Manual de Redacción

Reviewed by Elena Garcia Oliveros, Adjunt Faculty, City Colleges of Chicago on 2/28/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This text is for upper levels of Spanish where the students have an opportunity to polish their writing skills and recognize, use, and apply specific concepts in linguistics and sociolinguistics in order to achieve a higher level of perfection. The book covers two major areas: false cognates and a variety of common misuses of language style which are two main categories where we can place many of the syntax errors we commonly find.
In order to navigate through the text, students have to go over some concepts and see examples. Then, they apply those concepts to some text by popular Spanish writers which adds a literary cultural aspect to the book.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

This text have a few minor errors, mainly some accents. However, it's really accurate overall and it achieve to maintain standard Spanish throughout.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

All the content in the text is up-to date, and introduced to students by using examples which represent and reflect each specific topic to cover per unit. Also, the fact that Ilán Stavans and an excerpt from his "Quixote" is the main inter text to work on is a wise and seasoned choice.

Clarity rating: 5

All the text is accessible to any advanced level student. It's written with clarity and organization. It posses a well articulated prose and appropriate terminology in order to understand each concept.

Consistency rating: 5

A consistent use of terminology is present throughout the whole text. Also, the way it's divided in two main parts covering two main categories of linguistics topics; then, within each category we find a consistent development of the form in a way concepts are introduced, followed by examples and a variety of students' tasks.

Modularity rating: 5

Each subunit found within the two main parts of the text are connected, but they keep their own independence as well. This fact is important because if the professor is interested in modifying the index order for any given reason, this textbook offers that option.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The book is logically organized. Topics are introduced clearly and accordingly to this level making it really dynamic.

Interface rating: 5

We do not find any interface issues in this text. Everything is displayed and presented to the reader in an adequate way in order to avoid any confusion or distortion.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

The text contains a couple of grammatical errors which not interfere with the student's learning outcome. There's a minor two orthographical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

We do not find any type of cultural bias in the textbook, even in the introduction we have a brief but complete mention of the other languages spoken in Spain. However, we can notice that there's an emphasis in the Latinoamerican Spanish which is more extended in the US.

Comments

No.

Reviewed by Ana Peña-Oliva, Senior Lecturer, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 12/21/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

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 Accuracy rating: 5

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 ).

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

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.

Clarity rating: 5

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.

Consistency rating: 5

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.

Modularity rating: 5

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.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

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.

Interface rating: 5

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.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

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.)

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

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.

Comments

No