A Critical Writing Text Review by Darrin Neagoy | November 11, 2007 | All Rights Reserved
Students often go through each English class with a textbook they may hate or find useful. Usually I find myself hating the textbook and consider it a real act of courage and determination just to read. Often I skim the book and not really get anything out of the chapter. I would like to discuss what a good English textbook should have, from the cover to the chapters, which will be the main focus. Than I would like to discuss where the English text books Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments by Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer and The Structure of Argument by Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty fail, succeed, or expand above and beyond anything I wrote about.
A good English textbook should have a decent cover that does not intimidate or bore a student from wanting to open the book. The cover would benefit greatly if it maybe had something that could make people laugh for a while. An intriguing cover page would be equally as effective as a funny one. As the book is opened, the prechapter pages are unimportant, because few people actually read anything there except the table of contents. The table of contents should be very simple to read, yet well detailed. Usually I find most text books already have this pretty well done. The cover and the table of contents are minor points though, regardless of how well done they are because the most important part of any book is the actual writing.
A good English textbook is really built off its writing more than anything else. If the writing is not simple and straight to the point then I quickly lose any focus. It is painful to sit down for an hour to read about the structure of an argument, while the author goes on tangents about an example he has given to explain his point, especially if the writing is dry. It is even more painful if a simple statement is made and then the author analyzes this to a whole paragraph spanning the length of half a page, for example what a definition argument is. It is the most helpful if the wording is simply written in as few words as possible, but is still very clear what the author wants to explain. Usually the author needs to include examples to explain a point clearly. Examples explaining what the author’s intent is are usually valuable, but should be kept as short as possible.
The summary, like the chapter in general, should be as short as possible. Only the main points should be placed with page numbers referring the reader back to the proper pages. Some English books like to ask the reader questions at this point in order to make the student think about what he just read; it is my experience that the majority of these questions are just put there for busy work. The questions placed in the book are not worth answering because often it seems like they don’t help me out in any way. If the professor wants the student to answer questions it is to the instructors benefit to ask the student any questions. I have never had a professor say that the questions in the book are what the instructor wants.
I will be judging both books on these criteria. I will first comment on the cover and table of contents, then shift to the actual writing of the book in order to discuss pros and cons of the book, and give an analysis of which book seems stronger.
Now I said the table of contents should be ‘simple to read and well detailed.’ I find the table of contents more detailed than anything I could have ever imagined. A well-detailed table of contents in my mind would have the page of each chapter detailed with all the main points included; but the tables of contents in this book have so much more. The authors outline the first page of each chapter, then give an outline of what the individual section looks at. It goes on detailing all twenty four chapters in the book, but just when you think you have reached the end, like any good performance you are immediately slapped in the face with an encore of more table of contents titled the ‘Alternate Table of Contents.’ The ‘Alternate Table of Contents’ give the pages of every essay in the book detailing each type of argument, whether it is an analysis or evaluation argument. The excitement of this is just swelling up and over the top and becomes too much. You just wish the entire book could be one huge table of contents. However, this would just be too exciting, and when you finally reach the preface you are relieved to find that the entire book is not all tables of content. The table of contents in this book is like reading a chapter-by-chapter glossary of individual main points. I do not think that the majority of people who will use this are likely to use the table of contents to the extent the authors pained over, this is an excellent gesture of their intent, but is it really used to the extent the authors imply it may be used? The only answer in my mind is that maybe the intricate detail is intended for the instructor rather than the student. Anyway, flipping through the unimportant parts of the book, like the preface, to the actual chapters we come to the real stuff of what makes a textbook, a textbook.
I like how each chapter is clearly well written and understandable. This is the strongest bonus for the book. I have had some textbooks where the writer just talks in circles and never quite seems to explain the point. Sometimes it will take ten minutes to understand what the book is saying. In order to understand what the author is discussing, sometimes I have to write a sentence in my own words to understand what the author wrote, but maybe what the author said makes sense in his mind. I appreciated this books clarity. To understand what the author is explaining I find reading from the beginning of the chapter to the point I want to understand is the best way to get any information out of the chapter. That is how the authors’ wrote the book. I greatly dislike this aspect a great deal. I like the samples, but some are a bit long; one sample essay is around eleven pages. What I mostly dislike about the book is that each chapter is extremely longer than I want to read. I would probably end up skimming the book and occasionally getting frustrated only to find myself counting how many pages are left of the chapter, maybe skipping a page or two. In all fairness though I will bet a student who loves English would probably adore this book for the information provided. If I needed a book on writing an argumentative essay in a certain style, I would grab part two of this book for the format on how to write an essay. The English textbook we have been using titled, The Structure of Argument by Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty is a book also with pros and cons.
The cover of this book bores me. It scares me from wanting to open the cover. There is nothing to be intrigued or amused about, there are just some blocks that are stacked up on top of each other. Now I could be creative and say that each block is like a stepping-stone in learning for a class. The block on the bottom is the base of all knowledge on which each block is built on. Therefore, the top block is the pillar of which we aim to achieve in an education. Once we have reached the top we have gained the Buddhist equivalent to enlightenment and are all understanding of everything, but… I didn’t just say that; you made the building block thing up in your mind, because you wanted to be entertained. Looking at the thickness of this book seems so much friendlier than the other textbook, which could be used as a mini brick for a house. Still the boredom of this cover with its stacked blocks is just so boring it is scary. The frightfulness of this cover on the book is so scary; God only knows what will happen, if I get brave enough to open the book. As I brave the possible depths and uncertain perils of danger I find the table of contents after the never ending surprise assault of ‘preface for instructors.’ I am relieved to find the book only has eleven chapters in the table of contents, and I conclude perhaps the book is not as evil as the cover. The book is broken into two parts, which is much nicer than four.
In general, each chapter is longer than anything I would want to read given the subject. Virtually each chapter is started out with two or three different topics that pertain to what the author wants to discuss. This is painful to read and very inductive to spacing out. When trying to do homework this is a dangerous habit that surely infects all students. I like how the other book is more or less easier to read, even if it is a bit longer than The Structure of Argument. Each chapter is roughly between twenty-five, which is… not too bad, or seventy pages. The general writing of this book is very dry and difficult to read. It seems like a lot of the writing is added there unnecessarily, frankly as I attempt to read it I dangerously begin to space out and lose interest. Before long, I am just staring at the page not knowing what I am looking at. The authors help to have samples where necessary, and especially add in little ‘writer guides’ to summarize the reading of what the author was talking about. However, this book puts a great emphasis in part two on how to format an essay. This can be helpful for a student if he needs a quick review or needs to learn how to write an essay.
It is difficult to say in an analysis which book is better. Faigley and Selzer’s book is easier to read, and shorter chapters. Rottenburg and Winchell’s book have fewer pages and chapters, but each chapter is longer. The writing is more difficult to read if you have a slightly low attention span. I suppose it all boils down to this: would a bigger book with more, but shorter chapters written in an easier format to read be better or would a shorter book, with longer chapters be most desirable? Remember the reading was not as enjoyable though. Another factor to consider would be how much of the book is the instructor really going to assign the student to read, and how much will the student actually read, especially if he has other classes to take care of? One more thought.
As I look at both of these books, I begin to realize just why an English textbook might have such long chapters. The author is really doing his best to explain everything he writes in the book as clearly as he can for the student as much as for his own understanding, at least this is what I hope. The student might not understand everything, but this is for the student to deal with. Not everything is learned is very easily, and if we base everything on its easiness we have all failed. So yes, as I discredit everything I have just written I would like to say this paper has been unfair to the authors who probably spent unholy hours on their books.
Bibliograghy
Faigley Lester and Jack Selzer. Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Longman, 2000.
Rottenberg Annette and Donna Haisty. The Structure of Argument. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2005.
