(Re)Writing Communities and Identities - Sixth Edition

Reviewed by Allen Williams, Director of Tutoring and Learning Supports, Marshall University on 9/13/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

(Re)Writing Communities and Identities provides a comprehensive and supportive overview of basic topics in rhetoric/composition and the specific writing assignments for the ENGL 100 sections at Kansas State in particular; however, the chapters could easily be adapted for similar first-semester composition assignments at other institutions. I am currently teaching first-semester English comp at Marshall, and our first writing assignment is an advertising analysis, so the introduction and first chapter would both be immediately relevant for my students. The following chapters that outline future writing assignments also look useful and adaptable to a variety of writing prompts and purposes, particularly the next chapter on the Reading Reflection, another very common writing assignment in first-year composition. However, the textbook seems to focus almost exclusively on informative, rather than persuasive rhetoric, which would be frankly problematic for me as an instructor of first-year rhet/comp. I would need to supplement this text with multiple other chapters/assignments on developing argument and persuasive rhetoric, even in a developmental English setting.

One other part of the textbook that could benefit from (much) more development is the final Handbook section. Many instructors in first-semester composition use a handbook to help students with sentence-level grammar and syntax, so this section is useful, but it is also very limited in scope compared to other examples.

Sections on APA and MLA format, citation, and documentation in particular would have been very helpful, especially given that these styles are mentioned repeatedly elsewhere in the textbook. On page 46: “If you use a source that isn’t from the textbook, use the guidelines from the Handbook at the end of the book.” I’m unable to locate any guidelines in the Handbook section. The text also lacks a glossary or index, making navigation of the over 300-page document more difficult.
(Re)Writing Communities and Identities provides a comprehensive and supportive overview of basic topics in rhetoric/composition and the specific writing assignments for the ENGL 100 sections at Kansas State in particular; however, the chapters could easily be adapted for similar first-semester composition assignments at other institutions. I am currently teaching first-semester English comp at Marshall, and our first writing assignment is an advertising analysis, so the introduction and first chapter would both be immediately relevant for my students. The following chapters that outline future writing assignments also look useful and adaptable to a variety of writing prompts and purposes, particularly the next chapter on the Reading Reflection, another very common writing assignment in first-year composition. However, the textbook seems to focus almost exclusively on informative, rather than persuasive rhetoric, which would be frankly problematic for me as an instructor of first-year rhet/comp. I would need to supplement this text with multiple other chapters/assignments on developing argument and persuasive rhetoric, even in a developmental English setting.

One other part of the textbook that could benefit from (much) more development is the final Handbook section. Many instructors in first-semester composition use a handbook to help students with sentence-level grammar and syntax, so this section is useful, but it is also very limited in scope compared to other examples.

Sections on APA and MLA format, citation, and documentation in particular would have been very helpful, especially given that these styles are mentioned repeatedly elsewhere in the textbook. On page 46: “If you use a source that isn’t from the textbook, use the guidelines from the Handbook at the end of the book.” I’m unable to locate any guidelines in the Handbook section. The text also lacks a glossary or index, making navigation of the over 300-page document more difficult.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The content of the textbook appears accurate, error-free, and unbiased. Given that this is a text written by English professors who teach composition, I would certainly hope that would be the case. In terms of bias, the textbook is certainly biased towards the Kansas State community, but the references to Kansas, KSU students, and ENGL-100 specific assignments could carefully be modified to accommodate instructors and students at other institutions.

One major issue is noted above: the text clearly makes references to research incorporation and MLA and APA guidelines in the Handbook section, but those parts either were not included or missing from my copy of the eBook.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

The content of (Re)Writing Communities and Identities is relevant to instructors teaching first-semester composition. The sequencing of topics and the specific assessments are reflective of current best practices in the field. The penultimate section and assignment in the text, however, is an “Informative Report,” which may seem too . . . informative to many instructors. Especially by the end of the first semester of academic writing, I would strongly prefer that my students focus more on a persuasive purpose and developing a more argumentative rhetoric, forming claims and assertions beyond merely presenting (reporting) information.

The culminating assignment, the “Autoethnography,” is a particularly relevant and useful interpretation of the typical “literacy narrative” assignment. However, I think I would either like to see this assignment earlier in the text and semester or again, more focused on persuasive purpose and thesis development rather than information. Even at the developmental English level, I would expect more of a focus on persuasion and argument rather than this number of assignments with explicitly informative purposes.

Finally, some (many?) of the examples and illustrations in the text lack currency and immediate relevance to students outside of Kansas. While these examples could be adjusted as needed, the text clearly indicates that it is “K-State Specific.” Given the basic nature of much of the introductory content presented, it would likely be more expedient for especially beginning instructors to adopt another textbook—with much the same content—that is less institution-specific.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is written in a very clear, lucid style, and the level of formality and diction is accessible and appropriate for first-semester writing students, particularly those for whom English is not their first language. The text is written in an informal, engaging tone and style that could be appealing for first-semester and first-generation college students.

Consistency rating: 4

The textbook is consistent throughout but could use much more development in the Handbook section. Since there are some references to research and citation guidelines in the Handbook, it feels particularly inconsistent that these sections were not included.

Modularity rating: 4

The text's modularity is particularly strong; instructors could easily "pick and choose" which assignments and chapters would be most relevant to their own particular classrooms and contexts. I would probably only use the "Visual Analysis" chapter that could be easily transported to several of my composition classes.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The text is logically organized in terms of the natural progression of typical first-semester rhet/comp assignments, moving from visual analysis to reflection to informative report to literacy narrative (Autoethnography). Most beginning instructors would find this progression and scaffolding of assignments to be natural and useful. However, I would also expect the first-year text to eventually reach the level of persuasive argument; one major topic that I find lacking from the text is persuasive, rather than merely informative writing and rhetoric. I would likely only use the first chapter on "Visual Analysis" were I to adopt this open-source text.

Finally, one major drawback in terms of organization is the lack of an index or glossary of any kind. Especially with an ebook, it is helpful to have an index to more quickly and readily locate the reader within the text--especially in such a lengthy one (over 300 pages).

Interface rating: 4

The interface of the text is user-friendly and easy to navigate, but again, an index would be quite useful to assist in navigating the lengthy ebook. Also, while much of the textbook is visually engaging, I personally found almost all of the pictures and images used felt like either filler "clip art" and/or non sequiturs. For example, the multiple images of Mongolia were pleasant, but they were presented without explanation and didn't really seem to be connected in any way to concepts introduced in the text. Many other interesting images (I assume of Kansas landmarks?) were confusingly presented without captions or context. In general, the photographs are appealing to the eye and serve to break up textual monotony, but images that are immediately relevant to the rhetorical topics or concepts presented would have served this function even more effectively.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no errors with the grammar, syntax, punctuation, or other mechanical aspects of the text. This text provides a strong model and example of academic proofreading and editing to first-year writing students who often struggle with these issues.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This is a particular strength of the text; especially in the final "Autoethnography" section, a wide variety of ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds are presented. I could detect no aspects of cultural insensitivity or offensiveness in the text.