevant and not disruptive. The various display features to provide extra visual cues are also relevant to the content and not distracting.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Except for several references to Canada-specific examples, this book is relatively free of cultural bias. The drawings of people in the videos are inclusive. The examples for students to read are non-culturally specific. For example, one reading sample relates to privatization of common knowledge, another to a comparative study of high school students, and another to language and communication. Each of these samples seem to be understandable without the culture from which they were written. It would be fairly simple to supplement with other reading samples more specific to another culture.

Comments

Several particular highlights of this book are the references to relevant language use. They explain why to edit and revise, not just how to do so. It is an excellent exercise in leaving behind the "five-paragraph essay and simple summarization" to becoming a more free critical thinker as a post-secondary student. It lead students to becoming more confident writers, free to express their own brilliance with evidence of critical analysis.

Reviewed by Kate Maurer, Instructor, Anoka-Ramsey Community College on 6/30/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

In many ways "Write Here, Right Now" presents a significant array of writing instruction. However, the instruction appears to be based largely on students analyzing sources rather than pursuing answers to a research question or practicing any particular modes of writing (cause/effect, call to action, etc.). A focus on reading sources deeply isn't a bad thing, it's just not especially helpful in a semester-long analytical writing class at a community college.

"Write Here, Right Now" is an ambitious text with a great approach (instructional text, activities, short videos, and even instructor supplements for each chapter). That said, spots ask students to perform tasks which assume students bring with them a fairly firm background in basics (paragraphing, basic essay layout, etc.). I teach at a two-year community college and I am quite sure a number of the activities in "Write Here, Right Now" would leave them frustrated and intimidated.

For instance, the first writing assignment (250-word summary), is given on page 2. A five-page article to use for the assignment follows. Many of my students would be intimidated by such an assignment so early in the course (especially when writing paragraphs doesn’t get addressed for another 101 pages [ Chapter 5]). Here’s another example: on page 17 (still incredibly early this 382 page text), students are instructed to prepare a close reading in which they “should try to compile exhaustive lists: at least 7-10 interesting words, 7-10 definitions of new words, 7-10 lists of patterns, 7-10 contrasts’—quite an ambitious undertaking for brand new writers.

The TOC is quite detailed and nicely linked to the text (though TOC headings like "Watch This!" could be improved by also including the name of the clip students will watch.

There is no index.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Generally the book provides appropriate information, though sometimes it's hard to understand (the reading level changes throughout and despite being conversational, it is likely to be a bit tough for novice writers to decipher.

Of most concern to me is the documentation section. Were I to adopt this text, I'd want to omit the final chapters. Although MLA and APA citation forms are included in the final chapter, the forms of both are inconsistent and frequently fail to conform to current (2019) standards. Some places provide inaccurate citations while other places cite correctly. I find this to be a glaring error of this text.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Updating this book shouldn't be too difficult. The internal headings are ample and the sample readings clearly delineated making editing fairly simple.

Clarity rating: 3

I found the presentation to be somewhat confusing. Although generally well-written when giving step-by-step instruction, the text’s assigned activities and assignments are frequently vague.

In chapters two and three the writers present their main concept—“two-storey” and “three-storey” thesis statements (the authors are Canadian and use the British spellings of words). The explanation of these thesis components could use several more basic examples so students can more easily distinguish between the two. The terms “two-storey” and “three-storey” are used throughout the remainder of the book so if you’re uncomfortable with framing an argument in these terms, the book will be less helpful to you.

I appreciated the inclusion of an instructor’s supplement; however, I wanted more consistency and relevance in the activities. For instance, in chapter 1 the authors write: “Require your students to consider why the author is writing, exactly what is at stake, and exactly how the author best conveys this message.” So far so good. However they continue: “Ask the students to produce a sentence following this format: In “[Name of Article],” [Name of Author] uses citable textual evidence in order to feasible but controversial claim about what this text is really doing.” I’m confused as to whether students are to merely insert their source into the brackets—and if so, I’m not even sure what the rest means.

I also found some terms confusing. For example, the authors made clear that an "essay blueprint" (chapter 2) and an "essay road map" (chapter 4) are not the same things. I think most students will become easily confused because the two ideas are so similar. Linking each with a particular phase in the writing process might help but as is, the text is confusing (an index telling us where to find more info on each would be helpful too).

Consistency rating: 5

The terminology and framework are consistent in the book (but as noted above, despite being consistent, richer explanations in some spots would make the text stronger.

Modularity rating: 5

If one were to edit and reorder the book a bit, it could be useful. The framework and approach doesn't necessarily fit with my needs, but others may find it a great fit. I do like some of the explanations however and would be interested in making small handouts of those sections which I can assign as stand-alone readings.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

I find value in covering foundational issues first (paragraph structure, essay structure) then move into argument, documentation and research through a series of small assignments. This book takes a different approach but if one wanted to reorder the pieces that probably wouldn't be too tough. I did find it odd, though, that in the latter part of the book the authors covered writing a research paper (complete with editing checklist) and only THEN introduced documentation. As is, it seems like an afterthought (which many students think it is), rather than an essential part of the process of argument development.

Interface rating: 4

"Write Here, Right Now" is generally void of navigation problems. The TOC is detailed and linked to corresponding locations in the PDF document so information is easy to find. The text also has embedded YouTube videos in each chapter which work pretty well (although very slow to download on my rural DSL). Unfortunately, once the video ends a number of YouTube's suggestions for further viewing show up which, because they are based on recent clips the viewer has watched, serve as a strong temptation to get distracted (please don't ask me how I know).

In Chapter 13 (a fairly crucial chapter on documentation), one of the “Watch This” videos is without a link. All that's there is a placeholder graphic and a notation of the clip's title and length. Also in Chapter 13, several images of database entries/screen shots are included (a good idea), however the graphics are so blurry they are unreadable on my laptop (even magnified).

One final textual distraction I found was the excessive use of white space. Lots of mostly blank pages would (IMHO) make printing chapters difficult. Could the spacing need to be that way for TOC hyperlinks to work?

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The writing is solid. Really, the only things that jumped out were the British spellings of words (which is appropriate given the authors' location) and a rare type-o or dropped word.

It did seem as though the book was written in varying levels of difficulty. It was conversational and easy going in spots and then would switch to complex passages (400+ word paragraphs, for instance).

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I spot-checked this text and it appeared sensitive to race, gender, sexuality, etc. Nothing jumped out. I appreciated that the YouTube videos (animated) featured a person of color as the writer

Comments

I downloaded a PDF of this text and viewed it on my PC laptop. I cannot say how the format would translate to a phone or tablet, but I can say that the videos take a very long time to load when one has a rural DSL connection. For my students (some of whom still have dial-up or occasionally no home internet at all), using the videos could become a hassle and quickly skipped (and they're in some cases the most valuable parts of chapters).