{"data":[{"id":9,"title":"College Success","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Our primary goal in writing College Success is to help you succeed in college. According to Department of Education data, 30 percent of college freshmen leave school in their first year and as many as 50 percent never graduate. College Success is designed to help change that. College Success has a student-friendly format arranged to help you develop the essential skills and provide the information you need to succeed in college. This is not a textbook full of theory and extensive detail that merely discusses student success; rather, this is a how-to manual for succeeding in college. The book provides realistic, practical guidance ranging from study skills to personal health, from test taking to managing time and money. Furthermore, College Success is accessible—information is presented concisely and as simply as possible. College Success has the following features to help you achieve your goals: Each chapter asks you to evaluate yourself because success starts with recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and desires, and your own personal, individual realities. You'll develop your own goals based on these self-assessments, determining what success in college really means for you as an individual. Throughout the book, you will find numerous interactive activities created to help you improve your skills. To assist you with this, the material is presented in easily digestible “chunks” of information so you can begin applying it immediately in your own life—and get the most out of your college education.","contributors":[],"subjects":[{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":185,"url":"https://www.lib.umn.edu/publishing","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","name":"University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing"}],"formats":[{"id":352,"type":"Online","url":"https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Counseling_and_Guidance/College_Success","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1622,"type":"PDF","url":"https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Counseling_and_Guidance/College_Success","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1623,"type":"eBook","url":"http://open.lib.umn.edu/collegesuccess/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2243,"type":"XML","url":"http://open.lib.umn.edu/collegesuccess/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2244,"type":"ODF","url":"http://open.lib.umn.edu/collegesuccess/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":55,"reviews":[{"id":124,"first_name":"Theresa","last_name":"Harper","position":"Academic Success Counselor","institution_name":"Oregon State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Combines topics for an orientation to college as a whole (health, campus diversity, finances, etc.) and academic skills important for college (anxiety, reading, note-taking, test taking, engaging with faculty); because of the wide array of topics the text is an imposing 535 pages, even though it addresses very few topics in any real depth. Navigation is challenging as the .pdf file had no table of contents or index, although within each chapter there is extensive hyperlink navigation to other sections of the text when mentioned.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"The material is presented in a self-described theory-free \"accessible\" language, but the result somes across as a set of ideas on how to be a good student as opposed to research based best practices. Many tips are not universal, for example that professors do not allow students to record lectures, or that a student should study 2 hours out of class for every hour in class. Additionally, there is little useful information or gudielines for online students and no mention of hybrid courses.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some hyperlinks are already out of date, relatively simple update but wuld require an instructor to check all links. Mentions specific career and academic skills websites that will need to be updated as the field evolves.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text has clear language and avoids technical terms.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Due to large number of in-text hyperlinks to other parts of book, would not be able to use only a small section easily.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Use of chapters for individual topics.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Minor formatting issues throughout including text size, page breaks, and paragraphs repeated verbatim in multiple chapters where topics overlap. Some outdated/inactive weblinks.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Limited or no grammar errors, do not affect clarity of text.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text has a few statements that show a lack of understanding of certain student populations. The concept that ADA \"forces colleges to ensure accessibilty\" sets a negative tone toward students requesting accomodations. Additionally, although non-traditional learners and online learners are mentioned in a certain way, few of the examples relate to them.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"More of a workbook. Has activities and prompts for knowledge checks and low-level reflection. Some activities are unlikely to speak to a more mature student or a student with significant professional work experience. (i.e. word searches as knowledge checks). Campus based activities and language throughout, not inclusive of an online environment. Some sections are very reflective, others require only a few words but all have the same amount of space for reflections. Students with large handwriting will likely need to journal separately. Also, use of slang terms or phrases comes across as ingenuine (ex. go to a comedy club, Chill!, etc.) Overall additional of limited science of learning theory or research would strengthen the validity of the text's suggestions for readers.","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":132,"first_name":"Kim","last_name":"McAloney","position":"Academic Engagement Cultural Center Coordinator","institution_name":"Oregon State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success covers a wide variety of subjects regarding the success of college students.  The order of topics discussed makes sense while also allowing students to easily navigate between subjects they may be needing support or additional information about.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content seems to be error-free and accurate.  With the changing demographics of college students, it is hard to be able to cover all students needs as well as breadth and depth of topics.  There is not always direction to the reader to seek out additional services if they may need.  For example, in the text anxiety section, a great addition would have been to include a suggestion that if a student has tried the examples listed in the book and was still experiencing test anxiety, they should connect with an academic advisor or counselor or with disability services.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is up-to-date and will allow for easy updates to be implemented.  The topics covered are those in which many first year programming and courses cover.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This text is very accessible.  There are times I looked for a higher level of discussion because students I work with respond positively to knowing the theory and research behind what is being said.  For \"traditional\" first year students, the text clarity is more than sufficient.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology, language, and framework were consistent throughout the text.  The layout is also consistent with each chapter including a pre-self assessment; each section with learning objectives, exercises, and key takeaways; checkpoint exercises between sections and chapter review activities to close.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The nature of this text allowed for easy modularity for the book.  Each chapter has sections and most sections as well as every chapter has worksheets to accompany the content.  These worksheets allow for the reader to interact, self-assess, and create a plan.   It would have been great if each chapter began visually consistently (at the top of a new page, for example).  This doesn't take anything away from the content, but as a reader, it would have been more pleasing to the eye.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics of College Success are presented in a logical, clear fashion.  The topics build off of one another and are referenced throughout the rest of the book.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text's interface is smooth.  Charts and worksheets add to the text both visually as well as contextually.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not observe grammatical errors in the text.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":" There are clear conversation and examples that included a variety of ages, family situations, and names.  That being said, the text is written based on a dominant narrative of colleges and is not inclusive of current research, language, and definitions regarding diverse communities.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text is likely one I will use in the future as I continue to teach first year students.  I appreciate the Creative Commons license on the book that would allow for me to add direct campus resource information and allow me to update regarding diverse student needs.  ","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":168,"first_name":"Brian","last_name":"Koeneman","position":"Associate Honors Advisor","institution_name":"U of MN","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very thorough and comprehensive, almost to a fault.  I question whether college students will read the book in its entirety but thankfully, the book is well organized and readers can easily access relevant sections. \r\n\r\nThe closing chapters on interviewing and resume writing are a nice inclusion, making the book truly comprehensive and eliminating the need to purchase another resume writing or job interviewing book. The book emphasizes that career success is similar to academic success which ties the entire text together nicely. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no errors or biases whatsoever. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"In many ways the topic of this book is timeless. The issues facing prospective and new college students will remain and the text does a good job of addressing the multiple issues that students may face. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"As stated above, the book is extremely thorough and there is a tendency to repeat some points. Though the text is presented in a very clear manner, the repetitive sections that may end up effecting the overall clarity of the book for some readers.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book does a great job of writing in terms appropriate for a college aged audience.  At times, it reads a little simplistic but overall the authors do a good job of providing consistent material. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text does an excellent job of providing checkpoints, short exercises, action lists, and key takeaway sections to allow the reader to process the content.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Topics are clearly presented and logical, thought at times somewhat wordy. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text includes very clear graphs and visuals to illustrate points but I did notice a few very small redundancies. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text does good job of including sections for non-traditional students without getting bogged down with too many exceptions.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"One of the biggest strengths of the book is its ability to clearly articulate different learning styles and explain how students can employ successful study habits in a variety of learning environments.  As a long-time student affairs professional, I hear many students struggle with certain courses of the professor's teaching style, the \"boring\" text, or another factor. The most successful students know how to adapt to different environments. This starts with an understanding of their own preferences, which \"College Success\" prepares students for very well. The second step is executing learning strategy which, obviously, is up to the individual student. The exercises in \"College Success\" are excellent steps for students to begin learning to do this on their own. ","created_at":"2015-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2015-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":255,"first_name":"Wesley","last_name":"Ferreira","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"One of the biggest strengths of the book is its ability to clearly articulate different learning styles and explain how students can employ successful study habits in a variety of learning environments. As a long-time student affairs professional, I hear many students struggle with certain courses of the professor's teaching style, the \"boring\" text, or another factor. The most successful students know how to adapt to different environments. This starts with an understanding of their own preferences, which \"College Success\" prepares students for very well. The second step is executing learning strategy which, obviously, is up to the individual student. The exercises in \"College Success\" are excellent steps for students to begin learning to do this on their own. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I found neither errors nor inaccuracies, however when speaking in terms of the accuracy of the subject material it is important to acknowledge that much of the text is not steeped in research. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The topics covered in this book are current and will stand for many years. The topics and ideas covered have always and will continue to be relevant for students during their collegiate years. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language and presentation of content is clear and accessible, especially when considering the target audience, that is, the students who might benefit most from the content of this text. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Layout, terminology and language are consistent throughout ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Divided into consistent sections from chapter to chapter, the text is easily and readily divisible and easy to digest. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Topics are clearly delineated and organized logically from chapter to chapter and from section to section. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Textbook is free from any significant interface issues and no distortion of images/charts.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I come across no grammatical issues. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The textbook does include some sections which relate to non-traditional students, however, it does not always take into account many of the other exceptions that might be found throughout many diverse college populations from different areas of the country. This text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. \r\n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The ability for students to discover their own learning preferences and the direction given towards achieving success in different learning environments is a great strength of this textbook. Another, are the various steps and resources given. The “Key Takeaways” and “Checkpoint Exercises” at the ends of chapters allow for a very structured avenue for learning. ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":321,"first_name":"Travis ","last_name":"Rybchinski","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Dakota College at Bottineau ","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbooks covers many different subject areas that can help first time college students gain success. I did not see a index or glossy but the is a good review at the end of each chapter.  I do think there may be too much information that may overwhelm a college student.  ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is very accurate and sometimes redundant.  I did not notice any errors and I do not believe it is biased. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"I think this textbook is up to date and students will still get use out of the book in the future. Being an open textbook updates should be relatively easy. ","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Other than sometimes repetitive the book is really simple and would be easy to follow for college students, especially freshman.  The authors use very simple language for students to understand. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent on the topics that are covered. With so many different authors the terminology and framework are very similar. ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The book is broke down to really divide topics for your course.  An instructor can go in order or are able to skip chapters and the students would not miss too much except for the subject that the teacher decides to skip.  You would have to do this book over one or two semesters to be able to cover all of the subject matter. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics covered in the book are very organized and have good structure overall.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I really liked the checkpoint exercises throughout the book that the students can fill out.  I feel this will help the student understand the subject better and give them a better understanding of the topic.  I think the charts are appropriate to the subject matter and are very helpful.  I do not think the display features will distract or confuse the reader. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not read any grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"I feel the textbook is not insensitive or offensive in any way. I really like the social chapter (Chapter 9) in dealing with the social aspect of college. There are many areas that the text could have addressed in that chapter that would have dealt with gender, race, religion, sex, traditional students, online students, and/or age but I feel that would have distracted from theme of the textbook overall. ","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I think the book has a lot more positives than negatives but I feel it would be information overload for students who would use this book. I feel it is very long.  Although the subject matter is very good and it does have a lot of ways that students can have success in college i am leery on how many college students will actually read the book.  I have actually used portions of this book with my wellness class this semester.  This is something I will look at using in the future with different classes that i teach, and recommend to peers in the teaching field.  ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":331,"first_name":"Abhinav","last_name":"Bhargava","position":"Teaching Assistant","institution_name":"University of Massachusetts ","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The books acknowledge a wide range of questions which are important for students. It has intrinsic information about various titles with analysis and examples. There are lots of links in each chapter but aren't structured well. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I would like to see more practical life examples instead of theoretical assumptions to make it more logical and incorporate global scenario.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"It is a great resource for a long time period. The links may have been outdated and thus needs revision.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The authors knows the audience they are catering to and thus have simplified things for students. It is great to see points which are very clear and compact under each title.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Consistent language for students with a similar approach in each chapter and thus makes it easier to navigate through chapters. The fonts are consistent. The exercises are helpful and placed in a good order.\r\n","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Modularity is not the best in the book. It takes time to explore and navigate through chapters. Once you are in a chapter then it's pretty well organised.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Chapters are well structured. Overall the book is not well ordered and the book is hard to follow for first time viewers who shall face navigating problems. The flow of text in chapters is smooth and transition between the sub chapters is very consistent.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"very readable and clear with no major errors\r\nSome repetitions could be avoided","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Might need to involve more examples but it overall covers a wide audience. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The book looks like an assignment sheet with lots of in-depth work and information. There is a lot of in chapter exercises and guidance which clears the concepts well for a student. It is a good resource for a student and family as it answers a wide variety of questions and creates a good understanding. The do's and don'ts can be used to guide students in their future career as well. It covers topic like college experience, motivation, thinking skills, listening, reading, preparing for tests, writing, social life, health, and finances which are all essential for college success.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":347,"first_name":"Kelly","last_name":"Love","position":"College Success Coach and Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is very comprehensive in many respects, sometimes to a fault because it might lose students in going into so many different topics. The one subject area that is absent is fixed vs. growth mindset or victim and creator mindset. The text instead talks about a student’s attitude, but not as comprehensively as I would have liked.The text goes into a number success issues outside of the classroom including money management, job interviewing, and STI prevention. I have not seen other books of this genre go into such issues. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"As a whole, the text is very accurate. There were some issues in the content including gender stereotypes and victim blaming. For example, a quiz asks students the following, “List at least three things a woman can do at a party to ensure she does not become a victim of sexual assault.:” This section aside, I was very impressed with the book’s accuracy. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text includes current issues in learning which are very relevant to today’s students. Topics include including critical thinking about information gathered from the internet,  teachers using podcasts, and online learning. Some hyperlinks and websites need to be updated.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is written in accessible and clear language.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I did not note any problem’s with the book’s internal consistency. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book’s chapters could be used independently and in different courses. Because of the number of topics that the book covers, an instructor might well only want to use half the chapters in a course and I think the book lends itself well to that purpose.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters flow in a logical order and the chapters flow naturally from topic to topic.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The PDF of the textbook does not have a table of contents. The addition of a table of contents would make the book easier to navigate. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no significant grammatical errors in the text. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"More than other texts that I have read on this subject, this book is inclusive of students from many different backgrounds. It touches on subjects including students who have childcare responsibilities for their siblings, students who are parents, and student athletes. I found the section on preventing sexual assault to have some gender stereotypes and victim blaming but did not find this bias in other sections of the book. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":379,"first_name":"Phyllis","last_name":"Nissila","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Having taught such classes for over twelve years in the community college setting, I noted the inclusion of all of my \"essential topics\" in this text. I would have liked the addition of a glossary of terms and an index, however.\n\n I like the inclusion of graphics, particularly several \"student samples,\" crosswords puzzle assessment features, charts, and other features serving visual learners and for variety in a very text-dominant format. The links to related topics in the book as well as to \"outside sources\" I also found to be helpful. \n\nOne topic I will reference throughout my review is that this book seems to suit a primarily high-school-to-four-year-college demographic. Where \"non-traditional students\" are mentioned, it is more in third person, as if to inform the primary audience of the fact that non-traditional students will also be classmates although there is some reference actually to non-traditionals in terms of the challenges they, too, face. By non-traditional I reference: older, displaced, veterans, internationals, special needs, GED and Placement test preppers, individuals \"mandated\" to attend for various reasons, and so on. My \"rating\" reflects this concern.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I believe the book is accurate (with the exception of an update re: Gardner's Intelligences which now number nine, instead of eight). It appears to be unbiased and error free with the exception of some formatting glitches, e.g., inconsistency in spacing before new chapters, see chapter 5, title page.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information presented seems \"classic,\" thus, always relevant, to me. The topics are all I feature when I teach such courses. Additionally, I survey my Effective Learning students at the start of the term asking them to prioritize their learning needs, and their lists include the same topics: note-taking, reading comprehension, time management, test-taking and memory skills, etc.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The information is presented with clarity and is easily \"readable.\" I did a quick readability scan of six selections (www.readability.com) and the average score is 11.1, ranging from 6.7 grade readability to 14.2, the mean also 11th grade. The readability is very appropriate for what I believe is the primary readership: high school students just entering a four year college. It would also be easily understood by many entering community college students as well, although our demographic is far more diverse in terms of age, background, and several other factors.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I found the chapter layout and components to be consistent which is very helpful for students as they can more easily predict the kind of learning and responding skills they will need to employ.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I rate this text high in this category. Each chapter has similar components, e.g., Key Takeaways, Checkpoint Exercises, Outside the Book links, and so on, that enhance the core text and learning experience. Because of the inter-text reference links, I also like the ease, then, with which one (instructor or learner) can reference needed background information if the chapters are presented out of order, but in the order an instructor and/or students might prefer.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics within each chapter follow a logical organizational pattern, and the chapters follow the usual order one finds in such textbooks. But, as noted earlier, I have changed the order of most textbooks (at least the texts I have used over the years) due to student requests. For example, Week 1 for me is typically learning styles/intelligences, etc. Week 2 heads right into note-taking and summarizing (as students are using those skills immediately in other classes). Week 3 quickly follows with reading comprehension, again, because this is a big-ticket item in the college success world. But this text could be easily used out of sequence because of the inter-text links for background reference.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"As noted earlier, the only glitch I noticed was the inconsistency of the formatting re: new chapter layouts (see where chapter 5, for example, starts quite a bit farther down the page than other chapters). ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical issues. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text does not appear to be culturally insensitive, save for one minor issue re: the negative comment about how colleges are now \"forced\" to accommodate special needs students (I am a former special education instructor, so I notice these things more. \nHowever, for the community college demographic, there is the issue, I noted prior, for non-traditional and diverse students to be under-represented in this text, though some effort is made to attend to them (see my final comment).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"As I previously commented, as a community college instructor, I noticed that the primary learner strongly implied, here, is, again, the high school student just now starting a four-year college/university. Of course, there is a big market for that demographic. The first chapter, especially, implies this readership although later chapters do include older students, international, married, and working students as well. For this text to be of greater interest to me in the community college, additional non-traditional students would be considered, if not necessarily featured, in case studies or in other illustrations, e.g., veterans, GED and college placement test preppers, special needs students, and so on. \n\nRelated to this, it appears, especially in the early pages, that non-traditional students are \"spoken\" about as opposed to spoken to, i.e., they are referenced more as individuals the recent high school students who are now college freshmen should anticipate in their classes as opposed to and/or referenced as actual readers of the text. Later on, they are more directly addressed as readers/learners.  \n\nAnother issue I noted is that many of the assessment true/false items seem to be rhetorical rather than probing. On the other hand, I very much like the nature of the reflective prompts that invite the student to describe, list, define, and/or explain their responses to the skills and strategies covered in the chapters. That kind of assessment is, to me, very valuable and more memorable. ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":399,"first_name":"Alise","last_name":"Lamoreaux","position":"Adult Basic \u0026 Secondary Education","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success is an umbrella text covering a wide gamete of topics primarily related to the study skills and personal habits associated with a “college lifestyle”.  The book was published in 2010, and may not be reflective of what skills are needed to be a successful college student today’s world. As an example, the digital nature of college is minimaliized.  The intended audience for the text appears to be a young, recent high school graduate, the “traditional” college student.  The content targets a person who recently had a fairly successful high school experience and who just needs a few organizational tips and behavioral changes to transition into college successfully.  References are made to non-traditional students, but more as a passing acknowledgement of their existence rather than inclusion into the heart of the text.  The book is well organized with clearly defined chapters and content.  As the book progresses, references are made to preceding chapters, so an adopter would need to recognize the embedded associations.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The authors of the text are knowledgeable in their fields.  The text has accurate information on study skills related to college success.  The vastness of the topics covered may give superficial treatment to some of the content such as Chapter 9, The Social World of College, and Chapter 10, Taking Control of Your Health.  Several of the behavioral tips seem outdated.  For example, in the chapter on Taking Control of Finances, the suggestion is made to, “Make your own lunches and snacks.” Many of today’s colleges have fixed meal expenses built into overall tuition costs and if the student doesn’t use the meal plan, the money is non-refundable.  No financial benefits would come from making your own lunches and snacks.  In addition, the text makes frequent references to high school experiences as well as assumptions about what high school’s academic delivery system entails, consequently implying why the student is underprepared for college. Several generalizations are made about the differences between High School teachers and College teachers, which may or may not be accurate.  The many references to high school make non-traditional students/home-schooled students seem like outsiders to the composition of a college classroom.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The relevancy of this text depends on the culture of the institution/college the student is entering.  For a traditional student headed for a college of predominately tradition courses/majors, the text would be more relevant.  There are useful worksheets and word lists found within the chapters of the text.  The references to websites and their links need to be updated before using the chapters. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written and uses an informal language style in an effort engage and connect to readers/students.  Technical terms are minimally used in the content of the chapters.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The test contains consistently organized chapters and maintains the same framework throughout the book.  Each chapter begins with learning objectives, self-assessment activities and follows up with associated worksheets designed to deepen the learning.  The chapters highlight key takeaways for each area as well as providing checkpoint exercises.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The text format of chapters would allow a user to adopt individual chapters for specific use.  The adopter would need to preview the chapter for references to information presented in previous chapters.  In addition, the formatting of the text could make it necessary for an adopter to reconfigure worksheets as some of them start in the middle of a page.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The use of chapters in the text creates a logical/easy to follow organization.  It also allows the user to adopt only portions of the overall book deemed useful to personal situations.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text makes use of clear visual aids to illustrate content.  Worksheets and other activities add to the content development.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text adheres to Standard American English.  No errors were found in the content of the text.\n","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The content of the text attempts to include a variety of students as examples within the topic areas, however, the dominant student references are to a young, traditional student with a recent High School background.  Considering the changing diversity of students on today’s college campuses, the text lacks broadness and sensitivity.  For example, “Instructors enjoy talking with older and other non-traditional students--- even when, as sometimes happens, the student is older than the instructor.”  The text makes non-traditional students seem like outsiders to the college culture.  Statistics from current research shows that the non-traditional student on campus is beginning to surpass the traditional students in numbers. The text clearly lacks sensitivity and understanding of diversity at many points within the book.\n","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"The strengths of this text are in the chapters relating to study skills for a student who is underprepared for the workload of college and just needs a few “tips” to become successful in college. “As you embark on your college career, you have found yourself in an environment like no other.”  Much of the implications found within the text are based on the assumption about the student’s high school experiences which result in a student being underprepared for the new world of College.  The text focuses on stereotypic campus based college experiences and may not reflect the evolving world of “college” or the diverse options of “college” a student may select from in today’s market.  The text focuses on the student changing to fit into the world of college, and minimizes he diversity of students entering college today.  This text was published in 2010, so it’s not surprising it could use updating.  \n\n\n\n","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":401,"first_name":"Maurice","last_name":"Hamington","position":"Executive Director, University Studies","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success takes a comprehensive approach to a student's preparation for college.  It is a book that should be read by anyone about to undertake college for the first time.  Although it does not have an explicit glossary, it defines terms and addresses a wide range of subjects pertinent to college students from class preparation, to financial literacy, to critical thinking skills.  I have some quibbles with emphasis but not in overall comprehensiveness.  The authors do a nice job of integrating the concerns of online courses thought the book but another approach might have been separate sections on the demands of online education.  Because there is indeed so much to this book (it is almost 500 pages long), the text would lend itself well to an adaptive learning structure where students could concentrates on the areas that they need the most.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Every book has its biases but I think Student Success has a welcome bias toward a student's disposition.  As a philosopher, I like the chapter on thinking that includes some basics about epistemology and logical arguments.  Otherwise, I did not notice any accuracy issues.  See the concluding note.  The one obvious blunder that I saw was in a failed effort at redacting one of the authors' names.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This is a book that should be able to hold its value for long periods of time.  As changes in curricular delivery occur in higher education, the book would have to adapt.  However, for the most part this book should not need any revisions for 5 to 10 years.  One of the tradeoffs for the longevity is specificity.  For example, College Success has a chapter on \"Taking Control of Your Finances.\"  The book could have been more specific about student loans today which would have an appeal for greater relevance but then it would sacrifice some of its longevity.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is very understandable and I don't think students will be hindered by jargon or specialized language.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"For having multiple authors, I thought the book was very consistent in style and approach.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It seems to me that the chapters of this book lend themselves well to modularity.  In fact, this book would make an excellent candidate for an adaptive text (particularly given the quizzes at the beginning of each chapter).  Each chapter could start with a short video and the results of the quiz would dictate how much time is spent on each topic.  Each topic does stand alone well.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the text made logical sense to me.  I wonder if more could have been done at the beginning of each section to hook the reader into how important it is to be intentional and thoughtful about the college experience.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Generally speaking the interface was solid.  However, given the length of the book, I would have liked a quicker method for moving between sections and subsections of the book.  Jumping sections means a bit of hunting.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no major or recurring grammatical flaws.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"I did not notice insensitive language but the book could have done more to proactively address the first time in college student as well as issues of power and privilege.  There is enough material available to have robust sections reaching out to underrepresented groups as well as addressing class, gender, and sexual identities.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I have one suggestion that fits nowhere in this assessment.  Apparently for the second edition, the authors chose to be anonymous but the anonymity is very clunky.  Rather than simply pull the authors' names out of the biographies, the biographies should have been rewritten to explain the expertise of the authors without the crude redaction of their names.  Its an odd way to begin the book (and note that one of the redactions was incomplete, leaving one of the author's last names in).","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":450,"first_name":"Betsy","last_name":"Picciano","position":"College \u0026 Career Studies Instructor","institution_name":"Central Lakes College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook covers a wide variety of topics for college success. There are 12 chapters in all. The textbook is very lengthy, yet there is no index or glossary included. The self assessments at the beginning of each chapter are a good component, as well as the follow-up exercises at the end of each chapter. Since this book is nearly six years old, I wonder about it inclusiveness to more pertinent up-to-date material especially technology.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I have taught College Success courses for over 20 years and I felt as though this textbook had some good straight-forward information for students. I did not detect any content-specific errors, but there were hints of bias with regards to the text written more towards a recent high school grad audience rather than written for all the types of students. The content was accurate for the most part.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"A majority of the content is fine because it is not necessarily time sensitive. However, I was not very pleased with some of the web links or links to supplemental materials (e.g.,a handout about transparencies?).","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a very practical sense. Many different topic areas are covered in a simple, yet sensible manner. The textbook does have some specialized vocabulary, but it is defined within the text nicely.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The framework on each chapter follows a easy-to-follow pattern such as: where are you now assessment, chapter learning objectives, key take aways, checkpoint exercises, chapter review, outside the book, and make an action list. I thought these were all laid out well and engaging for the student.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each chapter has many sub sections which breaks the text into palatable reading, especially for freshman students or novice textbook readers. Each chapter and sub section seemed to flow well together. The sub sections of reading are followed by reflective exercises, which provide the student a chance to absorb and retain the material in manageable chunks.\n I am concerned with how this textbook appears (formatting, etc.) on tablets and such. I used an iPad and it was good because I was able to go back and forth to the Table of Contents and bookmark sections. However, the PDF version seemed very long and overwhelming to read.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the book flowed very well. It mirrors the sequence of many similar College Success textbooks.The chapters transitioned very well and throughout the textbook, there is cross-reference to various chapters noted. Instructors still have the ability to use the textbook chapters in the order they chose to teach them in.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Each chapter does offer engaging activities for the student. These activities are for the most part, very clear and straight forward.\nA downside is the textbook is very lengthy and navigating in and between the chapters was a bit tedious. The images, photos, and graphics are fine, although there was a lack of robust illustrations throughout the textbook. The book is very text-heavy, which can be a barrier for novice college learners. Additionally, some of the web links were outdated. Lastly, the PDF version would benefit from having a Table of Contents.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammar errors detected.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The textbook presented and described the various types of students typically found on college campuses today. However, there seemed to be more of a high school grad audience appeal throughout the text rather than to a broader audience of students. \nThe book also thoroughly explains the diversity in learning styles, which is very important for novice college learners to be aware of. There were no blatant examples of cultural insensitivity that I noted. Chapter 9 provides a nice scoop of topics that include: getting along with others, living with diversity, and campus groups. These are very important topics that students will experience within the social world of college","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, the textbook has very good merit. Personally, it would need to have some of my aforementioned edits and revisions before I would consider adopting it fully. I would more than likely use the textbook as a supplement to my College Success courses in its current form. For example, I would use some of the assessments and chapter activities for in-class or online discussions. I would also use some of the \"outside the book\" activities that are at the end of each chapter. In summary, many of the textbook ideas and topics presented are valuable \"habits of the mind\" for today's college students. I look forward to the updated version of this textbook in the future, one, that I can fully adopt.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":468,"first_name":"John","last_name":"Herbert","position":"Instructor, Advisor - Phi Theta Kappa chapter","institution_name":"Anoka-Ramsey Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook is expansive in the breadth of topics studied, yet detailed in key areas relating to the first year college experience. That being said, the voluminous nature of certain chapters, particularly the first few, may be too much information in too dense of a format for the students to whom this text is geared.  I am in my 15th year teaching community college and non-traditional students, and experience shows many individuals will tune out rather than read the copious text of those chapters.\n\nHowever, there is a wealth of information on a wide-ranging set of topics germane to an introduction to the college experience.  The material relating to academic skills is thorough, with the inclusion of career, financial and social issues bringing an effective balance to the needs of a modern college student.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The authors skillfully combine tried and true academic concepts with activities and quizzes to reinforce the topic being studied.  Examples include active reading, listening, note-taking and basic study skills.  The source material is relevant and topical; however, the majority of the content is geared toward the “traditional” student just out of high school living on or near a mostly residential campus.\n\nI saw no substantive errors or overt bias, however the Checkpoint Exercise questions in Section 10.7 concerning how a female student can protect herself at a party does seem to merit more inquiry beyond just the role of the potential “victim” in warding off an assault.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The issues addressed in this textbook are time-worn yet ongoing, hence the core learning material will be relevant for the foreseeable future.  Naturally some of the links, particularly to YouTube and other such sites, will become inaccessible. Nonetheless, the authors could easily provide substitutes in any revision, and of course the instructor can always do the same.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Although the text is overly lengthy, the prose is accessible, particularly to the target student base. Technical terms are used sparingly and then defined in an effective way.  The language used is generally appropriate and effective in conveying the intended meaning.  A glossary of technical terms/definitions used in each chapter would be a welcome addition to any forthcoming revision.\n\nInstructors may wish to assign sections rather than whole chapters to facilitate students actually reading in an active manner.  My students currently using this textbook remark that the language style is relatively “easy to read” yet the sheer amount of verbiage can be too much in one setting for the modern college student.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The writing style, terminology, objectives and activities are consistent from chapter to chapter, which flow together well in a logical and effective format.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The authors successfully combined materials into a consistent format for each chapter, which are then broken into sections based upon the learning objectives.  These sections can be readily assigned in an a la carte fashion. Instructors can then assign smaller amounts of reading, which would allow the material to be less daunting.  Although there are many “self-referential” cites throughout, I found those to be helpful when planning lessons rather than a hindrance.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Each chapter is designed in a similar fashion and flows in a logical progression from section to section/topic to topic.  I found organizing the format most effective in the following manner: 1) begin with Chapter Objectives and a “warm-up” quiz, 2) assign the reading of content, and 3) concluding with Chapter Takeaways and Exercises. This process was the most conducive to student learning and personal application.  \n\nI assign certain “exercises” both as homework and as in-class activities to form a portion of each student’s class portfolio.  These can be helpful to reinforce content and to provide resources to study from prior to an exam.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The PDF version of the textbook does not have a table of contents nor do the first few pages of the chapters include page numbers.  The table of contents, particularly where sections are specifically listed, would ease the task of instructor and student in knowing where to actually begin/end the assigned reading.\n\nThere is inconsistency in page format from chapter to chapter and some exercises “bleed’ into other material, which makes it more difficult to print handouts or use certain of these opportunities as an in-class activity or “journal entry.” \n Illustrations are generally effective in breaking apart the material into manageable parts and do convey important facts and messaging in a visual format. A good example is the “integrating reading into family” chart.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The textbook, and thus many of the examples, are geared to the traditional, residential student.  A few of the references seem outdated, with the conversation concerning the relationship between instructors and “older” students being an example. That being said, I commend the authors for including examples of students from diverse backgrounds, life experiences and academic pursuits.  In particular, the focus on differing learning styles brought the uniqueness of each student to the fore.\n\nAs someone who has extensively worked with “non-traditional” students, I would have appreciated more examples focusing on the specific circumstances of such students. Since there is no true “typical” student, at least where I teach, the textbook does of nice job of trying to touch upon the needs of the many without going into such detail that readers would tune out or be turned off.  The balance is difficult and in this instance believe the authors mostly got it right.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"As I have noted, this textbook is geared, particularly in the first few chapters, to the “traditional” student.  However, that “bias” and any modularity concerns do not dissuade me from recommending this textbook to my colleagues.\nI do recommend that the instructor read and dissect each chapter and seriously consider assigning certain sections and activities rather than the chapter as a whole.  Printing/interface issues aside, the layout of the chapters is readily manageable to teach on an a la carte basis. \n\nThe strong points of the textbook are the substantive material, especially relating to traditional academic topics like reading, note-taking, test tips and the like.   The learning objectives are topical and most activities are functional and effective in reinforcing that content.\n\nMy students this semester advised me to use this textbook again. However, they recommended that I cut down on the amount of the reading and focus in detail on certain subjects, especially active reading and listening as well budgeting and managing the finances of college.  They also remarked many times their appreciation of its being free.  In that I concur!","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":523,"first_name":"Karen (Kari )","last_name":"Moore","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Umpqua Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found the College Success text to be comprehensive.  It covers all of the typical areas that college success textbooks cover.  I found the information in each chapter covered the subject effectively.  The organization of the text is clear and consistent.  Each chapter is broken down into sub parts of the subject, this allows the student to see what is covered and focus on the areas that meet the individual students need.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The content in the text was accurate for the time that it was written.  There have been technological advances that could be addressed or updated.  The chapters that address actual student skills were mostly accurate.  The chapters that cover more of the life skills could use some updating and expansion to meet the needs of non traditional students.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"There are parts of College Success that do not change much, such as test taking skills.  Since technology is advancing so quickly there are areas that may need some updating.  Education and student technical knowledge is being effected by this advancement and will eventual require updating to the text.  The arrangement of the text will allow for easy updates.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The language of the text is accessible to students.  There is not excessive jargon or technical language used.  This makes reading the text closer to the language that the student know and use.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"One of the strong points of the College Success text is its consistency.  All of the chapters follow the same format.  This is especially helpful to online students as they quickly learn how to use the text efficiently.  Each chapter is broken down into parts and there is consistent use of objectives and outcomes so that the students know what is expected of them.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Modularity is another strength of the text.  The format of the text is consistently divided into well defined parts of the subject.  Each area is clearly marked with its particular topic.  There are some self-referential parts but they are clear and not frequent. This modularity should allow the student to stop and start again with little confusion about where they left off and what the current topic is.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization, structure and flow of the text is logical and clear.  The consistency of the structure contributes to the great flow of the text.  Within each chapter the information flows smoothly from one part of the subject to the next without interference.  The pause between subjects that require self-reflection is a great way to move into a new area.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I found the text easy to move around in.  The graphics were appropriate and well placed.  There were not many graphics so the students were not overwhelmed by them.  The graphics were applicable to the subject and appropriately placed.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I did find any grammguical errors.  Nor have any been pointed out to me by my students.  The language is fairly neutral and does not use slang.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Cultural relevance is an area that needs some work.  The text is mainly written for recent high school graduates.  There is mention of non traditional students but not much information relevant to them.  My students range in age from high school to older adults.  There has been some offense taken to the information in the soft skill areas in chapters 10 \u0026amp;11. Often the older students felt that they already knew the information  and that questions asked were to personal.  It is hard to know the cultures of the students in an online class unless they speak out.  Diversity was covered well in its specific area.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I have used the College Success text in my classes for a year, both face to face and online.  I have not had any real problems outside of the fact that I do not teach the class in the order of the text.  This has caused a little trouble with self-referencing.  I have found that the text meets my needs in most areas.  I find it to be comprehensive and relevant to the various subjects.  Some students do have trouble reading the text online and have to print it out so that option is a benefit as well. I was very excited to find an OER this complete and easy to access. It saved much time in creating the class as I did not have to find each area individually and create the units.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":566,"first_name":"M.","last_name":"Barrey","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book contains a variety of traditionally taught college success topics at most higher education institutions such as study skills, goal-setting, note-taking, test-taking and time/self management. The other topics such as diversity, communication and health seem to be included to match some of the leading college success books which is a plus.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"It is difficult to determine whether some of the self-assessment tools are valid or reliable since they lack references although they seem to assess what they purport to assess. Most chapters contain information that most successful students may already know but this information is good to revisit.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the information is timeless and has been around as part of college success textbooks. Chapters 9-12 may become outdated more quickly than the other chapters.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The books is written clearly and concisely and is very easy to read. However, some parts are written so simply that they may lack depth.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"I didn't see any issues with consistency in this book. The topics are well defined and organized.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The chapters are easily realigned to fit any curriculum. However, some parts refer to other chapters/topics without much explanation. The instructor will need to keep this in mind to avoid confusion as to what has been covered and what hasn't.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization and structure are fine but I would probably go over the chapters in a different order to improve the flow and to better fit the needs of the populations that are being served.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It is very easy to navigate this book. I didn't find any interface issues. This book seems to be easier to use than traditional e-textbooks.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are minimal grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text covers diversity fairly well and appears to be culturally relevant. This is an area that is ever-changing so the text may need to be updated every so often to provide more inclusive information.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":568,"first_name":"Carolyn","last_name":"Slotten","position":"Faculty Lecturer","institution_name":"MIami University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text provided excellent comprehensiveness, ranging from academic success suggestions, personal and interpersonal advice, over-all college success advice, to managing time and money.  It was extremely well thought out  by beginning each chapter with Learning Objectives and ending each chapter with key Takeaways and  interesting exercises to continue the learning.  The index and glossary inclusion were very helpful as well as the inclusion on on-line opportunities to further explore chapter topics.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I thought the accuracy was very well demonstrated by the well-rounded nature of subjects: something for everyone despite what you already think you know.  The only bias was to encourage student success, which is the whole point of the text!","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"There were occasional relevance to research on the variety of topics presented but these would be relatively easy to update as time goes on and new research occurs.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"It was easy to engage in with short chapters that were very focused and enlightening.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework and terminology were consistent and well designed.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"I thought the chapters were well thought out, to the point and easy to expand on beyond reading the book.  I did not find most of the pictures relevant and actually found them a bit dull and boring.  They did not add to the text and felt like space fillers more than  beneficial.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Excellent, I really enjoyed the format and information presented.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The photos were  not engaging, stock type photos that wasted space, for the most part.  They did not do justice to the richness of the information and navigation of the text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No concerns noted at all.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I saw no indiction of cultural insensitivity.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Remove or replace the photos, they did not add to the quality and richness of the text.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":571,"first_name":"Kathleen","last_name":"Walker-Henderson","position":"Early Childhood/Student Success Professor","institution_name":"Klamath Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook covers all the areas of college success that we cover at our community college. The information on social world, finances, and your health are very comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Published in 2012 I really appreciated the information on the different kinds of students and thought it was very current.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Textbooks was written in jargon student's could learn to understand.  Appreciate the highlighted words being defined as you rolled over them with the mouse.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I appreciated the consistency of this textbook the most. Each chapter begins with the student surveying themselves about where they are at, where they want to be and ways to get there.  The activities, key take aways, checkpoint exercises, chapter reviews and outside the books are included in each chapter and are ones students would do.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook is divided into sections that can be assigned for a variety of class period chunks.  Usually 10 chapters are what we cover in a term class, but I really liked that chapters on finance, health, and social world were included.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical, organized and clear fashion with a pattern in each chapter that students would find helpful.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Enjoyed the interface and the navigation of this text.  Easy to go from one section to the next or back to the table of contents.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Found no grammar errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This textbook is not culturally insensitive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This textbook is one that I would consider for a college success class and would use chapters of it in my study skills class.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":753,"first_name":"Tobin","last_name":"Richardson","position":"Teaching Assistant Professor","institution_name":"West Virginia University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is comprehensive in most ways. It covers a wide-range of topics which I think would be useful to most beginning college students including staying organized, preparing for exams, interacting with instructors, etc.  I felt the style of writing could retain student interest, and included many practical tips which would be helpful. I felt most of this text was thorough, maybe so much that this reading would be difficult to incorporate into a 1-credit hour seminar or course. This text would likely be more appropriate for a 2 or 3-credit course.\n\nIn addition, I think the section on the financial aspects of higher education could have been expanded.  In my experience, students are very concerned about how higher education will impact their financial future, but are unsure of the complex financial aid system.  The book addresses things like loans vs. scholarships, but I felt could have done more to explain the current system of loan-repayment.  For example, I was hoping for a chart indicating how certain levels of debt may require certain amounts of monthly repayment.  I understand this could be complicated to address, however, could be done more thoroughly.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content appeared to be accurate error-free, and unbiased. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content seemed up-to-date. Again I understand financial aid and particularly student loan repayment is an evolving topic/ system, but including current statistics and information about student debt would have been useful.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book was clear.  Some sections could have been more concise. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book was internally consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modules within the book were useful, and this type of modularity would likely be crucial for students taking this course (who would not yet be used to collegiate readings or who might be at-risk academically). ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"There was a clear and easy-to-follow flow throughout.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Most of the interface seemed to be useful. I only ran into a couple issues, which I think would be difficult to avoid. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice grammatical issues.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book appeared culturally sensitive.  Nothing struck me as offensive in any way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The interactive style of the textbook (charts, take-aways, chapter reviews) could be useful for the majority of the audience taking a student success course, however could also alienate readers by making them feel patronized.  I think within a college success course this is always a dilemma: students will enter the course with such different needs and preferences.  Another challenge with this type of general textbook on student success is that it cannot describe resources or aspects of college life which are university/ college specific.   \n\nOverall the textbook is informative,clear, and well-written. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":800,"first_name":"Doreene","last_name":"Hyatt","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"More comprehensive than many other college success books. I could not find an index or glossary and the table of contents had hyperlinks to each chapter. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book was accurate as far as I could tell. I could see no inconsistencies with other books. However, there were some exercises that did not have a form to go with it (activity in 4.3).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Most of the information has no time limitation. The information has been applicable in the past and will continue to be applicable in the foreseeable future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity is fine. There is some redundancy, but it is not significant.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent and adheres to the goals of the book.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"While there are clear breaks to the chapters (learning objectives, summaries, objectives) the book is VERY self-referential. This includes both \"discussed in chapter xx\" as well as past references. Although there are hyperlinks for these, they do not all work (the chapter 1.6 link in the \"activity\" does not send you back to 1.3. I find this very frustrating, especially if the book is printed.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I found some of the organization to be out of order. I don't understand why choosing a major would be at the very end of the book?","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Although I did not test all of the hyperlinks, I did find some that did not work. Additionally, some words are in different colors that are NOT hyperlinks. Very confusing as to what the purpose of the colored text is. Pictures and charts seem fine unless you print the book out. If that is done, there are no lines on any of the tables. The table of context does not print either.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No noticeable errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"It is not offensive and specifically addresses diversity on a college campus.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"There are some valuable tools in this book. There are checkpoint exercises, self-assessments, learning objectives, key takeaways and exercises to help reinforce the presented information.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":814,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Harris","position":"Professor and Program Director","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers the important areas of college success which are well organized in chapters. The only piece missing is a section on seeking out resources for success and support on campus.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information presented it time-tested and accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information in the text will remain relevant for year to come.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and written to be understood by the entering college student.  It contains some learning terminology but the terms are defined and explained in context.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The writing style is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Text presents a large amount of information. Although I am not positive that every entering student would read the book in its entirety on their own, the text is divided into chapters would be extremely useful as weekly reading material for a first-year orientation course.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"College Success is a well- organized text containing information that every college freshman should know. The chapters are arranged logically with each topic helping to build a skill which builds upon the next.   Chapter One delves into exploration of personal values, interests and strengths and Chapter Two progresses logically to development of personal goals.   The text culminates in exploration of career choices and selecting a major.  In between, each chapter provides skills and tips for academic success including accepting responsibility for learning, time-management, developing study skills and preparation for exams.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate and the table of contents provides a good overview of chapter topics.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is well written and easily understandable by entering college freshman.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Diversity is appropriately addressed throughout the text. It deals with developing a knowledge and appreciation of diversity of culture and  beliefs and respecting diversity of opinions. The text is relevant to the diverse college audience which it targets.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The textbook is holistic in its approach and explores social, physical, emotional and financial health as important components of college success.  As an educator with 30 years of experience in advising students at Carnegie One Research institution, I would highly recommend this text as a guidebook for first year college students.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":821,"first_name":"Jenn","last_name":"Edgar","position":"Human Development Faculty","institution_name":"Mt. Hood Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is comprehensive in that it covers a wide variety of topics, and covers them in a straightforward, appropriate, and unassuming manner. However, there is no index or glossary, which makes it more challenging to look over the topics at a quick glance.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, and I found no errors within it. I feel this text is unbiased, as it is unassuming in its audience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I would consider this text nearly timeless. It covers relevant material, and could be easily updated need be. The material is laid out in such a way that one topic provides the building blocks for another.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is very clear, and does not use jargon/technical terminology without context. It also has great follow up at the end of each chapter so the reader can briefly review what concepts were presented in each chapter. I think it would be accessible to anyone.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent in both areas of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text could easily be divided up as the instructor sees fit, such as chapter-by-chapter or by sub-chapters for smaller chunks and concepts. The text does not seem to be overly self-referential, it does reference other chapters, but as a resource for referencing, which I believe would be helpful to a student.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical and clear fashion; like I mentioned previously, each one serves as building blocks for other chapters, without it having to be read strictly sequentially.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text was very easy to interface with; there were no issues accessing images, charges, pictures or links within the text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":" I found no grammatical errors while reviewing this text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This text did a good job of using examples that are inclusive rather than exclusive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"My favorite part about this book is that it is not corny like some other college success books. This book realizes that the reader may be fresh out of high school, or returning after many years, which I feel is not a common theme (and it should be!). It is a long book (495 pages), however it wouldn't have to be used in its entirety. In fact, this is a text I could use for two of the courses I teach, because it covers so much.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":839,"first_name":"Michelle","last_name":"Mulhair","position":"Academic Advisor","institution_name":"Concordia University, Portland","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book was extremely comprehensive in covering the broad topic of \"Student Success\". COLLEGE SUCCESS covered the typical topics of time management and study skills, but it also gave in depth advice on topics such as finances, personal wellness, and how to interact with professors.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"As far as I could tell, the book was accurate, unbiased, and mostly error-free (I think I might have noticed one minor typo).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I found the book extremely relevant. I appreciated that COLLEGE SUCCESS often refers the reader to web-based additional resources, as opposed to other, stagnant resources.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is very clear and easy to understand. Additionally, the writing style is very conversational and, thus, accessible to college students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"As far as I could tell, the book is consistent throughout, in terms of framework and terminology.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book's modularity was appropriate, however, it seems to be missing a table of contents. That made it difficult to go back and review specific sections, especially when viewing the book electronically.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I enjoyed the book's structure/flow. It made sense to me in that topics more relevant to the beginning of the semester were covered first, and so on.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The pictures in the text were often placed oddly. Often the caption would appear after a page break, and the pictures themselves seemed to disrupt the formatting of the text. Additionally, as mentioned above, I would have like a table of contents.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar errors that I noticed.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I thought the book did a great job of identifying different types of students and the challenges/benefits that different groups might face, without falling into stereotypes (both positive and negative).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed COLLEGE SUCCESS! I thought it was comprehensive and encouraged students to reflect deeply on the content with the embedded reading quizzes and activities. I really appreciated the tone of the book; it was relaxed and conversational, while still maintaining a \"professional\" air. Additionally, there was a constant, underlying message that the student is responsible for his/her learning. That message is critical, but it often gets lost in college success books because they are trying to provide easy solutions, when the reality is that college is hard. My one bit of criticism is that the book is roughly 500 pages, which would make it difficult to get the freshmen in my First Year Experience course to read the entire book.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":938,"first_name":"Keely","last_name":"Donovan","position":"Instructor/ Academic Advisor","institution_name":"University of Arizona","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very comprehensive and would be a great resource for traditional college students attending a university for the first time. There is no index or a glossary which would be an advantageous addition to the text. The comprehensiveness of the text can be overwhelming at times since it attempts to address a multitude of issues that students may encounter during their time in college. It may be more effective to cut back on some of the content and reduce the number of pages overall to provide a more concise guide.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content was accurate and on a variety of important topics including academic strategies as well as personal and financial well-being which tends to be left out of college success style texts.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is mostly up to date with perhaps a few minor revisions needed. Overall, the topics are general and common and will continue to be applicapable to first time university students. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written clearly and is easy to understand. It is not overwhelmingly technical or convoluted. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is easy to break into smaller, more readable sections; however, this would be helped with an index. The PDF formatting uses too much excess space and breaks pages leaving 2/3 of a page blank or disrupting the content in tables. The text tends to be self-referential but not overly so.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is well-organized and flows through topics in a clear, logical manner. The chapters include learning objectives, self-assessments, key takeways and other exercises to engage the reader and make the content more accessible and applicable.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I would like to see more images including charts, etc., as well as updated photographs used. It is text heavy but broken down effectively with sections and sub-headings.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not identify any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text was not culturally offensive. It addresses diversity of all aspects and encourages personal development and skills that are beneficial when interacting with people across a college campus.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The self-reflective surveys at the beginning of each chapter are a great way for students to assess their current mindset and prepare for the readings ahead. Overall, this is a great comprehensive guide for incoming college freshmen. My only critiques are the length, PDF formatting/ spacing, and lack of interesting visuals/ graphics. \n","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1146,"first_name":"Liz","last_name":"Hardy","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The content of this book is very comprehensive.  The author provides very useful information to consider about college success. It really helps you to understand more about life in college.  The information about your health, finances, careers, etc. are very comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book has accuracy in the information presented.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information in this text will continue to be relevant for years.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book presented the information in a clear way. It was easy to understand the author’s information.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent. The author begins each chapter with a self-assessment.  Students can survey themselves to know where they are at in their lives, where they want to be and ways they can get there.  The author also includes resources links, tips and checkpoint exercises.  At the end of each chapter the author presents a list of key takeaway points from the chapter that really summarizes the chapter. Another plus for each chapter is the Learning Objectives in the beginning of each chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book presented a good modularity. The author organized the book into chapters that are organized into sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book is very organized. The structure and the flow are consistent thought the book.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book has a good interface. Links to resources websites worked and are very useful for students.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar errors were found in the review of this book.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is culturally relevant.  The author included a variety of examples of differences in cultures and how in college we have people from different cultures.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend this book to any instructor. I like the way the author presented the book and how he included these 4 points in each chapter: learning objectives, self-assessment, checkpoint exercises and key takeaway.  As I was reading the book I kept thinking I wish I read this book before I went to college.  The author of this book seemed very knowledgeable and the information presented in this book will be very useful to my students.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1163,"first_name":"James","last_name":"Salisbury","position":"Reference Librarian/Department Chair","institution_name":"Community College of Rhode Island","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found the text to be very thorough and comprehensive. It covers important areas that are crucial to the success of 1st year college students, especially those who may not be completely ready for the post-secondary experience. Its length may be daunting ,however all the topic covered are relevant and essential for the student enrolled in a College Success course.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not any errors in the text.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"In comparison to the text the department has been using for a number of years, the content was both relevant and timely. I did not personally check all the hyperlinks, however the ones that I did were current and active. this is an area that would need and hopefully receives regular maintenance for accuracy.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the text clear and easy to follow. The challenge of a college success type book is to able to reach and engage students at various levels. College Success does this. Chapter One set the tone and provides a sound foundation for the chapters that follow.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The uniform structure is carried throughout the book. While not written at a high academic level, the text's language is consistent and is written at  a level that readers at different levels will be comfortable reading. The different sections within each chapter provide opportunities for instructor's assessment, self-assessment, and feedback to measure progress.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter stands on its own merit. While every subject covered is important, it can be difficult to adequately cover all as thoroughly as necessary. The book allows for customizing, enabling teachers to tailor instruction to individual classes.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I found the text easy to follow, with clear divisions of topics. Chapters are divided into very manageable sections. The user can easily jump from section to section or chapter to chapter. The layout is clear, logical, and easy to follow. Although there is a link at the the top of each page to return to the table on contents, the inclusion of an index would be beneficial.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It is easy to navigate your way through the book. Links to move back to the table of contents are helpful. the breakdown of each chapter simplifies the user's search for a particular topic. In spite of the book's length, it is not difficult it identify and locate individual topics.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical errors that I was able to identify.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally and gender neutral. It discusses diversity of culture and beliefs and respecting diversity of opinions and  is relevant to a diverse college audience.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The book compares very well against the expensive text that was previously being used. The layout is clear, topics are covered thoroughly, and it with the exception of frequently needing to check and update links, it has the staying power to be a credible book for several years. I find it refreshing that the book handles the non-academic topics of \"Taking Control of Your Health\" and \"Taking Control of Your Finances.\" These are two areas that are seldom covered sufficiently, yet can be crucial to a student's success in college. As the Department Chair, I was excited to find alternatives to expensive print textbooks. College Success does an excellent job of presenting the material while eliminating the financial burden of buying a high priced book.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1275,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Kepka","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Linn-Benton Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook covers the major topics for student success that would be expected in a book that is now several years old. It has substantial chapters on adapting to college and, to its credit, includes small parts that are directed at non-traditional learners in addition to the primary audience of just-out-of-high-school learners, making it useful at a community college level. \n\nHowever, it does not include enough information about online learning to be used as a comprehensive guide for students who may be taking primarily online or hybrid classes. As an example, Chapter 4 on note-taking from lectures could use some updating to include taking notes from videos, slide shows, or other online media. Still, this is actually a small failing, and one that can be fixed with some adaptation of the text and/or supplementation through discussion or outside resources.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Materials are clear and accurate. I appreciate the way the sections on critical thinking and meta-cognition avoid mentioning learning styles. In general, it is straight-forward and cites outside sources pretty well in making assertions, though it might help to have more citations about the benefits of certain practices. (For example, a discussion of where the assumption of 2 hours of outside work per hour in the classroom comes from, or why Cornell Notes might or might not work, as it's been studied and found a bit lacking).","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Again, the book has some information that's timeless, such as goal-setting information, thinking about thinking, and some general college advice. It would be useful to have more information about the distractions of electronic media and smartphones -- or on how to incorporate these successfully into college study. \n\nThis is a very easy text to teach from, and adapting it to meet current standards/technology has not been difficult.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Prose is clear and to-the-point. Examples are useful but short. A few case studies here and there expand the usefulness for students. In the original version (before moving to the UMN site) it had parenthetical definitions or pop-up definitions for all of the terms that are now blue. It would be useful to have a glossary again at the end of each chapter, but most words are explained in context, too.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Tone and information are clear throughout. The objectives are maintained throughout the book and the types of exercises at the end of each chapter are also consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I have used pieces of the text before for a class instead of using the whole, and they divide up well (for the most part). The final three chapters, for instance, are outside of the scope of my 10-week college success class, and it was easy to work without them. There are some links to other chapters in most of the chapters, but the references are rarely critical. Chapter 2 is probably the most difficult to work without -- if it is included, then the basis for goal-setting and time-management and organization that it provides scaffolds the rest of the content. \nActivities in all sections and chapters can be used or ignored with no great loss.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"This has a pretty logical flow. Not all of chapter 1 seems necessary  (depending on the population being taught), and Chapter 2 seems to come a little out of order: time management seems the most critical of the skills being explained here, so putting it before space organization was useful. In fact, Chapter 2 seems like it could be broken into two pieces or taught over two weeks, while Chapter 1 is basically first-day-of-class material. Otherwise, most chapters would correspond neatly to a single week of content (including activities). I found Chapter 7 a little thin -- it could sustain a day's discussion -- while Chapter 8 seems like it's an entire course unto itself (since writing is required on most colleges).","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This works fine in any format for reading. If one is using the exercises in the book, then it is necessary to use a format where  students can print or copy the exercises easily. The PDF can be edited to make them into templates/fillable forms, but that takes time.  The ODT or RTF versions are better for this. The pressbooks version linked here can be awkward for requiring exercise completion, as students will have to rewrite or copy/paste and then worry about spacing for most of them.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Clear, clean, no distracting errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The final few chapters try to tackle huge issues in a very basic way. They might be useful, but having an open discussion of campus policies and current events will be more useful. For example, the nutrition and weight chapter conflates weight and health in a way that's offensive, but the sleep chapter would likely be useful for many students. \n\nLikewise, the sexual health chapter has some reasonable advice but also suggests that victims are in the best position to prevent sexual assault by following three steps. That's nonsense and is over the border into victim shaming.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I've found major pieces of this work very useful, and I would encourage those considering it to read the chapters most relevant to their course outcomes and adapt when they adopt.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1347,"first_name":"Meagan","last_name":"West","position":"Assistant Director of First -Year Studies","institution_name":"University of Tennessee","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Very comprehensive book for a first year experience course! The text is organized well and the table of contents makes using the online text simple to navigate.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The topic itself can have a slant of opinion since transition issues or tips cannot be as scientific as a math problem. Overall I felt that the text was accurate, error-free, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content within the book is relevant to first-year students for a long period of time. As students change, the majority of the transitions are going to remain the same/similar.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written clear and to the intended audience.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I appreciate the consistency of the formatting including the learning objectives, content, and optional activities.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is perfect for diving up into smaller reading sections for course sessions! You can pick it up at any point to reference or refer students to a particular portion with ease.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"YES! I really like the structure and flow of the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is clear and easy to navigate! The display features enhance the opportunity for learning.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No issues with grammar!","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The living with diversity 9.2 section is probably the weakest portion of the text.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I'm excited about trying portions of the text in my class this fall!","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1379,"first_name":"Melanie","last_name":"Deffendall","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Delgado Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers all of the typical topics for a college success textbook.  The number of chapters can easily be covered in a 16 week semester.  I did not see a glossary or index listed with the text.  I think a glossary is essential for students new to college.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The accuracy of the text was beyond question.  I did not find any errors or bias in the text.  The pictures included many types of students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because the topics are so general and do not contain many statistics, the basic concepts presented are fairly timeless.  I think this text would not have to be updated frequently.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Any terminology that may be unfamiliar to students is clearly explained.  Steps for different skills are outlined in a clear and concise manner.  The reading level appears to be appropriate for community college students whose reading level may not be at college level.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent and it would be easy to assign different sections .  The use of checkpoints and key concepts keeps the student focused on the important concepts explained in the chapter.  Chapter 6 did not have the section at the end entitled Takeaways.  I think the takeaway section is good for students who may not read the entire chapter but would at least review this section.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I love the modularity of the text.  Breaking the chapter into sections creates a feeling of having accomplished something by completing each section.  The reader is not overwhelmed by the amount to be read.  It could be compared to trying to eat an entire cake at one time or just enjoying the cake one bite at a time.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"For the most part, I agree with the organization of the text except for the section on choosing a major.  Students need to link a major to their career choice, but choosing a major should be discussed earlier in the semester.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The layout of the text is easy to read and navigate.  Images were clear and not too intrusive.  Charts were easy to understand and appropriately placed within the explanation of the topic.  Moving back and forth between pages or skipping to another chapter was easily accomplished.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not discover any grammatical  errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text was very careful to be inclusive insofar as race and ethnicity was concerned.  I did not notice any differently abled students in the pictures.  The pictures showed a variety of activities using a variety of students  Most of the students appeared to be traditional students.  Community colleges often have many non traditional students.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am very interested in piloting this text with our students because of the cost and interactive nature of the text.  The frequent inventories that allow the student to examine themselves, their beliefs and skill levels should maintain their interest.  It is truly a text that is all about them.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1595,"first_name":"Katherine","last_name":"Brau","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Hibbing Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Having taught first year seminars for a number of years, the numerous topics covered within the text are the traditional topics for student success including study skill, college orientation and personal choice strategies.  This textbook includes a thorough list of topics for a first year course. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Evidence based practices are located throughout the textbook; however, at times content becomes subjective.  Citation of evidence based research would better support accuracy.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The comprehensive topics included contribute to the longevity of the text and would allow for content to be updated easily.  Relevance to the target population is unclear.  More relevant images and activities would likely better connect learners to this resource.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook avoids educational jargon and confusing terms or language. The content is clearly stated.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The navigation of the book is logical and consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Navigation is challenging as the PDF had no table of contents or index.  Navigation through the table of contents and hyperlinks are effective and chunk content into smaller sections.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical manner.  Organization may be as simple as instructor preference.  A personal preference for organization would begin with college orientation, then follow with study skill strategies, life management strategies, then choosing your major, diversity, critical thinking, etc.  Defined topics are distinct enough so an instructor could rearrange as needed. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Page breaks were odd within the PDF at times, headings followed by no content, until the next page, and activities broken in awkward places within tables.  There could be improved flow within the PDF, page breaks, and content organization. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contained no recognized grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Images and content appear to be culturally sensitive and includes a variety of relationships, diversity and values. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, this was a great textbook that can be an asset to learners.  The topics included are comprehensive and well organized!   Throughout my years of teaching our first year experience course, I find concise content followed by engaging activities is a best practice for student learning.  Since this text is over 500 pages, the content is text heavy and may impede engagement.  All in all a great option! ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1729,"first_name":"Lauren J.","last_name":"Hummel","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Rhode Island College and The Community College for Rhode Island","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Addresses many topics common in college success textbooks. Occasional use of terms or assumptions about vocabulary that may impact some readers.  No obvious glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This books is accurate and addresses a wide range of student experiences without bias.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Students and faculty will benefit from the comprehensive discussion of college writing. This book is current regarding the challenges and benefits of face to face vs. virtual education.  These sections as well as others will be easy to update.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In general students will find this book easy to read due to the conversational style and word choice of the authors.  However, there are some words used that will require checking with faculty or other sources to assist in determining meaning.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The authors delve into some topics in greater detail than others.  Faculty may need to help students understand what a syllabus is and provide support in developing note-taking skills.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The sections in this book could be reorganized or omitted as needed.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I struggled with recognizing the organization of the first chapter.  Anecdotes occur more often in some sections than others.  Some chapters contain essential information at the end which may require faculty to underscore.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The checkpoint exercises do not line up.  Other than that the interface was fine.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical and easy to follow structure.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I found a wide range of examples and inclusive comments.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1991,"first_name":"Dawn","last_name":"Kennedy","position":"Ed.S, Health Education","institution_name":"Anoka-Ramsey Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success is a comprehensive text, covering a wide variety of relevant topics and activities.   A broad range of topics are covered such as interacting with instructors and classes; staying motivated, organized and on track; study skills; goal setting; time management; and personal health choices, to name a few.  Each chapter begins with learning objectives and is followed by practical information, supportive activities, and Key Takeaways.\n Using the text as a tool for First Year Experience courses may be the best use of this text.  Using it as a stand-alone text may be more challenging as it is quite lengthy and there is no glossary or index (PDF format). \n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":" As a community college health education instructor, I can verify that the goal setting, time management, health and well-being components of the text are accurate.  These skills can help lessen some stress students may experience when adjusting to college life.   The authors use sound educational strategies to guide the reader through the text.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The material and content are relevant.  This instructor believes it may be necessary to update the tools to meet current electronic media available to students to enhance longevity of the text.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook is clearly written and easy to understand.  The supportive activities are well developed and easy to work through.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The layout and format of the text flows in a logical and consistent manner.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text can easily be divided into smaller reading sections which can be used at different points throughout a course or for individual use.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a clear, logical fashion as is, yet can be re-organized to suit the needs or desired of the instructor and learners.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Most of the text is easy to follow.  Of concern however, is the blank space between some headings and the content which was awkward (PDF format) and could use improving.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This reviewer did not find any grammatical errors in the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The textbook is culturally sensitive and non-offensive.  The information includes discussion evolving around students of all ages and with diverse backgrounds.  It speaks to traditional students, returning students, first-generation students,  recent immigrant and international students and students with disabilities.   The photos display a wide variety of student ages and ethnicities.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like the’ Profile of a Successful Student’ which outlines the common characteristics of students who have been successful in college.  Good information for those new or returning to the college experience!","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2017,"first_name":"Maria","last_name":"Avalos","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Texas Permian Basin","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Very comprehensive book for a first year students. My graduate program is almost 50% first generation students. I believe some of the content and chapters would be helpful for these students as well, especially those who may have graduated from a school that did not provide support for their undergraduate students. I would like to see more on AVIDs cornell notes.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Materials are clear, unbiased, and accurate. It's approach is made for ALL students at varying levels of experience. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information is relevant to ALL students in college. It's timely and includes methods that will be used throughout time. I can remember some of the content being shared with me, and as a first generation student, it was this type of content that helped me success in school.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written clear and to the intended audience. I would like to see a comprehensive glossary as there is language/titles that might not be familiar to all students. \n\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I appreciate the consistency of the formatting including the learning objectives, content, and optional activities. Everything is at the professors fingertips and students can return to the text when needed. This would be wonderful for our Freshmen Experience class.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I appreciate the organization of the text as it provides modules that can be tied into course content in a way that doesn't require TOO much additional reading. Additionally, students can visit other modules long after our class, and will be comfortable knowing that each module is set up in a way that is familiar and will make sense. The goal is for them to be able to continue the use of the text and it's content throughout their academic careers. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Excellent organization, structure and flow. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It is easy to navigate through the book. This is not always the case for online textbooks, but I found the links to be useful,allowing for navigation between chapters and areas within chapters. It's fairly simply to find what you need when you need it rather easily.\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any issues with grammar. I would like to see a glossary.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book appeared culturally sensitive. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This textbook is one that I would consider for a college success class for undergraduate as well as some graduate students. I love that I could share this text with those who need it.","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2020,"first_name":"Andrea","last_name":"Schafer","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"West Virginia University Potomac State College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text offers a practical approach to guiding students through their first year of college.  It is well organized, clearly written and relevant.  The text includes both academic and nonacademic considerations (finance, career, etc.).  Both are balanced throughout each chapter and section, giving students an integrated look at their college experience.\n\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Topics are presented in logical order with acknowledgement of best practice and room for student interpretation. Material is consistent with similar texts reviewed as support for first year college students. \n\n\n","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Issues addressed in the text include traditional considerations, such as balancing time or deciding on an academic major, as well as more timely considerations including critical thinking and problem solving.  References for utilizing web resources are also included.  Checkpoint and chapter exercises encourage students to reflect when applying text material to their own situations.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The table contents is comprehensive.  Chapters are organized in an “easy to follow” way. There is little to no use of jargon; material is presented in a “straight forward” way. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Chapters and subsections are organized and well detailed in the table of contents.  Each chapter begins with a three part introduction covering students’ past habits and suggestions for achieving success in each aspect of their lives as college students.  The checkpoint exercises are consistently named and appear in regular patterns throughout each chapter.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Topics are well differentiated.  Organization is logical, beginning with an “orientation” to college experience, continuing through active learning (reading, note taking, critical thinking), and ending with financial and career planning.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Flow exists between chapters.  Chapters include cross references to connect to issues/topics in other chapters.  Each chapter includes delineated subsections, each beginning with learning objectives.  Checkpoint exercises and extension activities are clearly labeled.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Chapters and subsections are easy to access in web interface.  Navigation is user friendly.  However, some issues with page break organization in PDF version.\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No evidence of grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text acknowledges difference of student situations and learning experiences: students with families, “traditional-age” college student, “types” of thinking, and learning preferences. No cultural insensitivities exist.\n\n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2065,"first_name":"Kathryn","last_name":"Gage","position":"Executive Director for Student Affairs","institution_name":"Oklahoma State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success is ambitious in its scope, covering a wide range of variables that can affect students' ability to succeed in college.  Student affairs practitioners will appreciate this holistic approach to addressing the factors that might impact student retention.  Chapter subject matter ranges from basic time management skills, to a focus on financial and physical well-being. \n\nStudents should find the interactive nature of the book appealing, working through the reflective questions in self-inventories that are provided at the start of each chapter.  The book provides a platform for students to analyze their readiness for college, while consistently offering practical tips for navigating relationships, resources, and self-regulation.  Quizzes, graphics, and activities all provide ways for students to synthesize chapter lessons.\n\nThe index of topics is well ordered, making it easy for students to find answers to specific challenges they may be facing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is written to be accessible to students who are working to understand the college experience and the challenges they may encounter.  The information provided is developed as opinion and advice, interspersed with references to learning models and strategies.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This textbook is relevant to today's student.  Those who are familiar with student retention issues understand that a wide variety of factors may prevent students from progressing towards graduation.  Whether intrinsic motivation issues, lack of academic preparedness, or financial struggles, this book asks students to take a realistic view of their circumstance, while providing explicit strategies for resolving their challenges.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language of College Success lends itself to being accessible to most students.  Although new students may not understand the relevance of some topics (e.g. the importance of critical thinking, covered in Chapter 3), the information is available to students to refer to, as the subject matter becomes pertinent to them.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Another strength of the books is the consistent message of \"college is different from high school.\"  This message confronts and reminds students of an important theme, as they recalibrate their efforts for a more demanding environment.\n\nThe clearly identified learning outcomes articulated at the beginning of each chapter should be helpful to students seeking answers and strategies for success.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"If this text were assigned for a first-year success seminar, the instructor could easily pick and choose among the chapters, to provide a learning experience most relevant to the class.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book provides a way to capture student interest with inventories on the topic at hand, then build on that engagement with a sequencing of subjects that may occur as the semester progresses.  Basic academic strategies are presented first, followed by information on relationships, and, health and wellness topics.  The information is ordered to anticipate what students may need to know at pivotal moments during the academic year.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The charts and graphs were clear and easy to read.  Some website links were not active.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were detected.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book incorporates a section on diversity, which examines different aspects of diversity, and promotes the benefits of being part of an inclusive community.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book is practical, relevant, and crafts its message in an accessible format for new students.  With class conversation and interaction, this would make a beneficial first-year seminar text.","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2092,"first_name":"OLAMIDE","last_name":"COKER","position":"Counselor,Faculty","institution_name":"North Hennepin Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The College Success textbook covers everything a College student should know during their first semester in college. The text covers everything from self-assessment questionnaires to career exploration.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text appears accurate in providing thought provoking chapter review that helps students evaluate the learning objectives for each chapter.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The textbook content is up-to-date and students will find the information relevant to their personal and academic lives.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Language within the text is relatable and adequate for students enrolled in a first year seminar course","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology and framework used in the text is consistent and students will not have any issues understanding the text contents.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Modularity of the text is very clear, concise and easy to follow. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Organization of the text is simple and organic!","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Images and charts are not distracting but keeps visual learners engage with content","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noticed in this text","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Cultural relevance were good but more information needs to be added to the diversity section of the text. Really liked the information on the campus groups because it helps students think about the value of extra-curricular activities in college.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"none","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2161,"first_name":"Rhonda","last_name":"Black","position":"Program Director - First Year Experience","institution_name":"West Virginia University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I find this text to be greatly comprehensive.  It includes all topics of a traditional student success text.  I found that the chapters were very in depth on each topic.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text was published in 2015. Information contained in general student success text books typically have a fairly long shelf life.    I have worked with several publishers during my career.  I find it helpful to customize the text to the institution.  Again, the general information doesn't change too much; however, connecting students to the institution and their academic departments early is critical for student success, retention and persistence.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Again, the college success text is relevant for extended periods of time.  The skills and strategies are time tested and proven to enhance student success.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written on the appropriate reading level for students entering college.  I find the chunking of information helpful.  This encourages students to skim and read the information.  The learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter provides needed structure for most first year students.  I have found that many first year students enter college with underdeveloped student success skills (study skills, time management, applying critical thinking, etc.).  Furthermore, they come from environments that were structured and guided.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The frame work and consistency is critical, especially with a text about college success.  In talking with colleagues from other institutions, we all seem to struggle with the first year seminar content being valued by the students ...... until, they realize they need it.  Many times, this happens when students find themselves on academic probation or at risk of being suspended.  Being clear to students about the subject matter and explaining to them up front why it is important are key to the success.  I like the way this text is formatted.  \n\nAlthough somewhat static file, it provides engagement through the sections at the beginning \"Where Are You Now?\";  \"Where Do You Want to Go?\" and \"How to Get There\".   I find this to be a great hook to get students thinking about their college career. As well, the takeaways and exercises keep students active with the content.   I also like the links back to information.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text follows a logical sequence for content; however, it also lends itself to the flexibility for instructors to cover information in varying sequences.  This is where I find the ability to customize the text to the institution helpful.  Based on student feedback, when I have covered information out of order, they report that they sometimes get confused.  With that said, part of college success is to learn to follow your syllabus and be responsible.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The information is definitely presented in a logical sequence for first year students.  Sequencing the first year seminar curriculum is always a challenge, because we believe that students need all of the information early in the semester.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I did not encounter any problems access or saving the document.  All material was visible and readable.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found not grammatical errors in the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This textbook is written to address first year students regardless of culture or background.  The pictures used throughout the text invite a diverse reader population.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed the opportunity to review this text.  As the Director of our First-Year Seminar, I am always looking affordable, relevant and engaging material for students. Over the past several years, we moved away from using a textbook for multiple reasons, but price being the biggest barrier.  After review this text, as part of OER, I would consider using such materials in the future.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2313,"first_name":"Nancy","last_name":"Lorta","position":"Associate Director","institution_name":"University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success is a detail oriented text for students new to higher education. The wide array of topics included are those that can assist on how to be a successful first year college student.  The length of the book is a concern, but the content is very well summarized.  I'm unsure if students would actually take the time to read it thoroughly.  It could be a valuable text if used in a success course or as supplementatl instruction in a new student colloquia. This could also be useful as an online first semester course with follow up guidance from an advisor (or counselor). It's also generic and applicable to a variety of students.  Very comprehensive overall!","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The textbook is accurate as the title and topics indicate. It is thorough and has an easy flow to it.  It's a text that could be useful with guidance from an instructor, advisor, peer mentor, etc. to assure follow through with some of the topics.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content appears up to date. Topics included are those that will affect any indvidual in a school setting.  It focuses on self exploration and how to make the most out of one's own college experiences.  Students will get out of it what they put into it.  Topics are very well organized and straightforward.  It is a long book but all items are relevant.   ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is very thorough and forthright. Some items are repetive but for a valid reason.  It serves as self-reflection to proceed to the next topic. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The framebook of the textbook is very consistent.  ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The text is divided in sections with appropriate content such as pre-assessments, excercises, and post assessment included.  It would be difficult to use in a group student setting, unless the chapters are completed before class, to then have a discussion in class within small group settings. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are clearly covered, but some chapters appear lenghtier than others. It does have a good flow though. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are some redundancies but the flow is great.  When other chapters are highlighted within a context, they are not hyperlinked to be able to refer to easily. It is probably listed as a referral but not in a format to get one 'off-topic'.  It would help if they were hyperlinked to open in another window. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"It is inclusive of various populations but not research focused. It's practical for a new college student.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to use this book with first year students at no cost to them. Thanks Creative Commons licensing. The book layout makes it easy to include supplemental materials applicable to a specific institution. It is formatted as a workbook or practical guide for the student that chooses to be successful.  Relevant for a first year student. ","created_at":"2018-09-12T13:27:16.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-12T13:55:02.000-05:00"},{"id":2350,"first_name":"Leslie","last_name":"Ross","position":"Associate Professor Librarian","institution_name":"St. Ambrose University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book does a great job covering most of the aspects of college life from academics to satisfying and healthy social lives. One of the areas I would like to see additional content is in the section on critical thinking in the chapter entitled \"Thinking about Thought\".","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I didn't notice any glaring errors or issues. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because the book sticks to the basics, I believe the content to be relatively timeless. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is well-written and long portions of text are often broken up with quiz type questions that engage the reader and encourage reflection.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in terms of prose and chapter structure.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I used this text for a seminar-style class for incoming freshman and was able to \"cherry pick\" relevant sections to assign without impacting my students' abilities to understand the content; the chapters work well on their own and can be assigned in a different order than they appear in the book.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The prose and quizzes are very easy to understand. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I did have some (possibly browser related) issues getting past the first page of each chapter using the direct page link,  but after I linked the book into my University's course management software client,  it was very easy to use.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I didn't notice any egregious errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The book offers a section on diversity that is relatively comprehensive from the point of view of showcasing the benefits of a diverse campus but did not really talk about what students who may identify as being in minority groups might do if they were not feeling included in the campus culture. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"College Success is a solid textbook exploring issues related to a college student's first years. It would best be used as part of the curriculum in freshman seminar or information literacy classes.","created_at":"2018-10-31T11:32:50.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-10-31T11:32:50.000-05:00"},{"id":2377,"first_name":"Jenny","last_name":"Bossaller","position":"Association Professor","institution_name":"MOBIUS","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"There is no index or glossary, but I don't think it needs it. It has a good Table of Contents, which is sufficient for navigating the book.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This isn't a book that would be necessarily accurate, but I do think that it reflects the reality (multiple realities) of new college students; I think it would be more likely to be used by students living together in a dorm or a freshman interest group than non-traditional students, though. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Highly relevant for new students making the transition from high school to college, or from being out of school for a while to college. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"It was very easy to read, did not have jargon.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This was a good feature of the book! The exercises and supplementary material (self-tests, reflection activities, etc.) would be so helpful for someone wanting to use this for a class or group. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This could definitely be divided up into nightly or weekly readings to use over the course of a semester, and there are parts of it that can be removed and used by themselves.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"No problems here. While it is probably meant to be used as a whole (and makes sense that way), it could be taken apart. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"No problems here. Some of the stock photos were distracting though, which is why I gave it a 4. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This was fine. It was easy to read. There was a misspelling though right in the beginning of the book - the second author's introduction is spelled \"ahutor\" or something. Check that. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This was great! There was actually a chapter on diversity, but each chapter was written to appeal to people from different backgrounds (e.g., nontraditional students, etc.). ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"No, I think I'll pull a chapter to use for one of my classes that has mostly Freshmen in it, though. Thanks!","created_at":"2018-11-13T07:01:24.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-13T07:01:24.000-06:00"},{"id":2797,"first_name":"Marva","last_name":"Solomon","position":"Instructor/Counselor","institution_name":"Open Oregon Educational Resources","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is a well written text book for both traditional, non-traditional first time in college students, as well as for students who are returning to college after dropping out. It provides a comprehensive road map on how to navigate college, career exploration, picking a major, and interviewing for jobs after completing program of study.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text book paints an accurate picture on how to be a successful college student. It is accurate in outlining the steps the steps to take in order to be a successful college student.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The assessments, information on accessing college resources and time management information are just a few of the tools that are very relevant for both current and future college students.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The information in this text book is comprehensive and clear.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Although I might have organized the chapters in a slightly different order. I find that the book consistently addresses strategies for being a successful student.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity in this text book is very good. The various sections in this book can be easily reorganized and the student would still learn valuable information with being confused.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The flow of this book is smooth. The topics, theme, message, are all clear and easy to comprehensible.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This book is easy to navigate. All images were clear and relevant. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Students from any background and culture could find this book useful.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will definitely use this book in my College Success classes as a supplemental text book.","created_at":"2019-04-17T02:07:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-17T02:07:45.000-05:00"},{"id":3077,"first_name":"Abhijit","last_name":"Suresh","position":"Graduate Student","institution_name":"CU Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"College success is a comprehensive guide for college students to thrive in a college environment and graduate with flying colors. The text covers a wide spectrum of topics from preparing for exams to handling the finances. It is very challenging to compile supporting materials for a bigger audience such as students since there are a wide difference in the family, educational and financial backgrounds.  Nevertheless, the material is a great resource in its current form and have scope for improvement.\n\nStrengths:\nChapter review, figures, key takeaways, checkpoint exercise, activity and learning objectives make the material fun and engaging to read.\nIt is easier to navigate to individual sections from the index. \nWeakness:\nA Glossary is missing. For example: if I want to know more student clubs and how to effectively make use of them, I have to use the find feature to look for student clubs. This might be easier to do in a laptop (PDF version) but it is harder to do it in Kindle or other versions.\nThe preface should be expanded. It is unclear who the target audience is - Is it for college going undergraduates or graduates students. Does it apply for international students?. Can I skip chapters? What is the recommended way to read the different chapters ?.\nFurther clarification is required for certain sections such as “Making money”. It is important to note that it is illegal to work more than 20 hours a week as an International student. This section is misleading in its current form and could potentially lead to losing the student status. A simple suggestion is to add a paragraph or two asking students to check with the International office before signing up for on-campus jobs. For non-international students, some universities provide an opportunity to work for more than 20 hours by signing a petition with graduate school.\nAll the activity, checkpoint exercises are great but it would be easier if the students can print everything. Since it is not easy to print out 500 pages, an appendix section which combines all the printable sections into the appendix would be a great choice.\nThe material (in my opinion) is designed and written as a one-time read. A few paragraphs on “How to monitor all this progress” could be useful.\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is the highlighting aspect of this material. The text is easy to read with no complicated jargons and presents a compelling case to follow the tips for successful college life.\n\nStrengths:\nThe figures presented in the material are relevant to the corresponding topics and helps the readers to relate the figures with the content.\nThe material is unbiased to a specific university or a group. It presents an extensive list of tips.\nFinances, Future and Health are some topics which are not really taught in universities. I consider these sections super important for any student to learn early in their career.\nAddressing topics such as generation gap, communicating with instructors are very useful for students success.\nWeakness:\nAt certain times, the content seems overwhelming. For example: In page 333/334 of the PDF version, there is an exercise titled “Explore Your Interests for College Clubs and Organizations”. I find it hard to do the exercise without an example or two. I would suggest to include hypothetical examples to help the reader to do the exercise easier.\nI could not find material regarding leadership opportunities and the benefits of taking responsibilities. For example Student government.\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"As I mentioned previously, writing this material is challenging since difficult to write for a wide audience. However, the authors did a great job of keeping the content up-to-date. \n\nStrengths:\nSections such as “The Transfer ticket” on page 463, is still relevant to the students. These sections are very volatile in reference to the new laws and policies from the government.\n\nWeakness:\nIn page 33 of the PDF version, there is a picture of students participating in a hackathon. Unfortunately, I could not find material where the authors talk about hackathons. Hackathons have become fairly common and are a great way to meet new students and work on cool interesting projects.\nI would recommend the authors to include links to other OER material if the reader wants to learn more about a specific topic. \nVersion control is recommended to keep track of content added and removed.\nThere is very little information about investing for students. It is important to mention details regarding the IRA (Investment retirement accounts), 401k, negotiating, tips for negotiating salaries with prospective employers and more.\n","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and written in accessible prose. However,  not all the jargon/technical terminology used are explained in detail. For example; hackathons. I understand that it is not possible to explain each and every term in the document. However, it is possible to suggest reading material for those terms. This, in turn, provides an opportunity to refer to other OER materials and expand the community.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"\nThere are no issues with the consistency of the material presented.\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is broken down into 12 chapters with several subheadings. \n\nStrengths:\nThe font, spacing, and activities make the chapters easier to read and review.\nThe text can be easily reorganized to emphasize difference student group and at the same time, it is easier to add sections without much hassle.\nWeakness:\nNone\n","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"In my opinion, the text is a compilation of materials from different authors. As mentioned earlier, it is important to explicitly mention the target audience. For example, I believe “Thinking about thought” is not really useful. That said, different readers focus on different aspects. A paragraph or two on how to choose which chapters to read can go a long way in establishing a logical connection to the reader.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I used the PDF version and found it easier to read and navigate. Adding a glossary is recommended.\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I was not able to find any grammatical mistakes in the material. However, some sentences especially (For example: “Time Management Tips for Students Who Work” section on page 88) could be passive aggressive instead of assertive.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text presents generic tips for any student and in no ways culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. The text includes sections that are exclusively allocated to talk about diversity in the classroom. However, I would suggest adding information about culture shock and how to overcome it (preferably under the emotional health section).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-05-05T12:38:13.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-01T12:58:58.000-05:00"},{"id":3543,"first_name":"Cammie","last_name":"Sgarrella","position":"Assistant Director of New Student and Family Programs ","institution_name":"Radford University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found College Success to be a highly comprehensive book!  It covers just about every area you can think of in regards to student success, and it does so in great depth on each and every topic.  This would be a great text to use in a first year experience course-- I've been inspired to try out a lot of the included activities with my own first year seminar course.  The book does not include an index, but it doesn't need one as the table of contents is detailed enough to help you find anything you need.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the information to be accurate and highly detailed.  It properly reflects what it takes to be a successful college student and provides very detailed steps, information, and activities to help students throughout their college journey.   ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The contents of this book is highly relevant for college students.  I think it would be most useful for freshmen, but it would certainly have benefit and merit as well for transfer students and non-traditional students.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book was very well-written.  It was clear, concise, straight forward, in depth, and organized in a way to further enhance clarity. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book was highly consistent!  I really enjoyed that the chapters were framed the same way throughout the book.  Each chapter begins with a \"where are you now?\" assessment for students to gauge where they stand before.  The subsections of each chapter have their own learning objectives laid out at the beginning and key takeaways at the end of each subsection.  At the end of each chatper, there is a chatper review, chapter takeaways, and a really neat \"outside the book\" section.  This section refers students to additional materials, activities, etc.  For example, one of the chapters had information in this section on how students could access career and personality inventories online.  Lastly, each chapter concludes with the option for students to make an action list on how they'll apply what they've learned.   These interactive components help to further engage students in the topics at hand by having them actually apply the takeaways to their lives.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is easily divisible into smaller reading sections.  In fact, it's already divided due to the multiple subsections within each chapter!  This feature would make assigning group work very easy.  You could also cover chapters from this book out of order and it would be fine.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I found the organization to be spot on.  It was organized into twelve chapters, and multiple subsections within each chapter.  Each chapter was organized in the same manner as I mentioned earlier (learning objectives, key takeaways, etc.).  The order of the chapters themselves was logical as well.  However, you could easily jump around and read the chapters out of order and the reader would not be confused.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I downloaded the PDF version of this book; it was very easy to read and navigate between chapters.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors in this book.  ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  Students of any background or culture could find this book helpful.  There was even a chapter on diversity.  Overall, the book utilized inclusive examples and touched on diversity throughout in various ways. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, I highly recommend this book.  It has some great activities, helpful resources, and relevant information for any college student.  My only complaint would be the length of the book, as I do not see students actually taking the time to read this book from cover to cover.  I feel this text would best serve as a supplemental material to a first year experience course that the instructor could reference as needed.  I will definitely be using it to supplement lessons in my own class!","created_at":"2020-01-28T11:41:42.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-28T11:41:42.000-06:00"},{"id":3565,"first_name":"Heather","last_name":"Loehr","position":"First Year 101 Instructor and Advisor","institution_name":"Hanover College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This comprehensive text covers all major areas of the student experience when transitioning to college. Chapters cover academic skills, social and campus life, physical and emotional health, financial management, and career planning. At 500 pages, the PDF may be imposing to students, and so linking to online sections/modules may be more practical. Two topic areas that I would consider important are lacking: use of a course management system and tracking one's academic progress, and skills for reading and understanding syllabi. A point is deducted for lack of index or glossary, though the Table of Contents is easily navigable and hyperlinked in the PDF document.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and is consistent with other first-year/student success commercial texts. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The topics covered are generally current and relevant to today's incoming students. There are some anachronisms in the text that traditional age students will probably not recognize (the Big Mac commercial jingle, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, MySpace) and in the social media chapter there is a heavy emphasis on Facebook, which few 18-22 year olds seem to use nowadays. A resource link out to a 1983 handout on \"bad presentations\" makes reference to transparencies. Some links out to other out-of-book resources are broken and need correction or updating.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text prose is clear, concise, and straightforward. Students of all levels, including first-generation students, should find it accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The structure and framework of the text is consistent from chapter to chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity is a strength of this text. The chapters and subsections are easy to navigate, could be used in a custom order and remixed or reorganized. Chapters open with learning objectives and self-assessments that set up the lesson/chapter content, and close with key takeaways and check point exercises. The exercises are generally thoughtful and do not have to be time-intensive; they could easily be used as in-class activities or homework. Some chapters also include outside the book resources and class discussion prompts.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The order of topics is logical, with an emphasis on academic skills in the early chapters. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The online navigation could be improved with \"previous section\" and \"next section\" links for readers that want to read in a linear fashion. Chapter 7.1 of the PDF has small text font.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors in this text.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Most of the text is generally inclusive. The chapter on diversity is detailed and written sensitively. Unfortunately, there are some examples that may be considered insensitive elsewhere in the text, and this may be due to having multiple authors. On text pages 55-56 and 409, example scenarios could be interpreted as showing ethnic stereotypes. In the Sexual Health chapter, discussion and the chapter exercise prompts on sexual assault imply an onus on women to avoid being victims of sexual assault, but fails to discuss how students might avoid perpetrating assault, or bystander intervention. I would modify these sections if using the text locally.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"If our program does not adopt this text, I would use it for supplementary readings, exercises, and guidance for creating lesson plans.\r\n\r\nOne strength of the book is the tone. The authors are realistic about the challenges that students may face, but present them in a supportive way and encourage students to have a positive attitude. Throughout the text, the authors remind students that the ultimate responsibility for college success belongs to them, and they give suggestions for how to adapt to less-than-ideal (or less-than-preferred) situations, like being in a large lecture class. ","created_at":"2020-02-04T13:17:48.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-02-04T13:17:48.000-06:00"},{"id":3750,"first_name":"Eleanor","last_name":"Kelly","position":"Adjunct Faculty, Department of Professional Studies","institution_name":"George Fox University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook presents topics that can help both traditional and nontraditional college students succeed academically, socially, and emotionally.  The textbook aims to help traditional college students adjust to their new college life by addressing topics such as new responsibilities, more independence, and a different learning environment from what they had experienced in high school.  Students who are returning to school after several years may have to adapt to new class settings, such as online classes, along with working through the challenges that having a full-time job and a family present. This textbook offers information and advice that will help these students navigate through academic and personal issues they may experience while completing their degree.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I haven't found any errors in the content. The text provides students with an accurate account of college life and what it takes to be a successful student.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Overall, I find the text to be relevant for both traditional and nontraditional students.  The chapters on motivation, time management, and health, as well as the chapters on the academic skills of reading, note-taking, and writing will always be relevant for students aiming for success.  The text includes a section on evaluating online materials (p. 187) that I find particularly relevant since students are increasingly citing material from the Internet in their papers.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in an easy-to-understand style.  Native speakers of English should have no trouble with understanding this text.  I also teach some students whose first language is not English, and I feel that this text would not be overly difficult for them if they are able to understand the coursework in their other college classes.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in terminology and framework.  The contents of the chapters follow the same pattern. Each chapter starts out with “Where Are You Now?”, “Where Do You Want to Go?”, and “How to Get There?”  These exercises provide a good self-assessment tool for the student and motivates the student to use the chapter to make improvements.  Also, each section within the chapters, with only a few exceptions, provides the reader with the following: “Learning Objectives”, “Key Takeaways”” and “Checkpoint Exercises,” which provide a good review of the material.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text makes it easy to adapt the order of the chapters to the needs of the students and the aims of the course. There are ample links within each chapter to other sections of the text for additional and more detailed information on a specific topic, so if an entire chapter is not covered, relevant information from that skipped chapter can be easily accessed if needed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I think that the topics are presented in a logical, clear fashion for students right out of high school; however, I think for nontraditional students who may have been out of school for some time, it may be necessary to skip some of the earlier sections due to time constraints or jump to topics presented later in the text because of student need.  For example, students taking online classes, which usually require a great deal of writing, might need to work on the writing chapter (Chapter 8) early on in the course.  Also, it would be beneficial for them to study the chapters on reading (Chapter 5) and note-taking (Chapter 4) before or at the start of their other courses.  Whereas, the section on dealing with sudden independence and freedom (Chapter 1) and the section on the demand on students’ time when they belong to athletic teams (Chapter 2) would be appropriate for students just out of high school.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface works very well. The table of contents is particularly useful since each listing is inked to its section in the text.  Also, throughout the text, links are given to help navigate to related material within the text and on the Internet.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I haven’t noticed any grammatical errors, but I did find a few very minor editing errors that do not interfere with comprehension (an extra word in the last line on page 18, an incomplete practice test question on page 231, smaller font in section 7.1).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn’t find the text to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. I think the text does a good job of discussing the topic of diversity and its benefits, dedicating Section 2 of Chapter 9 to this topic.  In addition to cultural diversity, the text presents other kinds of diversity, such as diversity in regard to race, ethnicity, age, religion, educational background, economic background, and sexual orientation.  In this same chapter, the text also includes advice on dealing with prejudice.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will select this text for use in my “Becoming an Exceptional Student” course.  This book covers more than just academic study skills by including material that can help students through the more personal and social issues encountered when entering or returning to college.","created_at":"2020-04-22T16:29:40.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-04-22T16:29:40.000-05:00"},{"id":3879,"first_name":"Terry","last_name":"Rafter-Carles","position":"Professor, Learning Support","institution_name":"Valencia College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was pleased that this text provided a comprehensive review of the topics that reflect the  majority of our college's learning outcomes for our new student experience course.  I was happy to see that it included many self-evaluation opportunities for students to reflect on their college journey, along with interactive activities which allow for personal application of topics.  The content is written so that it is applicable to both traditional and non-traditional students.  I was especially happy to see the depth of the content in the financial literacy chapter.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The chapters appear to be error-free and unbiased and appropriate for all college students.  The content can easily be applied to most student's educational situation.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Although the book was published in 2015, I find the content to still be relevant to where students are today as they begin college.  In regards to some of the self-assessments, I would have liked to have seen more citations to sources.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text presents topics in an easy to read manner applicable to a large cross section of student reading abilities.  I would have liked to have seen a glossary for easy referral for students who may be working on developing their English language.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapters follow the same pattern which allows students to understand the flow of the text.  Since the chapters begin with a self-assessment it allows students to reflect on their personal needs for the information that will  be presented.  Additionally the \"Takeaways\" are a nice addition to the end of each chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"With little exception the chapters are chunked into easily readable \"bites\" all which reflect the stated learning outcomes by the author.  Additionally, each chapter tends to stand on its own, allowing for an instructor to pick and choose what content to use for their course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters present the topics in an easy to follow and organized format.  Because each chapter follows the same basic layout (overview, self-assessment, content, activities, \"Key Takeaways\") students should find this helpful should they pre-read/skim chapters.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Reading online was easy, although it did not allow for activity working in the activities or assessments.  If students were asked to \"complete an activity\" for submission they would have to print the page (or multiple pages), hand write, scan, and submit.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Text, images and contend appeared to be culturally sensitive.  I would have like to have seen more non-traditional students portrayed in the images and in the content of the chapters.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall this text provides the basic topics that can help all students be more successful in their college journey (and also in their professional journey after college).  Because of the structure of the text it is easily adaptable to both online and f2f class formats... and allows me to \"pick-and-choose\" topics with a loss of consistency.  I think this is a well rounded text for new college students.","created_at":"2020-06-01T09:24:35.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-01T09:24:35.000-05:00"},{"id":3990,"first_name":"Kimberly","last_name":"Griffith","position":"College Access Advisor","institution_name":"Bristol Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers a broad range of topics applicable to first year college students of any age, although geared primarily towards the traditional college aged student.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The textbook is accurate and full of classic information.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Some contemporary updates are in order regarding more recent pedagogy (ex. it is not sufficient to suggest a person \"really pay attention\" if they have an attention challenge). Some updated techniques would be beneficial to this otherwise very active workbook style text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing is comfortable, accessible and clear. College jargon, especially, is demystified.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook is internally consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"A faculty member could easily adapt this text to the depth and length of a first year seminar for 3 credits or a shorter college success seminar for 1 credit. The modularity of the chapters is high. Further, each chapter contains activities that enhance learning, furthering the ability of a chapter to stand alone.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The flow of this text is logical, although anyone using it could easily move chapter assignments around. If I were using this text, communicating with instructors would be closer to the beginning and financial literacy would also be moved up in my assigned reading list.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I reviewed the downloaded PDF version. It is well indexed, easy to navigate and free of technological challenges on my Mac.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"A broad range of cultural identities appear to be included.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I have used a similar textbook (perhaps the original source) for many years teaching a College Success Seminar. The workbook style is very user friendly.","created_at":"2020-06-16T15:29:03.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-16T15:29:03.000-05:00"},{"id":3996,"first_name":"Elaine","last_name":"Gatewood","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Bunker Hill Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success, is comprehensive to the subject matters pertaining to the topic. Chapters 1-3 and 9-124 certainly embody the student experience. This Open Source Textbook has great visuals, and assessment students can rate themselves to see where they are on  their journey.. The text is set up in an easy, quick flow manner; really gets to the point. Chapter 7 is vital part of college experience to be successful","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy seemed relevant. I feel students would connect to the topics along with taking the assessments.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is relevant to today's and future times with discussion on: You and Your College Experience, Staying Motivated, Organized, and On Track, Interacting with Instructors and Classes.  I believe students could relate to the topics at hand.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and concise. Students should be able to navigate easily.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistency from chapter to chapter including relevant activities and topics for discussion.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I could easily pull certain materials from each chapter as needed to fit the needs of my course, to meet the learning outcomes. The flow of the subjects could be adjusted. Modality base on the need of each student learning style.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Very organized in terms of structure and flow. Text is logical and and clearly written but have added more topics around what it takes to be successful in college.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Easy to navigate between chapters. If anything more examples could be added.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors that were found.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Culturally  we can always improve out examples and be more inclusive of the student body to ensure equity. However this text was not culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This is an easy read, with great information for college students to be successful in any college setting and not just for First Year students.  Information was relevant and can be tailored to meet the course learning outcomes for each student body.","created_at":"2020-06-16T21:55:06.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-16T21:55:06.000-05:00"},{"id":4002,"first_name":"Faithe","last_name":"MacElliott","position":"First Year Experience Instructor","institution_name":"Middlesex Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"College Success is a comprehensive, user friendly manual on how to navigate through the first year of college. There are 12 chapters ranging from developing study strategies such as note taking and test taking, improving one’s organizational skills, creating  personal and financial wellness,  and understanding how to become a critical thinker.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text was written in 2015 but I found the information to be pertinent to today's college student experience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Each chapter encourages students to begin to assess their strengths in each category through interactive activities. In addition, there are student stories of success scattered through the text which helps make the text relatable and provide ongoing motivation for the reader.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing style and content do take into consideration incoming freshman reading levels.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapter summaries bullet point key concepts for quick reviews.  The chapter takeaways create solid segues into the following chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is very manageable.  If class time is brief,  most activities can be do independently for homework.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical fashion but if the faculty member wanted to reorganize topics, it would not interfere with the flow of ideas.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"All display features were free of any visual distortions.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The writing style is easy to follow and free of any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I found the  diverse student success stories and real life scenarios lend themselves to self reflection.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"All in all, College Success is a great text that students will enjoy and keep long after they have successfully completed the first year of college.  Highly recommended!","created_at":"2020-06-18T10:27:05.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-18T10:27:05.000-05:00"},{"id":4314,"first_name":"Summer","last_name":"Wimberly","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Community College of Aurora","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text does a good job of addressing the breadth of topics generally covered in a college success course. Includes an easily navigable table of contents.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate and error free. The material is structured for a 4-year, residential campus. So, 2-year colleges would likely need to refine or be selective with the content.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"While the text is a few years old, the information is still pertinent for student success. I would have liked to see more use of technology or web elements (videos, graphics, hyperlinks, etc.) to better engage different learning styles.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing throughout is clear and accessible for students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms used throughout the text are consistent. Text also utilizes a consistent format by beginning each chapter with a check-in for students and ending each chapter with comprehensive chapter activities.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Sub-chapters are precise, clearly titled and easily navigable. It would be simple for an instructor to determine and assign chapters and/or sub-chapters and from there for students to locate the information. The text also a good job circling back and referencing previous chapters and information.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"On the whole the text is organized clearly. Topics are easily located and logically build within a chapter.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There were no significant interface issues. Reading the text as a pdf was the easiest. I was hoping to read the text on an e-reader, but wasn’t able to access it this way.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is free from grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text makes use of inclusive imagery but does not include case studies or student perspectives. Students are expected to learn the material, but do not see themselves in it. Even with student stories, it’s an example story told about the student instead of a story by the student about their own experience.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall this is a fine textbook with clear information on topics pertinent to college success courses for traditional, 4-year students. I did not find the text to be particularly culturally response, so students with a variety of identities may not find this text reflective of or speaking to their experiences. For example, in the chapter on faculty interactions, the core ideas are accurate. But what about adult students who are navigating the positionality change of being a student and not a supervisor? Or what about students who don’t interact with instructors not because they’re shy, but because culturally they’re raised not to question authority? This text doesn’t speak to those types of student experiences.","created_at":"2020-08-13T14:23:57.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-08-13T14:23:57.000-05:00"},{"id":4522,"first_name":"Carole","last_name":"Parks","position":"Adjunct Faculty for CG100: College Success and Survival, Education Adjunct, GED Instructor","institution_name":"Oregon Coast Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I've been using a Cengage \"On Course\" and I find this OER book to be just as comprehensive if not more. I especially like the end of chapter activities for students as they are deeply reflective.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is accurate, error free and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The topics are relevant for all of the different topics of College Success.  All topics for college success are covered thoughtfully and thoroughly","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is written clearly and handles unfamiliar topics in an accessible way.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework of this text is one of the things I like most about it. It covers topics in \"chunks\" that feel doable for the student. It is not overwhelming and has a common sense scope and sequence.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"See comments for last category.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I would have liked to see the financial literacy earlier in the text, but this is a personal preference.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is user friendly and consistent with Universal Design for Learning.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not observe any insensitive or offensive examples.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am pleased with this text and plan to use in in the Fall of 2021. I would use it now except that I have to rewrite my Canvas class.","created_at":"2021-01-05T19:47:07.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-01-05T19:47:07.000-06:00"},{"id":5103,"first_name":"Sheriann","last_name":"Stanton","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Berkshire Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers its content areas well. There is no glossary, however. Key words are in bold type print that would potentiality be good candidates for a glossary definition. The table of contents is helpful and complete. I particularly like the visually pleasing way the chapters are organized with key take aways and checkpoint exercises. Overall, this book is very easy to follow and find information.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this textbook appears to be accurate even though some of the statistics are dated. I would like to see updated statistics and videos in a future publication of this book. Considering that this is a free resource for students, it has definitely more assets than draw backs and offers sound advice for new students who want to improve their skills and learn about topics that effect their lives. I will use it for the Summer 2021 semester.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Since this book covers timeless classic topics like time management, testing taking, and note taking, to name a few, the information doesn't go out of style. As I mentioned previously, the statistics and some videos are a bit outdated, but nevertheless interesting as long as you look that them in context with the previous decade. The activities outlined in the chapters are timeless and easy to adapt to changing times. I highly recommend this book for use first year college courses as it has a lot of offer students.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This test is clearly written and easy to understand. With the absence of a glossary, it might be helpful to have a definition of key words on the same page as the first reference to the word. I found even the technical language explaining drugs easy to follow and comprehend. I tried to imagine how English Language Learners would view this book. I think they would be able to understand the references and find it helpful.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The voice and tone of the text is consistent as well as the overall message of the lessons. I did not find any discrepancies in the information.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is organized very well, It is easy to locate a particular part of the book or assign certain sections. I found that having the key take aways section color coded green and the checkpoint exercises color coded blue really helps make the book user friendly.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topis are presented in a way that makes sense to me as an instructor. If one chooses to teach the topics in a different order, it would be easy for both the instructor and student to navigate.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface is acceptable, but the images, charts and test blocks do not show up in WORD, which is problematic if the student needs to use the reader in WORD for their coursework. The PDF form is better, but the videos are not clickable. I just used part of words in the link to conduct an internet search of the videos. Some I found, and some I did not. Students might have difficulty navigating this. When I used the epub version with my Aidiko app on my Android phone to view the book the videos we not clickable either and some of the text is piled up and unreadable in some areas.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Overall the grammar was fine. I would have reworded a few areas, but overall it is good.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The cultural context of this textbook seems to be well thought out and sensitive to its readers, in my opinion.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I really am thrilled to have found this textbook and will use it. I love the fact that it is an OER!","created_at":"2021-06-15T09:04:31.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-15T09:04:31.000-05:00"},{"id":33707,"first_name":"Lisa","last_name":"Jolliff","position":"Coordinator of Accessibility Services","institution_name":"Hutchinson Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book seems to be very comprehensive and covers all of the information that we usually cover in our student success/orientation class. The glossary is clear and easy to follow.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Most of the information seemed to be accurate, error-free and unbiased. Chapter 10, however, had some concerns for me as it appeared to be provide a biased and privileged approach to health, especially around weight. The sexual health section had good information, but seemed incomplete when talking about STI's.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Yes, the book uses current information and should also be easily updated with more current information.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written clearly and at a level that most students will be able to understand. It uses clear terms and not a lot of jargon.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, it appears to be consistent in terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book does an excellent job of breaking down each chapter into smaller units with activities and knowledge checking after each section. This makes it very easy to follow and seems less daunting.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Yes, the order of topics make sense and build on one another.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall, looks good and easy to read. There were just a few distortion of charts in the reviews and assignments at the end of the chapters.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors as I was reviewing the book.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Again, I just feel like Chapter 10 was a little biased and privileged and did not take into account different backgrounds and cultural differences especially when it discussed the weight section and eating disorders.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I look forward to using this book in our Student Success/Orientation class. The information is very thorough and I really like how it is set up and all of the activities that are available to complete with students to deepen their understanding of the material. The only chapter I will probably not use in it's entirety is Chapter 10. I feel like there is information available from other sources that is more thorough, less biased and presented in a more sensitive manner for a more diverse audience.","created_at":"2022-03-01T11:02:09.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-03-01T11:02:09.000-06:00"},{"id":33722,"first_name":"Merissa","last_name":"Bunton","position":"Language Arts and Learning Skills Lecturer","institution_name":"Leeward Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers each of the areas I cover in my Learning Skills classes, offering a variety of text about each topic. More materials for public speaking would be useful. Especially how to reduce anxiety and prepare notes and slides. Especially in community colleges, public speaking and class presentations play a major role.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I believe the book is accurate, but some of the chapter and section titles are a bit condescending, or at least my students may perceive them as such. For example, Chapter 5.1, \"Are you ready for the big leagues\" is obnoxious and my non-traditional students, beginning school after years in the military or jail or after being a parent, will be put off.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I think the book is general enough to work well for a while, but I would like to see how often the text is updated.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Some of the language could be a bit less academic in nature, since the book is introducing students, who may not be fully prepared for college, to higher education. But overall, I think the book does a good job.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes - the book is very consistent and easy to navigate for me and my students. We know what to expect from each chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Very well done here. As noted above, the book is very consistent and easy to navigate for me and my students. We know what to expect from each chapter.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I like the straightforward organization and the easy drop-down menu. I use \"Communication in the Real World\" for my freshman human communication course and appreciate the similar organization. However, I've noticed that updates there are not frequent and I worry that this may be the case here as well. \r\nI also don't like that the name of the author(s) is/are not provided. When I'm teaching research I won't allow my students to cite sources without author names.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Though I would like more visuals and links and \"bells and whistles\" the interface, as is, is super easy to navigate. I know my students appreciate that and I can supplement with the links to information I like to teach.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I haven't found any major issues with grammar.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"I'm spoiled with the book I use now, that specifically addresses Pacific Island cultures, the area where I teach. I think it would be cool to add a chapter that more clearly addresses learning in varying cultures, but the book is, from what I can glean, intended to be as mainstream as possible.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like that the book is easy to navigate. Most chapters and sections are useful for learning skills classes I teach and I appreicate the quality of information provided.","created_at":"2022-03-08T18:56:22.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-03-08T18:56:22.000-06:00"},{"id":34055,"first_name":"Benita","last_name":"Yowe","position":"Dean, Health and Human Services","institution_name":"Spartanburg Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"College Success\" is comprehensive and covers all the areas and ideas introduced in student success textbooks. The organization of the content in each chapter introduces the topics sequentially, which is conducive to exploring the various topics.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is neutral and reflects the experiences of college students who are diverse in experiences and age. Readers of different backgrounds should be able to understand the content.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The strategies in the textbook are relevant to college success but can easily be updated to embed new techniques and theories. They can easily be implemented in the current text or added to the existing content.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clear, and the jargon is adequate for the text.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framework of this text are consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is broken into sections that are easy to assign at different points. The content and the activities can be reorganized to fit the course at appropriate points without difficulty to the reader.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapter sections and activities are arranged logically and clearly but can be adjusted to fit the individual instructor's needs.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are no significant issues with the display features of this text. It is easy to navigate, and the graphics are not distorted or confusing.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text has no or few grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Most of the pictorial pictures in the text are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. However, a few appear outdated and inconsistent with the rest of the pictures used in the resource.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2022-09-20T20:49:56.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-09-20T20:49:56.000-05:00"},{"id":35235,"first_name":"Siham","last_name":"Elougli","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook covers a variety of topics about college life and experience. The language used is clear and concise with enough details to facilitate students' understanding.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book's content is accurate and gives various information about topics necessary for students to succeed in college. The book is unbiased and could be a helpful resource for students no matter what demographic background they come from.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and current in most of the topics it discusses are accurate and would benefit college students or high school students transitioning to college.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in an easy and clear language that can be understood by both native and non-native English speakers. There are no technical or difficult words that would interfere with the understanding of the text.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text within the book is consistent with the use of terminology throughout the book and the chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book has clear and easily readable parts. The book includes several chapters or units; within each chapter, there are sub-topics and sub-headings with clear instructions. The chapters include short readings, exercises, take aways, and review part.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are well-presented. The textbook is divided into sections based on different topics that matter to college students. It focuses on both the academic side and social side of college education.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"There are no major interface issues, but I do find It a little too much for students with all the tabs included. It would be more beneficial to include more graphs and pictures or visuals in general. I do like the readability panel or option added to the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is free of any major grammatical or mechanics errors that can interfere with comprehension. I would highly recommend sticking to the principles of academic writing and avoiding things like the use of contractions for example.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally appropriate because it does not offer any offensive or insensitive content to any population or group of people.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, this open book is a great resource for Freshman college students or any upcoming freshman or high school students looking to learn more about what to expect in college. I think I would use it in a First Year Seminar class, and it would be a valuable resource.","created_at":"2024-09-04T12:20:25.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-09-04T12:20:25.000-05:00"},{"id":35335,"first_name":"Danielle","last_name":"Hammer","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Southern Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Certain sections could also benefit from greater detail. For instance, topics like overcoming fears or setting and maintaining goals are introduced but not deeply explored. Similarly, generalized advice, such as the importance of sleep and nutrition, overlooks the systemic barriers that often prevent students from meeting these needs. These issues are complex and unlikely to be solved in a generalized text like this, but it would have added value to acknowledge that some of the issues that many student face are complex and not solvable in a chapter. \n\nDespite these limitations, the short chapters provide solid overviews and can serve as effective starting points for micro-activities and discussions in first-year college or high school senior classrooms. While the text lacks depth in some areas, it offers a valuable foundation for building college readiness skills. I would not hesitate to recommend, provided that the instructor addresses some of these areas that the text itself cannot cover in depth.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text is accurate, but it does lean towards a bias in favor of students in ideal or near-ideal circumstances.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The text would have benefited from a little more focus on problem-solving strategies for students facing significant challenges. The changing nature of Higher Education, and the complex identities of our students, might make this text obsolete in the relatively near future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and accessible. It does a good job of defining common college terms for students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framework of the text are consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text sections are well-suited to being assigned as smaller reading sections.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a largely logical fashion. Some of the subjects, like financial literacy, might be better served as an introductory section, but these minor issues are easily fixed by teaching some of the chapters out of sequence.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface for the text is easy to navigate and unlikely to confuse students.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no major grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is relatively inclusive in terms of representation, but it could do better with addressing some of the complex challenges that some of these students face in college. The key issue is that the text is so general that it lacks sufficient guidance for students who may be struggling with complex concerns faced by many under-served student demographics. Addressing how students with intersecting under-served identities can navigate common college obstacles would have added valuable depth.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text is a clear and practical resource that is accessible for first-year college students and easy for instructors to navigate. It is overall successful, with a motivating tone that encourages engagement. The tone can occasionally boarder on toxic positivity that might not resonate with current students, but this potential issue is easily addressed in a classroom setting. The note-taking sections are particularly well-structured, and the key chapter takeaways offer helpful summaries. While the text does rely on many commonly taught high school study practices, this repetition is bound to happen in any  college readiness text that is as comprehensive as this one.","created_at":"2024-12-10T12:55:44.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-12-10T12:55:44.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/college-success","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:20:10.000-06:00"},{"id":53,"title":"Writing for Success","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate, and reinforce, learning. Each chapter allows your students to demonstrate mastery of the principles of quality writing. With its incremental approach, it can address a range of writing levels and abilities, helping each student in your course prepare for their next writing or university course. Constant reinforcement is provided through examples and exercises, and the text involves students in the learning process through reading, problem-solving, practicing, listening, and experiencing the writing process. Each chapter also has integrated examples that unify the discussion and form a common, easy-to-understand basis for discussion and exploration. This will put your students at ease, and allow for greater absorption of the material. Tips for effective writing are included in every chapter, as well. Thought-provoking scenarios provide challenges and opportunities for collaboration and interaction. These exercises are especially helpful if you incorporate group work in your course. Clear exercises teach sentence and paragraph writing skills that lead to common English composition and research essays. Features: Exercises are integrated in each segment. Each concept is immediately reinforced as soon as it is introduced to keep students on track. Exercises are designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration. This allows for peer-peer engagement, development of interpersonal skills, and promotion of critical thinking skills. Exercises that involve self-editing and collaborative writing are featured. This feature develops and promotes student interest in the areas and content. There are clear internal summaries and effective displays of information. This contributes to ease of access to information and increases the ability of your students to locate desired content. Rule explanations are simplified with clear, relevant, and theme-based examples. This feature provides context that will facilitate learning and increase knowledge retention. There is an obvious structure to the chapter and segment level. This allows for easy adaptation to your existing and changing course needs or assessment outcomes.","contributors":[],"subjects":[{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"},{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":199,"url":"https://www.lib.umn.edu/publishing","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","name":"University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing"}],"formats":[{"id":365,"type":"Online","url":"https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Introductory_Composition/Writing_for_Success_(McLean)","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1733,"type":"PDF","url":"https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Introductory_Composition/Writing_for_Success_(McLean)","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1734,"type":"eBook","url":"https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2270,"type":"XML","url":"https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2271,"type":"ODF","url":"https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":53,"reviews":[{"id":110,"first_name":"Kari","last_name":"Steinbach","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"University of Northwestern - St. Paul","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers some helpful elements of a first college writing course, such as an overview of several genres of writing assignments, some grammar and usage issues, use of peer review and collaboration in writing, and research strategies. Some may consider the addition of the study strategy and reading strategy material to be too basic--even for a first year writing course. Without a clear table of contents or index, the organization was difficult to decipher and required paging back and forth throughout the book.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book appears to be free from any obvious errors. Because of the rapid changes in databases, electronic research strategies, and documentation styles, it is likely that updates will need to be made--but this is the case for any text dealing with research and documentation.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Aside from requiring updates due to documentation and research changes, there may need to be an update of sample essays that have subject matter that may become outdated. Examples of cited sources may become outdated--especially in fields that change quickly.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The use of flow charts to help students understand grammar concepts is helpful. A better use of white space, illustration, font changes, bullets, and color in the design would make the text more visually fluid and more readable. The addition of full text student sample papers to show formatting is very helpful. I also appreciated the list of objectives at the beginning of each chapter.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text appears to be consistent in terms of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"It would be helpful for the rhetorical mode section to be split into separate chapters, with each genre given more individual emphasis and examples of the strategies required for that genre.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"My preference would be to teach grammatical concepts as they come up within the course of writing assignments. I would prefer a text that had grammar covered in an appendix that could be referred to throughout the course and as the issues came up during the writing assignments. I would not teach grammar independent of the writing assignment.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"There is a need for a clear table of contents and index.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no obvious issues with the book's grammar.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There are no obvious issues of cultural insensitivity in the text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":111,"first_name":"Tanya","last_name":"Grosz","position":"Assistant Professor of English \u0026 Director of Undergraduate Pathways","institution_name":"University of Northwestern - St. Paul","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was surprised at just how comprehensive this book was. It covers everything from study strategies to prewriting to editing and punctuation and research writing. Also, it includes writing strategies for ELL students which is very helpful. While I would have liked to have seen more full-text essays woven throughout the text, there are several in the final chapter, there are links to others, and there are a few throughout the book.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I have taught writing for 20 years, and I find this text to be both accurate and helpful. I find that students, regardless of age, struggle most with essay organization, and this text devotes the appropriate amount of time to organizing a paragraph and essay.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Updates could be made in a straightforward and easy fashion; many of the principles are solid and timeless. The MLA/APA part can be easily updated as can the essay examples.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The tone is extremely accessible. As I read through chapters 1 - 3, I was concerned that the text was almost too basic to be used with college freshmen, but as I reflected upon this, it dawned upon me that I cover some of the same concepts in the first week of class based on a writing and editing assessment. A teacher could easily extract those components that aren't necessary. Ultimately, this book is clear and readable.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter has a framework that is consistent; there is review at the end that is helpful and exercises for the student who wishes to practice what has been covered in the chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I could easily see myself extracting certain elements of various chapters and using some chapters but not others. The book lends itself to easily using some chapters and not others and certain parts of a chapter without the entirety.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"This is a difficult question because no one would likely organize a textbook the same way as someone else. I found the Refining Writing chapter (Chapter 7) a little oddly placed, but it certainly was not a deal-breaker, and because of its excellent modularity, one could easily organize the presentation differently. The topics are definitely presented clearly and logically.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The charts and graphs did not present very clearly on my screen, but I'm not sure if that's the text or my computer. While it wasn't distracting, the graphs were a bit pixelated and fuzzy. The essay samples were clear. Navigation was easy.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I thought the grammar, sentence flow, punctuation, etc. was excellent.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I wish I had access to the chapter for ELL students 20 years ago! I found nothing offensive in the text and found helpful chapters for college-bound high school students, freshmen or sophomore college students, and adult learners.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I find this book to be pragmatic, helpful, clear, straightforward, and well done. I am going to recommend it to my department for review. I think there should be a Learning Style quiz embedded or linked to when discussing learning styles for students. The writing tips and advice given were accurate and relevant. Literally, the only piece I would have liked to have seen addressed but did not was how to be an effective peer editor, but the tips for editing one's own paper could easily be applied to editing a peer's essay. While I would likely not use the chapter on presenting with my own class, I found it to be helpful. I do have one question about the formatting of the essays in chapter 12 at the end of the book: Why were the paragraphs not indented? I know of no composition instructors who allow block formatting for submitted essays. I recommend reviewing this book!","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":112,"first_name":"Jonathan","last_name":"Carlson","position":"Instructor, Composition","institution_name":"University of Northwestern - St. Paul","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The first chapter covers many \"first year\" or \"freshmen\" tips, best practices ideas and how-to info. Probably good material for the group using this book, but not essential. Table 1.2 is valuable to a student's overall understanding of writing. Table 8.1 is great! The outline checklist on 301 and 302 is good info. I like the discussion of thesis statements on page 341. It points out significant errors. I appreciate the section on plagiarism. This is such a key issue today, with so much research done online with text that is so easy to copy and paste. I like that the book notes that there is intentional and unintentional plagiarism. I think the reading examples in chapter 15 could be stronger. The compare and contrast essay is quite brief, and it is not organized for easy reading (one massive paragraph and one short paragraph). The cause and effect essay is rather short. I would like to see 3 to 5 page examples - approximations of what I will be expecting my Comp 1 students to write. I feel the persuasive essay is much too brief to be persuasive. Universal health care coverage is a massive and nuanced topic, and to serve it up in two pages seems almost offensive. By the by, the linked essays seems very good. I just think the book needs better, stronger examples of student essays. Overall, I think this is perhaps the most comprehensive writing textbook I've seen. However, the sample writings included in the text need to be expanded and off \"better quality\"--closer to what a student would turn in for a Comp I course.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Pg 319: \"Generally speaking, write your introduction and conclusion last, after you have fleshed out the body paragraphs.\" This is dangerous advice. While I don't think it means to, I feel it downplays the importance of a thesis and/or mapping statement/plan of coherence. Without such a guide directly in front of them, many students will go off course. I feel the discussion/instruction of the thesis statement should occur in the outlining and drafting segment. It can and should be revisited later, but to wait to this point could be detrimental to the paper. Section 11.4: Accurate and essential. Students really need to know how to evaluate source material. From page 435: Questionable sources: free online encyclopedias. Thank you! From page 438: \"Think ahead to a moment a few weeks from now, when you've written your research paper and are almost ready to submit it for a grade. There is just one task left - writing your list of sources.\" I've always thought it wise to have students created their references page as they write the paper. They can delete a source they don't end up including, and if they wait to the end, they are more likely to forget a source. Page 570: The chart should probably be labeled \"Winter Olympic Medal Standings since 1924.\" If the combined total is calculated, the US has more than double our closest competitor, the Soviet Union. Also, the URL included in the text does not work. On the whole, the info is accurate and will be very helpful to students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Not much in the book seems dated. Not much background is given for the fictional students in the book, and no pictures of them are provided. While this does increase the longevity of the book, it also decreases the chances of a real student identifying with the students in the textbook. The sample student writing on 361 is or will be dated, but if you're writing about tech, it's going to be. Beyond the Hype: Evaluating Low-Carb Diets from page 455. This is quite dated. After the myth that Atkins died from heart issues circulated, the low carb movement died with him. The process that this paper goes through is structured well. And I think that the teaching done by it is very relevant. So...I don't think that it's relevance as a fad should necessarily be considered. But if the book gets updated in 5 to 10 years, I'd recommend a different topic. The annotated essay portion on page 470 looks like it was created on an old-school typewriter. Ding! Page 531: The discussion of the URL vs. DOI is timely but may become irrelevant. I'm glad to see it's in here, but it may become irrelevant in the future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"All the language seems clear to me. However, I have a Master's in Writing. It's difficult to take that filter off and think as a college freshman would. For example, page 327 uses the phrase \"formal English.\" I have a strong context for that, but would most college freshman. I honestly am not sure. It might be helpful to have a few early college students review the textbook.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, it is internally consistent. The book uses similar language throughout and references previous and upcoming chapters frequently.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook seems appropriately modular. An instructor could use portions he/she wanted or needed and leave out non-applicable content such as the \"freshman seminar\" type sections. Nearly half the book is grammar, punctuation and \"college wisdom\" content, which makes modularity especially important if the book is being exclusively used a Composition I textbook. And I do think its modularity is designed well and designed well enough to function in that way. The text does references previous and upcoming chapters frequently, but I think this still works fine.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"There is no table of contents at the front. The portions about Crystal, while they are related thematically to the text, still seem out of place. I've used another textbook with a similar element (a group of first-year students who share their struggles and successes). In the textbook I used, there were pictures of the students, and their comments and insight were set off in colorful textbooks. While it seemed a bit cheesy, as does this, the concept is helpful to students, I think. Setting off this element in sidebar allows the text to flow more smoothly and helps to identify the comments as such. Some of the tables are broken at the page breaks in segments that make them hard to follow. For example, if they were broken between rows instead of in the middle of them, that would make them easier to follow. Exercise 2 on page 544/545 is an example of a terrible table break. The overview of sections on page 38 is very confusing. This info should be included mainly in a table of contents or a chapter introduction. The Choosing Specific, Appropriate Words section on page 327-328 could be set off with a different color or the like. It seems odd simply being part of the flow of text. Something to consider: This textbook is set up in something of a narrative structure. It might be more effective if set up as an owner's manual, considering our current generation of learners' aversion to lengthy text. 9.1 Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement Chapter 9 is covering developing a thesis, but chapter 8 looks at writing the draft. The instructions on the thesis need to come before instructions on writing the draft. Consider adding table 8.1 to page 354. Finally, there is no index, glossary or works cited sections at the end. The overall organization is good, quite functional, but some of the \"accessories\" are missing.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The color scheme is too muted. Various sections are \"highlighted\" in light gray. More distinct colors would give the reader clearer clues about how the text is organized. Also, some sort of picture or icon would help to recognize certain segments. For example, the \"Writing at Work\" segments could have a small picture of a person at an office desk (preferably Dwight Schrute). I really like the charts on page 49 and 51, 54.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found a few punctuation errors, but they're all essentially the same: missing spaces. This may have happened when the document was converted to PDF. Orunless on page 52.\r\n\"athesis\" on page 338.\r\nFencessymbolize on page 340.\r\nseeChapter 6 on page 368.\r\nFrom page 392: \"Writers are particularly prone to such trappings in cause-and-effect arguments \"Shouldn't it be \"traps\" instead of \"trapping\"?\r\nManual published from page 424\r\nTable 11.1 on 423 and 424 uses two fonts inconsistently.\r\nasSmithsonian Magazine orNature from page 434\r\nathttp://www.apa.org and athttp://owl.english.purdue.edu on page 492.\r\nFrom page 521: \"byperiods.\"\r\nFrom page 516: \"inand\"","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn't find much that was necessarily inclusive, other than the names of the fictional students. There were some sample essays (linked) that included non-white authors, which is certainly inclusive. However, I don't think any of the examples or articles were exclusive. Being a \"white\" male myself, I have a filter that is difficult to remove. I would hope that you could find some non-white reviewers to give you their opinion of this element.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Very, very comprehensive. I actually felt all the grammar and \"freshmen seminar\" elements took up too much of the textbook, but since it's free and the modularity works well, that's fine. Please add stronger student sample essays, a table of contents, glossary, index and works cited sections. And make the color scheme bolder. Thanks for the opportunity to review this textbook!","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":209,"first_name":"Sara","last_name":"Crickenberger","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Virginia Tech","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The pdf of the textbook does not provide a table of contents or an index/glossary. It opens with a Preface then jumps right into Chapter 1. These omissions are inconvenient for planning and for both students and instructors trying to locate specific material in the 613-page book. However, the textbook covers a wide breadth of material relevant to a first-year writing class, ranging from basic discussion and tips to help students succeed as college-level readers and writers to sample essays employing a variety of rhetorical modes. I likely would not use everything in this textbook, but it contains a great deal of material that I would find useful. \r\n\r\n ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content appears to be accurate and unbiased. I did not find any factual errors or inconsistencies. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The material in the textbook is up-to-date and relevant. Some examples use historical references, which are essentially timeless. A couple of the sample essays discuss topics such as universal health care and low-carbohydrate diets that may be front page news one day and off the public radar the next, but the material was not dated in a way that made it less valuable as a resource for students. The sample essays are in the last chapter in the book, which could easily be updated with newer essays. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is easy to read and clearly speaks to college writing students. The language is accessible, explanations are clear, and instructions are easy to follow. The author defines terms that are specific to the study of language and writing and gives examples illustrating how they are used. After each section students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of the material by completing exercises based on their reading. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book uses a consistent framework that includes learning objectives for each section, discussion/explanation of the material, exercises that allow students to practice what they have been reading/learning, tips to make difficult ideas more accessible or reinforce messages, key takeaways to reinforce the learning objectives for each section, and a writing application. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided nicely into numbered chapters and sections that work well as self-contained units. Each section has clear learning objects, examples, exercises, and a writing application. It would be easy to assign a chapter or section within a chapter with the accompanying examples and exercises for students to compete.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapter on Writing for English Language Learners seems a bit oddly placed. Since that material is relevant for only a segment of the student population, I probably would have moved that chapter toward the back of the book with the more specialized content on documentation and presentations rather than between the chapters on word choice and shaping content. However, the content in the ELL chapter does relate closely to word choice and sentence structure, so another instructor might think this is the perfect place for this material.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The biggest problem with navigation in this textbook is the lack of a table of contents and index is. However, I had one other problem with the formatting. The text is double spaced, but paragraphs are not indented and there are no blank lines between paragraphs, so it is difficult to tell where paragraphs break. This is an issue in terms of ease of reading, and it sets a poor example for students who are learning the conventions of mechanics and formatting.\r\n\r\nThere are a few spacing issues. In some places subheads butt directly against body copy or tables, for instance. And some page breaks cause awkward breaks in exercises, tables, and charts. These are small issues that don't significantly affect the readability or usability. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I found few errors in the book. One issue that I did notice is a problem that is common among my students, so I was especially disappointed to see the error in the text. The author uses \"where\" in reference to something other than place: \"...establish a buddy system where you check in with a friend about school projects\" (25). \r\n\r\nThe text has a few other issues, such as bullet points that don't use parallel verb structures, some use of \"to be\" constructions that could easily be revised to more active/vivid sentence structures, and some typographical errors, such as \"accuratelydid\" (92) and \"ascrawny\" (149). These errors are relatively rare but start to get annoying after a couple of hundred pages.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book does not contain references that are culturally insensitive or offensive. The author switches between male and female names in examples/exercises and uses names that are reflective of a diverse population. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am planning to use this book as one of my texts in a first-year writing class next fall. I likely will adapt it a bit by adding a table of contents, indenting paragraphs, correcting mechanical errors, etc. so that it is more functional and serves as a model of the writing and formatting I expect from students. I actually like the double spacing, which most publishers don't use because of space/cost issues. It provides plenty of room for students to annotate the text electronically or on print copies. I am not sure I am up for undertaking indexing.   ","created_at":"2015-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2015-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":291,"first_name":"Kelsea","last_name":"Jones","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Treasure Valley Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"McLean's text is surprisingly comprehensive, covering topics from reading and study strategies, to grammar, to writing paragraphs and essays, to research. While some of this material would be spot-on for first year composition, I feel as though most of the strategies are more appropriate for developmental composition courses (like WR 115: Intro to College Writing in the Oregon system). \r\n\r\nThe major downside of this text is that there is no Table of Contents or index for this 600+ page book. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information in the text appears to accurate, unbiased, and very detailed. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text makes use of sentence and essay examples that are relevant and that will not have to be constantly updated. The main pieces of information in this text that would need to be updated are the APA and MLA style guides; however, both guides follow the most recent editions. Otherwise, the links provided in the text, such as those to the Purdue OWL, may need the most monitoring and updating. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing style of this text is accessible and conversational. Terms are introduced with examples, including some excellent graphic organizers, before they are used in the text, and the terminology is consistent throughout. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"There is a consistent framework in each chapter: learning objectives are listed, information is presented with tips and examples, and the information is summarized in a \"Key Takeaways\" box. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into chapters and sub-sections that could be divided into smaller reading sections or reorganized to fit individual course needs. Instructors could take or leave any of the content without confusing their students. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The text is organized so that students can build upon their skills, from reading and studying all the way to researching and making presentations; in that way, it is a clearly organized and structured text. However, this organization is what makes the text more appropriate for developmental writing courses than first year composition courses. The reading, studying, and grammar sections of the text could easily be organized into appendices at the back of the book to act as supplemental material rather than the meat of the text.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"There are a few confusing interface issues with this version of the text: 1) None of the paragraphs are indented, which makes skimming the text difficult. 2) The learning objectives and tips in the text are set off in a light gray color that is easy to miss while scrolling through the pages; the blue and green colors chosen for the exercises and key takeaways are much easier to see and read. 3) Several headings for sections, tables, and figures are cut off from the information they introduce. 4) There are no clickable links in the text, table of contents, or index to aid navigation. 5) There is no title page for the text!","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no apparent grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There was no content that was culturally offensive, but I also did not find the text to be particularly inclusive. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, I found this text to be a good Open Educational Resource that offers a real wealth of information about college writing. For all of its interface problems, the text would be easy enough to adapt to either developmental composition courses or first year comp courses. I would recommend this text to instructors interested in using OERs in their classes.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":300,"first_name":"Shawn","last_name":"Osborne","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text clearly covers all areas and ideas of the subject at this level and is well organized. A nice addition is that each chapter opens with Learning Objectives and closes with Key Takeaways.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the content to be accurate, error-free, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and relevant. It is arranged in such a way that any necessary updates should be quite easy to implement.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is straight forward and clear. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framework of the text is consistent. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text can be divided into smaller reading sections easily.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear way. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no interface issues. The images/charts and other display features are well placed and bring clarity to the\nlearning point. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no grammatical errors in the text. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Chapter 5: Help for English Language Learners and Chapter 14: Creating Presentations are useful additions to the text. I also appreciate the links to further readings in Chapter 15 and believe this will be very beneficial for students.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":305,"first_name":"Fran","last_name":"Bozarth","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book really covers it all so long as there is no need to address reading fiction - in fact, it has way more than I would be able to use in a term!   However, it appears to be appropriate for a semester course, or for two terms of quarter-length courses.\n\nSubjects are covered appropriately, although I don't know that students would find all of it particularly engaging - use of this material would be VERY reliant upon an effective, engaging instructor.\n\nAt our college we have the additional course goal of requiring some understanding of reading fiction, and an instructor utilizing this book would need to supplement for it.\n\nWhile the Table of Contents is very clear, there is no index or glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content in this book is consistent with the goals of most Reading/Writing/Study Skills/College Success courses I have encountered.  It seems to be error-free, and the author did a particularly good job of projecting no biases that I could detect.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content related to this text has remained fairly static for decades, though there have been some developments in the past few decades regarding holding students more accountable for knowing their learning styles, and for constructing meaning with connections to their own experiences. This book addresses the  basic, standard content, and nicely brings in opportunities for students to better understand themselves as learners.  Again, this will depend heavily upon the instructor and their ability to engage students.\n\nSome of the exercises and examples may become obsolete if there are any major technological changes in our society (for example, if email is suddenly abandoned in favor of something else.) However, I believe that such updates would be quite easy to implement given the use of a simple \"Find \u0026amp;  Replace\" feature.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity is a strong suit for this text.   I did not locate any portion of the book that lacked clarity.   Context was provided for examples of poor writing as well as for strong writing.  Context was also provided for any specialized language.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is extremely consistent in terms of terminology and framework.    \n\nThe framework utilizes a \"here is what you will learn\" type of bulleted list, followed by sections that match the bulleted list, with examples where appropriate, and exercises at the end of the chapter.  The end of the book includes not only a full-text example of each type of essay, but also provides links to additional examples written by often well-known and well-regarded authors.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The structure of the overall text is appropriate, and logical.  I really appreciate that exercises aren't just randomly thrown in, as many published textbooks often do.\n\nThe text is easily readable, but I find that the layout of the pages can cause the text  and sections to run together.   More effective use of headings and subheadings would make this easier for students to follow.   Additionally, there isn't an easily discernible break between chapters/sections.   I would very much like to see more solid page breaks (title pages perhaps?) at the beginning of each chapter/section.    Given the learning styles assessment at the beginning of the book, it would be appropriate to at least include some icons that match each section - for example the \"Key Take Aways \"  could have a key icon.  Some suggestions for students regarding how they can apply this using their unique learning styles might be helpful as well.  Otherwise, that learning style information seems to be unrelated from the students' point of view.\n\nThe links in the PDF did not seem to work.   I don't know if I need to consider looking at this material in a different format in order to use the in-text links.  (In other words, I don't know if it's me or if it's the text or the technology or what....) ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a very appropriate fashion, with concepts building in a logical way, one upon the next.  Very nicely scaffolded!","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface seemed to be working correctly.  I was able to read everything, and things seemed to be correctly placed.   I was not sure if the blue text was supposed to be linked.  I was unable to click it and go to any links (which were typically references to other chapters within the text, so it wouldn't be impossible to locate those items - just tedious.)","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text appears to have been impeccably edited.  All of the writing lesson content was modeled within the text.  Items that were incorrect were clearly labeled as being examples of poor writing, or were clearly used for the purpose of applying identification and editing skills.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"This text appears to be quite sterile when it comes to cultural sensitivity.  Given the audience, the examples are typically American with some culturally diverse names thrown in. The examples given weren't particularly indicative of one race, ethnicity or background or another.   In some ways, I am thankful for the lack of contrived cultural sensitivity. I didn't note anything that would create a barrier to culturally diverse populations, other than the assumptions that are made based upon american culture (such as the notion that we have all had a job at one time or another, or at least have some understanding of the concept of employment.)","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book has much to offer. The authors did an excellent job of including the content that is consistent with standard reading/writing/study skill content.   I think it will be very workable and pliable for use by instructors who chose it.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":320,"first_name":"Kimberly","last_name":"Gutierrez","position":"Assistant Professor of English","institution_name":"Bismarck State College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"One of the classes I teach is a freshman composition writing lab that focuses on sentence level errors and sentence clarity.  This is a super resource for that type of class.  The book contains all sentence, grammar and mechanics concepts that are essential to teaching students to recognize and repair sentence-level errors.  The Table of Contents clearly outlines all of the all of the component of the book.  As far as being the main source for a first semester freshman composition class, if I used it, I would certainly supplement it with more readings, but for freshman composition sentence level instruction, this book is very thorough.  My comprehensive rating reflects that particular focus.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The descriptions of the concepts are very detailed, and these descriptions are very accurate, explaining the concept with correct sample sentences.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Since the primary focus of this book is the grammatical concepts that impact sentence issues, the text will not necessarily need updating.  Of course, MLA formatting guidelines do change, so these changes will will need to be updated within the book, but the general sentence concepts presented in the majority of the book will not soon become obsolete. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"All portions of the book are very clearly presented.  Grammar can be confusing to first semester freshman composition students, but the explanations are clearly presented.  Examples are clearly connected to the grammar explanations.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology is consistent within the text.  Within the framework of a composition lab class, this text is consistent, covering all essential components covered in the course scope.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The clarity with how the concepts are presented in the Table of Contents allows instructors to pick and choose which the  concepts will be presented and the order of presentation. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book has a clear organizational flow (considering that I would use this book for a composition lab that has a sentence practice focus).  The sentence concepts build logically on each other.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface issues occur when accessing the chapters, and there are no display features that distract the reader.  The lessons are presented very clearly, and the practice exercises are easy to follow.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar lessons are error free.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The practice sentences do not contain an culturally biased material.  ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a text that I would consider using for a composition lab course (sentence practice focus).  I would also consider using the text for first semester freshman composition, but using the text for that type of course would require finding supplemental readings.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":327,"first_name":"Brandy","last_name":"Hoffmann","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Central Lakes College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing for Success offers a variety of sections that could be extracted as resources/readings for a first year writing course. In other words, despite some weaknesses, this text serves the function of an OER, and parts of it could be utilized widely. Overall, I would not feel comfortable using this as a primary text to teach rhetorical modes, including argumentative research writing, but I would use it as a supplementary text.\n\nStrengths: I found the coverage of the following subjects to be generally effective: the overall writing process; the revision process (with exercises, p. 470); the editing process (with exercises, p. 476); thesis development (with samples of weak/strong, Chapter 9); paragraphing and topic sentences (with models of different types of paragraphs--summary/analysis/synthesis/evaluation, Chapter 6); sentence fluency and variety (with exercises throughout Chapters 2 and 7); preliminary research and research proposals (Chapter 11); outlining (with samples, Chapter 8), and basic MLA and APA documentation, including an effective discussion of in-text citations on pp. 501-503.\n\nI want to point out the overall usefulness of the exercises offered throughout this text (adding value to the text, since practical exercises for college writing instruction can be hard to come by). I also appreciated the beginnings of chapters, which effectively addressed the questioning student and established the context.\n\nWeaknesses: Viewed as a whole, the text struggles in terms of audience and purpose, organization of content, and content selection and emphasis. The text emphasizes some extraneous subjects while understating other topics that would be important to many composition courses. For example, for a composition course built on rhetorical modes—narration, description, illustration, argumentation, etc.--this textbook offers only a short overview of each. It also offers a few models and links to outside readings, but it doesn't include anything on composing annotated bibliographies, rhetorical analysis essays, critical reviews, or literature reviews. There is an overview on how to write a research paper, but the discussion on how to integrate sources effectively - quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing - is somewhat weak, and the discussion of plagiarism is limited.\r\n\nThe text offers an extensive section on study skills (in chapter 1), which seemed misplaced in this text - unless it was modified to address study strategies for a writing course, specifically (for example, rather than models of lecture \"note taking,\" how about models of research note-taking in chapter 11; and instead of comparing general high school and college assignments, compare writing assignments specifically). I would recommend an overall reorganization of the text, moving chapter 8 (writing process) toward the front, for example, while moving chapters 2 (sentences), 3 (punctuation), 4 (words), and 5 (ELL) toward the end--to emphasize higher order concerns, first; lower order concerns, second.\n\nI appreciate the attempt to address workplace writing as well as academic or in-school writing, but I found the brief \"Writing at Work\" sidebars a bit forced, possibly distracting, and unnecessary (e.g. pp. 224-225; p. 348). The attempt to include a pseudo student to shed light on the subject is sometimes helpful (Mariah, Chapter 8) but sometimes forced and not developed enough to be useful (Crystal, Chapter 1). The brief bits on \"collaboration\" throughout the text could be deleted- not developed enough to be useful. There is no index or glossary, and in the PDF I was using there was no table of contents, though this is available elsewhere. Despite these weaknesses, there are many reasons to use this text, as outlined under \"Strengths\" above.\r\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall, this is an accurate and unbiased text. There will always be subjectivity in the delivery of academic writing advice because of varying preferences and changing ideas about what is appropriate or inappropriate. I tend to disagree with the following suggestions or omissions offered in this text: suggestion (through models that indicate 3 points to support a thesis) that a 5-paragraph essay is still the go-to formula for college writing in (Chapter 9); suggestion that a thesis is always one sentence; suggestion that it's a good idea to search for a random quote for your introduction online (p. 361); omitting any reference to intentional sentence fragments; omitting idea that contractions can be used in academic writing (in certain instances); omitting clear attribution and documentation in the summary on p. 220 apart from the opening signal phrase--not the best summary sample; the suggestion that a topic sentence begins an essay or article (p. 233), which seems misleading.\r\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Writing advice tends to be timeless, to an extent, so there aren't big concerns that the content will become outdated. The author avoided pop culture and current event references, which was smart. The only suggestion would be to modify the text to better address new challenges and innovations in writing genres/writing instruction - perhaps including a chapter on multimodal writing and online writing toward the end of the text. (The use of \"trade books\" in Chapter 1 seems outdated, not fully defined.)","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Overall, I found the writing to be very effective - definitely student-friendly yet not patronizing and still sophisticated. The writer avoided convoluted, wordy prose, and wrote in a tone appropriately formal yet conversational and relatable.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Yes, despite the overall issues with content organization and selection, which I address elsewhere, I found the text to be internally conistent with terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Yes, this text is easily divisible into smaller reading assignment, given the breakdown of subsectios within each chapter and the inclusion of exercise sections, etc. There are some issues with headers/interface, depending on the version of the text used, addressed in interface section.The text did not seem self-referential.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"As stated above, I would recommend an overall reorganization of the text, moving chapter 8 (writing process) toward the front, for example, while moving chapters 2 (sentences), 3 (punctuation), 4 (words), and 5 (ELL) toward the end--to emphasize higher order concerns, first; lower order concerns, second.\n\nIncluding Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter is helpful, allowing easy alignment with course objectives; the \"key takeaways\" at the end of each chapter are also helpful.\n\nPlease note: I was evaluating a downloaded PDF version of the text, so experience may be different in a different mode. Throughout the text, headings/labels can be difficult to distinguish from one another, making it challenging to follow the hierarchy/logic of the text. The organization of the \"Reading Strategies\" section in Chapter 1 was a bit confusing, listing the \"three broad categories\" of strategies but then failing to organize section headings that aligned. On p. 10, I would recommend moving \"Ask and answer questions\" before \"Summarize.\"\n\nFor the \"tips\" offered throughout the text, it would be helpful if they were labeled in some way (e.g. \"Tips: Succeeding in Timed Writings,\" p. 34). I would suggest eliminating the \"Writing at Work\" sidebars but turning some of these into tips (e.g. \"Tips: Emailing Your Professor,\" p. 17). The paragraph on p. 38 that lists all chapters seems unnecessary and overwhelming. In the discussion of the SQ3R Strategy on p. 12, it seems like these steps should be handled separately with headings. The four academic purposes in Chapter 6 should be obviously highlighted at the beginning of the section rather than listed in the middle of the paragraph without emphasis (p. 217). On p. 230, \"6.12\" is referenced but does not exist? Use of \"for this assignment\" on p. 461 seems misleading.\n\nAlso, the font size, heading placement, spacing, indenting, and bullet formatting are all a bit awkward throughout; the text could be cleaned up for improved design and readability, though these issues do not detract largely from the text's usability.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Please note: I was evaluating a downloaded PDF version of the text, so experience may be different in a different mode. I located a few interface issues in my reading of the text: On p. 238+ the text keeps referring to underlined topic sentences, but they are not underlined. On p. 244 the text refers to underlined transitional words, but they are also not underlined.\n\nCertain references to other sections in the text are colored in a way that makes them seem as if you could click on a link and be carried to a different section of the text, but this didn’t function, at least not in the PDF that I had downloaded (such as “see Chapter 12 ‘Writing a Research Paper’” on p. 10).\r\n\nIt would be helpful if there was a repeat of the chapter title on the top of each page of the text.\n\nI located the following dead links in the PDF that I downloaded:\n\nhttp://www.sunywcc.edu/LIBRARY/research/MLA_APA_08.03.10.pdf\r\nhttp://www.writing.ku.edu/guides\r\np. 546\r\n\nhttp://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/132320728102659810/lib/132320728102659810/_files/Alexie,_Sherman_-_Indian_Education_TEXT.rtf\r\nhttp://www.pfeonyx.com/alliance/IndianCollection/Alexie2.pdf\r\np. 596\n\nhttp://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/mcunningham/grapes/mother%20tounge.pdf http://learning.swc.hccs.edu/members/donna.gordon/sum-2010-engl-1301-5-wk-crn-33454/1301-reading-block-crn-33454/Tan_Mother%20Tongue.pdf http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2000/on_the_internet_theres_no_place_to_hide\r\np. 602\n\r\nhttp://api.ning.com/files/-3HiJ651xE-rSj4Q4WeH-*f0NQJGyoXgI8AR*3Rat-AyxVuVAgEE bfbuyGbTu9gpi7z3gT4jqd52W3fBsDRfFGgEgLxB5wO4/GetItRight.PrivatizeExecutionsArthurMiller.pdf\r\np. 605\n\r\nhttp://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everythingsanargument4e/content/cat_020/Brady_I_Want_a_Wife.pdf\r\nhttp://www.usd305.com/212720101692451310/lib/212720101692451310/20100429123836146.pdf\r\np. 607\n\nhttp://eec.edc.org/cwis_docs/NEWS_ARTICLES_JOURNALS/Laird_Ellen.pdf\r\nhttp://depedia.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=I%27m_your_teacher%2C_not_your_Internet-Service_Provider\r\np. 609\n\r\nhttp://depedia.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=I%27m_your_teacher%2C_not_your_Internet-Service_Provider\r\nhttp://www.alandershowitz.com/publications/docs/torturewarrants.html\r\np. 613\n\r\nThe title and link has changed for article p. 598: should be http://www.newsweek.com/dark-side-web-fame-93505 List of \"Sources\" on p. 568 awkward too... not sure links are directing to intended spot.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I located a few mechanical/sentence-level errors:\np. 2 in Preface, 2nd paragraph, the list with \"instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical...\" could use semicolons for clearer listing/separation of items.\np. 166 wording issue: \"jargon a type\" p. 202, 213, 275, 340, 366 spacing errors: \"errors within, at and on\"; \"butit\"; \"thanswimming\"; \"Fencessymoblize\"; \"Writingis\"; p. 208 lack of consistent periods at end of phrases in Table 5.16\np. 300 words/punctuation missing: \"For example, for every Roman numeral I, there must be a For every A, there must be a B.\"","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text did not seem culturally insensitive or offensive and seemed usable by a wide audience of students.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I plan on using segments of this text in future writing courses, and I am grateful for the availability of OER texts like this one. So, despite any weaknesses addressed, this is still a valuable resource for faculty who are trying to lower the barriers to student success in their classrooms through the adoption of OER resources. I recommend the text, but study it carefully to determine how it will be used in your specific writing courses. It is probably best used as a supplementary text.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":349,"first_name":"Michelle","last_name":"Cristiani","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"What I look for in a writing text at this level is flow from simple to complex: word placement and part of speech up through essays.  This text follows that format beautifully.  \nOne glaring omission is fragment and run-on work.  This is such a common issue at this level. I would also want to see more transition from sentence to paragraph, not just paragraph to essay.\nThere are a couple of underdeveloped sections as the topics grow in detail: for example, nine rhetorical modes are discussed, which is a wide array, but within each section there is not much elaboration or examples. But overall, there are appropriate exercises after concepts are introduced.  The text provides a solid framework for instructors to build upon as they see fit.\nThe table of contents are easy to navigate and generally well-organized.  I do find chapter 8 misplaced, though – it is titled ‘how do I begin.’  Because it describes the writing process from prewrite to edit it seems sensible to place it closer to the beginning.  \nI especially appreciate the inclusion of research and citation – it is well-done.\n\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The lessons and examples are true to the field.  The structure mirrors most other texts in organization and usage.  The research and citation sections are more-or-less current.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Longevity is easy to attain with this discipline because grammar/writing rules are tried and true...but the organization of this text makes it a true 'open' resource.  One could update or mold portions into a larger discussion on grammar concepts like punctuation, or writing for description. \nThe APA and MLA sections are vague enough as to not need much updates as the rules change. The links work. I see at least one MLA rule that has changed since 2009, but it's relatively minor, and easily updated.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Grammar-heavy texts can be tricky for students because there are so many labels, like 'rhetorical mode,' that they know the definitions of, but have not heard the terms themselves.  This text keeps that jargon to a minimum, so that students can focus on the concept and not the vocabulary.  Subject-verb agreement is the least accessible, but that is often difficult to explain for any text, and the exercises support the instruction. Parallelism could be defined more cleanly. The research section is quite clear. The learning objectives are clear enough as to be useful tools themselves.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Exercises are often post-concept and always post-chapter. Learning objectives are defined at the beginning of each section. Each section resembles the others, and for that reason can be easily modulated  - but there are no clear cumulative assignments.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"These chapters can stand alone quite easily. This works especially well for instructors like myself who teach grammar concepts side-by-side with writing concepts - they will pair closely in this model. The end-of-chapter exercises could easily be used as pretests as well as post-tests.\nChapter 13 on research documentation is slightly self-referential, but the sections are unlikely to be taught separately and it doesn't feel overdone.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"As previously mentioned, chapter 8 on getting started might be moved forward. Ideally the text would pair the writing process stages directly with modes, as they do change given the purpose...but since this might made the text less modular I understand the vision behind its generality.\nThe reading examples might be closer to the chapter on modes, instead of at the end after research.\nWithin chapters, flow is sensible and straightforward.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The layout and structure is simple and clean. Charts keep their shape even when window size is minimized. The clear table of contents is navigable by both scroll and click.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar texts especially need to be spotless; I spotted no errors. Most importantly, there is consistency in structure and punctuation, for example in learning objectives from chapter to chapter.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Most important in this volume are the sample essay readings.  Linked and cited authors include various time periods and controversial yet not sensitive topics.  The text is to be commended for inclusion of essays from at least five different races and a variety of worldviews.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"A solid framework and foundation for essay writing.  The book could be used for a class specifically about writing, or as a companion to another course.  Modules on research and citation are of specific relevance to a variety of content areas, and the extra essays in the final chapter can inspire debate and argument both in writing and verbal discussion.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":352,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Sylwester","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is amazingly comprehensive--probably more than any teacher actually wants. It covers strategies for success in college, reading, grammar, spelling, drafting, revising, thesis statements, and various rhetorical modes. Unfortunately, it does not include an index. The table of contents is fairly detailed, however.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate: rules for spelling and punctuation and general rhetorical content are presented as any writing instructor would expect. More explanation about rules for grammar and punctuation would be nice: for example, the explanation of the dash is \"to set off information in a sentence for emphasis.\" This is accurate, but not the whole story.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The main portions of this text will not become outdated. The section on readings, however, is already problematic. The book offers one reading example per mode, and then others as links. Just in a quick survey of links in two of the rhetorical modes, I found five that were no longer operational. To be fair, the book does try to get around that problem with multiple link sources for the same essay, but I found this strategy confusing, as it tends to look as if there are more readings available than actually are present. In the future, as with any textbook including readings, there will be a need to provide up-to-date topics.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the book very readable. There is little or no jargon. This book would be appropriate for a freshman in college.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The page design is consistent: examples and exercises are similarly formatted and easy to locate. The author uses fictional student names to illustrate how some principles might be applied in real life. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"In the \"Exercise\" sections, the book does refer the studen to other parts of the chapters. All the examples I found, however, referred the student to sections within the same chapter and not out to other chapters of the book. For example, in the Exercises for Ch. 8, the instructions say: \"Working in a peer-review group of four, go to Section 8.3 “Drafting” and reread the draft of the first two body paragraphs . . . .\"","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"This book starts with strategies for success, which seems reasonable, but then has a giant section about sentence grammar \u0026amp; spelling before even getting to writing paragraphs. \"Refining Your Writing\" comes before \"How Do I Begin?\" which seems backwards. The topic of thesis statements does not come up until Chapter 9, which seems terribly late. If I were teaching from this text, I would probably skip from Chapter 1 to Chapter 6, and use Chapters 2-5 (grammar and spelling) as references.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The display seems fine: I read it online rather than downloading. One benefit to the online format is the search window at the top, which offers a kind of substitute for indexing. \n\nThe only problem I ran into was that several links to the readings in Chapter 15 were nonfunctional.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Student example names used seem to cover a variety of ethnic backgrounds, but most are women's names. Readings cover a wide spectrum of ethnicities. For example, links to readings in the \"Narrative Essay\" section include Chicano, Russian Jewish, and Native American.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is generally a well written textbook. However, there are two problems that instructors will encounter in using it: (1) it is not organized pedagogically, so instructors will need to consider the order of readings carefully, and not just move chapter by chapter through the book. (2) many links to readings are not functional, so instructors will need to be aware of that and either find new links or provide their own readings.\n\nFinally, I have grave reservations about the ethics of using weblinks for essentially all the current readings in a textbook. I understand that using links in an online class for one-time readings is fine, but many of these links (especially those that remain functional) are to publications that have paying subscribers, such as The New Yorker. I would feel better about using a textbook that actually had permission to use other writers' work as a permanent fixture of the book.\n\n","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":360,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Sanders","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers a range of topics students might need while building reading, critical thinking, research, and writing skills in developmental to upper division courses.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I see no evidence of inaccurate, erroneous, or biased content.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe it is safe to say that this book will be useful for a long time. While APA and MLA style may change and grammar rules may soften or transform, this book would be easy to update.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is accessible to students entering a course with various levels of academic preparation and experience.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with takeaways. Throughout each chapter, there are charts and exercises to clarify and emphasize key content.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Clearly marked sections focus on student success strategies, grammar and punctuation, and approaches to composition. Instructors could easily select the chapters most relevant to individual reading and writing courses at all levels.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is structured very well. It begins with reading strategies and helping students transition from a high school to college learning environment. It moves into sentence-level techniques, including specific areas for English language learners. The text also includes sections on the writing process, rhetoric, research, documentation, and presentation.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I do not see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"While I do not see anything I consider offensive, I do believe few of my students would \"see themselves\" in this text. The sample names (like \"Steve\" and \"Jones\") and sample essay topics (baseball, video game addiction) do not suggest a recognition of the broad cultural diversity instructors encounter in college classrooms today. For me, this lack of inclusiveness marks the main weakness of this text.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reviewing the text and plan to assign a few chapters to my online writing students.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":368,"first_name":"Amy ","last_name":"Forester","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Clackamas Community College and Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is very comprehensive. There are sections that are useful for many different writing levels, from students in need of grammar and punctuation instruction to research writing. Also, each section is nicely developed with examples, explanations, and exercises.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is very accurate. It gives clear and easy-to-read instruction on many topics.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text has great longevity. I can imagine using it for many years because the examples are not time-sensitive. This is a great book to accompany a reading list or anthology.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is one of the first things I noticed about the text. I really like the tone and style of the writing. It is clear and does not over-complicate ideas. The author clearly has experience with first-year writing students because it is written in a clear, accessible way. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I appreciate the consistency of this text. The terminology is direct and logical, and students will find it easy to get a broader understanding of a topic because the text provides links to other parts of the text where the term is mentioned. Also, the chapter organization is perfect for first-year students who do not want long, meandering chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I will be using this book in modules for different writing classes. For example, it is easy to teach the grammar and punctuation sections in a remedial course and leave them out in research writing courses. Each section is very well developed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are nicely organized in this text. Each chapter has the same features, so students know what to expect. I am particularly impressed with the section Writing at Work, which gives students a sense for how each strategy is used in the workplace.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall, the interface is very easy to read. The one improvement that should be made is, at least in my screen view, the student writing samples are hard to read because they are small and in a difficult font.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"It is grammatically correct.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive. It seems inclusive in its examples.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am particularly impressed with the grammar and punctuation chapters. I have used many different books to teach these topics, and have found that they are often explained in complicated, technical language. I will definitely use these chapters in my classes.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":374,"first_name":"Michelle","last_name":"Robbins","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing for Success includes all the topics I cover in a developmental writing class, plus a large chunk on research papers. It covers grammar and constructing paragraphs and essays in a comprehensive manner. \n\nFor developmental writing, I did find that Chapter 2 was a bit light on the parts of speech. For instance, in one exercise students must identify adverbs and adjectives, but there is no real explanation of them first. However, the sentence practice in regard to subjects, verbs, and independent clauses was solid.\n\nChapter 6 on purpose, tone, audience, and content was excellent. I haven't seen those elements addressed in quite the same way (sometimes barely at all) in other textbooks I have used.\n\nI was also pleased with the links to articles and essays. (More on this in relevance and cultural relevance.)\n\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased. The author includes a variety of links to additional readings and does an excellent job of covering different sides of an issue. For instance, he is sure to link to articles arguing both for and against the use of torture.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because grammar, language, and writing change fairly slowly, the content here is relevant and lasting. Some articles may become dated, but those are easy to change. Many of them won't need to be replaced anyway because, regardless of their dates, they are still good examples (and, obviously, in writing and literature older works are critical to examine). One of the sample essays was written in 1994. Certainly our outlooks on the material has changed (the role of wives), but the piece is still a good (and creative) example of a definition essay--and fodder for discussion.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and accessible for upper-level remedial students and still works for 100-level courses. The student examples are useful, but a few of them were not especially compelling or strong examples and could be replaced.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"It is consistent. I thought the repetition of sections such as \"writing at work\" and \"key takeaways\" were helpful for students absorbing a lot of information.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The organization of sections made the text easy to follow. At first I thought it would be better organized by integrating the writing samples in the last chapter into the instructional chapters, but ultimately, I found that grouping the types of content (grammar in one area, writing instruction in one, samples in another, and so on) made accessing content easier--especially because they are also cross-referenced within the chapters.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Much of the time, I want my students to access different topics simultaneously, so I found the organization here to work fine. The chapters and sub-sections are clear, so it is easy to move between them.\n\nI found the cross-referencing of sub-sections to be particularly helpful, as in the chapter on coordination: it refers back to the section on semi-colons and vice versa.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"All worked well for me. All graphics were clear, and it was key to be able to magnify the student samples for better readability.\n\nOne significant issue is that many of the links to essay examples in Chapter 15 are dead. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The links to outside sources included cultural variety (and were quite interesting!). Perhaps the examples within the text itself might show more variety.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I was especially impressed by the links to Chapter 15 examples (those that worked); there were blogs, poems, and magazine articles. The variety of source types and authors was excellent, and the pieces themselves were compelling.\n\nOverall, Writing for Success was clearly written, useful, and fairly comprehensive. I would definitely use it in my developmental Writing 90 course. I can also envision using many sections for Writing 80.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":386,"first_name":"Katie","last_name":"McCurdie","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The comprehensiveness of this text is very impressive.  At 600 pages, it covers so many aspects of college writing, from grammar to essay writing to creating presentations, that pieces of this text would surely be useful for a wide variety of courses, but it is probably best suited to a first-year composition course.  The first chapter provides a good introduction to writing in college, which includes a comparison to writing assignments in high school, along with more general advice on succeeding in college.  This would be useful for just about any student entering an American university.  It would also aid international students in understanding the expectations surrounding reading and writing as they transition from schools in their home country, where expectations, amount of coursework, and types of assessments can be drastically different.  The next four chapters focus on sentence-level language issues: sentence structure, punctuation, vocabulary, and a whole grammar chapter for English language learners.  These chapters could provide a great introduction to or review of the basics of English grammar, as well as the metalanguage needed to talk about grammar.  In fact, I could see all four of the chapters begin useful for English language learners at intermediate and advanced levels.  Chapters six through thirteen cover writing, from paragraphs to research papers, and fourteen focuses on presentations.  Short exercises immediately reinforce the content in a variety of ways, such as by editing, completing sentences, and identifying and labeling grammar items.  The amount of exercises might be enough for relatively advanced users of English, but those at a lower level would likely need additional exercises from another source.  The “Writing Application” exercises at the end of most chapter sections provide opportunities for students to use what they’ve learned in short writing activities.  In addition, there are end-of-chapter exercises for more practice.\n\nThroughout the text, there is a combined focus on writing for academic purposes and writing in the real world.  Examples and exercises reinforce this with work emails, business letters, job descriptions, cover letters, advertisements, and personal narratives and essays.  This should send the message to students that the skills they are learning will be applied to all areas of their lives.  \n\nAlthough this text hasn’t reinvented the wheel in terms of writing instruction, it does present some novel ways to approach certain topics.  For instance, there is a section in Chapter 2 on identifying and correcting fragments and run-ons that would potentially be very helpful for both native and non-native writers.  It includes flow charts that students could use on their own to aid them in finding and fixing these all too common sentence structure errors in their own writing – an excellent tool to help students move towards becoming independent writers.\n\nThe table of contents is detailed and descriptive, but is not included in the pdf version.\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I found the content to be mostly accurate.  However, there are a couple places where the labeling of grammar items seemed incorrect or inconsistent to me.  For instance, in Chapter 2, the text introduces some sentence structure basics including prepositional phrases (“At night,” “In the beginning,” etc.).  However, when discussing how to fix fragments that begin with prepositional phrases a few pages later, the example sentences do not actually contain them; instead, they begin with adverb clauses or phrases (“After walking all day…”).  For a native writer, distinguishing between these two different structures might not be crucial since the point here is fixing the fragment error.  If using this text with English language learners, however, the discrepancy could cause confusion.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Information and example essays seem relevant and up-to-date although the chapter on MLA and APA documentation will have to be updated in the future.  Updates should be easy to perform due to the text’s modularity. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language used in the text is very easy to understand and approachable.  Examples mostly consist of everyday language and situations or general academic vocabulary.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text seems consistent to me except for the grammar terminology error I mentioned above.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text seems made to be divided into smaller parts to be covered individually or even in a different order.  Although the text does refer to itself at times, it does not rely on these references to convey information clearly and completely.  Therefore, I noticed some sections of the text that necessarily repeat information from previous sections so as to stand alone as an independent lesson.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I appreciate how the book is organized, beginning with the introduction to college writing, which orients students to what they’ll be doing and why.  I think it was a good choice to then put the grammar chapters next, before getting into the writing chapters.  Writing books I’ve used tend to stick the grammar instruction at the end of the text or even hide it away in an appendix, but this text encourages students to become proficient writers from the sentence level up.  The only part that seems oddly placed to me is Chapter 7, “Refining Your Writing,” which covers sentence variety, coordination and subordination, and parallelism.  Also, I agree with another reviewer who said that it would be better if each rhetorical mode were given its own chapter.  I never teach nine different modes in one course (maybe two or three), so the modularity would be better if each mode could be separate.  On the other hand, I like how research writing is divided into two chapters and covered in detail.  This type of writing is so difficult for most students, so it’s nice to have that comprehensive instruction.  It’s also great to have the additional chapter at the end with example essays.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface is user-friendly with clear headings and sub-headings, logical use of bold text, numbered and bulleted lists, and blocks of subtle color to set off certain pieces of text from the main text.  When suitable, information is presented in chart form or inside boxes.  The font is highly readable and not distracting.  Each chapter has a few main sections that are consistent throughout the text: “Learning Objectives” at the beginning, “Exercises” sprinkled throughout the chapter, and “Key Takeaways” at the end.  There are also small boxes labeled “Tips,” which give advice on succeeding academically, and “Writing at Work,” which offers suggestions on how to use writing in real communication situations.  As a result, the set-up of each chapter is predictable, which would theoretically allow teachers and students to fall into a comfortable routine.  \n\nOne problem I found with the interface is that sometimes the margin sizes are not consistent from one page to the next.  For instance, an indented list that begins on one page and continues on the next may not be indented on the second page.  This is a small issue and may just be in the pdf version of the text.  \n\nI also noticed some navigation mistakes, when the text refers the reader to another part of the text, but it’s not the intended part.  For example, in the section on fixing run-ons, it says, “For more information on semicolons, see Section 2.4.2 ‘Capitalize Proper Nouns’.  However, there is nothing about semicolons in this section; this would most likely be in Chapter 3, which covers punctuation.\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not notice anything culturally insensitive, and there are some inclusive examples.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, I find this text to be thoughtfully written, and I’d definitely consider using it for upper level writing \u0026amp; grammar-focused courses in the Intensive English Program. ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":387,"first_name":"Kirk","last_name":"Perry","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College - Cascade ","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook aspires to be a combined grammar book and reader. It covers all the appropriate areas, but the coverage is a bit thin when it comes to examples.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"As far as I can tell.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The instructional content is very plain and basic; it will be sure to bore students for decades to come.\n\nThe readings (links) are good quality and likely to be useful for a decade or so.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Very clear and plain language--but again, not enough examples.\n\nIf anything, this text could be more technical. I think it is unhelpful to describe subordinating conjunctions as \"dependent words.\" This strikes me as vague and misleading.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, quite consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Yes, it is effectively modular. Helpful subheadings and sections. There are lists and diagrams, but some sections can be a bit too text-y (dense paragraphs).","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Yes: overview \u0026gt; grammar \u0026gt; process \u0026gt; writing modes \u0026gt; research \u0026gt; citation. \n\nHowever, the example essays for the modes come in the final chapter. There is no good reason why \"Chapter 10: Modes\" could not be merged with \"Chapter 15: Readings: Examples of Essays\"--particularly because most of the examples are links.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Appears good.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Didn't notice any problems.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The example essay links provide a variety of ethnic/cultural perspectives.\n\n","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This book is helpful but tries to do a bit too much--being both a grammar and a reader. It needs more examples of everything: run-on sentences, sense details, example essays, etc.\n\nTo adopt this for a course such as WR 115 or WR 121, I would have to provide many supplemental readings.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":409,"first_name":"Annie","last_name":"Knepler","position":"University Studies Writing Coordinator","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing for Success is quite thorough. It covers everything from sentence structure to the writing process. It has additional sections on creating effective presentations and concludes with sample essays. I could see how instructors could use various elements of the text and adapt it to their course.\n\nAt the same time, it often felt a little too comprehensive, and sometimes seemed to aim for breadth over depth. For example, not much space is devoted to integrating sources and ideas. Learning how to apply sources, and develop your own ideas based on research, is such an important element of college writing. Paraphrasing and integrating source material is complex, and takes a lot of practice. Otherwise, students tend to let the sources speak for them instead of truly conversing with the sources (which is what I would begin to expect of college level students). The text leaves the impression that integrating sources is a straightforward task as opposed to one that involves critical thinking and analytic skills. Overall, I found the research section fairly weak.\n\nI have looked at and worked with several writing texts, and I’m used to ones that either focus on a specific aspect of writing (such as research writing) or have a specific approach. This text tries to be a more general writing text, and it,  perhaps, tries to cover too much.\n","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The book strikes me as accurate, thorough, and generally without bias. At the same time, I don’t fully agree with the approach it takes to writing and grammar. The text does a really nice job of explaining certain grammatical elements and providing several examples to demonstrate the idea. However, the text generally treats grammar as rules rather than conventions. These conventions often change or shift over time, just as writing conventions change over time.\n\nSimilarly, whereas I appreciated the texts emphasis on writing as a process, Writing for Success does not really highlight the idea that writing can also be a process of discovery for the student. To me, this is an important concept for both learning and writing, and it helps get students excited about the possibilities for college writing. For example, when discussing thesis statements, the book indicates that a writer might end up revising a working thesis to broaden or narrow down their thesis. However, it does not present the possibility that students’ ideas may shift in significant ways as they write, research, and discover ideas. I allow my students to leave themselves open to the idea that their working thesis could change in significant ways as they write.\n\nOverall, for me, it does not adequately emphasize the idea that writing should be both dynamic and purposeful.\n","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The book is designed in a way that makes it easy to update specific details and examples. In general, many of the concepts it covers, such as specific issues students should pay attention to as they edit and revise (such as wordiness, transitions, etc.), will likely remain consistent.\n\nHowever, I would not characterize the text as particularly relevant given the current conversations in the field of composition and composition pedagogy. In recent years, there has been a much stronger focus on purpose, audience, and genre in relation to writing, and although these concepts are addressed, they are not really emphasized or approached with the degree of complexity I would expect out of a college-level writing course. Writing for Success seems to encourage an expanded version of the five paragraph essay rather than providing students with the tools to recognize multiple approaches to writing. It approaches writing with a step-by-step approach, rather than as a complex task that involves continual critical thinking and problem solving.\n\nAlthough the text encourages students to apply these ideas to other writing tasks (something I really appreciated about the text), it often implies that the writing they will do in their writing class may not have a clear context or purpose. It even states that students’ “college composition courses will focus on writing for its own sake.”\n","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing in the text is very clear and straightforward. It would be helpful for the authors to more clearly define the audience for the book. It strikes me as a text that would be too basic for many first-year college writing courses.\n\nI also found some of the organizational decisions confusing (I address this below under organization/flow).\n","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"\nThe chapters follow a fairly consistent structure in terms of content. They all start by stating objectives, explain the main concepts, review the concepts, and provide exercises. The text also fairly consistently encourages active learning by posing questions for students/readers to consider as they delve into a topic.\n\nTo my eyes, there are some inconsistencies in terms of the framework and the message of the text. For example, it opens by framing writing as a challenge, and I was prepared for it to address several of the complexities of college writing. Instead, it goes on to take a fairly formulaic approach to writing, and even implies at times that the five-paragraph essay is a common form for college writing.\n","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is broken into clear sections. I’m not sure how well the text would work if assigned from start to finish, but I can see how instructors might select specific chapters for a specific purpose. I usually have a select group of students that might struggle with a certain issue and I would, for example, direct a student that is struggling with commas to that specific section.\n\nI also appreciate the way the is designed to work with other classes that a student might be taking. The exercises often direct students to apply the ideas they’re learning to a piece of writing that they are already working on for another class or to a task they have been assigned in their job.\n","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The structure of the text was, at times, a little confusing. For example, the fact that tone, audience, and purpose are first discussed under a chapter on paragraphs was a little disorienting. Though these elements clearly relate to paragraphs and paragraph structure, they are really a central element of the larger structure and purpose of an essay or paper. Beyond that, in this section the author clearly explains different types of paragraphs, and provides a clear and detailed description of concepts such as analysis and evaluation.\n\nThere were a few other choices that did not make sense to me. For example, why are signal phrases and verbs discussed in the section on formatting as opposed to the section on integrating material into texts? That doesn’t really make sense.\n\nMy main concern is with the larger structure of the book. It starts by breaking down sentences structure and explaining the parts of the sentence. It seems like these chapters would make more sense in connection to editing since these are issues students should explore as they are editing their work. Most research shows that students more successfully learn grammar and sentence structure when it’s addressed in a specific context (such as their own work). The structure of the book implies that students can “learn” elements of a sentence and then easily apply that to their work.\n","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I read the text in iBook, and the formatting did not always functioned properly. Some of the tables/columns were hard to read, and there were instances where the text referred to underlined sections of the examples, but there was no underline in my version.\n\nI did look at the PDF version, and this did not seem to be an issue.\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is generally free of errors. I looked at some of the previous reviews, and it seems as though some of the specific errors people noted have already been edited out of the text. I did find one clear typo on page 408 where the word “Thesis” in a title is written “ThesIs.”\n","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The book did not make any statements that were insensitive or inoffensive. At the same time, it also did not address issues of language that relate to culture or gender. So it essentially avoids the topic, which is insensitive in its own way. For instance, it does not deal with issues of language and gender, and in the chapter on pronouns it does not examine the increasingly common use of the singular “they.”\n\nI appreciated the section for English language learners, but was a little confused about it’s overall purpose. It did not in any ways address some of the rhetorical issues that multilingual and international students often struggle with, and instead seemed to want to take the place of an English language course. In other words, it seemed as though it was well meant, but not sufficient or clear.\n","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I appreciate that the text encourages students to be not only active readers and writers, but also active students. It emphasizes that they should seek help if they need it, and demonstrates ways to engage with reading.\n\nThe lists of words, such as transitional words, were very helpful. My experience is that students benefit greatly from these types of examples. The section on presentation skills was also useful and provided some good tips concerning tone, voice, and connecting with your audience.\n\nI also appreciate the use of examples in the text, and these were generally very helpful. The sample essays at the end were helpful, and I really appreciated all the links to model readings available on the web. Despite the examples, while reading the text, it often feels like there’s a little too much telling students how to write rather than showing. \n\nMy main concern is that it wouldn’t work well for a more theme or genre-based writing course, one that worked to place student writing in a specific context. At our university, writing instruction is integrated into yearlong, theme-based courses for first-year students. When I taught composition at a university with a more traditional first-year writing sequence, the courses were theme-based, and students were encouraged to think of their writing as contextualized and purposeful. Writing for Success often seems to assume that writing courses function more as isolated courses where students focus on the structures and processes of putting together expository writing.\n\nAs I note above, I think it would be helpful to better define the specific audience for this textbook. It’s certainly not appropriate for the college writing classes I’ve taught or worked with, and it could be that it has a different purpose. A college writing course should introduce students to more complex ways to approach their writing, and get them excited about the possibilities for communicating their ideas. I’m not sure that this text would achieve that goal.\n","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":425,"first_name":"William","last_name":"Wells","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers all the topics I would normally cover in a first year composition course and more. I would like to see an effective, preferably interactive, Table of Contents and a glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is extremely accurate and well-articulated.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book will likely be useful until we communicate exclusively with emoticons. Necessary updates should be fairly easy to integrate.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clear and well-written for its audience.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is generally consistent in tone and framework and uniformly consistent in terminology.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text appears as of it would be easily adaptable as modules.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Some of the topics seem slightly out of place, but it has a clear structure.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text appears to have several broken links, particularly in the beginning, in the .pdf version.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I had some questions about word usage--particularly the heading of \"Dos\" and \"Don'ts\" which, to my eye, looks funny. I would probably go with \"Do's and Dont's.\"","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text does not seem culturally insensitive and makes an overt attempt to accommodate those students with differences in learning styles.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I will be giving it a try in my next class.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":449,"first_name":"Paul","last_name":"Carney","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Minnesota State Community and Technical College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers all the essentials of college composition, from the writing process and mechanics to rhetorical modes and the research paper. The material devoted to grammar, punctuation and usage is well organized and fairly thorough. While very brief, the sub-divided units on punctuation could be more developed. That said, too much textual explanation and not enough modeling can be a real turn off for students struggling with these mechanical issues. One cannot defer to the text for teaching. The rhetorical modes are equitably covered, though persuasion might welcome more attention and development. For a basic college composition text, this text certainly suffices.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information is accurate and consistent with language arts standards for bias and equity. However, the example essays in the back could be more reflective of cultural and class diversity.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The writer does a fine job of using examples (exercises, models, examples, etc.) relevant to students in the near future. With supplemental readings and other OERs, this text will withstand expiration of content for at least three years.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book's clarity is, perhaps, its greatest strength. The writer is keenly aware of his/her audience, college students who approach writing with an array of aptitudes and attitudes. Chapter 1, for instance, \"Introduction to Writing,\" begins a foundational conversation with the reader, a conversation suitable to and supportive of most college students. The sentence complexity is appropriate for the audience. Also, student readers will appreciate the inclusion of \"Tips\" for building clarity.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in terms of utilizing and referencing terminology and other sections of the book.. The writer consistently uses and revisits key concepts and terminology (grammar, sentence structure, paragraph development, unity, etc.), reminding the reader that writing is a recursive process involving strategic \"layering\" of ideas and skills.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each chapter in Writing for Success can \"stand alone\" if necessary. Oftentimes, in the interest of responding to differentiated learning styles, instructors must isolate and prescribe content for students' individual writing challenges. This text lends itself to easy access to subheadings for particular reference and reinforcement. \n\nI do appreciate the inclusion of exercises at the end of chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The text's organizational format may be its greatest and only notable weakness. The book begins with a thorough, thoughtful introduction to the writing process by citing fears and misconceptions commonly held by college students. This section of the book is critical to establishing a casual but accurate understanding of the writing process. Then, rather abruptly, succeeding chapters  shift to local writing issues relating to writing basics - fragments, punctuation, sentence fluency. Typically, and I would argue more logically and appropriately, these localized writing matters should appear in the back of the text for easy access and reference. Logically, the chapter(s) following the discussion of the writing process should launch the student into the writing process itself.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had initially downloaded the pdf version of the text, thinking that was the one and only interface for accessing, reading and utilizing the text. However, in a later attempt I was able to access a digital version that is quite easy to navigate. I like the ever-present position of the table of contents for easy point-and-click navigation. The chapters line up sequentially and the display is reader-friendly.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The style and mechanics reflect mastery of grammar and usage.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Again, I would point to the example essays as evidence of shallow (not necessarily insensitive) attention to cultural and class diversity. Were I to use this text, I would supplement the example essays with models reflective of wider cultural experiences (class, gender, race, LGBT).","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Writing for Success is what it says it is, a book that  provides essential instruction in how to approach and embark on the writing process. It provides a basic review of grammar and usage that probably would require additional instruction and opportunities for practice. A college writing instructor who usually defaults to his or her favorite and reliable \"bag of tricks\" would find this open text very useful for foundational instruction. \n\nThanks for this opportunity to review an open text in the Creative Commons. \n\nPaul Carney","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":452,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"von Ammon","position":"Full-time faculty","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is primarily focused on grammar review and would be an appropriate text for a development writing course. Although there are several chapters dedicated to mechanics, there are limited essay assignment options, so an instructor would need to craft engaging essay assignments to supplement the lessons.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book appears accurate and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content seems fairly up-to-date though some of the suggested topics were somewhat overused (abortion, legal drinking age). Inclusion of different learning styles (visual, verbal, auditory, kinesthetic) is relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written clearly and has helpful headings/subheadings to organize material. Incorporating more images/illustrations could have enhanced the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in tone and structure.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text could be assigned into smaller reading sections. I appreciated the \"key takeaways\" at the close of each chapter.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Though I appreciated the comprehensive coverage of grammar/sentence structure/mechanics, I would have liked to have seen the text incorporate writing assignments earlier in the text.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is clearly presented with headings/subheadings, but including more images may make the text more engaging for students.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text appears to have no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"I did not find the text insensitive or offensive though some of the topics and references seemed somewhat outdated (MTV).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":458,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Funke","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Inver Hills Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is almost too comprehensive—trying to cover writing, reading, and study skills strategies.  Within writing, it covers grammar, mechanics, paragraph writing, essay writing, ELL troublespots, and even documentation.   Although an instructor could easily focus on specific chapters based on the level of the class and needs of the students, the effort to be comprehensive led some areas to be overly simplistic and basic.  For example, in the section on writing introductions, there is a list of strategies for starting the essay (the hook or attention grabber) but not much direct instruction or modeling.  In other words, quality was sometimes sacrificed for quantity.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"From my experience, the content of the book was accurate in most areas, but some advice was simplistic.  For example, telling English language learners to avoid slang and idioms is wrong.  What often makes ELLs’ writing awkward is the lack of idioms.  The advice to avoid slang might be better for a chapter for native English speakers.  In the same ELL section, the author stated that simple present is used  “when actions take place now”  but that is not the case.  Present progressive verbs are used for the current moment (“Right now, I am writing a review.”)  These inaccuracies happened on occasion, but in general, the advice and information given by the writer was accurate.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The text can be easily updated because of the modular organization.  The topics used for examples or exercises would benefit from regular updating.  Some topics are engaging for students, but others would not be for most students (such as ‘the hardiness of the kangaroo rat’).","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written in using clear, accessible language that is appropriate to first year college students.  New terms are explained clearly and put in bold letters.  It might be helpful to put key terms and definitions in margins, as many textbooks do, or at least consider an index and glossary at the end of the book.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I didn’t notice any inconsistencies in framework or terminology.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is structured in such a way that instructors and students can pick and choose among relevant chapters.  There are references to prior chapters, but the text doesn't assume that students have read the text from front to back.  Students can easily refer back to prior chapters when more background is needed or if additional follow-up instruction is needed.  One recommendation would be to include the chapter and section number on each page in a footer or header.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The information flows logically for the most part.  The book begins with a broad overview of writing and student success strategies.  Then it moves from sentences, to paragraphs, to essays, to research papers.  One section that seemed out of place was to include 'purpose, audience, and tone' in the chapter on paragraph writing.  It would seem to be a topic that could use its own chapter.  I also felt that chapter 7 on sentence variety was misplaced after paragraph writing.  Still, I appreciated that the author circled back to some topics briefly even if they were covered in more detail in another chapter.  For example, the author discusses wordiness and word choice in the chapter on revision even though those topics were discussed in an earlier chapter.  Imbedding some sentence-level concerns into the chapters on paragraph or essay writing helps students to see the relevance of the sentence-level instruction.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Occasionally an informal font is used to show student examples of writing. This playful font is difficult to read (see p. 233).  It would be better to use a standard font like Times New Roman to make the text easier to read.  Also, the book is very text-heavy.  There are few to no engaging photographs or images for readers. Even though it is clearly organized with headings, subheadings, bold words, and other organizational devices which are very helpful, it is not visually engaging.  There is a nice use of internal links.\n  \nIn one section, chapter 6.2 p. 247-248), the directions prior to three model paragraphs said “The topic sentence is underlined for you” but I didn’t see any underlining.  I don’t know if that is an error in the text or a problem with my own computer.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no grammatical errors when reviewing the text.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive.  However, I wouldn’t say that the writing samples are particularly engaging or daring in terms of challenging the status quo.  Most of the topics are standard examples: “How to grow tomatoes from a Seedling,” “Effects of Video Game Addiction” and “Comparing and Contrasting London and Washington D.C.”  I would like to see more creative and engaging course readings in the text, readings that address the interests and backgrounds of culturally- and linguistically-diverse students.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The practice exercises are often very engaging and creative.  For example, p. 287 the author explains an exercise in which students rewrite children stories (written using simple prose) with more complex syntactical structures to practice sentence complexity and variety.  Most all exercises are practical and student-friendly.  The text doesn’t get bogged down with excessive use of exercises; instead, students’ own writing is often the basis of the exercises, making them relevant to developing their own writing skills.  \n\nThough I appreciate the author’s efforts at comprehensiveness and detail, I found the text quite dry.  With more visuals, updated course readings, and perhaps an updated format that isn’t so text-heavy, the text would be more engaging for students.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":498,"first_name":"Olga","last_name":"Filatova","position":"Visiting Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Miami University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was surprised by how much useful content the book has. It covers everything I would need to teach in a first year college composition writing class. The text gives overview of reading and writing strategies, and covers everything from grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, sentence structure, elements of composition and writing process, to rhetorical modes and elements of research. It has so much material, that it can be adjusted to a wide range of students' needs and writing abilities. Parts of the book can be used as a reference. The book is very much in line with my course goals, and is particularly effective in helping students with writing in a variety of genres, introducing a clear thesis statement and sustaining it throughout the paper with support and evidence. It also has good tips for reading, writing and editing.  However, I didn't find the section for language learners helpful. I teach composition to international students, and would definitely skip the chapter. The concepts in the chapter are not well-explained and application exercises are  insufficient. This chapter can be used as a reference for instructors who don't usually work with LLs.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate. I didn't find the readings particularly engaging, but they are good for structure analysis. The links to additional essays provide opportunities to choose more engaging reading material.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Writing foundation principles are solid. MLA and APA citation and formatting would need most often updates. The link to Purdue OWL solves this problem.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a very clear manner. However, some of the explanation might be too long and lack sufficient examples.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent. I would rearrange the chapters and start with the writing process. Grammar, vocabulary and punctuation can be in a reference section of the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into chapters and sections. Each of the chapters follows the same structure. The chapters have clear learning objectives, subtitles and exercises for practical application. The main points are summarized at the end. Students would have no trouble navigating the content.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical way. As I mentioned above, I would rearrange the chapters in the book. The way the chapters are arranged now puts the emphasis on developmental writing vs rhetorical practices.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The books interface is very good.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is excellently written. I didn't see any grammar errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally relevant. It focuses on American culture. It lacks elements of global cultural awareness, but it is good enough for the purposes.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Thank you for the book. It is very good. I will use it with my students next semester!","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":624,"first_name":"Anna","last_name":"Erwert","position":"Adjunct faculty","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is extremely comprehensive. If a college works on a 10-week quarter, it's unlikely a student would use the whole book. However, I personally like this completeness because it allows flexibility. Whole class, we could use the chapter on the writing process, and then after essay 1, I could assess writers and assign them portions of the sentence level and grammar sections as needed. Also the most common writing errors, like comma splices and frags, are covered and include exercises.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"With a decade plus teaching college Writing and Reading, I feel the book is accurate in the sense that it covers what students actually need. I did not see bias. It is very concise and matter-of-fact.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"It's relevant eternally, but one caveat: most colleges are moving toward supporting Reading and Writing in one class. Integration of reading skills would be a way to keep this book fresh.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Very little jargon. Everything is well defined, though I do think more examples and samples would be nice. However: this is an easy section for the individual instructor to augment.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is my favorite part of the book. It is way more inclusive than we could use in one quarter, but I could assign grammar or sentence level stuff with flexibility, as needed. I could also do the whole book in reverse (sometimes I like to start big, then move to smaller concerns)or present only the Research section for a Reading class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Very logical but also easy to manipulate logically","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There isn't anything confusing about it. I don't think it is the most engaging, exciting design in the world, but perhaps that is not the goal here. More pictures though, sorry- it is a visual age- would be welcome. Still, instructors could add in pics, slides, video, etc.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I saw no errors","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book is geared more to the college student, not the particular culture or gender. In some ways this is a relief to me, as I am trying to work with topics that bring us together, like say, the cost of college, as opposed to those that fragment us, like racial profiling. In a ten week course in one of the most diverse campuses in the PCC system, this is becoming very important. In this sense, the book fits.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Super useful framework. Teachers will augment with samples, interactive activities, visual aids, etc., but that makes it better for your specific audience anyway.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":752,"first_name":"Sherri","last_name":"Kurczewski","position":"Instructor ","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book has sections that I would cover in my class.  It is a basic writing tool for beginner writers in college.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall the book is accurate.  It goes over the basic differences of high school vs. college writing with additional grammar explanations and exercises.  ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"This book is for a basic writing class for students who are underprepared for college level writing.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book was written very direct to the beginning college writer. The tables help explain the differences in high school vs. college writing.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The consistency of the book was good. There was not a lot of terminology that would be over the students understanding.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is good at putting each section together.  There are small, yet informative grammar sections.  An instructor may skip over some chapters without confusing the student.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization of the book seems fine.  It has the basic ideas of writing and then leads to grammar.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no issues with navigation of this file.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any errors in grammar.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"This is a straightforward book without many examples. I did not see any issues.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I would definitely use this book in my basic writing class.  It is a quick read and I could easily pull out sections to use and compare.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":915,"first_name":"Jennie","last_name":"Harrop","position":"Chair, Department of Professional Studies","institution_name":"George Fox University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing for Success is admirably comprehensive, but maybe a little too much so. While some professors will find the one-source stop helpful in reducing textbook costs, many students will be overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of information. Because the text attempts to cover so much in a single volume, much of the information is offered at a surface level without the depth necessary for the content to become memorable and meaningful. Two key components that are missing in this text because of its surface-level scope are the WHY (why is this information relevant?) and the HOW (how do I apply this?).","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Most information is accurate, although some is not thorough enough. When explaining the dash or parentheses, for example, it might be helpful for students to hear when and why these punctuation marks are most effectively used. If a student masters the use of parentheses as described in section 3.6, should he or she pepper an essay with lots of parenthetical asides? If not, why not?\n\nIn the section on APA formatting, the title page running heads are not correct.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The key information in the text will not become outdated, although the examples and the sample texts will. The book would benefit from consistent updates to ensure that the examples are culturally sensitive and generationally appropriate. The APA and MLA sections will also need consistent updates.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The prose is clear, but the information covered is not always. In section 5.2 titled \"Negative Statements,\" for example, students are told that negative statements are the opposite of positive statements, but the text does not explain why this information is worth considering. In section 5.6 titled \"Modal Auxiliaries,\" the text moves immediately to examples and exercises without an explanation of why this information might be pertinent or useful.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framework presented are consistent throughout. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is consistently broken into individual chunks of information rather than meandering prose, which can be enormously helpful for students. Some sections jump directly into the modular chunks of examples and exercises without bothering with any explanatory sections at all, however. In those cases, students need some kind of explanation of why the information presented is important and relevant.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text's organization is consistent and easy to navigate. The information is presented in divisions familiar to most writing texts: (1) mechanics, (2) writing process, and (3) sample essays.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The Table of Contents is a helpful feature, allowing one to skip through topics easily. I was unable to download this text in a way that would allow me to highlight or make notes.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is correct throughout.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The examples used are culturally sensitive but mostly bland in a way that makes them forgettable and unimpactful. If cultural relevance means that we whitewash, this text is successful; if it means that we step into the controversy, then the examples in this book need to be more forthright and genuine.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I have used this book in a basic writing course, and I found the students informed but uninspired. I will continue to require this text as a reference books for all students in our program, but I will seek a more lively text for future writing courses in order to keep students engaged, enthusiastic, and forward-thinking.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":967,"first_name":"Timothy","last_name":"VanSlyke","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Although there is no index or glossary, I feel that the text is very comprehensive in its coverage of developmental writing. The text clearly walks the student through the writing process and introduces the major rhetorical styles students will face in college. It is clear that the author has worked extensively with the population(s) likely to have need of this course and has planned a comprehensive curriculum to serve them. Having worked extensively with students needing to develop their academic writing skills, I found it very straightforward to adopt the text and align it with my course outcomes. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is definitely error free and unbiased. I haven't found any errors or content that struck me as biased or inaccurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I think this book will be relevant for quite some time as the need for students to communicate effectively in writing is not going to change. The organization of the text lends itself to updating quite well. For example, the sections devoted to grammar and mechanics, the writing process, and rhetorical styles may need little or no updating, while over time, the sections devoted to research writing (e.g. MLA style) might need more revision. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Given that this book is intended for developing writers, I feel clarity is essential. Too  much jargon would scare away students who may already feel overwhelmed. This book strikes an excellent balance between communicating important concepts and terms without being overly technical. Good examples of this can be found in the sections on grammar and mechanics as well as in the rhetorical modes section.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The organization of the book easily lends itself to easy navigation, chapters are divided into logical sections (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3) and each section follows a consistent format. There are recurring sections that are color coded (exercises in blue boxes, \"key takeaways\" in green boxes) and the numbering system is clear and logical. The only downside is that the downloadable PDF version of the book doesn't have a table of contents, but I found that if your pdf reader can show bookmarks, there are bookmarks to each of the sections.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is very modular. Each chapter is divided into sub-sections (chapter 1.1, 1.2, etc) and the sections are logically divided and lend themselves to easy be assigned as separate readings. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The structure of the text is logical and clear, but what I like most is that the chapters are not overly dependent on a linear flow, which allows me to assign chapters out of sequence without worrying that it will be disruptive to students.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I would describe the interface as quite user friendly. A quick skim of the online Table of Contents is all that is needed to understand the organization of the text and its major sections. Accessing each section is quite easy with the links provided. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"One standout in this area is a complete chapter devoted to second language learners, which is quite useful for this population. Otherwise, I have found this to be an excellent resource that introduced students to the academic culture.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall I am very pleased with this text, and excited that I can offer my students a book of this quality completely for free!","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1021,"first_name":"Leann","last_name":"Gertsma","position":"Adjunct English Instructor","institution_name":"Minnesota West Community \u0026 Technical College ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was surprised to find this textbook to be a very comprehensive writing handbook.  It not only covers grammar and sentence structure, but also devotes a lot of time to the topics of college writing, the writing process, writing techniques, and essay types.  All the sections are clearly labeled with useful exercises to guide students through the material.  I appreciated the hyperlinks throughout to navigate to other related sections.  One area that seemed to be lacking was the table of contents in each new chapter.  These pages were not enabled with hyperlinks and failed to have page numbers associated with them. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I felt this text was accurate.   It contains good information for first year writing students.  I did not see any bias or errors throughout.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"While I did find most of the information current and very relevant to writing students, some of the links in the last chapter did not work.  As websites continually change, these would need to be updated on a regular basis.  The research chapters would also need to be updated on a regular basis as these materials change frequently.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the textbook to be clear.  The prose was adequate for first year composition students.  There are many examples in the chapters that are relevant to the readers and help put the concepts into practical application.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This textbook is consistent in language, tone, and structure. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The textbook is arranged in an easy to use fashion.  The chapters have easy to follow headings, and the key concepts are highlighted.  All the chapters are arranged in a similar manner with objectives, lessons, examples, exercises, and key takeaways.  Instructors can easily assign specific sections or chapters, while skipping others without confusion.   I think the APA and MLA chapter should be split into two chapters to avoid confusion.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are arranged in a clear structure throughout the text.  I would have liked to see the chapters arranged in a different format, but this is a minor problem as the instructor can assign the chapters in a different order than they are presented.  \n\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This textbook was easy to navigate.   The only concern I saw with this was the several of hyperlinks in the final chapter did not work anymore.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any errors in the text. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not see any insensitive or offensive language in the text.     ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I liked the example papers in the text.  However, I wish there were more of them.  I also found the chapter on APA and MLA a bit confusing.  Students often struggle with these concepts so I think they should have been presented differently.  The two styles should not be lumped together in one chapter. They should be separated.  ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1072,"first_name":"Elizabeth","last_name":"Sandell","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Minnesota State University, Mankato","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Provides instruction in steps and sections; builds writing, reading, and critical thinking; and combines comprehensive grammar review with paragraph writing and composition. Provides a range of discussion ideas, examples, and exercises. Serves both students and instructors. 600+ pages -- very comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Quite accurate in terms of the information provided. Uses sources that we use in my writing-intensive classes, so the book is addressing real needs in the classroom. Suggestions reinforce the concepts and practices that our librarians share with students and instructors.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Thought-provoking scenarios provides opportunities for collaboration and interaction. The exercises are especially useful for working with groups of students, which is how I organize workshops and discussions in my classes. Tips for effective writing are included in every chapter. It's nice to have positive examples of how to write, rather than dwelling on negative examples of how not to write. Addresses each concept with clear, concise,and effective examples that are reinforced with opportunities to demonstrate learning. This textbook will be useful for students throughout their academic studies.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clear. Clear exercises teach sentence and paragraph writing skills that I already try to emphasize in my classes. I will use many of the exercises, but base them on the content of my course curriculum, instead of generic assignments.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Provides consistent and constant reinforcement through examples and exercises about writing. Involves students in the learning process through reading, problem-solving, practicing, and experiences in the processes of writing.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is stand-alone and easy to read on-line or to print and read off-line. Each chapter has examples that organize the discussion and form a common basis for learning.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall, the organization, structure, and flow is fine. Textbook is more than 600 pages, which makes it more of a reference / resource book. I will pull materials that I need for my specific writing-intensive course.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Presents comfortable, easy-to-read material with simple graphics and helpful charts. The Table of Contents does not allow the reader to jump directly to the chapter or section.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors that I found... If there had been a few mistakes, I would still use the text as a resource.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I am starting to use the idea of the academy as a culture. So, in the writing-intensive course I teach about human relations in a multicultural society, I emphasize how student writing in college must be qualitatively different than writing in secondary schools. I am delighted that this text begins with an introduction to that very idea.\n\nWord choices in the text imply inclusion of a variety of ethnic groups and audience backgrounds (e.g., Malik, Miguel, Elizabeth).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I will use this book in a second-year general education writing-intensive course. This resource is useful and friendly, although it is very long. With its incremental approach, the text addresses a wide range of writing levels and abilities. I think students will appreciate it as a resource that they can use throughout their academic life.\n\nThe text would also be valuable in a first-year intro-to-college course (we call it First Year Experience), because it teaches many useful academic study practices. For first-generation college students, this text introduces many strategies about how to \"do college\" with which their families may not be familiar.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1094,"first_name":"Genevieve","last_name":"Halkett","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is extremely comprehensive, beginning with the concept of college writing, moving on to writing basics such as sentence structure, punctuation, and paragraph structure. it provides a good guide to essays; it includes basic structure, rhetorical modes, research and documentation and ten different  types of model essays.\n\nThe index is complete and easy to follow.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"There are a few typographical errors but the majority of the 607-page resource was accurate.\n\nThere was no real bias though I would like to see more cultural variety in the literary excerpts and situations used in  the exercises.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Most of the resource focuses on writing and grammatical structure; there may be small changes that need to be made as the use of the English language evolves; however, this will be negligible. I anticipate this text requiring very few changes in years to come.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"it is well laid-out and easy to follow. The explanations, examples, and directions are clear and concise. It is also written with both native and English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) speakers in mind; the word choice and structure reflect this.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text's framework and terminology are consistent; I did not see any examples of inconsistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This resource lends itself to a modular approach; it would be easy for an instructor to relevant chapters that reflect student needs, course time constraints, or changes within a curriculum.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The resource's is consistent overall; each chapter begins with learning objectives, explanation, examples, exercises, and key takeaways. It is a good resource for students since they are quickly able to anticipate and follow each chapter.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This resource was quite simply designed; there are no charts or images that would lead to confusion. Enough space is given so that blocks of text are read without difficulty and it is free of distraction.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Since it is a writing textbook, I was gratified to find that the grammatical structure and use was very accurate.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"I would definitely have like to have seen more examples of the races, ethnicities, and backgrounds I encounter in class; most of the examples used were extremely neutral and reflected a very narrow  strata of society. For me, this was the weakest part of the text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is an excellent resource-well structured, user friendly and easily adaptable. My main concern-the lack of cultural relevance- can be balanced by providing supplementary materials reflective of the learners' cultures and backgrounds.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1213,"first_name":"Emily","last_name":"Aucoin","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"River Parishes Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook effectively covers the writing process and addresses mechanical and grammatical concerns. While the chapter devoted to rhetorical modes is not terribly in depth, it does an adequate job of introducing and explaining each type of writing assignment. The research section of the text is effective, but the MLA references are dated. There also is a detailed table of contents but no glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The textbook's content seems accurate, error-free, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"For the most part, the content seems relevant and long-standing. The main area in need of updating is MLA, but linking to an outside website could quickly remedy this problem.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a straight-forward, clear manner that should be readily understood by most freshmen-level students. The embedded exercises and tips also are accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The included terminology is clear and consistent, as well as appropriate for the subject matter. The chapters also follow a logical framework and reinforce material through exercises and relevant examples.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook easily can be divided into smaller, stand-alone reading sections. Instructors should be able to readily assign portions of the text to meet their course learning outcomes and objectives.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall, the textbook is well organized; it effectively addresses key elements of grammar and mechanics, walks students through the writing process, and details various types of writing. While I would like to see Chapter 10 (Rhetorical Modes) divided into separate, better detailed chapters, on the whole, the textbook's organization is logical.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The textbook was easy to follow, particularly because of the detailed table of contents and chapter outlines. Some links also were included throughout to help readers more easily navigate the text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text seems free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text does not seem culturally insensitive or offensive. Some of the linked essays in Chapter 15, for example, provide students with readings that are culturally diverse.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"On the whole, this is an effective, comprehensive resource that could be of use in any freshman-level composition course.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1217,"first_name":"William","last_name":"Broussard","position":"Assistant Professor, English","institution_name":"Southern University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers the writing process, several essay styles, as well as grammar and syntax exercises thoroughly without being intimidating, and is excellently paced. Particularly impressive is the amount of detail given to the sentence, paragraph, punctuation, and the particulars of the writing process.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book accurately describes, in great detail, all elements of the writing process. Combines all elements of a traditional handbook with specific reference to the rhetorics of several essay styles, and does so in an encouraging manner. Aim is clearly to encourage non-English/Writing majors.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content appears up-to-date, and of note is a section on presentations and visual rhetorics which will be useful and likely interesting to contemporary students. Book is light on visual imagery, making it less appealing to contemporary/millennial students, but its structure seems amenable to relatively easy updating, and all links were accurate.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and provides many examples of student writing to explain the application of material discussed in each chapter.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book moves along at a predictable pace and begins with building blocks of writing (sentence and paragraph style, punctuation, process) before moving on to more complex assignments. By Chapter 15, which focuses on a number of essay styles, the student has had individual chapters to prepare each step of building an essay, ensuring mastery before taking on more complex projects.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is simple to imagine this textbook divided into two parts so as to encompass an English 1 and English 2 textbook, and to imagine teaching the introductory elements while interspersing major assignments from Chapter 15 alternatingly.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Well-organized, and as mentioned previously, it is excellently paced with each ensuing chapter building logically upon the previous one.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The book is lacking only in this area. The pdf version features noticeably few visual images and pictures, and very few links for students to interact with supplementary materials to the text. However, the author provides a link for the submission materials which shows an openness to addressing it. However, what is included is accurate and appropriate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No perceived grammatical or spelling errors. Simple and clear writing style.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Text is inoffensive, but lack of visual texts or discussion of more challenging contemporary topics (the book does not include any sample texts by contemporary authors on challenging issues).","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"An excellent choice for introductory writing courses.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1286,"first_name":"R.A.Q.","last_name":"Jenkins","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Southern University and A\u0026M College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"One of this text's advantages is its comprehensiveness. However, I find that too much emphasis was placed on writing basics, which in fact, comprises the bulk of the text. While this portion is extensive, I found the chapter on rhetorical modes lacking. For example, Narration was covered in four pages. I would have preferred more emphasis on basic features of each mode, guided writing practice, and illustrations/visuals (annotated sample essays). The text does not include a glossary or index, which are additional disadvantages. Overall, however, I find this text effective.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content appears accurate and error-free.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The overall content is foundational, so relevance is not an issue. Formatting and style guides, URLs, and sample essays can be readily updated as needed.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Besides its comprehensiveness, a highlight of the text is its clarity. The writing directly addresses the student much more so than other texts I have used. The conversational tone, especially in the early chapters, should engage even the most reluctant writer. Many of the tips and advice provided serve to assist students beyond the composition course into the whole of their academic career and the workplace. This is definitely a student-friendly text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Chapters are consistently organized throughout and feature learning objectives, exercises, collaborative activities, and key takeaways, which should be particularly helpful for students. Several of the exercises require students to revisit and revise a previous exercise, as new skills and knowledge are acquired.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is suitable for modules, which would allow instructors to organize chapters according to the demands of the course and student's needs. Much of this text's early chapters would serve as much needed review and guided practice for students, since more so than other texts I have used, this one provides in-depth coverage of basic writing skills. Chapters 10-15 should meet the needs of most first year writing programs.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is well-organized. However, the sample essays (ch. 15) would have been better placed after the rhetorical modes chapter (ch. 10). The strength of the text's organization are the chapters on writing a research paper and visual presentations.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I downloaded the PDF version and had no significant problems with the interface. The only issue I did have was after clicking a hyperlink then attempting to return to the text, I was redirected to the beginning. This may be an inconvenience for some.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text refrains from cultural insensitivity. Several of the examples, grammar exercises, and sample readings were inclusive of various kinds of diversity. In particular, a text's sample essays plays a crucial role in my overall satisfaction, as I expect to see culturally relevant essays that may resonate with my students. This text included commonly used standbys, such as King's \"Letter from Birmingham Jail and Alexie's Indian Education.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1295,"first_name":"Rachel","last_name":"Wilson","position":"Adult Education Instructor","institution_name":"Bossier Parish Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers all its bases, from success and study skills for new college students to draft, revising, writing, and presenting a research paper. Chapters 1 through 5 cover the basics of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice, and these chapters cover only that which is most important to writing without getting into unnecessary grammar review. The text provides relevant exercises to go along with each chapter and its individual sections. In chapter 6, the  author discusses paragraphing, while in chapter 7, he provides the student tips on improving writing at a sentence level. Chapter 8 covers the writing process, providing ample information on pre-writing strategies and revision and editing techniques. The text also effectively walks the student through the process of writing an essay in chapter 9 and discusses the rhetorical modes in depth in chapter 10. The last chapters (11-15) are dedicated to researching, writing research papers, presenting those papers,0 documenting sources, and providing sample essays in the different rhetorical modes. While the author does a good job covering the basics of documenting sources, I would still have to send my students to their writing handbook or the OWL at Purdue for comprehensive coverage of the source citation formats.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"This text is, as far as I can see, both accurate and error-free, though, as stated above, there are a few sections (mostly with documentation) where outside sources would have to be consulted for in depth discussions of the topics.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The only area I feel could use a little updating would be the documentation chapter, though for just an overview, it does its job adequately. The text is set up in a way that seems to allow for easy updates as necessary, and the information contained within is timeless enough to withstand possible changes in writing instruction.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written in easily understandable prose and defines its particular terms in an accessible way for students.","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"The text maintains consistency and follows a well-organized framework.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This text is organized in such a way that makes it easy to assign small readings to students without having to jump back and forth between chapters or different parts of the book in general.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text builds on itself, from having the necessary study skills to understanding basic grammar and sentence structure to navigating the writing process. It then transitions from the writing process to the essay, the types of essays, and research papers. It ends with documentation and presentation of research. I would suggest, though, including chapter 15 (readings on the rhetorical modes) in the chapter on rhetorical modes (chapter 10)  or distinguishing it as an appendix rather than a chapter of its own at the end.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The features of the textbook within the text itself are easily navigated, especially with hyperlinks to jump to specific parts of the book. However, while the book does have a short section index at the beginning of each chapter, a comprehensive table of contents at the beginning, or even an index at the end, of the book would go a long way in making this work more easily accessible to the everyday user. As it currently stands, a user must scroll through the entire document to find what the book covers. While an instructor can direct his or her students to specific sections with the appropriate PDF page number, the student user would not be able to discover specific information in the text efficiently right off hand.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"With having read through the text, and to the best of my grammar knowledge, I see no major errors or typos.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The text is appropriately inclusive and culturally sensitive.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"As an Adult Education Instructor without access to textbooks in the classroom for my students, it is especially helpful to have access to a college level textbook that discusses the basics of grammar and writing my students will need very soon. Instead of having to make copies that will get thrown away or lost, I can give my students the link to this text and assign them specific sections to read before each lesson. As I will soon be teaching a college-level English 101 as well, I am excited to have this text as a supplement to the department-required text.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1509,"first_name":"Davida","last_name":"Jordan","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Extremely comprehensive, clocking in at over 600 pages, this book is an excellent grammar reference for writing students.  It includes practical exercises that can be used to strengthen work writing or academic writing.  It would appeal to a wide variety of students, from beginning to advanced and is arranged in order of increasing difficulty.  Besides giving practical information about grammar and writing, the text includes helpful suggestions on organization, time management, and study skills.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"There are some small typos such as missing letters or words.  Overall, the book is mainly error-free, but for a good grammar and writing textbook, it really should be 100% accurate.  The tone is unbiased and in fact is encouraging and fair.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book addresses the complexities of writing in the twenty-first century and guides students through carefully choosing their online resources and verifying their validity.\n\nI appreciated the additional examples of different rhetorical styles at the very end of the book; however, many of the links were broken.   This is an easy-to-remedy problem, though.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text uses encouraging languages and easy-to-understand metaphors to illustrate abstract concepts.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework from chapter to chapter.  There is a reliable pattern that each chapter follows.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Most of the time, it's easy to pick out the different sections of the book because they are color-coded or similarly marked.  For example, nearly all of the Key Takeaways are in a green box.  All of the Tips for Writing at Work are in a grey box.  All of the Learning Objectives are in a black box.\n\nIt's possible to click on writing examples and view them in a larger version in a new window.\n\nAlthough the book builds in terms of levels of difficulty, it would be very easy to use a chapter out of order to suit the instructor's needs.  Each chapter can stand alone even though some pieces of writing are carried through as examples from chapter to chapter.  This gives the book cohesiveness but doesn't impede its modularity.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is logical and clear.  Grammatical concepts are explained thoroughly, and the writing process is taken apart step-by-step for the students.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are several parts where an underlined sentence is referred to, but it's not actually underlined in the text.  It's possible this is only a problem in the PDF version.  Overall, the formatting is clear and easy to follow.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Seeing as it's a grammar and writing textbook, the grammatical errors are minimal.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text includes great excerpts from diverse authors such as Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie, Sandra Cisneros, Gary Shteyngart, and MLK.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"In the opening chapters, some grammatical concepts were addressed superficially but then were returned to in more detail in later chapters, which was reassuring.  Chapter 5 focuses on English language learners, the students I teach.  However, the entire book could be useful to both native and non-native English speakers.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1920,"first_name":"Catherine","last_name":"Batsche","position":"Associate Dean","institution_name":"University of South Florida","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text provides a comprehensive overview of writing.  The text covers basic writing skills, organizational skills, and the writing process.  There are even chapters on writing research papers and various types of essays. It could be used as a text for a writing course or as a reference book for students who need to work on selected problem areas to improve their writing.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text provided accurate information, good examples, and several activities to reinforce the major points in each chapter. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book contains basic information about writing that should continue to be relevant over time.  ","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The writing style of the book is extremely clear and easy to follow.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework for this book is applied consistently across chapters and sections.  Each chapter begins with clearly stated learning objectives, exercises, learning tips, and key takeaways. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book can easily be used as stand-alone chapters, entire sections, or the book as a whole.  I plan to use several chapters in workshops to train teaching assistants who will grade assignments in writing-intensive courses.  The teaching assistants will then use the entire book as a reference book when providing feedback to students.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is well organized and flows in a clear, logical fashion.  Some chapters may be less useful for some classes depending on the purpose of the class.  For example, the first few chapters on study skills seems out of place in relation to the remainder of the text.  Likewise, the chapters on APA and MLA style are too condensed to provide more than an overview and will need to be supplemented with other material.  However, these chapters do not detract from the overall quality of the book.  ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The presentation of the book does not have as much visual appeal as some other online books.  It is text-heavy but well organized. I had no problem navigating the book. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I have not found any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I have not found any examples that might be offensive.  However, I have not yet used the book in its entirety so I will learn more about this aspect as I begin to use it with students. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Many undergraduate students need to improve their writing skills but don't know how to get the help they need.  This book provides a valuable resource for students who need to learn more about the writing process as well as those who need to improve in specific areas such as grammar and punctuation.   I plan to use the text to train teaching assistants how to provide feedback to students who are taking courses that have major writing assignments.  This is an excellent book that can be used as a stand-alone text or as a supplemental reference in any course that has major writing assignments.    ","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2052,"first_name":"Dhipinder ","last_name":"Walia","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Lehman College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers all structural and technical concepts in Standard American English using succinct tutorials and relevant examples. Additionally, there are several sections that may guide student writers towards major writing assignments like the research paper, the narrative essay, and the expository essay. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and error-free. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The instructional material is up to date and will not easily become out of date. The only portion that I found less than timely is the APA/MLA portion as well as the visual chapter. The aesthetics of charting and presentations has already changed since this publication.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"There is no jargon here. Everything is intended for a beginner writer. It is also easy for instructors to layer on difficult concepts during lecture if students are up for it. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The tone is consistent as is the emphasis on the writer and their process.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"I didn't find the organization to be effective. Traditionally, in a composition course, I am not going to assign a student to read chapters on mechanics. Rather, I would assign a type of writing alongside a reading alongside a particular concept. It might be interesting to readjust the organization to show the way grammar, structure, and content work together rather than apart. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"As mentioned above, I don't think the flow works as an instructional tool for a first year writing course. I think it works better as a supplementary resource for a student writer. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This text contained no grammatical errors","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not insensitive though the readings are political in nature.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a useful text for composition instructors to have, particularly when teaching an online course. I could easily copy and paste tutorials into my feedback for students. Should the structure of this text change, I may consider using it as a text.","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2641,"first_name":"James","last_name":"Gapinski","position":"Instructional Specialist","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"WRITING FOR SUCCESS has extensive depth and breadth. It is over 600 pages in the PDF format, but it doesn’t contain much redundant or extraneous information. The book starts with some discussion of how college writing is different from other forms of writing—setting up that distinction provides realistic expectations and contextualization for beginning college-level writers. The book moves into a discussion of reading strategies, emphasizing the importance of comprehending and exploring college readings before diving into writing assignments. I like how these pre-writing discussions frame the entire book, moving naturally toward more technical chapters on grammar and usage, revision, research, and documentation styles. This book is a beast, containing just about anything a writing teacher might need for introductory composition students.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is accurate and thorough. I do not notice errors in fact.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"WRITING FOR SUCCESS contains useful information that is likely relevant on many college campuses. It is current, but it is not necessarily forward-thinking in its scope. Within the state of Oregon—and more broadly on the national stage—college-level writing is moving toward multimodal composition. This book covers the classic writing assignments found in a typical college classroom, but it does not dive as explicitly into emerging forms of writing. In coming years, outcomes and assessments will likely focus on multiple expressive modes within the composition process. Shifts toward new modes of writing will render the book obsolete if it is not amended or updated. Moreover, there are some missed opportunities in this book for embedding more URLs that prompt additional research and intertextual learning. There are some chapters that incorporate links to online writings by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., links to online library resources, and so on, but these are few and far between in WRITING FOR SUCCESS. A broader focus on new media could greatly improve this book’s long-term relevance.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is clear and accessible. Whenever new terminology is introduced, definitions are readily provided and explained. It scaffolds information meaningfully and thoughtfully.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book features consistent formatting and organization. After students have read one or two chapters, they will expect some charts and tables that help define concepts, quick tips in each chapter, and regular exercises to practice what they’ve learned. These learning tools are provided in predictable ways, so students are not caught off-guard by new content.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"WRITING FOR SUCCESS breaks information into recognizable modules. Chapters are clearly organized around core themes, and they could be easily assigned piecemeal or out-of-sequence. Additionally, within each chapter, information is presented in bite-sized pieces, with clear headings for navigation and reference. Overall, navigation is clear, and this textbook’s format allows instructors to pick and choose which topics they want students to read. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Topics follow a logical order. The book starts with an introduction to college writing, moves into writing basics, and ends with discussion of formal research writing. The section on English Language Learners felt out of sequence, as if it were placed into the book at random. The ELL chapter is extremely valuable and should remain in the book, but on a macro level, it does not flow with the surrounding chapters. Still, that is only one hiccup in an otherwise well-organized book.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is clean, and this book is offered in multiple formats for ease of access. I personally read the PDF format, and it was easy to navigate. The informational boxes with tips and exercises were eye-catching, and the text itself is formatted well.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any glaring grammatical problems.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"WRITING FOR SUCCESS draws from examples and recommends additional readings across several cultural contexts, so it earns some kudos for that. Moreover, the book is aware of its own textual inferences; when the book presents students with hypothetical examples, the fictitious students are not exclusively given Indo-European names. However, some problems arise elsewhere in the text. For example, there is a sample exercise that talks about “gay marriage” being legal in six states. Not only is “marriage equality” a more inclusive term, but the exercise itself is outdated and does not reflect the fact that marriage equality is now recognized on the federal level. In another example, the narrative essay section directs students to several pieces written by Sherman Alexie. While its important to include native authors in textbooks, Sherman Alexie has been publicly accused of sexual misconduct. In the #MeToo era, perhaps Natalie Diaz or Louise Erdrich are more appropriate native writers to highlight. While these are just two isolated examples, I found several other microaggressions and culturally insensitive missteps in this book. It feels out-of-touch in key moments. These problems could be addressed through some surgical revisions, but this aspect of the text is problematic in its current form.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a comprehensive book with many valuable chapters. It has some shortcomings, and I would be hesitant to adopt the book in its entirety. However, its incredible breadth and thoughtful modularity allows instructors to pick and choose which chapters best fit their learning goals.","created_at":"2019-03-08T17:57:33.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-03-08T17:57:33.000-06:00"},{"id":2667,"first_name":"Bradley","last_name":"Hartsell","position":"Adjunct English Instructor","institution_name":"Emory \u0026 Henry College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"With 600+ pages, this textbook really builds college writing from the ground up, starting with 'sentence writing' and 'subject-verb agreement' all the way up to writing a research paper and examples of 10 different kinds of essay. In between, the textbook is thorough in its explanations and rife with exercises concerning grammar-related instruction and essay construction. I'm not left feeling an aspect I teach in my courses is ignored or goes underserved.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The textbook's explanation of grammar and sentence construction certainly seem correct, as does their advanced lessons such as developing and revising a thesis statement. However, I did errors on pg. 44 and pg. 49 (\"Computers are tool\" has a missing word; \"The entire family overslept Because because we lost power\" and \"He has been seeing a physical therapist Since since his accident\" seem indicate that those are correct sentences as written, failing to account for the repeated and incorrectly capitalized word). Regarding biases, on pg. 359, in strengthening a working thesis about teenage girls becoming too sexualized, the authors take some editorial liberties asserting that \"It is true that some young women in today's society are more sexualized...\"; it seems distracting for them to comment on this topic at all, at least without any providing any couched language, like \"While the writer of this thesis may feel this way, he or she should also consider X, Y, and Z...\"; for example, the authors suggest this 'student' should ask themselves the following questions, including \"What constitutes 'too sexualized?'\" which is an instructive question for the 'student' to ask themselves but the authors should also be operating within those same parameters, or better yet, abstaining from any comment on female sexuality at all. Also, their example sentences/questions seem conspicuously politically-charged (e.g. \"The welfare system is a joke\" pg. 358; \"Despite his promises during his campaign, President Kennedy took few executive measures to support civil rights legislation.\" pg. 357; \"Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration.\" pg. 355). And lastly, there are unnecessary editorial uses (i.e. not instruction sentences, examples, etc.) of gendered pronouns ('He' being a bad storyteller, pg. 353).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"English grammar and college writing have the convenience of not really going out of date; APA/MLA formatting can easily be updated accordingly.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook does a good job of putting grammatical jargon, like independent clauses, in plain terms so that anyone can understand it. Even as an English instructor, I don't always readily recall the correct terms and exact definitions, even if I know how to use them in practice, so Writing for Success does a nice job of stripping away heightened language and providing plenty of right/wrong examples, therefore making something otherwise pedantic fairly accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Throughout the comprehensive span of the textbook, I see no departure in the terminology or the fairly conversational style of communicating information. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This textbook is formatted and coherently layered in a way that is easy to visualize and process, with properly sectioned-off section introductions, lesson 'tips,' examples, and exercises. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The textbook flows in a logical, linear fashion, beginning with simple 'subject-verb agreement' and each section linearly building from the one that came before it, until now-grammatically correct sentence structure can be built into more complex sentences, and thus drafting a college essay (and so on).","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is fluid; it's convenient that it goes to desired page upon click in the table of contents; places to enter answers prompt a text bar to allow you to write into.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"See above--there are no major errors that I can tell, but I did see careless mistakes on pg. 44 and pg. 49.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"I find this textbook greatly lacking here. Exercise 1 on pg. 355 asks students to make a student for, in part, 'abortion' and 'racism.' Why? The former is especially charged. Elsewhere, the authors can be clumsy when addressing femininity, race, and politics. Again, why include charged examples? Yes, most language is mostly inoffensive (e.g. \"My mother freezed the remaining tomatoes from her garden so that she could use them during the winter), but be it editorial or 'student' examples, they needlessly make allusions to divisive topics. Allow me to restate from above: on pg. 359, in strengthening a working thesis about teenage girls becoming too sexualized, the authors take some editorial liberties asserting that \"It is true that some young women in today's society are more sexualized...\"; it seems distracting for them to comment on this topic at all, at least without any providing any couched language, like \"While the writer of this thesis may feel this way, he or she should also consider X, Y, and Z...\"; for example, the authors suggest this 'student' should ask themselves the following questions, including \"What constitutes 'too sexualized?'\" which is an instructive question for the 'student' to ask themselves but the authors should also be operating within those same parameters, or better yet, abstaining from any comment on female sexuality at all. Also, their example sentences/questions seem conspicuously politically-charged (e.g. \"The welfare system is a joke\" pg. 358; \"Despite his promises during his campaign, President Kennedy took few executive measures to support civil rights legislation.\" pg. 357; \"Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration.\" pg. 355). And lastly, there are unnecessary editorial uses (i.e. not instruction sentences, examples, etc.) of gendered pronouns ('He' being a bad storyteller, pg. 353). Regardless of the authors' politics, left or right, it seems relatively easy to use language and examples without allusions to politics--socially, bodily, or otherwise.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The idea and general execution of this textbook is everything I want in an English textbook--free for my students to use and comprehensive enough to cover any reasonable topic to expect in my composition classes. For me, the variety in my class calls for some students needing very basic attention paid to grammar (check), while others ace grammar and need thesis strengthening or outlining of research topics (check). There are a couple of grammar mistakes I've noted (which suggests there could be more that I've missed), and I strongly believe some (many?) editorial decisions need to be shelved, namely that of the authors' inclusion of politically-adjacent (or even politically-charged) language and examples. Students in a first-year writing course shouldn't be asked to develop a thesis statement about abortion, or read the authors imply something of a referendum on an assassinated president.","created_at":"2019-03-13T16:04:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-13T16:04:58.000-05:00"},{"id":2920,"first_name":"Candace","last_name":"Hoes","position":"Adjunct Lecturer","institution_name":"LAGCC","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook begins at the basics of writing, such as grammar, word choice, and constructing sentences, and then builds to more complex concepts such as creating a thesis in a research paper.  There are adequate stepping stones along the way, with examples of strong and weak theses that gradually build upon each other.  I could see using this textbook for both an intro composition course and several building levels.  There are examples of several types of essays both within the text itself and hyperlinked to outside websites.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The instructional matter of this textbook seems consistent with basic composition courses.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I wish that instead of links, the textbook provided a few examples of parenthetical citations of commonly used types of sources.  I can see the advantage to providing links is that it more or less places the burden on those websites to stay up to date with the MLA's stipulations instead of updating the textbook itself.  However, in my experience, students don't always follow links and would probably ask the professor directly instead.  The websites that are linked, such as Purdue Owl, are very robust, but beginning composition students have difficulty navigating those websites to find their answers.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook avoids jargon when explaining concepts and breaks down concepts that can easily confuse a beginning composition student, such as the main idea versus a controlling idea.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This textbook uses the same terminology throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook is highly modular.  For example, in my composition course, I would assign brief, five-minute presentations to the students on grammar and punctuation as a review.  The sections on word choice and additional help for English language learners would be good as individual readings or to refer students to on a case by case basis if I noticed errors in their essays.  The sections that discuss essay types are very in-depth, so I would use them as the backbone for a lesson delivered during the class and assign them as reading as reinforcement.  They could be used to open up a unit that culminates in that type of essay.  I would focus on one skill in particular in each unit, such as a strong thesis, body paragraphs, introductions and conclusions, etc.  \r\n\r\nHowever, the example I gave drew from several different areas of the textbook.  It's designed in such a way that it's easy to pick and choose what you need.  You wouldn't have to adhere to their organization or go \"straight down the list\" in order to make sense and use of the textbook.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I appreciate that the learning objectives are separated out into boxes at the beginning of each sub-unit to make it easier for the instructor to scan for individual lessons.  The organization of subjects are designed build upon each other from the smallest building blocks of writing to more complex assignments.  Key takeaways and exercises are included at the close of each section as well.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text itself is well formatted in an easy to read typeface and font.  \r\n\r\nThe table of contents on the PDF is easy to use and has internal links to pages, which eliminates the need for searching for page numbers.  Each subsection is also linked, which comes in hand because the chapters themselves have been broken down into such discreet sections that it's easy to find just the lesson that's needed rather than search an entire chapter.  \r\n\r\nSome of the external hyperlinks are no longer working.\r\n\r\nI wish that some of the images and charts were easier to read in the PDF, but they can be clicked on and printed for handouts.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any glaring grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"In the lesson on developing a thesis, the textbook asks students to write a thesis on, \"Texting while driving; The legal drinking age in the United States; Steroid use among professional athletes; Abortion; Racism.\" While these are topics that students are likely to have strong opinions on and therefore it's easy for them to create an \"argument,\" I do not find that beginning compositions students have the finesse to address abortion and racism delicately.  That could easily spiral into a hurtful and insensitive writing exercise.\r\n\r\nThe examples of essays included in the textbook themselves seem pretty homogeneous from a cultural perspective.  There are external links to essays from more culturally diverse perspectives, but unfortunately some of them are no longer active.\r\n\r\n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall this is a very robust and useful textbook.","created_at":"2019-05-17T08:41:41.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-17T08:41:41.000-05:00"},{"id":2933,"first_name":"Joseph","last_name":"Amdahl","position":"Adjunct","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This category might indicate one of the downsides of this particular textbook -- the text covers quite a bit of ground, coming in at a mere 645 pages. Having said that, a lot of the page includes examples, exercises, and their \"Key Takeaways\" section -- so the page count doesn't come across as overwhelming as it might seem. Overall, thorough/useful text that would work well for a composition course. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"There were no glaring issues with the book regarding accuracy. Writing comes across as objective. A few minor aspects -- for example, the author writes: \"A good paragraph contains three distinct components: a topic sentence, body, and concluding sentence.\" Would have liked more regarding paragraph transitions and implementation of both topic sentence and paragraph transition sentences for students. Overall, book seems accurate and with low bias. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The first half of the text will hold up well, -given that it covers less malleable material like grammar/usage/etc. The essay/writing exercises could be useful in the second half - though not totally inspiring. Given that MLA/APA format evolves/changes, the last section of the textbook will probably go out of date within the next few years. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The material in the textbook is fairly clear. One of the downsides of this text is how much ground is covered. Would probably be more clear if the book was split into two books -- one on grammar/usage and one on the writing process and the elements of an essay. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text seems consistent regarding both terminology and framework. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Given the page count of this textbook, it might be difficult to cover this much material in a 10-week term. The \"Key Takeaways\" sections of the chapters were useful and a neat way to add clarity to the intention of each section. Again, given the white space on the page, the text doesn't come across as overwhelming -- though it could have been split into two books in order to add clarity. Would be easy for an instructor to assign sections here (one per week might be manageable). ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The layout of the textbook makes sense. From the building blocks of language/grammar/usage to the writing process, essay assignments, editing, and finally formatting. Again, could probably split into two textbooks -- one that covers grammar/usage/format and one that covers the writing process \u0026 essay assignments. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text has no glaring interface issues; however, a few of the pages had quite a bit of white space. For example, page 460 ends after a short paragraph, followed by mostly white space, and then some boxes containing information on pg. 461. Organization like this was probably an attempt to make the content as clear as possible. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no glaring grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn't notice anything offensive or culturally insensitive within the textbook. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This textbook would be useful to a range of students. The exercises, on a variety of grammar/usage topics, are clear and thorough. The one downside is just that this textbook covers quite a bit of ground.  ","created_at":"2019-05-21T18:18:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-21T18:18:38.000-05:00"},{"id":3687,"first_name":"Christy","last_name":"Moore","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Marian University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is VERY comprehensive. I believe it would be difficult to get all the way through the text in one semester. It covers the most basic writing processes early and then eases the student into a more complex understanding of what he/she needs to know to write effectively for the assignments normally given at the college level.  The Key Takeaways sections and End of the Chapter exercises really provide teachers a way to continuously assess student understanding throughout the semester.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and all of the exercises that I tried, that are provided to test student understanding, were written correctly as well.  Each section is very specific and accurately instructs on certain skills and topics essential for quality writing.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Based on the fact that this text covers English grammar and writing at an acceptable level for a college student, the material is very relevant and should remain that way quite easily.  Any student that did not have the opportunity to have a strong grammar/writing class in high school will learn so much from the material provided in the text.  As technology grows and changes, there may be a place for additions to different formats for student writing.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I believe the text to be clear, concise and to the point.  All of the exercises provided throughout the text allow for students to check their own clarity and understanding of the material as well. The writing and grammar terminology used in the text is clear and specific in both definition and organization.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The consistency of the terminology and framework is more than adequate.  One thing that this text provides that I think is essential for the student just entering college is predictability.  All of the chapters follow a similar framework that can really provide much needed continuity for a student just getting started a college level reader and writer.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Depending on pre-assessment of students in the course, I believe that this text is set up for easy reorganization of material.  There will be some sections that students should be able to test out of due to more than adequate prior knowledge.  For those though that need a more step by step approach to topics, the content is divided into very manageable sections that will not be overwhelming to a novice to the writing process.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The structure of the text is logical and clear.  The text is formatted in a way where an instructor can jump back and forth to meet the needs of specific students for the writing assignment at hand.  I would like to see some writing assignments earlier in the text which could help incorporate a student's understanding of the grammar and mechanics that he/she just learned.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book's interface had no issues.  I navigated the chapters and sub-sections very easily and viewed many of the quality charts, graphs and examples provided throughout the text. I liked the bolded vocabulary terms and links provided that take you back and forth to chapters that supplement one another.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not find the text to be culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I wish all of the students that I have in my Reading and Writing in the Content Areas course would have the opportunity to utilize this book in an entry level writing class on campus.  It would give me the peace of mind that they have all been introduced to the material that is essential to develop good writers and that they can move on to teach writing appropriately in their future secondary classrooms.","created_at":"2020-03-27T17:55:54.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-03-27T17:55:54.000-05:00"},{"id":3910,"first_name":"Eileen","last_name":"Feldman","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Bunker Hill Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book presents traditional aspect of writing: grammar, sentence construction, paragraph development, essays, research.  It raises the bar by adding  chapters directed to  novices transitioning into college, to English Language Learners, and to making oral presentations.  There is a Table of Contents but no index","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The material and grammar/spelling showed no errors","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The relevance is written for longevity.  Contemporary technology is referred to and can be added to by interested readers.  The topics suggested for writing exercises are timeless but could also be expanded by the Creative Commons agreement.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear in language, font, and format.  There are so graphics , but charts and blue shading  for tips help focus attention.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework of this book is consistent.  Each chapter contains purpose statements, tips to help students, workplace writing situations, key takeaway summaries, and end of chapter quizzes. There are student paragraphs and essay to demonstrate each concept.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each section can be separated and used as students' needs are assessed.  The order of chapters can be changed at teacher's discretion.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is clear and logical. The  entire Appendix of student sample essays of each rhetorical style appeared rather surprisingly and could be incorporated with those preceding sections.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are no interface problems, but neither are there many charts or images.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"THere are no glaring grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The topics suggested are  of American  interest and might not resonate with a variety of cultures in the class.  Likewise the sample student essay might be intimidating or irrelevant to some readers.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The two outstanding contributions added to this rhetoric are1) the lengthy socioemotional introduction to college level work and challenges and 2)the concern with incorporation of these wkills into workplace environment.","created_at":"2020-06-04T08:01:09.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-04T08:01:09.000-05:00"},{"id":3943,"first_name":"Dr. Deborah","last_name":"Bradford","position":"Part-time Professor","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is very complete, but does not have an index or glossary. It does have a Table of Contents. It might be the most extensive book I have encountered for the topics that are covered.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is accurate and unbiased with no errors.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Writing for Success is timeless in its content. I don't see anything that would make it obsolete. If any updates were needed, I'm sure they could be made easily.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Writing for Success is very clearly written which is especially helpful for beginning writers. The examples given are also very clear followed by exercises that reinforce the material. I did not find any outstanding (in a negative way) technical terminology.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is very consistent regarding terminology and framework. One can expect to always find the same headings/subheadings in each chapter such as Learning Objectives, Exercises, Tips, Writing at Work, Key Takeaways, etc. My additional comments about organization (which is very close to the meaning of framework) are below.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Writing for Success is a huge book that covers just about everything a professor would want for any level writer. There really is no way the book could or should be used in its entirety during one semester. It definitely can be easily broken up and reorganized into smaller sections according to what is needed at different points in the semester.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book is very well-organized. When one becomes familiar with how the material is presented after the first chapter or so, it is comforting to see this same format followed throughout, making the information easier to read and comprehend.\r\nThe headings and subheadings are clearly marked and bolded and the information that is in a box (Learning Objectives, Tips, etc.) in one chapter is consistently in a box in the other chapters.\r\nHowever, chapters 2-5 (or at least chapters 2-3) might be better placed nearer the end of the book, after the rhetorical mode essay examples or in an appendix. After reading chapter 1, I was surprised to suddenly be thrust into chapters on grammar and punctuation when I would have preferred continuing to read about the elements of writing that are discussed after chapter 5. However, the sequence of chapters can be changed according to the needs of the particular class (as noted in the Modularity section above).","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I did not encounter any interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not find the book to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book is great and I would recommend it to any professor who is teaching a beginning or even intermediate writing course. I especially like the sections entitled Tips and Key Takeaways which serve as very helpful and concise information/reminders of what to keep in mind for good writing. I was so happy to also see the section entitled Writing at Work included, as I have not seen similar content in many writing books. It is so important to include, as I always want to have my students make a connection between their school work and the outside world, i.e. their real world professional work -- a connection that is sometimes difficult for them to make, especially for the traditional college-aged students.","created_at":"2020-06-11T10:58:03.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-11T10:58:03.000-05:00"},{"id":4044,"first_name":"Brenda","last_name":"Williams","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"It is complete and accurate. It covers a lot of material.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"No errors and it is unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"It is very relevant. It will help college students adjust to the college environment and expectations.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is direct and clear. An easy read.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"It is consistent throughout each chapter and easy to navigate.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"It does cover alot of material but that could make it easier to break up into smaller assignments.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"It flows and is organized. It can be taught in a different order though which can be helpful.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I had no issues. Things were easy to find and navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn't find anything insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"It was written well.","created_at":"2020-06-23T12:18:44.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-23T12:18:44.000-05:00"},{"id":4199,"first_name":"Holly","last_name":"Armstrong","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Middlesex Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing for Success thoroughly covers all aspects of writing. Beginning with the basics of vocabulary, the text progresses through word order, paragraph development, sentence variety and clarity, then moves on to beginning an essay through to research writing. For first year students, including English language learners, the textbook provides clear and thorough descriptions of the writing process and provides examples of completed essays for review as well.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text is accurate and error-free. While the text covers more topics than I would use in my Reading, Writing, and Reasoning course, the review of vocabulary development, word order, sentence variety, grammar, and paragraph writing are crucial for my students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Instructional material in Writing for Success is up-to-date and not likely to go out of date since the focus is on the very basics of introductory writing through to essay formats.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Writing for Success is easy to read and appropriate for first year students. While lengthy, the overall review of vocabulary, word order, sentence writing, paragraph development, including help for English learners especially regarding word choice and sentence order, provide clear and concise information.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Tone used is consistent throughout the text. Examples and exercises for each covered topic are easily found and clearly labeled.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Writing for Success covers all aspects of reading and writing, while also incorporating grammar review, and providing help for English learners. While the text is long, instructors can pick relevant material to use and students have a resource that can be used as a reference tool for later courses as well.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Writing for Success follows a logical flow for introducing writing to first year students. The text has a detailed table of contents and each section is clearly labeled and easy to follow. However, there is no index or glossary as part of the text, and this feature is one that could be added for greater ease of use.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read Writing for Success online and did not have any issues. I was able to navigate the text easily.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contained no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text was not culturally insensitive. Perhaps the readings included can be updated to include more relevant and timely topics.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Writing for Success is a thorough text encompassing all aspects of the writing process. For first year students, it provides a complete grammar review as well as clearly organized and detailed instruction for essay writing, including model essays. Throughout the text, clear and thorough explanations of concepts are given. Although the text contains limited images, it is well organized and easy to follow. While some students may not need such a thorough review before beginning essay writing, a text that can meet the needs of all learners in my introductory course is welcome.","created_at":"2020-06-30T18:29:16.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-30T18:29:16.000-05:00"},{"id":4475,"first_name":"Christian","last_name":"Aguiar","position":"Asst Professor of English","institution_name":"The University of the District of Columbia","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text provides extensive coverage of all of the content areas typically covered in first-year composition courses at community colleges. It includes chapters on paragraph structure, the writing process, rhetorical modes, research, MLA and APA documentation, sentence structure, punctuation, mechanics, revision, and even designing presentations. Individual chapters include check-in questions and, in most cases, suggested activities for students to complete as they read. There is also a selection of sample essays that follow the rhetorical modes. Finally, hyperlinks have been strategically placed to help students review important concepts by referring them back directly to the chapter where that concept was first introduced. This makes for a richly layered reading experience while also facilitating modular usage of the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text generally follows the established approach to teaching writing, so its discussion of research writing, for example, includes sections on topic selection, planning, conducting research, organizing ideas, drafting and revising.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Wisely, the authors have avoided over-embellishing their work with examples that might become dated. Those examples critical to student learning tend to focus on general, enduring topics. Some of the suggested topics and activities may not age quite as well - for example, one activity asks students to complete an idea map to analyze the impact of “social networking,” which may already be a somewhat dated concept for students. Since the activities are clearly set apart in lightly-shaded boxes, it’s easy for users to update these activities as needed. It must be said that the included student examples are pretty generic; I’ve never used them.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"In a nod to digital reading habits, the authors have kept paragraphs mercifully short - typically 2-3 sentences, rarely any more. Sub-headings are used judiciously. Each chapter section introduces learning objectives at the top of the page and “takeaways” at the bottom. The authors don’t attempt to over-simplify the writing styles, so the readability score is relatively high, in the 10th-12th grade or college range. This makes the text ideal for a first-year writing course, though it may prove somewhat challenging when used as part of development coursework, such as in a corequisite course.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The design of the text is clear and lucid. There are fifteen chapters, each divided into several sections covering individual topics. Each topic begins with clear learning objectives and concludes with one or more key points. All chapters feature built-in comprehension questions, short writing activities, and/or writing tips. The visual design is crisp; it makes use of white space and a consistent color palette to improve readability.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The organization of the text makes it very easy to assign a single chapter, or section of a chapter, at a time. Each section has its own URL that can be embedded in an LMS to bring students directly to the desired reading. The use of hyperlinks to refer back to ideas covered in “previous” chapters makes it easier to take the text out of order, as students are able to readily access concepts.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"See consistency","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The digital interface is clean, consistent, and easy to navigate. The text does not generally make use of images, though there are frequent tables, charts and organizers that read clearly on Chrome and Firefox.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"In two years of teaching with the text, I have found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally competent in the sense of being quite generic and inoffensive; it does not necessarily engage a range of experiences or voices. I haven't found this a problem because the text does not include any embedded readings - it is strictly focused on writing content, so I supplement it with short stories, essays, and films that I have selected. This makes the text readily adaptable to varied cultural contexts. The student sample essays included at the end of the text do embody a white, middle-class aesthetic, though: one describes baseball, “America’ pastime,” while another compares London and Washington, D.C.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I’ve used this book as a core text for my first-year writing course for two years, and I find it generally does everything the standard first-year writing textbook does with the added benefits of being clearer, more concise, editable and, of course, free. It is designed to support process- or modes-based courses, but it can also be easily used in smaller chunks to support other approaches to first-year writing.","created_at":"2020-12-21T14:35:27.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-21T14:35:27.000-06:00"},{"id":4476,"first_name":"Pam","last_name":"Whitfield","position":"English faculty","institution_name":"Rochester Community \u0026 Technical College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Pretty accessible for students. Maybe a bit simple for freshman writing, but I would consider using it in a comp 101 course and supplementing with my own materials. I am most likely to use it for a “higher level” developmental writing course.\r\nGrammar comes first in the table of contents. That’s fine with me as it makes accessing those sections easy, but I would not teach these chapters chronologically. I would pick and choose, reordering chapters for my students to teach more holistically, so comp methodology has grammar embedded in it.\r\n\r\nNo glossary or index. This is a large omission and could be easily corrected: hire a grad student to do it as a summer project.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content and examples are accurate overall.\r\nCh 6 replaces persona/speaker/writer with tone in the rhetorical triangle. I find that reductionist or overly simplistic. But the chapter as a whole is superbly geared toward the dev ed writers I typically teach. I would use it in a class for students who missed the testing placement cut off for freshman composition.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I'd call its approach pretty classic in terms of comp pedagogy. It will not become obsolete in the near future. Updates should focus on new media and digital sources/examples.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Highly readable for students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Yes, it's a text that provides a great overview but does not go deep into any one area or skill set.\r\nFor ex, Chapter 5 for ELL students is just a start. Or perhaps it’s a jumping off place for teacher’s own pedagogy and materials. The slang and idioms lists are very short, for instance. They are just a starting point. This chapter could be an effective review for a competent ELL student or allow the instructor to assign one section/topic as needed to individual students.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I like the amount of sectioning; it reads in bite sized pieces for students.\r\nThis is a long book—over 600 pages. It could be intimidating to dev ed and ELL students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"What helps make this text more organized and user friendly:\r\n key takeaways list at end of each chapter.\r\ncharts and lists for quick reference by students.\r\nquick tips in text boxes.\r\n“writing at work” tips that help students connect the usefulness of what they’re learning in the classroom to the workplace.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are a few poor design choices. \r\nFor ex, student examples are displayed in italic font (as if the student were writing cursive). Italic font slows reading speed on the page and increases eye fatigue. Never put more than one sentence total into italics. \r\nThe PDF version really needs a way to \"tag\" or jump to each chapter directly. Better yet, to jump to each section in the chapter by using a hyperlink or similar tool in the table of contents.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Everything I read was clean.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There is some variety. I would not term this a standout or obvious strength of the text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would test drive it for one semester in dev ed first, then consider adapting and supplementing it for my first year comp students.","created_at":"2020-12-21T15:38:05.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-21T15:38:05.000-06:00"},{"id":33372,"first_name":"Seo","last_name":"Lee","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Wisconsin - Superior","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"comprehensive book to adopt effective writing strategies for college students","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"it was very accurate and clear, such as the basics of vocabulary, paragraph development, and introduction of essay paper.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"since I do not have a lot of writing assignments for the class, this book is not relevant to my course work","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"this book is very easy to follow through the context of book, very organized that need to college students","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"very structured and well-organized content","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Yes. it help to write essay paper, the learn the process of writing","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"well-organized content","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"easy to follow, introduce the basic elements of writing for college students","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"I do not see grammatical errors","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"did not involve the cultural contexts.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-08-21T08:46:56.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-08-21T08:46:56.000-05:00"},{"id":33980,"first_name":"Jiale","last_name":"Hu","position":"Assistant Professor｜Director of Research and Global Outreach","institution_name":"Virginia Commonwealth University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"It is a comprehensive book introducing writing skills. This book covers all the necessary writing basics, from words, sentences, and paragraphs to the whole essay. The authors also provide detailed instructions on the steps of writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Although some references need to be updated, the contents are accurate. The book provides error-free and unbiased content on writing.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is very helpful for students or even junior faculty who want to improve their writing skills.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"As it is a book introducing academic writing skills, the authors did a fantastic job of writing this book in a clear way.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I appreciate that the authors structure all the chapters and sections in a consistent way. It makes reading and navigation more efficiently.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book uses multiple strategies to break the contents into smaller reading sections. There are no enormous blocks of text without subheadings.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The contents of this book are well organized. Each chapter has multiple subchapters. Each subchapter has multiple sections to present the contents and topics in a logical, clear fashion. The authors have learning objectives at the beginning of each subchapter and key takeaways at the end of each subchapter.   Major headings and subheadings are clear. All the further explanations or clarifications and examples or exercises have been put in the boxes for easy navigation.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This book provides five formats, including online, pdf, ebook, XML, and ODF. Each format looks great! I did not experience any interface issues. I did not find any navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse readers.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"After I read the book thoroughly, I did not notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book has a chapter for English language learners. This is greatly appreciated. I did not see any text culturally insensitive or offensive. The essays in the final chapter also include a variety of examples.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"My favorite chapter is Chapter 8: The Writing Process: How Do I Begin? This chapter provides detailed steps of the writing process: Prewriting, Outlining the structure of ideas, Writing a rough draft, Revising, and Editing. Especially in the chapter on outlining, the authors provide great examples showing different ways of organizing ideas and constructing outlines.","created_at":"2022-08-10T08:58:27.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-08-10T08:58:27.000-05:00"},{"id":34442,"first_name":"Alicia","last_name":"Andre","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Century College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing for Success is a good text for an intro-college writing and grammar text. There are 15 chapters, and each chapter is well-organized and includes some sample essays and grammar exercises. What I like about this text, is that you can pick which topics will fit your course design. The beginning of the book has a comparison/contrast on the expectations of high school and college. This is a good way to start a college composition course because students often do not understand the demands of college writing. It also starts with reading strategies, and this is also helpful because many students today do not read carefully, and this can be a problem when they start to write a paper that asks them to analyze a reading. There is a lot to pick and choose from in this 600-page book.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The authors did an excellent job in this area as there were not any errors that I could see.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The chapters are relevant for any college composition course. The only concern is that the MLA/APA chapter may need to be updated. It might be a good idea to have a link to the Purdue Owl English web page in this chapter as the rules of MLA and APA often change over the years. Some of the readings and links might need to be updated as well.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I thought the organization and content were clear and easy to follow. I like that the “objectives” are included at the top of each chapter as this can be a nice way to see how course objectives link to the textbook chapters.  Also, there are “tips” to help learners along the way.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"There is clear consistency and it is easy to follow. The terminology seems accurate as well.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modules are comprehensive and topics that I use in my college composition courses. The writing text that I am using now, has these topics embedded in units, but this text has similar topics in separate chapters which can be easy for the instructor and the student to locate.  For instance, if I want to go over “understanding purpose in writing”, I can find information in the introduction. If I want to go over sentence boundaries, I can go to Chapter 2 or Chapter 6 depending on which one is a better way to explain the importance of using cohesive devices in writing. There is also a chapter on study skills that I would use at the start of the semester.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I suppose it isn’t easy to decide which chapter should go first to last. I looked at the organization of chapters and I would say Chapter 8 on “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin” should be after “Chapter 1: Introduction to Writing”, but since many teachers will simply assign certain chapters at different times, this isn’t a big problem. I like that the textbook included a chapter specifically designed for English Language Learners (ELL) since that is my subject area.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I think it is good, but I would like to see more visuals like graphs, pictures, and sample essays with edits. There are some good aspects though as the text has boxed information with samples. For instance, in the chapter on punctuation, the boxed information shows how the punctuation is used in the sentence.  The text also includes some practice exercises in “blue” boxes. This is helpful because I can scan for those exercises and have students do those as homework. One concern I have is that some of the sample essays (i.e., Page 235) have small print and is difficult to read.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors that I can tell.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I think for the most part it is good in terms of being inclusive. The readings in the unit on narration included readings from Sandra Cisneros and Sherman Alexie. Some of the readings might include some sensitive topics related to race and abortion that could be problematic. However, I think that if I use this textbook, I can just pick and choose which topic best fits my students' needs.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think this is an excellent book for a college composition course.","created_at":"2023-03-08T19:42:36.000-06:00","updated_at":"2023-03-08T19:42:36.000-06:00"},{"id":34638,"first_name":"Tonya","last_name":"Rickman","position":"Adjunct Instructor English Department","institution_name":"Old Dominion University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The content presented in this book is quite appropriate for college students, especially those students who are new to college and/or struggling with the rigors of reading and writing assignments required at the post-secondary level. The text is comprehensive as it encompasses a wide range of topics and strategies related to reading, writing, and academic work at the post-secondary level, making it a valuable resource for students and instructors alike. There is a glossary that includes key terminology – much of the language included in the book is straightforward (one does not need an extensive knowledge of English terminology to understand this book).","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text appears to be error free. There were a few examples provided in the grammar section (beginning on page 51), where the author discusses editing fragments that begin with prepositions. In those examples there appears to be a word repeated (e.g., when, When). However, it quickly becomes apparent to the reader that the repeated word “when” is not a typo, but it’s the format used to demonstrate a common error.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Even though the text was published in 2015 the information is still relevant and aligned with most of the reading and writing learning outcomes expected in a freshman and/or sophomore English course as well as other disciplines. Based on the current cultural climate in academia and shifting cultural norms in the broader society, the author might update examples in the book to convey a bit more of a feel of cultural inclusivity as well as a broader sense of technological advances (AI). That said, the systematic academic styles and simplistic tone certainly puts the reader at ease, especially when reading grammar rules that students might find confusing when presented in a more complex resource. Additionally, the exercises used to provide the reader with practice (i.e., Writing at Work) are not only a thoughtful way to help the reader make connections with the content of the text, but also useful in expanding the reader’s thinking beyond the use of a particular skill for academic purpose to a real-world application (i.e., the workplace).","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Readers of this book have likely encountered the vast majority of terms used in the book at other times throughout their time in academia. The author actually described grammar and punctuation in a way that is understandable (i.e., short descriptions, rudimentary examples).","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The format pretty much remains the same throughout the text – the author consistently articulates learning objectives, concepts, strategies, practice, and key takeaways. Additionally, visuals and links to external resources are regularly available to aid readers in gaining a deeper understanding of ideas. There is a logical progression of ideas as the reader moves forward in the text. For example, the reader is introduced to strategies for time management and study skills before learning strategies for conducting research.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Absolutely, this text can be read in sequential order (i.e., chapter one, two, three…), or the reader could refer to any chapter of interest based on his/her learning needs. As an English instructor, who has directed students to a variety of grammar resources online, I could see the benefit of directing students to a page in this text instead of several different online resources. Based on the quality of content in this text, it’s an efficient and effective way put a useful resource in the hands of students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The sequential order of topics in the text is sensible – the structure enables the reader to know what’s coming next. The concepts in the text become increasingly complex as the reader progresses through each section of the text. The end of the text gives the reader the opportunity to apply understanding of concepts discussed earlier in the text. The progression in the complexity of skills is most notable in the steps for completion of a research paper – here the reader is challenged to apply several skills discussed earlier in the text (e.g., identifying the scope and sequence, considering steps in writing process, managing time).","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The majority of hypertext links are useful in navigating to other sections of the text and many of the links to external sources are still active (e.g., Library of Congress Subject Headings link). After visiting the external website, the reader is able to easily navigate back to the original text. The actual images (e.g., charts and tables) in the text are appropriately displayed – the color, spacing, and fonts are visually pleasing.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"A huge part of the text is dedicated to the use of grammar – there don’t seem to be issues with grammar.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text feels a bit culturally neutral - most of the examples are pretty generic. The reader likely feels the author is most concerned with providing examples for the purpose of highlighting development of essential skills that are part of the reading and writing process. For example, while there are multiple examples that spotlight contemporary issues (e.g., mortgage crisis, low-carb diets), the style and tone of writing feel appropriate for an academic text – you feel the examples are provide for academic purposes not to convey any views or positions on any of the issues.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would recommend this book to English teachers for use with secondary and post-secondary students.","created_at":"2023-07-25T12:55:48.000-05:00","updated_at":"2023-07-25T12:55:48.000-05:00"},{"id":34654,"first_name":"Tracy","last_name":"Peterson","position":"Adjunct Writing Instructor","institution_name":"Southwestern Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Index is highly comprehensive. It includes the title of chapters as well as each subsection that can be linked directly from the index to the page within the document itself. Chapters include all major areas of study within my WR90 course.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Information is accurate and well thought out. \nIt would be great to have PDFs of exercises given in the book. As it is, I’m not sure how usable the exercises are in the digital only format. I do, however, appreciate the focus on sentence skills. These are greatly needed among my Wr 090 students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is pretty timeless, and I don’t believe updates will need to be made often.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Text is clear, though perhaps a bit hard to access for many of my Writing 090 students. Terms such as “Rhetorical Modes”, for example, would not be understood. Simpler language would be more useful in a lower-level course. The occasional flowchart is useful; I would love to see more diagrams and/or images and less heavy text. While examples are given (generally one or two per concept), more would always be helpful.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is very consistent with the way ideas are presented, giving tips and highlights, key factors, examples, exercises, learning objectives, etc. All of these things are reproduced in each section and within each chapter in the same way, making them easy to find and identify.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Chapters may be easily separated and rearranged according to the needs of the instructor. Subsections within each chapter are able to be completed independently.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the text is logical and rational. It begins with an introduction to writing, moves on to sentence skills, refining writing technique, the writing process, writing an essay, different rhetorical modes of essay writing, research and citations, presentations, and example essays.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Title page could be a little more appealing. \nThere are quite a lot of formatting issues, large oversized text boxes with writing in bottom quarter only throughout the entire text (Ex: pg 5), strange front sizes, and too much space on page (Ex: pg 72).","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors. It was well worded and well written.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is pretty neutral. I would appreciate bringing in a little more cultural relevance into the text: images of multi-racial students, etc. However, the text does includes a section for English Language Learners which I greatly appreciate. These subsections could be added throughout the course, or done as a single unit.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall it is a well-made text. I personally would rather see a more project based textbook, but not finding any like that, I think this text creates a good jumping off point, from which the instructor can create and deliver more project based assignments.","created_at":"2023-08-16T15:08:06.000-05:00","updated_at":"2023-08-16T15:08:06.000-05:00"},{"id":35625,"first_name":"Amanda","last_name":"Miller","position":"Adjunct - Business Dept.","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Even though the interface is very basic, the overall content is somewhat comprehensive, and each section provides a multitude of examples. The chapters also provide hands-on exercises, however, the lack of an answer key was frustrating. The APA and MLA chapter was missing, and some of the technical topics were not thoroughly demonstrated. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content was accurate, but some of the sections were a little outdated. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the content is current and straightforward for a writing text. It is simple, direct, and would be a decent supplemental text for a communications course or business course that wants to provide a brief overview of basic writing mechanics. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This was a concise and direct text, however, it would have benefited from a little more detailed explanations of the material and topics. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The structure of the text is appropriate and covers what would be expected for a basic writing textbook. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The modularity is basic and easy to navigate with a simple table of contents section that can be accessed throughout the sections, giving this text the ability to break down seamlessly to fit different approaches and reorganization. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization is intuitive and basic. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The end-user experience is very basic, but it is easily maneuverable and text-driven. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This text seemed to be free of errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"In the context of this text and topic, and I do not think there were any offenses to be discussed. However, the references and some examples were slightly outdated in terms of perspectives and inclusive environments. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This text would be a good supplement to provide a basic overview of writing skills for a class with heavy writing deliverables, or, as a suggested free text to provide additional examples to certain topics covered in writing courses. ","created_at":"2025-09-12T12:19:27.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-09-12T12:19:34.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/writing-for-success","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:26:27.000-06:00"},{"id":76,"title":"Six Steps To Job Search Success","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2011,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"This book is a practical discussion of six actionable steps that students can take to land a job regardless of the market. Whether the estimate is 25% unemployment or single-digit unemployment, that number doesn't apply to any one student. For any individual, the unemployment rate is 0% or 100%. One either has a job or doesn't. When any one person is looking for a job and there is 10% unemployment, that person just wants to be one of the nine people that has a job. Students might think even that one job is beyond their grasp. They think they don't have the right degree. Their school is in a different location than where they'd like to work. Not enough jobs are listed or employers are visiting the campus. This type of thinking cedes control of a student's search to outside forces. It is not up to professors, schools, career services support, or recruiters to get students a job. This book is about the proactive things that students can do to get themselves a job. In the first chapter, Six Steps to Job Search Success covers the different types of job searches: full-time job after graduation, internship, return to workforce, career change, relocation. The rest of the book is about how, regardless of the type of job search or overall market, one can be proactive and successfully land a job. This textbook outlines a structured approach, actionable steps, and stresses the importance of a student's willingness to see this through. Six Steps to Job Search Success provides that structure with six steps anyone can take to: Identify the types of jobs they'd like (Step 1: Identify Your Target) Position themselves for these jobs (Step 2: Create A Powerful Marketing Campaign) Figure out what employers are looking for (Step 3: Research) Develop relationships with prospective employers (Step 4: Network and Interview) Stay connected throughout the decision-making process and fix any problems that might arise (Step 5: Stay Motivated; Organized and Troubleshoot Your Search) Complete their search (Step 6: Negotiate and Close the Offer). Connie and Caroline are both former recruiters with over 40 years of combined hiring experience between them. Connie led recruiting areas for three Fortune 500 companies, and Caroline led recruiting in-house for a Fortune 500 but also as an external recruiter for established firms and start-ups. They've hired thousands of people from interns to senior executives. They developed the process detailed in Six Steps to Job Search Success based on how hiring works. The authors explain that in reality, the ability to look for a job and land a job is a separate and distinct skill than any of the skills required for the job itself. The goal of their book is share their job search techniques with your students so that your students can take control of their job search, add an exceptional new job to their career and enjoy the life rewards a satisfying career can bring. If you are interested in a practical approach that can deliver results, this book is for you and your course. Order a desk copy today and see for yourself.","contributors":[{"id":1991,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Caroline","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Ceniza-Levine","location":"SixFigureStart","background_text":"Caroline Ceniza-Levine, career coach, writer, speaker, multigenerational workplace expert, and cofounder of SixFigureStart, has sixteen years of experience in professional services as a management consultant and executive and corporate recruiter. She has recruited for leading companies in media, financial services, management consulting, pharmaceuticals, and technology. Caroline is a career columnist for CNBC.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com, and Forbes.com and an adjunct assistant professor of professional development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Caroline is a coauthor (along with Donald Trump, Jack Canfield, and others) of the best-selling How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times. Her career advice and job market insights have been extensively quoted, including mentions in NBCNews.com, CBS Moneywatch, BusinessWeek, CareerBuilder, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, Real Simple, NPR, and the Associated Press. Caroline is a 2010 grant recipient of the Jones New York Empowerment Fund. An extreme career changer, Caroline started her career as a conservatory-trained classical pianist. She currently stays active in the arts, performing improvisational theater and stand-up. Caroline is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University."},{"id":1992,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Connie","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Thanasoulis-Cerrachio","location":"SixFigureStart","background_text":"Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio, career coach, writer, speaker, Gen Y expert, and cofounder of SixFigureStart, has a twenty-five-year career with leading Fortune 500 companies including Merrill Lynch, Pfizer, and Citigroup. Most recently, Connie was the chief operating officer for Merrill Lynch Campus Recruiting, where she helped to streamline the campus recruiting efforts in the United States with that of Europe and the Pacific Rim regions. Connie is a career columnist for CNBC.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com, and Crain’s New York Business and teaches professional development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Her career advice and job market insights have been extensively quoted, including mentions in ABCNews.com, Crain’s New York Business, BusinessWeek, Forbes.com, and WNYC. Prior to recruiting, Connie held a variety of positions in both marketing and sales. Connie enjoys scuba diving, tennis, quilting, and having fun with her husband, Ron, and their dog, Sophie. She also has an irrational but passionate preference of Nadal over Federer. Connie is a graduate of New York University."}],"subjects":[{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":39,"url":"https://www.saylor.org/books/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:36.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-02-14T14:46:32.000-06:00","name":"Saylor Foundation"}],"formats":[{"id":296,"type":"PDF","url":"https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/textbooks/Six%20Steps%20to%20Job%20Search%20Success.pdf","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":297,"type":"Online","url":"https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_six-steps-to-job-search-success/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":17,"reviews":[{"id":314,"first_name":"Jodi ","last_name":"Shorma","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Valley City State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Chapters 1 and 2 provide setting the stage advice for a student's job seach process. Chapters 3 through 10 provide detailed strategies and techniques for each of the six steps of the book's job search process. The first pages of Chapters 3 through 10 presents the common flowchart of the six step job search process along with an overview of the chapter details.  Chapter 11 discusses the interface between social media tools and each of the six steps. Chapter 12 bridges the job search process with career success.\nThe flow of content from overview to process to application is consistent with about 40-50 pages per chapter.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The advice the book provides about the job search process is accurate. The advice for what to do and what not to do behind each step of the job search process is relevant to current trends and expectations in the professional works. The addition of content for creating and a maintaining a network presence is also valuable for students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content in Chapter 5 detailing the purpose and use of a LinkedIn account may need updates pending tool changes. As well, Chapter 11 detailing with the use and management of social media tools in the job seach process may need update with tool changes. The content in the other chapters, however, should maintain its relevance and longetivity for students needing directional support in the job search process.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The terminology used in the book is sided more towards the business and industry profession. For a future teacher, the terminology may be a bit confusing and, therefore, a distraction.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The architecture of the book is consistent from subsections within the chapters to the chapters themselves. Along with the consistency of architecture is the consistent use of job search process terminology. The carry over of common words and concepts as well as architecture from one chapter to the next provides an effective pattern of learning.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Because of its architecture, the book is adaptable to a modular approach. Chapters 3-10 provide content for each step of the six step, sequential job search process. These chapters can be divided into individual blocks of text and referenced and/or reviewed independently at specific points of time during the flow of the unit or course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book uses a very practical approach to connect content from chapter to chapter. The use of the flowchart to emphasize the six step job search process begins each chapter with chapter headings highlighting the step under examination.The use of this visual display provides quick context for students in their reference and use of the book's advice, strategies and techniques.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The book does not present any interface issues including graphic distortion or white space excessiveness.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book's job search process's advice, strategies and techniques are sensitive to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and age.The job interview section in Chapter 8 also includes questions that are illegal to ask by interviewers.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The book is valuable for its collection of job search information into one package. Its ability to modularize also provides students quick access to information/","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":537,"first_name":"Angela","last_name":"Gist, Ph.D.","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Kansas","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Six Steps to Job Search Success is an extremely comprehensive text that addresses many of the intersecting and complex variables that go into an effective job search. Each chapter systematically covers content from narrowing your career interests, to cultivating a personal brand, and strategically communicating about one's self as a job candidate. The six step model that accounts for a systematic job search is a clear and concise way to understand the necessary steps to finding work.  In particular, each chapter does an excellent job summarizing key take aways and action steps that can be taken to move forward in one's search.  An interactive table of contents would've made the text easier to navigate since it is likely that a reader might want to jump from chapter to chapter or section to section.  There is no index or glossary, which makes navigating the text more difficult.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The information in the text is implicitly geared towards a white-collar, upper-/middle-class job seeker in the United States.  This is important for reads to keep in mind.  There are assumptions made about access to technology, computer literacy, and professional dress that convey this bias.  This book could've more clearly addressed cultural influences on job searching in much more detail.  With that said, this is a great book for U.S. students who are in majors and institutions of higher education that are pursuing traditionally corporate career paths.  This book could also be used as a resource for junior and early mid-career professionals that are seeking a job change or who have had a gap in their employment history.  The challenges addressed in the textbook for these audiences follow current employment trends.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This text should be relevant for years to come.  There is content about job searching that is timeless including, but not limited to topics such as: developing a personal marketing campaign, mentoring, maintaining professional relationships, negotiating.  However, the Chapter 11 information about social media use in the job search, while a necessary chapter in today's day and age, is time sensitive in nature.   New media platforms emerge each year that could  heavily influence the effectiveness of this chapter.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to read and practical.  The language is geared towards a business professional audience.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The format of the text is highly consistent.   In addition, the language of the textbook follows commonplace job search jargon and language in the career management industry.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modular structure is excellent.  Each chapter is clearly structured with subheadings, section numbers, and titles.  It would be easy to assign various sub-sections.  Each sub-section could easily stand alone if an instructor decided to assign certain sections and not entire chapters.  Every chapter has learning objectives, key take aways ,and exercises at the end, which help to facilitate engagement with the text overall. There are also a number of tables throughout the textbook, which help to concisely summarize information and increase the ease of comprehension.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The overall structure, organization, and flow of the text is logical, sequential, and coherent.  The authors present a six step model to job search success.  Chapters 1-2 introduce the audience for this book, summarize the model, and define key concepts. Chapters 3-10 clearly take the reader through each phase of the model in a systematic way. Chapters 11-12 wrap up the text with relevant job search information that is future-oriented and practical (i.e. social media and thriving and succeed at work).","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"There are some issues with format.  A number of visual images are shown throughout the book that take up the majority of space on the page.  Then near the margins of the visual there is a narrow column of text that is awkwardly juxtaposed to the image.  The columns of text truncate words so that one word is split up onto two lines.  This is very challenging to read disrupts the overall visual appeal.  Examples of this can be found in Chapter 2 pgs 57-58; Chapter 3 pgs 60; Chapter 4 pgs 93, 98, 104, 107-108, 113-114, and 117, Chapter 5 pgs 129, 143, 154, and 158 ; Chapter 6 on pgs 163, 176, 177, and 189; Chapter 7 pgs 195 and 211; Chapter 8 pgs 229, 259, and 263; Chapter 9 pgs 274 and 283; Chapter 10 pgs 309, and 336, Chapter 11 pgs 343-344, 346, 354, 356, 362, 366, and 368; Chapter 12 376; 397, and 407.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any issues with grammar. This is a well-written text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"While the book does talk about issues of cultural different in regards to relocation and international students, I do believe that there could be better framing around the job search strategies as specific to a Western cultural context.  Job searching is highly influenced by cultural  norms, which could be addressed in much more detail.  The book does privilege upper-/middle-class job search practices.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book would serve as a great resource for many different types of job seekers.  It captures the complexity and challenges of the job search process.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":558,"first_name":"Jeanine","last_name":"McDermott","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"There is a very extensive, in-depth discussion on the job search topics, delving into the details and examining the various angles of a job search. Although the book’s title indicates six steps, these are just the major steps with a number of mini-steps to be taken within each step.  Additional topics are also covered, including pre-job search activities, post-job search (on-the-job) activities, motivation, planning and organization. A student may or may not read all 400+ pages.  In the PDF version of the document, no Table of Contents or index exists.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content addresses the job search for a 4-year college student.  A student working towards a two-year associate’s degree or a trade may need to examine other aspects in the job search which may or may not be addressed in this book.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The technology associated with a job search is covered, addressing LinkedIn, web searches, job web sites, etc.  SuccessHawk.com (a web application) is mentioned that can help in the job search process. With any web site, the interface and contents may change and require some updating.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In the PDF version, it was sometimes difficult to discern the start of a new paragraph since the first line of the paragraph was not indented. For the most part, the content is easy to understand.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text appears to be consistent in it’s terminology.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each chapter starts with a review of the previously covered steps that lead into the next step.  Because of the repetition of the material, the text does not need to be read sequentially from one chapter to the next.  This repetitive review may or may not be a distraction to the reader who has read the previous chapters.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Some topics are discussed in detail in multiple chapters.  For example, a job seeker’s marketing pitch was covered in Chapter 5 and Chapter 7.   Addressing the topic in one place from multiple aspects is an alternative way of discussing a topic.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"In the PDF version of the document, there are several instances of the figures overlaying each other thereby obscuring some information.  For example, the sample resumes in Figures 4.4 and 4.5 overlapped and could not be completely read.  But for the most part, the textbook interface was good.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"A few editing errors were identified (missing spaces between some words, an unnecessary font change in the text, etc.) but these were minor issues that did not affect the overall subject matter.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The job search content is applicable to all people in the business world.  Some of the subject matter may or may not be directly applicable to a student working towards a two-year associate’s degree or a trade.  For example, the section on professional dress attire could possibly be expanded to include the trades or non-office environment where business attire is not applicable.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1317,"first_name":"Alice","last_name":"Jones","position":"Associate Director/Career Liaison College of Arts \u0026 Letters","institution_name":"Old Dominion University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is written in a fairly comprehensive manner that covers the topic. Each section is clearly outlined in the table of contents. Each chapter begins with an introduction, and learning objectives and concludes with a chapter review and related exercises.  I would have liked to see a little more focus on interests, values and skills as related to job search decisions along side the discussions related to industry, geography, job type and function.  Chapter 2 section 5 on evaluating  Resources does not include an investigation of other barriers (hindrances) to the job search that might impact the search process, for example not driving, or other transportation issues,  disabilities, (personal, social emotional, physical), family  issues, etc.   There is a fairly lengthy section on preparing for the process and  discussion of work space and resources.  How important is Space in the process?  While the idea of time needed to conduct a successful job search was mentioned in regard to other things the job seeker may have to do, it could have been more clearly and directly discussed as a way of helping set expectations. \n\nThis text included a lot of information related to the job search process and success on the job.  If used for students they may or may not read all 400+ pages. In the PDF version of the document, no Table of Contents or index exists. and it is difficult to move between sections and chapters if one is not reading through section by section.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is fairly accurate, although there are some areas where the focus audience is not clear.  The initial introductory statements focus on students, but then speaks about career changers, MBA's, graduate students, etc. It would be helpful The information and the intended audience base don't consistently match up throughout the book. While the information is not inaccurate, it is sometimes too general, or speaking too broadly.  Early on the content is aimed at traditional college students.  Aspects of the search process may not be as readily applicable to students at 2-year , or technical institutions, graduate students, and/or non- traditional job seekers.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"There are some elements of the text that could be updated. While most information is relevant and doesn't change, there are some things that date the information: \n    - Discussion of Resume Objective might be expanded to include Summary or Profile which is more current today\n    - Resume Format information should also include Combination Format (most college students or career changers would not use \n       functional format with no dates)\n    - Resume examples with 2013 dates are already 4 years old and might not feel as current\n    - As of December 2010, LinkedIn had ninety million members ( Section 11.1) it is now 2017\n    - Some of the terminology has changed portfolio vs e-portfolio, electronic portfolio,  and thus makes the text seem somewhat outdated.\n\nAs technology and trends change, the use of technology will continue to be a factor and issue. There are also some links and references to resources that are not active, accurate or operational.  \n\n   - http://www.successhawk.com\n   - http://www.weddles.com/associations/index.cfm\n   - Incorrect Link - http://www.bls.gov/oco\n   - The use of screen shots for demonstrating technology resources will also change  and cause the information to appear out of date or \n      irrelevant.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"There are several areas of the text that are unclear, not because of the tone, or use of jargon or technical terminology, but more so due to the confusion on target audience.  \n\nFor example in the chapters focusing on internships and on campus interview programs, the language is confusing and often mixes the audience. If the text was more target to a specific group or student population the general language use would be more clear. Some areas mention Liberal Arts students, others Business students, Graduate students, and even career changers. Much of the process is the same regardless of the group, but the language used must be more clear., Some of the  examples and descriptions again are too specific since the audience is not clearly defined. Each institution, department, and job seeker status has a specific language and set of guidelines based on their needs.  \n\nThere are also several hyperlinks with definitions that serve as a helpful addition in the web version of the text to clarify meanings of words and vocabulary, but that feature is not available in the PDF version of the text.\n\nIt would have also helped with issues of clarity to have more instruction with activities and exercises. Some seemed to leave it to the reader to determine how to best approach the tasks.  Some activities or exercises could have benefited from a more visual representation of the desired outcome by using a worksheet page. \n\nDefinitions  of terms sometimes seemed to be based on the writers opinion  versus a standard industry use of terms. For example Career Change vs job change ( example doesn’t exactly match common thought about career vs job change)   and makes for a Confusing interchange of words (Career/job) Both changes require similar actions on the part of the job seeker. \n\n\n\nOverall, the  language was simple and clear and the text was easy to read.  Charts and graphs helped readers visualize the information and simplified explanations.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The structure and format of the text is consistent, however the learning objectives and take-a-ways did not always align one to one.  It would have been helpful if the objectives for each chapter were summarized at  the end of  the chapter summary. \nThe lack of specific target audience also impacted  consistency. Writing for a specific group or audience would limit the need to try to include a little bit of everything, making some sections more or less complex.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Some sections of the text are easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be used on their own. There are however some sections that refer to examples or information from previous sections, or refer to later sections. If used in a modular way, the reader may not have access to or understanding of previous sections. Each should be written as a stand alone, and examples should be  re-include in their entirety or new examples should be used with no reference to previous examples.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text was presented in an organized and structured manner. The chapters present the process in an easy to follow structure, represented by chapters and  subsections within the chapters.  The steps with more content ( Chapters 4 \u0026amp; 5: Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign could have been dived so that Resume and Cover Letter were together followed by Pitch and Online Profile  \n as those things are generally covered together.  The charts and tables were helpful in summarizing material.  \n\nThe Exercises throughout the sections and at the end of the chapter are helpful, but perhaps would have been more helpful if they were all written in the same way  and had clearer or more detailed instructions (i.e. Next Steps exercise on page 13 - Next Steps are often mentioned, but there is no clear definition or example of possible next steps, so the reader is left on his/her own to determine what might make sense as next steps.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is free of significant interface issues, and the hyperlink definitions in the online version are helpful.  Those definitions, however do not translate to the PDF version.  There are a few spacing issues and some inconsistency in links. Some are embedded and some are just listed.  Some of the samples (Resume 4.9, Cover Letter 5.5)   are too small to see and do not enlarge when looking at the web version of the text unless you hold  CTRL  and roll the mouse wheel.  If users are working from other devices it might not be clear.  As a reviewer I had to try several options to enlarge the samples ( a note on the page might help). \n\nThere isn't an easy way to navigate between sections and in the online view you can only go chapters, or subsections, but still have to scroll to find what you are looking for,and can not easily find specific items tables, or charts.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no glaring  grammatical errors, but there are a few instances of missing words.  There perhaps should also be some citations to support facts and data shared (ie.: More than 100 million people are on LinkedIn ( no citation) )","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text for the most part is not culturally insensitive or offensive, but there are some areas where more diversity could be included in images, and examples used.   There are general assumptions made about the users of the text, even though there are references to diverse academic paths and life stage users, most of the information doesn't really take those audiences into consideration. \n\nChapter 2 sections that discuss confidence, poise and communication do not take into account cultural differences, and it seems that the general assumption is that the common users of the text are from the same cultural and ethnic background.  There is no clear consideration for those readers dealing with job search and LGBTQ issues. updated versions of the  text might consider including these considerations - (Easily added to Chapters on Life Considerations, Poise (dress), Creating Marketing Campaign, Interviewing, Trouble shooting)\n\nThere is also a section 4.6 Other Resume Formats, that talks about  CV. The language there is a bit judgmental and could be offensive \" ...Some people interchange the word résumé with curriculum vitae (CV) Used internationally, particularly for research-oriented positions. A CV is often longer and more detailed than a résumé., which is incorrect because they are different items ...\"  This statement is the writers opinion and does not taking in to account cultural differences and terminology.  This represents the American idea of resume vs CV, but internationally the term CV is more common and does refer to a standard resume (confusing if the reader is international).","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"There are many elements of the textbook that are useful and helpful in working with job seekers ( exercises, thought questions, and the 6 easy step process for job search).  I appreciated the mention of Trends in the 21st Century Job Search, and the inclusion of extra curricular activities and the tables and charts to break down wordy sections of text and information. \n\nWhile the text seemed to be intended to apply to a large cross section there were a number of areas that didn't match that representation in the language and examples used  (i.e. much talk about internships, but focused on for credit and paid opportunities; gave fairly specific details, but those details may not apply in all circumstances); Table 1.4 Translating College major to potential jobs mentioned many areas, but omitted Business,Engineering, Health Science,  Education and some other areas related to major; as well the recruiting calendar focused on students at the junior, sophomore and freshman levels, but also mentioned specifically MBA students, but did not consider seniors, or other graduate students.   I found these inconsistencies frustrating as I wasn't clear about the primary audience and how  or for whom the text was intended to be used. \n\nIn the discussion of job search it is  important to have the job seeker also focus on some self assessment and evaluate his/her own personal interests, values and skills.  This aspect of the job search process wasn't really discussed or included. It was not helpful to have the SuccessHawk tool tied to each section without also providing some type of introduction , or explanation to it's point or value.  The link did not work, and the continued promotion of SuccessHawk and  the Five O'Clock Club felt like unnecessary advertisements to resources  that were not universally available and did not apply to the variety of audience due to cost and or access.     A better solution might have been to include a Resource section with listings of resource options  organized by cost  and audience listed in an appendix outside of the main chapters of the text.  \n\nThe goal of the text is to share job search techniques with students so that  they can take control of their job search using a practical approach that delivers results.  There are many areas that directly relate to students, but there are also aspects of the text that might be more difficult for students to find as helpful depending on their age and stage of development, as well as  varied backgrounds.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1521,"first_name":"Sara","last_name":"Henson","position":"Assistant Professor II","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text introduces readers to a structure for approaching a job search.  The first few chapters set the stage by focusing on where the reader is in his/her process and an overview of the structure.  The next chapters address each stage, starting with a search topic, resume and marketing tools development, research, networking, interviewing and negotiation.  The text ends with a separate section on social media and ongoing career success.  I appreciated that the table of contents clearly introduced the sub-topics of the chapter.  Within each chapter, sub-sections had their own learning objectives, take-away points and exercises connected with the section.  I feel that the text could have benefited from including information about assessing interests, skills and values in relation to determining job search goals as well as information for job search considerations and resources for specific groups (e.g. LGBT, veterans, differently-abled).  In addition, the text begins by identifying 3 life situations a job seeker might find him/herself - in college and in search of an internship, recent college graduate and returning worker.  These 3 categories felt somewhat limiting.  I also think the text could have benefited from a better explanation of when to start a job search (e.g. don't wait until you graduate, start early) and how some aspects of job search (networking, assessing skills, etc.) never end.  I found navigation to be fairly straightforward, though being able to link to the sub-section take-away points and exercises would have been nice.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content appears mostly accurate, though some of the links, including the successhawk  site referred to at the end of each chapter, did not work for me.  I was also surprised to not see links to some of the more well-regarded and recognized career sites, such as Onet until quite far into the text.  While not technically inaccurate to not include links to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, ONet or the Department of labor when talking about defining industries or budget/salary tools when discussing salary needs, it does seems like a big miss.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some of the links and examples seemed out of date (e.g. link to a 2007 article, 2010 resume examples) and LinkedIn has changed their format/interface.  It also seemed a bit awkward to have a chapter on social media presence in the job search process at the very end rather than integrated into the marketing section or as a stand alone chapter earlier in the text.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text is fairly straightforward and accessible and I didn't notice anything that wouldn't be recognizable to someone interested in conducting a job search.  I did find the text to be somewhat dry and it would have benefited from more case studies, profiles and real-life examples earlier in the text.  It would have been nice if the authors had differentiated between a jobs and careers as they seem to use the terms interchangeably. I also wish that the exercises had been presented in a format that would have allowed students to build their own \"portfolio\" of information to build on - similar to what I suspect the \"successhawk\" site does (the link wouldn't work for me and required a fee for full use).  A worksheet format for the exercises might have been helpful and made them a bit more engaging and useful.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Each chapter followed the same format.  I did notice that not all the learning objectives aligned completely with their associated take-away points and exercises.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is broken down into smaller sub-sections, each with their own learning objectives, take-away points and exercises that are a reasonable size.  However, there is a fair amount of self-referencing including to future chapters.  This is both awkward to refer to content that has yet to be covered and makes it hard to assign specific sections or chapters in isolation.  In addition, the separate chapter on social media presence overlaps with information contained in other chapters yet is located at the end of the text.  It might be helpful to move it up into the, \"Setting the Stage\" section or fully incorporate it into existing chapters.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Other than the issue mentioned previously about the social media section relegated to chapter 11, the text was well organized and flowed well.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface worked well for me with the exception of links not working (successhawk being the primary culprit).  I do wish, however, that the text had included more visuals or interesting charts in the first few chapters.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no glaring grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"While I did not notice anything culturally insensitive or offensive in this text, I do believe that the text could have gone farther to include the needs, challenges, resources and strategies for diverse popluations (e.g. veterans, POC, LGBT, differently-abled, previously incarcerated, etc.).","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"This text does a nice job presenting a structured approach to conducting a job search.  In particular, the sections on networking, resumes, cover letters, pitches and marketing are well done.  However, I can tell that this text was authored by 2 former recruiters as their point of view seems to be primarily from the corporate recruiter perspective and doesn't include much in the way of personal development, career development, self-awareness and/or meaningful work motivation.  I suspect that if a career development professional who regularly works with students and other job seekers to help them find meaningful work had been included in the authorship the text might be more comprehensive.  I also found the reliance upon an external link (which didn't work) for creating work products related to the text to be problematic and should be integrated into the exercises within the text and/or the creation of a resources section for each chapter that aligns with content.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1628,"first_name":"Amy","last_name":"Morrill Bijeau","position":"Director of Experiential Education, School of Professional \u0026 Extended Studies","institution_name":"American University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"Six Steps to Job Search Success\" throughly reviews major career development stages such as discovering job search targets, setting goals, and landing a job. The book also gives a detailed explanation of the interview process and managing interviews. I  recommend this as a reference book for college students seeking general career advice.\n\n\"Six Steps to Job Search Success\" presents clear guidelines for students to make career development progress in these stages: “Identify Your Job Search Targets; Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign, Part I: Résumé, Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign, Part II: Cover Letter, Pitch, and Online Profile; Conduct In-Depth Research; Network Effectively and Master the Interview; Stay Motivated and Organized and Troubleshoot Your Search; Negotiate and Close Your Offer.”\n\nThe book covers comprehensive details with clarity through learning objectives, tables, key takeaways, and exercises.\n\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"It is not longer completely accurate.  While the book is designed to cut across different generations, “regardless of the market,” published in 2010, but it appears dated.   \n\nThe successhawk.com website cited often doesn’t work.\n\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"While the book is designed to cut across different generations, “regardless of the market,” it was published in 2010 and it seems dated without new insights into contemporary culture.   \n\nThe section on generations fails to include generation z, students born from 1996 - present.  \n\nSometimes goes into too much detail about the obvious for obscure populations.  For example, explaining about \"closed schedules\" versus \"Half open/half closed schedules\" in career centers takes up too much space only relates to a very small group of students.  The information is not relevant in the text.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Statements are clear, but often they are too repetitive.  For example, \"It is always a good idea to work with your mentors to help manage workplace conflict.\" The prose continues \"Depending on the seriousness of the issue, you may also want to call on HR.\"  It concludes, \" Workplace Issues Sometimes Are Complex and Require Assistance from HR.\"  The text beats the ideas into the reader's head.  \n","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book could more regularly refer students to visit career centers and online resources for career development.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book has good modularity.  The book needs a table of contents to make it easier to follow.  However, each chapter is clearly written and it covers a specific topic.  Chapters can stand along and be used as separate assignments to students.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book's flow is good and logical.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book's interface needs work!","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is mostly excellent.  I noticed only a few stray periods and incomplete sentences.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Mostly, the book refrains from cultural examples.  However, mentors are listed as Guardian angel, Shepherd, and Board of directors.  Guardian angel and shepherd have a Judeo-Christian connotation.  Perhaps words without cultural bias would more effectively convey meaning.  \n","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This is a very comprehensive book about career development that may be used in internship classes, career development seminars, business classes, and as a general student resource in higher education. The authors approached a large topic and effectively addressed the most salient issues.  For improvement, I would recommend adding a table of contents and graphical images to help visual learners absorb ideas.  Also, the writers should add more examples so the books tells stories. In sum, the book covers comprehensive details with clarity through learning objectives, tables, key takeaways, and exercises. This book will effectively help students learn about career opportunities.  \n","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1993,"first_name":"David","last_name":"Pearlman","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is very comprehensive and does a great job covering the job search process.  There are some elements of the text that could be updated, while most of the information is relevant and doesn't change, there are some things that date the information like the idea of a resume objective and should be expanded to include a summary of qualifications which is more current today.  There are extensive examples provided as well as in-depth discussions on job search topics, delving into the details and examining the various angles of a job search.   The section on networking was a nice addition as well as pre-job search activities, post-job search (on-the-job) activities, motivation, planning, and organization.  Not too sure if a student would read all 400+ pages unless required.   Finally, the PDF version of the textbook did not contain a Table of Contents or index, which I found problematic.  The flow of content from overview to process to an application is consistent with about 40-50 pages per chapter.  The figures were also quite helpful, but feel that more interactivity should be built into the text. The use of the Success Hawk website proved impossible to access and a search located old non-updated content.  ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information provided about the job search process is accurate and the advice for what to do and what not to do regarding each step of the job search process was correct and current.  Other than the Success Hawk web link not working the accuracy of the information presented was good.  ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"With nonworking weblinks, the longevity of the material is severely limited.  Otherwise, the material is somewhat timeless with a few subtle changes over the years like the use or inclusion of an objective or a summary of qualifications.  The popularity and usage statistics pertaining to specific social media channels may need to be updated since the textbook is 5+ years old.  However, most of the content in the other chapters should maintain its relevance and longevity for students needing directional support in the job search process.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The terminology used in the book is sided more towards the business and industry professionals. For a future teacher, the terminology may be a bit confusing and, therefore, a distraction.  There isn't an easy way to navigate between sections and in the online view you can only go to chapters, or subsections, and requires one to scroll to find what you are looking for.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The organization of the content is consistent with subsections within the chapters to the chapters themselves including a chapter outline and chapter review.  The text appears to be consistent in its terminology and the material is presented in an organized and structured manner.   The Exercises at the end of the chapters are helpful.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is adaptable and can be presented in a modular format.  Each of the chapters could be utilized on an individual basis if a series of workshops is desired.  Since each chapter starts with a review of the previously covered steps that lead into the next step the reader should be able to transition into the new learning topic and due to the repetition of the material, the text may not need to be read sequentially the beginning.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization, structure, and flow of the content make sense and the reader should easily be able to follow the rationale regarding subject ordering.  I would say that the lack of a specific target audience (college student or adult career change) affected the delivery of a consistent theme.  The book does a nice job connecting content from chapter to chapter and the use of the flowchart to illustrate each of the six steps.  The use of this visual display provides quick context for students in their reference and use of the book's advice, strategies, and techniques.  The lack of a Table of Contents or Index significantly impact the flow and navigating through the PDF is frustrating, to say the least.  ","interface_rating":1,"interface_review":"The PDF’s lack or Index or Table of contents means that there is NO interface with this textbook.  There were also major problems with graphics distortion, text wrapping, and excessive white space.  There are several instances of the figures overlaying each other thereby obscuring the information. For example, the sample resumes in Figures 4.4 and 4.5 overlapped and could not be completely read.   Finally, the nonworking hyperlinks also limit the interface of this text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is free of grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"This textbook did not address this topic specifically and should be included in an update.  Specifically, the legality of interview questions must be fact-checked due to changes in laws.  Perhaps, the inclusion of ancillary sources could be used to ensure the accuracy and currency of information available.  Gender fluidity and consideration for readers dealing with job search and LGBTQ issues would be of value to some readers.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The book is a very comprehensive collection of job search tips complete with multiple examples and sample resumes and cover letters in a large 400+ page package.  The text is over 5-years old and even though the material is somewhat timeless, the way it was presented may not be appealing to today’s markets.  Specifically, as electronic texts are concerned this book lacks a multimedia component often found, if not expected, in such educational resources.  There are many elements of the textbook that are useful and helpful in working with job seekers and appreciated the chapter on networking.  In addition, the tables and charts assisted in synthesizing the information.  It was worthless to include the Success Hawk tool tied to many sections since I could not get it to work.  Finally, the lack of a hyperlink enabled table of contents and index made navigating very frustrating and time-consuming.","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2399,"first_name":"Rachel","last_name":"Dolechek","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Fort Hays State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"“Six Steps to Job Search Success” is a comprehensive resource for covering the job search process. It aligns with the job search process covered in many business communication textbooks. Some topics need to be updated, as well as many of the online sources and links. \r\n\r\nChapters 1 and 2 provide an overview of the job search process. Chapters 3-10 cover the six-step process. Chapters 11 and 12 look beyond the six-step process and consider social media, as well as career success.\r\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book is largely accurate. The Success Hawk is referenced several times in the text, but the links are all broken. Chapter 6 had numerous broken links in addition to Success Hawk. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This book is mostly relevant, but I am concerned about listing time-sensitive facts (i.e. LinkedIn has 100 million users). Necessary updates may be difficult to make due to the text not including many references or source citations throughout. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is geared towards business and industry. This may not be representative of all students. Having examples of resume options and networking advice for more student populations would be ideal.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapters are structured similarly and are consistent throughout the book. The table of contents is consistent with the headings in the book. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The structure of the chapters seem logical. As such, the chapters are divided with headings and could be easily split into multiple reading sections. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is well-organized and the sequence of chapters is reasonable. The chapters would not necessarily need to be introduced in order, but the text does reference previous chapters. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The online format of the book was easy to navigate. I experienced technical difficulties with the PDF version, even after trying multiple computers and browsers. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text was well-written and without blatant grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book did not include many cultural examples. It does cater to the job search process in the U.S. It provides very limited examples of expectations for an international applicant applying in the U.S. or a U.S. applicant applying internationally. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-11-20T12:49:04.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-20T12:49:04.000-06:00"},{"id":2609,"first_name":"Adry","last_name":"Clark","position":"Director","institution_name":"Western Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Textbook                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    “Six Steps to Job Search Success” provides a comprehensive survey of the job and internship search process. It is consistent with what most career development centers would advise their students, as well as other job search resources. It breaks the job search process down to manageable steps. A suggestion would be to devote more space to the first step of identifying what to search for and internal factors that determine the direction of the search.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"There are some issues with the text being outdated. Much has changed in the nine years since the book was published, especially related to online job search. Certain websites are no longer relevant, and many new are commonly used, now. Some of the practices related to internship processes have also changed. Laws have changed regarding paid and unpaid internships, and on-campus recruitment has changed.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Many of the issues of relevance are similar to the issues of accuracy. Because job search trends change with changes in the economy as well as technology, books need to be updated every 3-4 years. The book may also be mostly relevant to middle to upper class students, who pursue corporate careers and attend well-funded universities with extensive support services. Much of the information about internships assumes knowledge of what internship is and why it is important.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"For the most part, the text is clear and well organized. The authors, however, make assumptions of prior knowledge and awareness of some job and internship search components. Also, the book could have benefited from more visual representation of the information, such as resume formats.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The chapters are structured in a systematic manner and are consistently formatted throughout the book. There was some inconsistency in the target audience the authors address, from student to instructor.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"In terms of modular breakdown of topics, the book would be easy to assign in a course.  The structure of the chapters seem logical. As such, the chapters are divided with headings and could be easily split into multiple reading sections. An index seems to be missing, which makes it difficult to assign readings. Each chapter includes exercises and key takeaways, which makes learning easier and more active.\r\n","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Apart from missing an index, the book is well organized. The numerical organization of chapters and sub-chapters is helpful.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The book’s interface is easy to follow, but not visually pleasing. It lacks graphic design, the graphs are technical and it reads like a technical manual, more than a textbook. Students today are accustomed to more visually appealing textbooks.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text was without any major grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book was written for students with social and cultural capital most aligned with middle and upper middle class. The assumptions of knowledge of world of work and expectation of privilege was apparent.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The book is really too outdated and needs an update on information, resources and visual communication.","created_at":"2019-03-04T13:54:08.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-03-04T13:54:08.000-06:00"},{"id":2977,"first_name":"Julie","last_name":"Voelker-Morris","position":"Senior Instructor II/PPPM Career Services Director","institution_name":"University of Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is very comprehensive in the topics it addresses for readers to enact a successful job search.   From defining employment goals and building professional networks to developing foundational documents such as résumés and cover letters and setting up practice interviews, this book suggests important skills, materials, and knowledge that need to be developed when one is on the job market. \r\n","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The overall guidelines for job search provided in this book are accurate.  Advice regarding steps in the job search process are broadly applicable to many students.  I notice a tendency of the examples used to apply predominantly to undergraduate job seekers on a semester cycle who will be most interested in employment within the corporate marketplace. Since this book was published, there have been definite changes in the ways in which social media and other aspects of web presence and web tools can guide a job search today. I would like to see specific citations to support some of the recommendations as well some facts and data shared. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"While some content is continually \"evergreen\" and applicable, it is not relevant to most audiences outside a traditional undergraduate population in the U.S. The book is limited in its applicability for nontraditional students, international students (or those seeking employment overseas), or those completing non-four year degree programs. \r\n\r\nThis book offers few references or other source citations to support its relevance and validity. It appears to rely on \"common knowledge\" from career service providers. Additionally, weblinks are out of date (as is likely to happen quickly in contemporary publications). \r\n\r\nThe most continuously relevant content are sections on networking and advice seeing, developing a personal brand/campaign, and conducted in depth research about a prospective employer to prepare one's resume, cover letter, and interview. \r\n","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This book is direct in its delivery of content and with language that can be generally understood by many types of readers.  The book is most helpful when specific examples, case studies, profiles were included. This makes the work more interesting and applicable to the job search processes that students will be undertaking.  At times, the terms  \"jobs\" and \"careers\" were applied almost interchangeably which could be confusing and problematic. Additionally, the audience(s) for this book should be more clearly identified and then spoken to consistently through the types of examples and address used. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Each chapter follows a very similar organizational format. While this provides consistency, such repetition of format also can become a bit uninteresting after a time. Terminology introduced within the book is generally applied in similar ways throughout the text. On occasion, stated learning objectives are misaligned with stated takeaways at the end of a chapter.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each chapter can certainly be read and assigned individually within a particularly course or workshop series structure. Units do not need to be read sequentially but could be mixed and matched per the specific learning outcomes desired. Specific questions, summaries, and activities for each section are somewhat helpful to specific in-class activities or use by an individual using the book. Including worksheets or portfolio \"to-do\" pages or activities might be an interesting to layer to the modularity and applicability of this text. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The overall outline of this book flows well.  At times, I felt that some content was duplicated or could be more relevant in another chapter.  For example, since so much has changed about social media since the book's publication in 2010, these discussions should be embedded into almost every chapter rather than being a single separate chapter.  I also felt that the networking section of the book should be a much earlier step in the process of job searching. The section on career change did not seem to match the target audience for this book. \r\n\r\n","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The PDF version of this book is highly challenging to navigate.  It has been build without links between the Table of Content and the associated chapters.  Figures and text were distorted. \r\n\r\nAll of this is much easier to navigate in the web version of the text, though this particular format for reading online is going out of favor.  It would also be great to have a version that could be read in an app like Kindle or iBook.  Hyperlinks to webpages can become quickly outdated as is the case with many suggested in this book. \r\n\r\nIn both versions of the book,  the graphics are very technical, even leaning toward being more of a filler than in support of the recommendations in the text.  This makes the book feel dry and uninteresting, particularly as each chapter follows a similar rhythm. The graphics nicely lay out a logical sense of the processes involved in job searches but could be much more appealing to readers. The boxes for additional questions and exercises are nice visual breaks and clear guides to summary and next step sections. The sample resumes included are strong. \r\n\r\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is generally free of grammatical errors.  It could use a copy editor to flesh out a few incomplete phrases and sentences or inadvertent additional punctuation.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"In some ways this book attempts to address nontraditional student needs by offering a large section on career change.  This content does not seem to fit the main audience of the book (undergraduate students interested in the corporate workforce). It would be better suited to address this audience more directly or to change the audience of the book and meet those needs more directly. Little specificity regarding race, ethnicity, or background is mentioned directly within the content or examples of the book. The examples provided tend to suggest connections for traditional 18-22 year-old middle to upper-class population student segments who would have the means to complete unpaid internships in the summers between their junior and senior years of college or have other resources to help them understand how to navigate the types of employment experience and skill development expected for the job market following degree completion. ","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-06-06T17:44:43.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-06-06T17:44:43.000-05:00"},{"id":3025,"first_name":"Amanda","last_name":"Olson","position":"Instructor of Communication Studies","institution_name":"Minnesota State","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text offers a comprehensive overview of the job search process, tailored to the context of a college student preparing the enter the job market.  The authors assume that college/university resources might be available and explain how to take advantage of these resources, but also reveal aspects of job hunting that will be relevant to graduates or other job seekers.  One theme that appears early in the book, and serves as a guiding purpose is that the move from school to work is in and of itself a job change - and therefore, many aspects of professional culture are very thoughtfully explained in the chapters.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and consistent with other resources that I have used to teach about job interviews and job search skills.  The authors link to current websites, and offer guidance for using social media and marketing oneself effectively online.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text is consistent with the context for job searching in 2019.  There are many references to the \"recent downturn in the economy\" which some younger college students may not thoroughly comprehend, but this would be an excellent opportunity for in-class discussion or more specific research into career fields and industries.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I appreciated the embedded definitions for industry jargon, and the use of tables to highlight different professional contexts and how that might influence the interview context.  For example - a simple table highlighting the differences between a large publicly traded corporation and a smaller privately held company were useful.  In my experience teaching students about job interview contexts, it can be difficult to explain how workplace culture will vary and these examples offer a very helpful tool for providing clarity.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The authors work through a flow chart of the job search process and organize the chapters to reflect each of the six steps.  The text is cohesive and consistent in use of terms, ideas, and the overall search philosophy.  Very often, the authors remind the reader that they can use prior work that was suggested and explained in an earlier step may come in handy in the current one.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This book would be best as a complete unit, but the chapters could easily be used independently.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in this text are presented in a very clear, chronological order.  I especially appreciated that the authors emphasized that getting the offer was the goal - because then a job seeker has decision-making power - and then provided extensive and valuable advice about how to negotiate and research to be sure that it is a good offer.  This is such an essential tool for a college student preparing to enter the job market.  Further, the authors continue to offer advice and strategies for how to handle oneself once an offer has been accepted and a seeker has started their employment - asking for a raise, handling conflict, seeking out mentors - this section is full of wisdom and solid advice for anyone wishing to be a successful professional.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text itself was clear and easy to read, but tables and examples were presented in a smaller text and I was not able to expand any of them from my browser.  Often, they contained information that I wanted to read - such as sample resumes, sample cover letters, and examples of answers for common interview questions.  Plus, the six-step model itself is presented in an image format and cannot be re-scaled to be viewed larger.  This is one of the first things I wanted to see more clearly and I was disappointed that I couldn't see it larger.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This is well-edited for grammar and clarity.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This text is overall culturally respectful and uses a variety of names for different examples that are representative of a variety of ethnicities.  I found the overall tone and advice to be reflective of middle-class professional job settings, which community college students may not always relate to.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would love to see an update to include advice on three specific topics:\r\n\r\nFirst, managing cultural differences - for example, when should a job seeker who needs visually accessible materials request this during the search process?  How should a Muslim job seeker manage handshakes with individuals who present a different gender identity, when they have a religious objection to physical contact across differing genders?  When and how should a job seeker share a pronoun preference during the search process?\r\n\r\nSecond, managing portfolios and samples of work - where and when (and in what format) should they be shared in the search process?\r\n\r\nAnd third, should a job seeker know anything different about industries that are technical, hands-on, or industry-based?  Community college students who may be entering a professional field like Auto-body repair, Horticulture, or Dental assisting would not benefit from as much upfront networking and informational interviewing.  I would love an update to include information on fields like these and others that are typical paths for students with Associate's degrees.\r\n\r\n\r\n","created_at":"2019-06-27T16:40:14.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-06-27T16:40:14.000-05:00"},{"id":3442,"first_name":"Brenda","last_name":"Williams","position":"Faculty ","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The glossary is easy to use. I thought the order of the chapters was great, it flowed very well.  Each aspect of the job search and even before the job search was broken down.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Yes, I felt it was accurate and unbiased. I did notice that the author mentioned 6 items in chapter 2 but then listed bullets. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I wasn't a fan of the author using resume templates and the objectives that were popular decades ago.  With technology and the population changing, I felt a new template would have been more relatable to college students these days. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"It was easy to read. I liked the spacing and the tables within the chapters.  I did notice at the beginning it mentioned linkedin but didn't mention the point of it.  It just said to join it.  I thought it could have benefited more from videos.  One of the larger charts was not easy to read. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"It was consistent by referring back to the job search flow chart. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It makes sense to keep it as a whole unit since there is a specific order. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I thought the flow was great. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The job search process chart was not readable for me. I had to zoom in to see the words.  Otherwise, there weren't any navigation issues. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"It was written well. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"It could have used more examples for students that are shy or come from disadvantage backgrounds. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-12-30T18:22:17.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-12-30T18:22:17.000-06:00"},{"id":3607,"first_name":"Christian","last_name":"Reifsteck","position":"Assistant Director of Career Development","institution_name":"Susquehanna University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"At 514 pages, “Six Steps to Job Search Success” by Caroline Ceniza-Levine and Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio is a comprehensive overview of the job search process. It includes subjects ranging from improving self-confidence to researching companies to staying motivated on the job search.  It touches upon practically all aspects of the job search and is impressive in its scope.  However, it does not contain a table of contents, except to mention the contents in a list in text (page 3), which is essential to creating a user-friendly text that allows readers to quickly find and access information.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"While many job search principles, such as communication skills, company research basics, and interviewing techniques, are timeless, some of the content is outdated and therefore inaccurate. SuccessHawk, which the text frequently references for activities, is no longer available. The text’s information is mostly still accurate, but in some cases is a bit narrow, most notably in the attempt to create pathways for students, which is too prescriptive. The text categorizes job seekers into five categories and then recommends how each category should proceed in the job search. However, these categories and activities are too constrictive for the current world of work and therefore subject to charges of inaccuracy. The information itself also at times does not go into enough depth. For instance, changing careers is covered in two pages, while relocating is confined to three. This is a long text, though, that attempts to touch upon all aspects of the job search. With such an ambitious project, including topics beyond the job search, such as succeeding in your new job and work/life balance tips, there are bound to be areas that aren’t expanded upon. Thanasoulis-Cerrachio and Ceniza-Levine have done well to provide the basics.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Many job search topics, such as those noted above, enjoy longevity, so job searching will always be a relevant topic. Again, as noted above, some of the content, such as SuccessHawk, is outdated. Objectives are no longer used on resumes, and LinkedIn is an important networking tool that isn’t mentioned. Of course, the text is nine years old, and so cannot be expected to maintain relevancy in all aspects as technologies and tools expand and new technologies become available.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to understand, clear, and well written. The language usage is not so advanced that students would be challenged to comprehend the content, such as might be found in a scholarly journal article. The Chapter Review and Exercise sections are also a great way to check for understanding and application.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text does not have inconsistencies that distract a reader or negatively impact understanding of the content. The writing, language usage, and structure are consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text lends itself well to being divided into sections for incorporation into the classroom. Each section is short and accessible and could be used in multiple ways. It could even provide a framework of topics for generating course content. I plan to use portions of this text for supplemental reading in my own professional development courses.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are laid out in a logical sequence. However, the text jumps straight into the content without a strong introduction and therefore feels disjointed at the beginning, where it attempts to create pathways for students based on individual circumstances and scenarios, but ends up being confusing and opaque. It breaks down the job search into life circumstances:  “A successful job search begins with understanding your current life situation.” (page 30), but only breaks life situations into five categories. In addition, large topics like confidence and communication skills (Ch 2.2 and 2.3) are only addressed in a couple of pages. The information on company research was impressive for its depth, including setting up Google Alerts, but, like SuccessHawk, this information will at some point be obsolete. The overall organization of the text, though, makes sense.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The main navigation challenge is the lack of a table of contents. A table exists on the book’s Open Textbook Library site, but not in the text itself as a stand alone page with links. Aside from that, there are a few places where the text and images don’t align or the text is unreadable, and of course anything pertaining to SuccessHawk is no longer relevant.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Ceniza-Levine and Thanasoulis-Cerrachio have written a remarkably grammatically solid text. The writing itself is also very strong.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text does not appear to be culturally insensitive or offensive. However, it could benefit from an expanded worldview of workplace culture, socioeconomic backgrounds, and diversity in general. Perhaps its categorization of job seekers into five types at the text’s beginning is the clearest example of the need for more inclusivity throughout the text. I have referenced Ceniza-Levine and Thanasoulis-Cerrachio's job seeker categories multiple times in my review because its narrowness may be immediately off-putting to readers.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Thank you for the opportunity to review this text. I plan to use portions of it as supplemental reading in my own courses. While it, like any text, has its challenges, it provides an accessible introduction to many job search topics.","created_at":"2020-03-03T10:30:32.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-03-03T10:30:32.000-06:00"},{"id":5030,"first_name":"Carla","last_name":"Tobin","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Century College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook has a comprehensive overview of the job search process for students that will soon be entering the workforce. The textbook covers many reasons students may be entering the workforce, relocating, returning to the workforce, or changing careers. It is not just focused on students that have not worked before. The textbook offers information about job search, networking and, interview preparation and provides many take-aways for students.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The textbook content is very accurate compared to what I have seen on many career preparation sites. The six progressive steps for a job search is a clear and accurate process. The Success Hawk site did not work for me.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Much of the text is \"evergreen\", offering advice and tips on how to prepare for a job search and be professional. This type of information is not likely to change. Chapter 2 focuses on skills and resources students need to prepare for a job interview such as confidence, communication skills, poise, and physical resources. This information will always remain relevant. The chapter on Social Media will not remain up to date as these websites update all of the time.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The textbook is easy to read and written for students that will be entering a professional job or career. There were embedded definitions of some of the terminology, but I felt that the book could have used more of this. A glossary would be helpful.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook is very consistent with its format of the Chapters and sections. The terminology used is also consistent within all of the chapters throughout the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This textbook is easily divisible into smaller reading sections with the online version. The PDF copy has the same text, however, it is not as easy to navigate to each section. The table of contents of the online version has links to each subsection in the chapters that would allow instructors to easily incorporate only specific sections of the book into their course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The online version of the textbook has a Table of Contents that very clear. There are links to each chapter, and links to each section within the chapter. You can easily see the subjects","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The online textbook is mainly very clear and easy to read and navigate. Some of the larger images are not clear or easy to read. The link to the Success Hawk site was not working.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors in this textbook.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The interview process discussed some positive body language that may not work for all cultures.  \"Positive body language such as looking the interviewer in the eye and shaking their hand firmly when saying hello inspires trust. Poor body language can eliminate you as a potential candidate. Practice answering questions with a friend and look them straight into the eye. Smile when you talk about big goals that you have achieved. You may look away now and then, but for the most part, hold their gaze throughout the interview.\"","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This textbook would make a great addition to a course that is geared toward job search preparation or an online internship course. Many colleges are offering online office internships during the COVID pandemic. This book can be broken down and instructors can determine which chapters and subsections they would like to incorporate into their course.","created_at":"2021-06-03T08:58:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-03T08:58:38.000-05:00"},{"id":5041,"first_name":"Marva","last_name":"Solomon","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"All 12 Chapters of this book covers material that is relevant for job search. Each chapter is laid out comprehensively. The order of each chapter allows for students with none or very little job search experience to gain a good understanding of the job search process. the charts and graphs and tables are laid out in a manner that makes comprehension relatively easy to comprehend for high school students to college graduates and beyond.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book appears to be error free since I did not notice any errors. the information is accurate to the best of my knowledge. As an instructor and Career Counselor every bit of information covered in these chapters is accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book will not quickly become obsolete because it contains information that is currently being used in job search. This information in this book will also be relevant in the future with some updates. It is important to note that updates can be easily done in a relatively easy and straightforward manner. Each chapter of this book covers Learning Objectives, Key takeaways, Exercises. This format is evident through the book and make for easy updating. This book mentions relevant social media platforms that any job seeker could use in their job search process.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The terminology in this book is not at all difficult for high school students, college students and even graduate students, people looking for a job change etc., to read and comprehend. The language use here is also relevant for anyone moving into the work of professional work.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Each chapter had the same format. This consistency through the book allowed for easy reading without confusion.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book can be easily divided into smaller reading sections and can be assigned at different points within the course. Any of the topic in any of the chapters could be discussed at any point in a course without confusing the students. An instructor can easily rearrange topics in this book and still meet the learning objectives.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book is easy to follow. The chapters flow well. For example Chapter 1 offers a nice introduction about the important methods that not only students new to the world of work  can use, but also experience persons making a job change or a life change.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No noticeable interface issues. Navigation of the PDF and the Online version is relatively easy.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors detected. Each chapter was comprehensive.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is not culturally insensitive. This book can be used in a variety of cultures who are English speaking. In addition students with learning disabilities can also benefit from this book once it is tailored to suit their needs.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I most definitely recommend this book for a job search course as well as for career counselors to use when providing career services to students or adults making a career change or entering the job market","created_at":"2021-06-03T17:27:08.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-03T17:27:08.000-05:00"},{"id":34458,"first_name":"Georgia","last_name":"Karras","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Prairie State College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I like that this book takes into account students from non-traditional pathways and asking those questions about why a career change is wanted all the way to landing a job. It's also nice to see social media relevance and impact.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not see any errors and everything appears to be accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Very relevant.  The information is current including social media impact on job searching.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very easy to read.  I love numbered lists and bullets and keeping thing simple.  This nailed it.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I'm a stickler for consistency.  Nothing worse than a section written by a different author.  This had a nice even flow.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Most definitely modular.  I'm already planning on how I can reorder the chapters to suit my need.  While each chapter is not independent, it is each to catch up with each chapter topic.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Great.  It logically flows through a process to land a job and succeed.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I prefer the PDF.  It would have been icing to have a pdf with a table of contents and be able to click where I want to go.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't notice any errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I thought this worked well for every background.  This book is probably overkill for an electrician, machinist or similar, but it's easy to move past it.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed it.  I think it did a great job of addressing all parts from school to career.  I wish it would be less than 417 pages, but then something useful would have to be removed.","created_at":"2023-03-14T20:05:42.000-05:00","updated_at":"2023-03-14T20:05:42.000-05:00"},{"id":34531,"first_name":"Marlo","last_name":"Calloway","position":"Adjunct","institution_name":"Tidewater Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook covers many untapped topics that are necessary for job seekers to know today.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I'm a HR professional that coaches and mentors professionals in the same topics given in this textbook. I will know use this a resource tool for additional information to help build a career path plan.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The textbook as stated before is extremely relevant for today's student and professional looking to solidify their job search and use immediate strategies given for success.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This textbook would be a clear read for students. What I enjoy are the details and examples given to help keep the students engaged in the reading and activities.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook is consistent in terms of terminology and its framework. Student will be able to use applicable language that employers and their network would expect them to use and understand.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Yes, this textbook was well structured for module based instruction.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization and flow of this textbook reminds me of a career pathways. Each chapter flows to the next with the purpose of walking the career seeker to their end goal.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no issues with the interface.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I do not recall any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This textbook is definitely DEI appropriate.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will be using this textbook details in the SDV course for the great activities in the classroom and online.","created_at":"2023-04-26T18:59:08.000-05:00","updated_at":"2023-04-26T18:59:08.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/six-steps-to-job-search-success","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:55.000-06:00"},{"id":232,"title":"Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom (FAS: WoW) introduces you to the various aspects of student and academic life on campus and prepares you to thrive as a successful college student (since there is a difference between a college student and a successful college student). Each section of FAS: WoW is framed by self-authored, true-to-life short stories from actual State University of New York (SUNY) students, employees, and alumni. The advice they share includes a variety of techniques to help you cope with the demands of college. The lessons learned are meant to enlarge your awareness of self with respect to your academic and personal goals and assist you to gain the necessary skills to succeed in college. Foundations of Academic Success is an engaging, informational, and succinct read that connects the reader to personal essays about succeeding in college. The text allows the reader to see different perspectives of the shared experience of navigating higher education. As an adjunct lecturer teaching a course entitled “Learning to Learn,” I see the advice and life lessons discussed as both helpful and informative to many types of students. I believe that this book has a universal appeal for any classroom that is discussing the college life cycle, and would advocate using this text with students who seek out campus services, such as Career Services, Study Abroad, and Academic Advising. I also see this text applicable in the education of student leaders, peer mentors, and peer advocates at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This text goes beyond traditional Student Affairs and Student Development theories to connect the reader with real, honest, and understandable life lessons.","contributors":[{"id":3721,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Thomas","middle_name":"C.","last_name":"Priester","location":"SUNY Genesee Community College, Batavia","background_text":"Thomas C. Priester holds a Doctor of Education degree in Executive Leadership from St. John Fisher College, a Master of Science degree in Student Personnel Administration from SUNY Buffalo State, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary English Education from Fredonia (where he is also a member of the Alumni Board of Directors). Having worked previously in the areas of academic success, student life, student leadership development, orientation, academic advising, and residence life, Dr. Priester currently serves as the Director of Transitional Studies/Assistant Professor at SUNY Genesee Community College in Batavia, NY where he is also an advisor to the campus chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, the chairperson of both the Academic Assessment and the Transitional Studies Committees, and a member of both the Institutional Effectiveness and the Academic Senate Curriculum Committees. Additionally, Dr. Priester is a faculty member in the Higher Education Student Affairs Administration graduate program at SUNY Buffalo State in Buffalo, NY, has taught conversational English at Fatec Americana in Americana, São Paulo, Brazil, and has also taught Academic Success at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, NY. Dr. Priester has served as a contributing chapter author for the books: Assessing Student Learning in the Community and Two-Year College (Stylus, 2013) and Examining the Impact of Community Colleges on the Global Workforce (IGI Global, 2015) and has most recently published the open access textbook: Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom (Open SUNY Textbooks, 2015)."}],"subjects":[{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":130,"url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-15T13:37:40.000-05:00","name":"Open SUNY"}],"formats":[{"id":189,"type":"PDF","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/foundations-of-academic-success1-pdf/?tmstv=1672319660","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":190,"type":"eBook","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/foundations-of-academic-success-epub/?tmstv=1672319660","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2126,"type":"Online","url":"https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/foundations-of-academic-success/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":19,"reviews":[{"id":258,"first_name":"Lori","last_name":"Kogan","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is a carefully selected collection of personal narratives related to the college experience. The book offers such a variety of stories by authors of various backgrounds and experiences that it is likely that nearly all students will be able to personally relate to several of the writings. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"NA","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Priester does an excellent job of selecting stories that offer in-depth views of the many challenges faced by students today.\r\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is an enjoyable, easy read with no jargon or technical terminology used. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"NA","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":" It is an enjoyable read, and written in such a way that each chapter stands alone; making for an easy read between classes or in moments of down time. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"It is easy to miss the directions in the preface that ask students to consider and answer several guiding questions, and this might be better placed as Chapter 1.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"NA","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors found. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"From more ‘traditional’ challenges (e.g., fitting in, studying for class, relationships with peers and teachers), to those faced by international, minority, or GLBT students; this book has something to offer to everyone.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Using the questions in the preface as a framework, is beneficial however, as the personal stories become individual studies of success and offer support for students who might be encountering similar struggles. The book concludes by offering students the opportunity to give back by writing about their own lessons and experiences. The chance to come full circle in this capacity offers a unique aspect of learning that is too often lacking in current learning environments.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":280,"first_name":"Patrick","last_name":"Mahoney","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Upon picking up Thomas Priester’s Foundations of Academic Success one realizes this isn’t just another college survival guide, rather Priester’s text is a template for thriving while at attending university.  Using the voice of individuals having successfully navigating their college years, and some having returned to the academic life, Priester paints an intimate portrait of the real lived experience of college culture.  The contributors offer sage advice from the practical strategies for optimizing learning, managing time to the importance of creative thinking and negotiating the conflicting demands of college life.  The Foundations of Academic Success offers readers an authentic, true-to-life accounts of what lies ahead for incoming students.  Written in a rich narrative style the book does not burdened readers with uninteresting tables of dry facts or innumerable “how to” suggestions so common in survival guides.  Rather Priester takes pain to make his contributor’s voices jump-off the page and into the hearts and minds of the readers.  The text would be an excellent addition to introductory courses.  Additionally as an Open Textbook, this enjoyable and readable volume could easily be justified as standard reading for new freshmen across the country. ","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Priester’s Foundations of Academic Success introduces the reader to many narratives for success in a college setting that can be universally applied across a myriad of academic experiences, such as college readiness and study skills to getting that first job out of college.  The practical and grounded stories are replete with specific suggestions for achieving higher grades or simply navigating the maze of traps associated with campus life.  The only limitation of his text operates at the level of where some of the material comes from.  Although I found the themes throughout the text to be big and important, the narratives at times had a parochial sensibility to them.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Within the context of rising college costs and the national conversation over the relevance and value of spending tens of thousands of dollars on an undergraduate degree, Priester’s Foundations of Academic Success is timely.  As parents, students, and educators all search for ways to enhance and maximize the “university experience” a guide such as Priester’s offers a template for incoming freshmen.  From balancing the “party culture” to becoming a learner, there are plenty of proscriptions scattered throughout the stories that make-up Priester’s book. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Given that Foundations of Success is a compilation of many different viewpoints and experiences of college life, the text is cogent.  The chapters are readable, engaging, and informative.  Each topic is covered with the student in mind and all the contributors to this edited volume have a unified focus on offering insights from their specific experiences for the contemporary student.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"Despite the wide-ranging topics and contributors to Foundations of Academic Success, each chapter guides the reader down a path of practicality and common-sense recommendations for making the most of the “best years of your life”.  Whether suggesting students entertain studying abroad or how to getting along with you roommate, the authors continuously give the reader an opportunity for reflection.    ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Perhaps the greatest attribute to how Priester organized Foundations of Academic Success is the text’s modularity.  Each chapter has the potential as a stand-alone source.  As a result the introduction of chapters in Priester’s book could occur across a wide-range of courses.  This has great value when constructing a syllabus where using the entire book might not be practical.  Each short chapter is so well crafted, modulating this text would not diminish the overall goal for why Priester’s put together Foundations of Academic Success in the first place.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Priester’s Foundations of Academic Success is a “snappy” text.  While brief it’s chalk-full of ground-shaking insight.  The chapters are kept short and very readable, making the text useful as a primary course text or as an ancillary read.  Priester groups his readings across the life-history of a student, from entry to college life to making the most of this vibrant learning environment and finally finding that prized job after college.  This chronological approach is perfect in organizing the experiences that students have while at university.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The clean organizational design of Foundations of academic Success allows for seamless movement within the book.  Each chapter is clearly identified and the chapters are grouped accord to what students are likely to confront while in college. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"As an edited text Thomas Priester’s voice is secondary to the grounded and authentic experiences of those members of the academic community that Priester chooses to include in this text.  This opens-up a wide range of narratives written in a variety of grammatical ways.  Rather than detracting the reader this mix of experiences is a strength of the volume.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Peer-to-peer learning as a pedagogical strategy has become a hot topic in universities today.  The raw voices in Foundations of Academic Success creates a world the reader can enter into and engage in a personal dialogue with former students reflecting on their time in college.   ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The length of the text makes it a real possibility as an ancillary book for a wide-range of courses.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":369,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Reinke","position":"Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies","institution_name":"University of Wisconsin - Stout","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This collection of essays offer a variety of perspectives of a variety of topics related to college life. Some ideas, like getting involved on campus, are covered in a cursory manner, though offer enough information to spark good discussion among students. Some topics, like mental health and romantic relationships were either not discussed or only briefly touched upon; further discussion of these topics would make for a more comprehensive text. The index is thorough and effective. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Due to the nature of the text being personal essays, the content is accurate in the sense that it is each author's personal story. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is relevant and the information will likely be valuable for years to come, as transitioning to college will likely look similar in the future. I do think there is room for specific content related to current trends and statistics, such as the use of technology, parent-child relationships (the idea of becoming more independent), financial aid and scholarships, and the increase in diagnoses of anxiety and depression among college students. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a casual, conversational manner, that is easily accessible by the average college student. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The formatting of the book is consistent throughout. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller readings that can be assigned at different points within the course (each chapter is only about 1-2 pages). Having said that, because it is such a short book (43 pages of text), it can easily be read in its entirely in about an hour.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is free of noticeable interface issues, as there was only one visual throughout the entire book. Including more visuals like pictures, memes, comics, and charts would make this an even more enjoyable read. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no noticeable grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Because no demographic information is provided about the authors, it is difficult to determine if the perspectives provided are generalizable to the greater population. For example, since all of the authors are from the State University of New York, a student in rural Wisconsin may find some of the stories irrelevant.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"As a course resource, this book would be strengthened by the inclusion of visuals and discussion questions that prompt the reader's thinking. Also, some chapters were clearly written by professionals, while others seemed to be written by students. A brief author bio at the end of each chapter would be helpful (occupation, major, etc.)","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":423,"first_name":"Kathy","last_name":"Harowski","position":"Community faculty, advisor","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":" Foundations of academic success: Words of wisdom( FAS:WoW ) provided a range of practical and relevant snapshots and glimpses of student success from a range of expert point(s) of view( current students, alumni, faculty and advistors).  From the preface,  learners are guided into HAS:WoW by making the clear statement that the narratives and personal accounts selected for the book highlight the differences between \"being a college student and being a successful college student\".  The organizational structure and sections of the book permit one to reach only one or two specific sections ; one could see a student consulting the sections as they worked through a course or choosing sections relevant to their personal questions or concerns.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":" Don't see this category as highly relevant for FAS:WoW.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":" The personal narratives and perspectives touch on issues that are of concern to many students as they begin and navigate their college years and choices. Students are encouraged to send in their own story as well so as a reader , one can see that this book can be updated with some frequency as new stories of challenges and challenges met are made available.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Did not see this as most relevant for FAS:WoW. As a reader, I would comment that the writing was clear and well edited.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Do not see this as most relevant for this book. There is a sense of progression provided by the organization of the narratives.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"see comment above. The book can be entered in for a specific section that needs review or development for a student OR could be incorporated into a course that would utilize all sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"see comments above","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"not relevant","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":" This reader did not see any significant grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book incorporated narratives and personal accounts from a range of diverse points of view as well as highlighting the important of developing an awareness and respect for cultural diversity as an important part of the college experience.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":" As an advisor, I appreciated the book offering first person accounts of how to succeed and helping to show students how their peers have navigated college and learning bumps and challenges. ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1033,"first_name":"Colice","last_name":"Sanders","position":"Adjunct Instructor and Advising Specialist","institution_name":"University of Northern Iowa","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Each essay offers a wealth of important information and a breadth of commonly reviewed key areas pertaining to first-year student experiences.  The essay format provides a personal approach to discussing the common obstacles and challenges for first-year students.  The textbook does not identify the core principles of first-year experience curriculum.  Each essay implicitly covers first-year student curriculum, but is not explicitly linked to research based principles.  Essay content should be summarized with the main points identified in addition to recommendations for further resources.  The lack of a detailed table of contents, section/essay introductions and summaries may make it difficult for the reader to connect and apply specific content discussed within the textbook.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Perhaps the textbook’s greatest strength is in its diversity of thoughts, experiences and identity groups. The essays do a great job of representing how intersecting identities can be both a challenge and a strength for students from various backgrounds.  There are multiple essays from the voices of first generation students and students of color.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom has the potential to be a powerful and affirming tool for first-year college students.  By placing student experiences at the center of how to be successful, the authors invite readers to consider their personal strengths and challenges in navigating college experiences.  The textbook utilizes a collection of subjective narrative essays to explore the challenges and opportunities of college. The guidance offered in the student narratives is practical and grounded in research based recommendations for first year student success.  The textbook could be easily updated to reflect new trends and developments in higher education.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The essays are written in accessible and comprehendible language.  The narratives identify college specific jargon and explain its meaning or significance.  However, the concepts discussed in the narrative essays would be more effective if they were placed within the researched based principles of first-year curriculum","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"Book lacks a framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook is divided into three sections.  There are five essays in each section for a total of fifteen essays. The three sections are a manageable reading load and the number of essays following each section is appropriate for processing the ideas presented.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Each section has an ambiguous title.  There is no evidence of a logical reasoning for organizing the sections and essays in the manner in which they are presented.  Each section is not defined and students are not reconnected to how or why the individual essay falls within the section.","interface_rating":1,"interface_review":"The textbooks contains only words. The interface is extremely simple and lacks any visual stimulation. The lack of color, images, and charts may make it difficult for students to remain engaged.  Specific terms and words related to first year student curriculum should be bolded, emphasized and reprinted at the end of the chapter for easy reference.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Perhaps the textbook’s greatest strength is in its diversity of thoughts, experiences and identity groups. The essays do a great job of representing how intersecting identities can be both a challenge and a strength for students from various backgrounds.  There are multiple essays from the voices of first generation students and students of color.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1048,"first_name":"Julia","last_name":"Capewell","position":"Director of the Learning Center,PhD. ","institution_name":"Virginia Wesleyan College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"\nBook of essays revealing different attitudes of attending college. Although this text is not traditional for an Academic Success class, there lies its power. Instructors of basic skills classes everywhere know how to teach study skills, but often at a loss to teach motivation. The essays presented in this book address what you should know about college, but also has a very strong focus on why should anyone go to college. The book addresses many situations and many voices of people who have learned to be successful in college. They did indeed learn the importance of time management and study skills, but more importantly they spoke about how they framed their changes in thought that helped them succeed.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy is not really an issue here, because the essays presented are biased to students' views and experiences in college. The essays are accurate to the individuals' impressions.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up to date. An example is the themes of diversity come up repeatedly as students are exposed to student differences and/or experience the chance to find an identity and fit in. Other topics are ones that nearly every student will encounter when they begin college: exploring values and interests, trying on new experiences and extra curricular activities, enduring financial hardships,\nand generally finding out about themselves. I believe this book will be useful for quite a long time considering it is written by actual students with actual experiences making a huge transition in their lives.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Even though their were many voices represented in the individual essays, the essays were clear. Some of the essays were more interesting, but that appeared to me to be more of a topic issue. This text would not be a difficult read for beginning college students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book was consistent in its presentation of essays from students experiencing college. The topics and voices are different, but because they also addressed one major theme. This format worked because these writers appear to be writing about a near, rather than distant past. Their examples are not authoritative, but based on experiences and what they thought would be helpful to a new student. I believe beginning students would certainly be more apt to read this book to its completion because the essays are peer written. They are about new environments and transition. A new student would also want to know what they might experience in their advancing years. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity of this text is obvious. The instructor could assign certain essays for the students for the entire semester. He/she may also want to present different essays as they are related to certain themes and assignments that come up in class. The essays could even be divided and used by students to summarize and make presentations. Reorganization is not an issues because the topics are diverse although related to a common theme.\n\nThere were no annoying or self","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The book does have some flow problems. They are caused, I believe by the editor's decision to put the essays into three categories. Each essays addresses more than one identifiable experience, so it is very difficult to attach one theme to 3 or 4 of the essays. The classifications/titles are not clear to me either. They are written in a \"hip, jargon\" way that was really obscure and distracting when I reviewed the index page.\n\nSince the themes are presented as they were written, occasionally ESL and language differences are noticeable. Rather than being confusing, however, they make the essays more interesting because they demonstrate how a student feels interacts in a culture that in far from their own.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This text does not have navigation problems except that it is divided into three non-representative parts. It contains no charts or other distracting additions. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are occasional errors in sentence structure and organization but this was a choice by the editor to keep the voices of the writers authentic. These errors actually personalize the essays, not distract from them.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There are frequent issues and situations that pertain to acceptance and diversity. Some of the essays relate that challenge made them question and become more aware of their values. Sexuality, race, vocational obstacles and even critical thinking are addressed. This book is culturally relevant too because it is written by a diverse group of students. They speak about expanding their views of other people and shedding their prejudices. Some students, on the other hand are speaking about what it feels like to be a minority. The essays would certainly align with what students in a class may currently be experiencing.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"When first reading this book, I was a little hesitant to embrace its format of purely essays. As I read it for the second time, I tried to place myself back in the time when I just started college.  As I read the essays, I realized a lot of information would have been good to know before I filled out my applications. All current or ex-college students can find issues in this text that become personal to them upon reflection. The book left me with the really good feeling that students would be encourage to finish college despite hardships. When I reflected on the essays, I often found myself thinking, \"Yes, if I knew that when...\" ","created_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1171,"first_name":"Marva","last_name":"Solomon","position":"Counselor/Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College Eugene, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"These personal stories provided a unique style of introducing all college students to the value of utilizing college resources, networking and sorting out career goals.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This textbook is right on point with guiding and encouraging students to utilize strategies offered in order to be a successful college student in their academic and social life.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Every chapter in this textbook is relevant to the day to day challenges that college students experience on a daily basis. This textbook could be relevant for years to come.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Each chapter of this textbook could not have done a better job at laying out the guidelines for making it possible for college students to have a positive experience from their freshman year to their senior year. In essence this book can be used as a great retention tool for students in their respective colleges","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook was consistent with it's theme for being successful in college and in life.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are appropriately lined up by topic.The last five chapters should stay together as they basically covering  topics related to career development.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The order in which each chapter is presented is good. however any chapter could have been the first or last.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Although this book do not have worksheets, charts, pictures,graphs, statistic or focus questions, it serves it's intended purpose well. Students will be able to readily grasp the information and concepts well enough to enhance their college experience. They will find this book to be enjoyable reading.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No major grammatical errors except for a small grammatical error in the Chapter Practice Practice  Practice -  See Sub title Internships see -third line of this paragraph.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This is a well rounded book. It allows first year students, first generation in college students , as well as students from diverse backgrounds to gain insight about being a successful college student.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This easy to read book is a good manual for students to use as a tool for being successful in college and in life.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1214,"first_name":"Kay","last_name":"Walsh","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"In this text, personal narratives spark awareness of key issues important to entering college students. It is both a starting point and challenge to critical thinking. To ask if this text is comprehensive is like to ask how many rain drops are in a cloud. Each student’s experience is unique in an ever-changing world. However, this text touches on many important issues common to most college students. The design reminds me of the saying, “Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The narratives are accurate in that each story reflects a personal experience. As such, they are true for whoever wrote them and they speak to the common experience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The current text covers relevant issues which will be relevant for years to come; however, it is designed to be easily updated.  Some issues such as studying, roommates and distractions are classic. The mention of a things such as a communal phone (“land lines”) or facebook will date the writer but not the shared theme. I see this as a fluid text that will redefine itself along the way.  Due to the format, updates will be relatively easy.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The individual narratives are informal, yet well written.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The consistency comes through individuals sharing  issues common to entering college students. `All point to the main objective.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into three general areas with short narratives with in each area. This organization is appropriate and useful to the subject area.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is a clear document which has been well planned. It is divided into the following three sections: \n\nPart One: YOUR Solid foundation (what can be learned from the past)\nPart Two: YOU are the president and CEO of YOU (present) \nPart Three: The future of YOU (planning for the future by what you do today)","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The organization has been well planned and executed. It is logical and easy to read.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text culturally relevant.  The inclusion of topics such a race and gender as an individual experience is appropriate and well done. It is presented in a natural way that college students will find helpful in understanding themselves and others.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom is a viable and compelling text. The approach to the subject provides a positive role model for reflection and critical thinking in personal experience.  College students will be motivated to read these short, relevant narratives. \n\nThe preface is important preparation for using the text and should be read by all. An instructor may set the tone and provide questions to discuss; however, if using it as a personal study, there needs to be more direction for the student. It would be helpful for the student to have accompanying questions or some space to journal. Overall, I recommend this text highly.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1934,"first_name":"Lesley","last_name":"Dorhout","position":"Instructor/Educational Advisor College Success Program","institution_name":"University Of Cincinnati Clermont College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text highlights various first-year student issues through narration.  WIthin each personal story is an opportunity for students to engage with topics that often interfere with success.  While the text covers the major struggles of college students, it does not provide opportunities to practice the skills.  Instead, it is a springboard for critical thinking and an individual call to action.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Because the book is based on personal stories, believability is the precursor for accuracy.  Are the stories within believable?  Yes.  Are the techniques each author used accurate?  For that person, yes.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is relevant, as evidenced in the narrative of online job searches.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The stories within are easy to follow and quite enjoyable.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Each story is self-authored, and there are multiple levels of writing ability present.  However, the framework and intent of the book are consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easy to divide into modules, in fact each story presents a module within itself.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization was student-centered.  It began with the early decisions new students must make, then closes with searching for jobs and becoming a lifelong learner.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface was quite simple.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Any grammar errors within were not noticeable during a first read and did not interfere with the readability of the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text was an enjoyable book written by both students and professionals.    ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2346,"first_name":"Phillip","last_name":"Olt","position":"Assistant Professor of Higher Education Student Affairs","institution_name":"Fort Hays State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"At times, this read more like a series of motivational speeches rather than practical insights to being successful. Certainly that positive thinking is important; however, there are many factors that significantly affect a students’ academic performance that were not addressed. For example, financial planning is perhaps one of the most important. If a student ends up taking on too much debt, s/he may quit completely; if a student is unaware of the full costs, s/he may end up working too many hours and not have time for coursework.   ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"There is nothing apparently wrong. That being said, it is unclear how much of the content can be carried over to the experiences of students at different institutions (exs. community college or rural). In that sense, it is biased toward the small sample of students from this one institutional perspective. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This book would be an excellent textbook for a freshman orientation-type class. It is easy to read and engaging for that population.\r\nSome of the cultural references (for example, to movies) will become dated quickly, and the URLs in the text will also likely not all work soon (as website hierarchies change frequently).","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is accessible and well-written for the intended audience (rising or current college freshmen).","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"For the purpose and approach to the book, the text is consistent. Different authors wrote on various topics, so there is a degree of purposeful variance.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The divisions of the content are in small chunks of distinct content, appropriate for its intended use in a freshman seminar course. Freshmen would make quick work of the short readings, affording them more time to ruminate on lessons they could glean from the short chapters.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The three section titles and the chapter titles are not especially helpful or descriptive of the content. The section organization was not particularly strong. Though an edited volume from numerous authors, the chapter content was too disjointed to provide coherence within each section. Perhaps the best way to improve this would be for the main author to add a short preface at the start of each section to explain the theme of the section and how each chapter fits.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No problems, but there is nothing visually appealing about the book. It is 100% text, except for a meme in the first chapter.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Well written and edited.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book does not have problems with being culturally offensive; however, it was also not specifically clear that it was inclusive either. There were a few references to diverse populations, but they seemed incidental.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Again, this book would be a valuable resource in a freshman seminar-type course. Having been written largely from the student perspective, the text is very relatable to the target audience. Additional work to polish the organization and bring coherence would take this from reading like a series of loosely-associated student essays into a quality edited book.","created_at":"2018-10-29T08:28:41.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-10-29T08:28:41.000-05:00"},{"id":2851,"first_name":"Nancy","last_name":"Everson","position":"Senior Assistant Dean of Students \u0026 Director of Academic Enrichment Programs","institution_name":"College of William \u0026 Mary","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text explores many topics first-year students would encounter. The use of narration by students and administrators, some many years removed from the college student experience, provides a diverse range of voices. Topics are not connected to research-based topics,  or even \"best practices\" in the field, but that is not the intent of this book. Therefore, the absence of an index to searchable topics is not a flaw.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is comprised of individual voices telling stories of their college experiences. The narratives, however, are based on each author's memories that are subject to modification from the passage of time. In general, the sentiment expressed in every story in this text has the ring of truth. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Topics discussed in the book are relevant and not filled with current jargon. The format would be easy to update by the addition to or substitution of essays that represent new issues in higher education. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The essays in this text reflect different levels of writing ability, but none that any first-year student would find difficult to understand. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The various levels of writing ability for different essays made the read a little disjointed, however, the basic framework was easy to follow. Consistent terminology was not necessary because each essay could stand on its own. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This would be an excellent text for an extended orientation program, perhaps used by resident assistants with their assigned first-year student groups. Each weekly group meeting could focus on one very easily read essay from the first section that would be discussed in a 30-45 minute session. The second and third sections could be reviewed in subsequent semesters.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the text is very basic and easy to follow. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The lack of images in the text serves to keep the focus on the voices of the narrators, rather than trying to capture the interest of the reader though charts and images. This is an unusual technique in a student success text. However, in this case, rather than capturing the attention of readers through those techniques, the absence of images permits the reader to focus on the storyteller voices and encourages self-reflection. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text appears is well edited and no grammatical errors are obvious.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text present voices from a variety of backgrounds. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This text is most suitable for use in discussion-based settings. The book does not include exercises, therefore it would be most useful for sessions with a moderator, instructor, or peer leader/coach to lead discussions. Also, with the recent uptick in peer-academic coaching programs, using this text to provide essays for discussion would help break the ice during goal-setting meetings. A few other essays are appropriate for discussion-based consultations with returning academic probation students, helping to normalize areas where not only they, but most students, struggle, and helping the students identify personal avenues to success. Overall, this text is a good addition to the academic success library. ","created_at":"2019-04-26T21:12:32.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-26T21:12:32.000-05:00"},{"id":3542,"first_name":"Joel","last_name":"Hanlon","position":"Director New Student and Family Programs ","institution_name":"Radford University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom is a great resource not only for students but also for anyone who is working with first-year students.  Making the transition to college is different for each student this helps put many relevant topics into perspective for those that might be working with new students.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is error-free and informative. It highlights personal experiences.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The topics discussed will be topics that students will go through for the long term.  Each story shares various perspectives that should resonate with each reader.  I believe this has relevance to student leaders, faculty, adjunct, student affairs professionals, and even families during orientation.  This book could highlight transitional issues and tips for helping guide their student through the various college offices. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and easy to follow.  It contains great information but is not so complex that it requires research to understand topics discussed.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framework are consistent throughout and make for smooth transitions through complex student issues.  Authors have similar messages and the voice of student success stays at the forefront throughout. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into three parts as students make transitions \r\nPart One Solid Foundation \r\nPart Two You are the President and CEO of You\r\nPart Three The Future You","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Each part of the text reflects the transition issues in chronological order that students typically face as they transition to college and through the college experience.  Not every student transitions in these ways but the vast majority experience at least one of the topics discussed.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate it does not contain any charts or images. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The only issue I noticed was when I printed the text in a few spots some text was cut off at the end.  I could not tell if it was a product of my printer or the text.  It does not diminish the message and the work. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not offensive and does not contain any incentive material. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"As someone who deals often with students in transition, this book is a great starting point for conversation.  I believe that each institution experiences these transitions differently.  This book would be great for training new faculty, working with family members of first-generation college students to help educate families on what their student could experience.  It's a quick read with good information.  I recommend this book. ","created_at":"2020-01-28T10:14:59.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-28T10:14:59.000-06:00"},{"id":3843,"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Murphy","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Middlesex Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers many aspects of college life and challenges. However, I would say rather than covering all areas of college life it facilitates the reader in finding more areas to explore on their own.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is really opinion based thus the accuracy of the subject is in the eyes of the reader rather than checking facts.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is both timely and timeless which makes it relevant to college students and high school students as well.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The \"case studies\" in the text are well written and easy to follow.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The consistency of the organization of the text is part of the appeal of the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is a very comfortable read. One is propelled to continue to read because the reader wants to know what the next contributor will discuss and give insight into for the future.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The three parts of the text, Part One: Your Solid Foundation, Part Two: You are the President and CEO of You, Part Three: The Future You bring the reader along on a journey of self reflection. I found the organization of the text to flow quite effectively.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free of interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammatical structure of the test is sound however there were several spelling errors throughout the text. The nature of the errors appear to be dropped letters at the end of words.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"In my opinion, the stories told by the contributors are inclusive and there are examples of this throughout the text.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom text is one that I feel would appeal to a great majority of students at any point during college. The entries in the text are insightful, well expressed, and represent a variety of entry points into the subject for students. Each contributor’s insight into their college experiences are easy to identify with and hopefully learn from going forward.","created_at":"2020-05-27T12:17:55.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-05-27T12:17:55.000-05:00"},{"id":3897,"first_name":"Denise","last_name":"Cady Arbeau","position":"Professor","institution_name":"North Shore Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Through the use of personal essays, this text addresses all the major themes of a First Year Experience course, including time management, career planning, identity as a 'college student', and studying and listening skills.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is comprised of personal essays written by students, faculty and staff members about their college experiences.  Though not a traditional text with facts and figures and tables and graphs, the information relayed in the essays is accurate and appropriate for the first-year student audience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"All the themes discussed in the essays in this text speak to the fears, worries and concerns of all incoming college students, and most importantly, they offer advice about how to allay those fears and worries.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is accessible because the essays are written by real people about real experiences.  There is no jargon to wade through.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"All the essays follow the same accessible pattern of readability.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Since the text is divided into sections and then further broken into individual personal essays, an instructor could easily mix and match material to suit their needs.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is organized in a simple way.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There is nothing here to distract the reader from enjoying the text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"It seemed like the essays were written by a wide variety of people from different backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I would use this book in my First Year Experience course as an accessible and enjoyable way to introduce major topics of the course.","created_at":"2020-06-02T12:05:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-02T12:05:58.000-05:00"},{"id":3932,"first_name":"Lianna","last_name":"McGowan","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Valencia College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text addresses some of the major topics in student success curriculums, including time management, goal setting and co-curricular engagement. However, each is a personal essay from one student's perspective. The conversational, personal and brief pieces are more akin to journal entries than academic texts. It is not organized into chapters but themes and articles range from one to five pages. They could be used independently, even as a prompt for student reflections in the course.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Since each piece is autobiographical and anecdotal, accuracy is not based on research or topical content. Each piece seems to be factual and based on real-life experience. Content is error free.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Information is general enough to be relevant despite technological and institutional changes. The section on diversity and inclusion is age-appropriate but may lack depth depending on course content. Since each chapter can be used separately, instructors can ensure relevance easily and quickly.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Text is clearly written, does not use jargon and uses vocabulary appropriate for entry-level college students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Each chapter should be considered individually to determine whether it aligns with specific course curriculum. They each use correct grammar and spelling although sophistication and depth varies greatly.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The course is organized for modular use and can be evaluated and distributed easily. Chapters can be broken apart without concern for scaffolding or pre-knowledge.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Book is organized based on general themes rather than content type. The section on preparation and college success skills is \"Your Solid Foundation\" and goal exploration is under \"The Future You\". Some entires have titles that include specific topics but instructors can easily browse the main points within the short text.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Interface is standard and text is easy to read and understand. Images are not uniform and formatted inconsistently but are not distorted. Page numbers are clear, as are sub-headings and use of text formatting.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No obvious errors but each entry should be evaluated independently. Since they are written in a conversational format, instructors should verify they represent college-level standards of their own class and institution.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Text is not cultural insensitive or offensive. Some of the personal essays include the impact of their own race, ethnicity and background impacted their experience in college. Particular strengths are non-traditional students and mental health.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text could be used to enhance content knowledge and model student reflections. There are prompts included which could be used in class discussions or assignments.","created_at":"2020-06-08T15:31:09.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-08T15:31:09.000-05:00"},{"id":3975,"first_name":"Aly","last_name":"Badran","position":"PhD Candidate, Aerospace Engineering","institution_name":"University of Colorado Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is a good resource for academic success in general, not just for first year college students, some topics could also be applicable to returning graduate students. The text does cover diverse areas but it is difficult to address all challenges met by college students. There is an effective index at the forefront of the text, while the chosen titles are catchy, it could have helped to clarify what the sections meant.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Most of the content of this class are opinions of people about success, so the measure of accuracy might be debatable here. Otherwise, there are no grammatical mistakes and the text is very easy to read. One thing to note, there were numerous spelling mistakes found in the PDF typeset of this book. Maybe it is a PDF conversion compilation issue. Page9, “during the during the” Page11, “How to efficientl” and “differntl”. Several other mistakes on the same line.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and relevant and will continue to be relevant for years to come. If there is one thing that could be added to enhance relevance, is a discussion on how to deal with online settings of college education. I am not sure how easy it is to implement this last point.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is very clear and accessible. The messages are provided in adequate context without any jargon/technical terminology used. This is due to the conversational language of the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The formatting is consistent throughout the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text could be split in small reading sections assigned at different points in a class. Although, I think the text is easily readable in one assignment. It would be nice to have advice on how to apply this book in a class setting.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a clear fashion with a good chronological order.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The navigation of this book was easy. One thing could be improved, although not necessary and depends on personal preferences, is to number the chapters and the subsections. “The Student Experience” image was pixelated in the pdf.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were found. Only some spelling mistakes were found in the PDF typeset of this book. Maybe it is a PDF conversion compilation issue.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The examples in the text are general enough to include and not be of offense to any race, ethnicity, culture or background.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-06-11T16:44:02.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-11T16:44:02.000-05:00"},{"id":4316,"first_name":"M.","last_name":"Barrey","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text provides an effective index which is easy to navigate and is a good supplemental material to a more traditional text with concepts and theories.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content is based on personal experiences. Some comes with advice to the readers and may contain common assumptions and personal biases.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is written in a way few updates and revisions are necessary in the near future. Many stories are relevant to college students and some contain universal experiences.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is a good beginner text for new students and requires little background knowledge.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The content is consistent and organized well.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each story can be used as a discussion or writing prompt. The sections are nice and short and are easily divisible.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are relevant and pleasant to read. They are presented in a clear fashion.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The PDF version contains only one graphic and is text heavy. No navigation issues were detected.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Minor errors were present.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text covers stories from people with various backgrounds. They include perspectives to which many people can relate.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-08-13T18:44:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-08-13T18:44:38.000-05:00"},{"id":33929,"first_name":"Carissa","last_name":"Johnson","position":"Adjunct faculty, First Year Experience","institution_name":"Anoka-Ramsey Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers multiple areas of student success, all told through the personal stories of former students. The division of the book into three sections helps to organize the content in a way that takes the reader through the multiple phases of the student experience: building a solid foundation, becoming the author of one's own success, and looking to the future with newly acquired wisdom and skillsets. This layout is outlined clearly in the table of contents and its reasoning explained in detail in the forward.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"As this book is a resource presented through the personal memoirs of former college students, accuracy or inaccuracy may not be applicable. The stories are  those of individuals navigating the college experience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This books really excels in its delivery of relevant information relating to student success and would be very beneficial to first year students, especially those that are first-generation or are coming into the academic pipeline without a family member or mentor in their life who can tell of their own college experience and the challenges and victories that come with it. Some example from these personal stories includes include FERPA/data privacy and navigating parent expectations about rights to information, the experience of taking a first online course, procrastination and how it can lead to failed grades, fixed mindset and growth mindset, dealing with anxiety and mental health as a new student, examining one's support network when friends and family don't relate to the choice to attend college, the path from academic probation to honor society invitation, and managing not only time but also energy. The personal journey of each of these authors tells this experience far better than traditional textbooks, and the authenticity of each is an absolute joy to read.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written clearly even through multiple authors' perspectives. Any jargon used was explained in terms that a student would understand-the book does a great job in speaking to the intended audience and meeting the reader where they are at.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book follows the format it is intended to-the memoirs are clearly laid out in a consistent order and in the appropriate section outlined in the beginning of the text. A reader would not have difficulty understanding the flow of the resources and stories provided.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"While this book is likely to have a stronger impact when read chronologically and in its entirety, it would not lose any depth or meaning if the individual stories within the text were used alone or paired with other readings or lessons tailored to specific learning outcomes. In addition, this would be an easy task for faculty hoping to spotlight only certain areas.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book follows a logical order and maintains fluidity in reading. There is nothing that would break a reader's focus; they would likely become more deeply engaged as they continues to read,","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Not applicable-there is almost no imagery/visual content-it is not relevant oi this type of writing and would potentially interrupt flow of reading.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical errors in this book.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Excellent-this book includes real examples from diverse students. Some examples include a student's experience upon moving into an affluent and predominantly white college and experiencing unintended microaggressions as well as ignorant questions, what its like to stand out/be different and become the student resource for diversity )not by choice), having honest conversations and learning to take part in these-challenging one's own notions of world and people, what its like to come out in college, and finding one's own spiritual identity accepting of the whole self. These stories come from students of different ethnic backgrounds, students studying in other countries, and students who learned the value of intercultural exchange. Multiple cultural views are represented.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a compilation of inspiring stories in which former students share their trials and tribulations and personal narratives. The stories are relatable and able to convey the actual student experience in a way that traditional content-based resources cannot. Many of these contain valuable lessons of growth, re-evaluation of personal mindset, regrets and advise for future students, feelings of doubt, and ultimately how all of these things come full circle in the attainment of individual success and contentment from the experiences good and bad. We are see this happen as educators and celebrate these moments along with our students with intense joy and sometimes a few tears. For the student in their first semester, afraid for so many reasons that they aren’t going to make it, let this tell a different narrative. I will likely incorporate this great resources into my own classes.","created_at":"2022-06-23T19:27:34.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-06-23T19:27:34.000-05:00"},{"id":35413,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Morthland","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Southern Illinois University Carbondale","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is designed for college students, particularly those new to the college experience.  It is formatted as a series of personal essays that are short and approachable in language style, yet help to connect readers with many topics that are part of a college experience.  It is not designed as a \"how to\" book, it is designed as a thought/conversation starter text.  When viewed from that standpoint it is quite comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is a collection of personal essays/narratives.  Thus, the content is not necessarily about the technical accuracy of the information, it is about the breadth of student/human experience and how each narrative allows for a wide variety of possible student experiences to resonate with the essay authors own experiences.  Most essays did a good job of showcasing self-reflection and growth as the undergirding for whatever aspect or approach being discussed.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"In reading the essays I felt that there was a good start to a wide range of personal experience that could be approachable for several different types of students.  I did find myself wishing at times that there was a bit more variety of tone and experience available in some of the sections.  However, because this is an open-source text it lends itself to combining with other similar essays and/or essays created by your own students that might thicken the diversity of the viewpoints expressed.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"As stated in a previous review point.  The text is formatted as a series of personal essays that are short and approachable in language style, yet help to connect readers with many topics that are part of a college experience.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is very consistent in the use of personal essays for each topical area and in providing multiple view points/perspectives within each of these topic areas.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The simple organization of the essays into three main \"categories\" or \"themes\" provides an easy framework that can be built upon and expanded upon as needed for an individual class and/or instructor's teaching style.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The essays are clear in and of themselves; however, they feel as if they are intended to be \"built upon\" by the instructor (using various methods such as discussion, personal reflection, etc.) to help students connect more overtly with some of the core ideas being addressed in the personal essays.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to read and flows well.  There are minimal images/charts/links which simplifies the reading process.  However, if greater visual emphasis/variety is desired the open source format does allow for that to occur.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I saw only a few typographical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This is a difficult question to answer because there is a wide spectrum of what can be taken as \"offensive\" or \"insensitive\" by any given individual.  However, nothing stood out as particularly offensive or insensitive during my reading.  Additionally, the text does reference a variety of races, ethnicities and backgrounds which, once again, could be easily built upon by an instructor as needed given the open source platform.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2025-03-20T12:04:33.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-03-20T12:04:33.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/foundations-of-academic-success-words-of-wisdom","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:31:26.000-06:00"},{"id":247,"title":"Writing In College: From Competence to Excellence","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Writing in College is designed for students who have largely mastered high-school level conventions of formal academic writing and are now moving beyond the five-paragraph essay to more advanced engagement with text. It is well suited to composition courses or first-year seminars and valuable as a supplemental or recommended text in other writing-intensive classes. It provides a friendly, down-to-earth introduction to professors' goals and expectations, demystifying the norms of the academy and how they shape college writing assignments. Each of the nine chapters can be read separately, and each includes suggested exercises to bring the main messages to life. Students will find in Writing in College a warm invitation to join the academic community as novice scholars and to approach writing as a meaningful medium of thought and communication. With concise discussions, clear multidisciplinary examples, and empathy for the challenges of student life, Guptill conveys a welcoming tone. In addition, each chapter includes Student Voices: peer-to-peer wisdom from real SUNY Brockport students about their strategies for and experiences with college writing. While there are many affordable writing guides available, most focus only on sentence-level issues or, conversely, a broad introduction to making the transition. Writing In College, in contrast, provides both a coherent frame for approaching writing assignments and indispensable advice for effective organization and expression.","contributors":[{"id":3033,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Amy","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Guptill","location":"SUNY Brockport","background_text":"Amy Guptill is an Associate Professor of Sociology at The College at Brockport, SUNY where she has a joint appointment with the Delta College Program, an alternative interdisciplinary General Education option. Her research focuses on spatial and structural shifts in agriculture and food systems with recent work on innovative agricultural marketing. She teaches courses in the sociology of food, development and globalization, community and social change, social statistics and college writing. In addition to Writing In College: From Competence to Excellence, she is the coauthor of a recent college textbook entitled Food \u0026 Society: Principles and Paradoxes (Malden, MA: Polity, 2012)."}],"subjects":[{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"},{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":137,"url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-15T13:38:10.000-05:00","name":"Open SUNY"}],"formats":[{"id":198,"type":"PDF","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/writing-in-college/?tmstv=1672250464","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":199,"type":"eBook","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/writing-in-college-2/?tmstv=1672250464","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":200,"type":"Online","url":"https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":45,"reviews":[{"id":480,"first_name":"Stephen","last_name":"Maley","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Washington","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text does not cover all of the topics included in most writing manuals or guides to college writing. Rather, it aims to cover those writing skills and practices that will enable students with a solid high school preparation to “join the conversation” of academic research and writing.\n\nThe text does not include an index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found one error in the text. On page 53, a paragraph is revised to improve coherence, with “relevant parts emboldened.” But, in the relevant paragraph there was no bold typeface, either in the PDF or online version.\n\nI did not find any political bias in the text.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is up-to-date. To illustrate the spreading usage of they/their for the third person singular pronoun, the text cites posting instructions from Facebook, ie, “write on their timeline.”\n\nThe text will likely need to be updated regularly to maintain relevance, and to update web links.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to read. Terms like cohesion and coherence are explained and illustrated well.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework used throughout the text is that academic writing is part of a conversation. This framework is obvious in the title of Chapter 5: “Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources.” The first two chapters also fit into this framework as students are encouraged to ask for clarification from their professors if an assignment is not clear. The later chapters on writing organization and mechanics discuss the impression these have on readers, again fitting into the framework of a conversation.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I could imagine using any of the latter chapters on a stand-alone basis. The chapter on paragraph construction is particularly helpful for its concise explanation of topic sentences, cohesion, and coherence.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text begins by addressing student motivations and possible misconceptions regarding college writing. The middle chapters explain how to engage with sources when writing a research paper. And the latter chapters explain principles of good writing.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"All of the hyperlinks that I tried worked.  The text includes no images or charts.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The only grammatical errors I found in the text were those meant to illustrate certain grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"In the context of gendered pronouns, the text emphasizes the importance of respecting differences among people.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reading the text!","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":490,"first_name":"Anthony","last_name":"Edgington","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of Toledo","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, the text is good but could be improved on comprehension.  The text is divided into chapters that model the writing process, making it easy for both students and teachers to use throughout a writing project.  The text contains a good discussion of argument, offering specific examples and hypothetical situations to explore during classroom discussions.  The text is also strong when it comes to discussions on research writing, devoting a few chapters to the topic and looking at research from multiple perspectives (though a stronger focus on researching in an online environment would be useful in the text).  The book is not as strong when it comes to introducing students to genres, as the book leans to a \"one size fits all\" approach to writing at times.  For programs that stress an awareness of genres, teachers will need to supplement the text with additional information.  Finally, there is little information on writing in technological environments or a discussion of the importance of visual literacy in writing.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text is highly accurate in the information presented on the writing process, research writing, argument, and other key areas.  The citations offered are up to date and recognizable in the field of writing studies.  The only concern is information presented on citation (i.e. MLA and APA) as this information undergoes rapid change at times (as of the writing of this review, the MLA has just announced sweeping changes in how sources will be cited in the future).  Make sure that this information is continually up-to-date will be necessary going forward.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content provided in the text is mostly up-to-date, with the aforementioned citation information the only major concern.  The content provided is highly relevant and useful for a first year writing course and may be useful in a second semester research writing course as well.  The course would not be as useful to an upper-level writing course, business or technical writing course, or WAC course.   Information in the research chapters may need to be updated as new forms of sources and new citation methods emerge in the field.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is well written for a student audience; terms and ideas are clearly defined and examples are offered to help student writers understand the information.  The book is text heavy (with little visual information) which could lead to a lack of attention or interest among students.  The exercises offered at the end of the chapters are clear and understandable and help to reinforce the main points from the text.  The book also uses bullets and numbering effectively to help organize the information presented.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in the information presented to readers.  The structure of the text into chapters based on different areas of the writing process helps with this consistency.  The vocabulary and tone of voice throughout the text is also consistent.  The use of subheadings helps readers follow the organization within the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is well organized into clearly marked chapters that focus on separate, yet connected topics.  One drawback is that the text is currently one PDF; having the chapters available as separate PDFs may help instructors to make better decisions on what to use from the book and may be easier to organize the book within the course.  As currently designed, students will have to do a lot of scrolling through the text to find different chapters and/or topics.  No self-referential material was noticed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized well into chapters with subheadings.  Chapter topics are clear and connect well to the field's views on the writing process.  The book is not written in a way that will be confusing to teachers or students.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is mostly in a PDF format, so it is easy to navigate.  Visual are clear and readable.  The text includes hyperlinks to outside sources, which will be useful to teachers and students.  The need to continually check hyperlinks for disabled or moved links will be necessary.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No significant grammar errors were noticed.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text does not contain any apparent issues related to cultural insensitivity.  Issues of race, ethnicity, gender etc are rarely discussed in the text, which can be seen as a possible problem, as the book does not discuss the social aspects of writing to a great extent.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":501,"first_name":"Amy","last_name":"Friedman","position":"Asst. Professor","institution_name":"Temple University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book has a good, broad approach to many aspects of composing first-year college essays. The examples used throughout clearly indicate the author's awareness of the intricacies of a Writing Across the Curriculum approach, as they draw on many disciplines. It seems that it would be difficult for a student who reads this book not to make some self-aware improvements in approaching college-level work.The text does a thorough job of considering how college-level work requires specific skill sets, and requires labor to advance from high school level writing, reading, and analysis.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no major errors, and applaud an error-free text.\nThere is at least one weird superscript -- see \"etiology\" in Chapter  6 -- the superscript comes at an odd place -- before the word is used. I'd review to make sure those superscripts appear at the best place for the student reader.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book will be useful for a while. It deals in depth with the obstacles students perceive in learning how to construct decent college-level pieces of writing - and that situation will obtain for the foreseeable future. The references to ideas about college composition are up-to-date ones, and reflect very current approaches and discussions.This book references _They Say, I Say_ , which is a quite standard text for these courses, and this book absorbs and discusses how this text works, making it a post- _They Say, I Say_  composition work, which makes it pretty modern from an insider's standpoint. \nStudents will continue to journey from high school to college writing assignments, and will need to understand the nuances of what is being asked of them in this new, collegiate environment. This book serves that need well.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This book is pretty clear and easy to follow. Some examples are dense and might scare students, though. Here is one, from Chapter 6:\n\"Both versions convey a topic; it’s pretty easy to predict that the paragraph will be about epidemiological evidence, but only the second version establishes an argumentative point and puts it in context. The paragraph doesn’t just describe the epidemiological evidence; it shows how epidemiology is telling the same story as etiology.\" At this point, students will be terrified by this parade of big words! And the author does not define \"etiology\" until the next sentence, at which point many students will have shut down and shifted back to \"skim\" mode. Don't scare the students! Define the hard word the first time it appears. And if you don't define it then,  use that as a teaching moment also -- indicate that this is exactly what occurs in college reading, and one should breathe, and go look up a definition, and get used to doing that all the time. \nThe effort is being made by this author to represent many types of future college writing, which is good. Many disciplines are represented.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Overall, it is reasonably consistent.\nI do wish the author had avoided the overuse of \"flow\" in a way that undercuts consistency, however.\nThe author includes a specific application of the term from contemporary psychological work, and also uses the term when discussing what is more aptly called \"logic.' The psych reference is in chapter 2: \"those times when we’re pleasantly absorbed in a complex activity (what psychologist Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi calls “flow”12)\". This describes a brain state, and is used aptly here in the text. Later, in chapters 7, 8, 9, and especially 6, she emphasizes \"flow,\"  as in \"sentences need to flow.\" It is arguable that it is not even a genuine concept, this \"flow,\" as what is being argued for is internal logic to each paragraph, a logically-constructed argument, logical sequences of sentences, and so on. It is really quite useless for an instructor to tell a student that her sentences do not \"flow.\"","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The target of modularity has been addressed really well by this author. The sections are cogent and logical, and the text is broken up with useful examples. The Resources section is a particularly strong feature of each chapter -- they are specific enough, and have a good variety of sources to try out.  The chapter length is great -- not too long, but a decent amount of depth.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Oh dear heavens, there is that term again: \"flow.\" The text is structured logically, if that is what you mean. It does not have to \"flow\" -- these are discrete chapters on elements of essay structure, and one might use them in a multitude of orders in a teaching syllabus. The topics are clear, and the evidence in each chapter is presented in a way that makes sense.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I'd rate the interface as good. I wish I could more easily go from chapter to chapter -- it seems that typing in a number in the search bar is the most direct way to go from Chapter 6 back to Chapter 3. I'd really like an interactive Table of Contents, and an Index for searching for concepts and key words. Since these don't exist, it feels a bit clunky when moving around the text.  \nThe letter \"B\" is weird in this font: it seems overly serif-ed and curved.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is fine -- the author hits a good level of interesting, scholarly,  clear, and challenging in the overall level of the prose.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I think the text foregrounds cultural sensitivity in its thoughtful recommendations to avoid gender-specific usages, in particular.  Overall the book violates no standards of sensitivity, and draws on many types of examples. On the other hand, the discussions of cultural sensitivities could extend to considering cultural standpoint when writing in a more general way; not making assumptions about audience, finding out how to name and discuss racial and ethnic groups in correct terms, and so on. Or the book could include such information as a Resource in the already-excellent Resource sections.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This one thing bothered me a lot. There are somewhat disparaging comments about the professors who will be teaching this material and reading students' work. Example from Chapter 7: \" Charitable and well rested instructors just skim over that text and start reading closely when they arrive at something substantive. Frustrated and overtired instructors emit a dramatic self-pitying sigh, assuming that the whole paper will be as lifeless and gassy as those first few sentences.\" There are other times the author takes this tone or stance. This is negative and unhelpful. As this is a book aimed at first-year students, such examples reinforce old high-school-level attitudes like \"my teacher hates me.\" Quite the contrary ! How about ditching the stereotypes, or at least letting professors exist in the text as neutral, or as earnest readers of student work. These negative comments are inconsistent with the earlier explanations about how professors work: from chapter 2: \"Professors don’t assign writing lightly. Grading student writing is generally the hardest, most intensive work instructors do.\"  Just don't make us seem like an obstacle to students doing well or learning.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":508,"first_name":"Kate","last_name":"Michaelson","position":"Visiting Instructor of Composition","institution_name":"University of Toledo","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Though I've only rated the book as a \"3\" in this category, I do think it's a valuable addition to a writing class. While I would not select this book as a standalone text in a first-year Composition class, it offers a great perspective on the college culture versus high school that I haven't often seen in other textbooks. It covers the ideas of argumentation, source integration, style, organization, and assignment analysis quite thoroughly, and the interactive table of contents in the online version is very helpful. \n\nWhere I find it lacking for my own classes would be in providing sample essays, explorations of specific genres, or in-depth examples of students following the writing process. To be fair, this does not seem to be the particular purpose of this text--I see it almost more as a high-level Strunk and White for new college writers--however, I would not feel comfortable teaching college freshmen without those supplemental materials and readings. Fortunately, I can use this book as a supplement to other materials that are readily available elsewhere or that I've prepared myself.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the writing very on-point in terms of describing what professors are looking for and articulating some of the common pitfalls first-year college writers should be sure to avoid as they analyze assignments, create arguments, use sources, and revise. The advice for beginning writers was appropriate for setting their expectations in Composition classes but could also be easily applied to other disciplines. Finally, the advice on finding and using sources is very much in line with recommendations in other writing textbooks I’ve used and draws on some of the more widely used concepts like “sandwiching” sources and entering academic conversations.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is very up-to-date in framing students' previous writing experiences on standardized tests and referencing their immersion in written communication through social media. Likewise, it does a nice job of describing the context of academia today, the different roles that professors take on, and the expectations of students. The models for writing that it draws on, as well as the stylistic guidelines, are pretty timeless. While the many links are helpful in potentially adding content for students, one concern I had was that they might become outdated or links might break before long if they aren't frequently monitored, but the same could be said for most e-texts.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"While I found the book and the messages very clear as an instructor myself, I felt there may have been points when it could potentially be a bit over the heads of some first-year writing students. For instance, Chapter 5 opens by saying that \"Everyone knows that a thorough analysis and persuasive argument need strong evidence.\" Well, unfortunately, I don't know if everyone entering my classes knows that, so at times this text seems to be geared more toward the very well-prepared college student rather than those who might need a bit more guidance. At the same time, I appreciate that the book acknowledges that students come to college with some writing experience and does not attempt to reinvent writing but rather rethink existing skills. Fortunately, though I sometimes worry about the context of the material, ideas are presented very engagingly, draw on concrete situations, and appeal to the student's perspective.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapters consistently drew on the idea of students modifying their existing writing skills to meet college expectations. The tone, guidelines, and formatting remained consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"Though at some points the book references ideas from previous chapters, I plan to use it in modules and believe it will lend itself well to that use. For instance, each chapter tackles a specific skill that students will need at a certain point in the semester. I plan to start with the chapters that introduce college writing and analyzing assignments. The nicely titled \"Intros and Outros\" chapter will be useful early in the writing process as well. The chapters on argumentation, using sources, and \"talking to\" sources will be great to weave in next in that order. Finally, some of the chapters dedicated to more stylistic elements of writing will be useful when students enter the revision process.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"While I plan to jump around a bit, the overall structure of the book makes sense. It begins with an introduction to college culture and how that affects the writing process and progresses into how to respond to assignments. My description of the modular nature of the chapters speaks to the thought put into the rather distinct skill sets each chapter covers.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I didn't have any difficulties reading the book, and I appreciated that it was available in multiple formats. For instance, the interactive table of contents is a nice feature in the online version, but I love having the PDF for my own annotation and printing. The call-out boxes in certain parts of the text are a nice touch and break up the blocks of text somewhat. My one critique would be that there could be a more attention to the visual layout overall since many of the students will be reading the text on screens. While the large chunks of text are quite accessible when printed out, they might appear a bit overwhelming to students scrolling down a screen.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"While I noted one or two minor typos, there were no major issues and the book felt like a very professional product.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"As I've probably implied previously, the cultural relevance is a really strong point in this text. This book addresses writers entering college in a very practical way that acknowledges their previous experience with writing but gives them guidance on how expectations differ in the college culture. It also frames writing issues in terms that are likely to make sense to students, such as referencing Google Scholar as a potential part of the research process and clearly addressing the various types of sources they will need to evaluate.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall I'm very grateful for the opportunity to integrate this text into my first-year writing class. While I will not be using it as a standalone text, it will provide a great perspective for new college writers and offers some very clear instruction on important writing skills across the curriculum. I can imagine it would be useful not only in Composition classes, but other disciplines in which professors expect students to write extensively at a college-level.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":509,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Van Ness","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Toledo, Department of English Language \u0026 Literature","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is concise and does not pretend to answer any and all issues related to academic writing.  It does give practical advice to its target audience regarding how to bring high school quality writing up to the standard level of undergraduate writing.  Guptill's defined target audience is \"students who have largely mastered high-school level conventions of formal academic writing and are now moving beyond the five-paragraph essay to advanced engagement with text.\"  Guptill's tone throughout the text would be engaging for the defined audience and much less formal in approach than the typical English teacher would select.  \n\nIt is refreshing to have a professor of sociology point out issues with argument-driven essays that match many of the main points covered in  introductory composition classes.  Often students think there is no \"carry-over\" into other classes from their required English courses.  This text would be a good choice for a supplemental \"handbook\" for a writing across the curriculum course, and would be even stronger if some of its grammar applications were strengthened.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Guptill uses a broad base of research to support her commentary throughout the text.  There are a few minor typographical errors in the manuscript, several shifts of pronoun use and pronoun agreements within paragraphs, and an atypical use of \"informal\" versus \"formal\" in the \"Correctness\" section of Chapter 9, but the majority of the content and advice is accurate in composition theory.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book should have longevity in the core features but I would encourage an updated version with an added chapter including advice on incorporating Toulmin's  model of logic to argue claims of fact, cause, value and policy.  An additional issue to consider  is advice on how ethos, logos and pathos are \"balanced\" differently in the different discourses of the major academic disciplines.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Guptill's style is clear and reasonably concise.  The level of the language is reasonable for college undergraduates.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The approach is consistent and based in learning theory.  One of the strongest elements of the text is that it tells readers that improving writing takes effort and time.  The closing paragraph sums up that stance:  \"You can’t become a flawless writer overnight (and no one writes flawlessly all the time). But over the course of a few semesters, you can certainly produce more precise text that presents your ideas in their best light.\"","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters offer excellent modularity.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is coherent and flows smoothly.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The hotlinks interface well.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are shifts of pronoun use and agreements within several paragraphs, and an atypical use of \"informal\" versus \"formal\" in the \"Correctness\" section of Chapter 9, but the majority of the grammar is consistent and moderately formal in the important models.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"N/A","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Jennifer Haytock summed up the content rather nicely in her reviewer's notes:  \"Guptill guides beginning college students through the sometimes arcane practices of the academy and does so with warmth, enthusiasm, and humor. The textbook takes students through deciphering assignments, developing sophisticated arguments, finding and using appropriate sources, and some basics of paragraphing, sentence structure, and style. Instructors will find this textbook to be a handy tool for explaining the argument-driven essay and reference for addressing common college-level writing issues. With a diverse range of examples, useful references to other sources, and purposeful exercises, Writing in College focuses on developing students’ skills in practical ways—and helps students understand why their instructors have them do what they do.\"","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":518,"first_name":"Sheri","last_name":"Benton","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Toledo","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text effectively explains the differences between high school and college writing expectations, and provides relevant examples for sentence construction, paragraph development, and essay organization, clarity, and concision . While it does not have an index or glossary, the text has a table of contents and is searchable.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The writing instructions and examples in the book are up-to-date, and the text contains several links to outside resources and examples. A potential concern are broken links if those outside resources are edited or changed, but I believe those links can be updated relatively easily. The author mentions some writing conventions that are in flux and may change (for example, the future likelihood of singular \"their\"), but overall, the writing instruction is timeless.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author does an excellent job of speaking to college students in lucid, accessible language and provides her readers with examples that illustrate strong, effective writing.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in design, terminology, and framework. Each chapter includes advice from college students that reinforces the author's discussion, footnotes to resources, exercises and examples, and links to additional outside resources.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"While the book does move meaningfully from the first chapter to the last, it would not be difficult to use the chapters in a different order. For example, since the book focuses on argument and use of sources early (chapters 3, 4, \u0026amp; 5), I might have students first read the chapters on clarity (chapter 8) and mechanics (9), especially if I were beginning my course with a different genre, such as a personal narrative.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the book are presented clearly.and in a logical way. I would likely use chapters 8 and 9 (on clarity and mechanics) before chapters 4, and 5, which discuss finding and using sources, because I don't begin my course with the major argumentative essay. But Guptill makes a good argument within the text that the organization of the text itself reflects: focusing first on well-constructed sentences without a strong, thoughtful argument will not result in a strong essay. Therefore, the writing of an effective essay as a whole is focused on before the nuts and bolts of mechanics.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I found no interface or navigation issues within the text. It took a few tries to realize that clicking on the number in an endnote bumps the reader back up to the corresponding place in the text, but this is likely my inexperience with online textbooks. The one major issue I do see has to do with accessibility and accessible design: several of the links provided in the Other Resources sections use vague language such as \"this handout\" or \"this one.\" All learners would find descriptive, meaningful link text more helpful.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text was a pleasure to read and grammatically correct. I found only one word error - \"much\" for \"must\" in the first paragraph of chapter 9. The only other problem was in chapter 5 in the discussion of block quotes - the example provided does not accurately display the direct quote by Kahneman in block format. Other than this, the book is well-written and edited.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text does not contain references that are culturally insensitive or offensive. The author uses multiple examples from a variety of resources.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed this book and plan to use it in my composition courses. Guptill puts relevant, helpful information for new college-level writers into concise, relatable language that I believe they will actually read. She doesn't dismiss or scoff at the skills and preparation students bring with them from high school to college; instead, she uses those rote lessons (such as generic introductions and the 5-paragraph essay) as foundational building blocks for their college writing.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":531,"first_name":"Jenny","last_name":"Friedman-Gaskins","position":"Part-time Faculty","institution_name":"Umpqua Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I am very pleased with the comprehensive nature of the text.  It covers all the finer details that are sometimes dropped in the rush of a course based on a quarter system.  There are usually things that we as professors spot our students making mistakes with, but because these are not the main thrust of the curriculum, we end up having to leave them out, only addressing them on a case-by-case basis as they appear in students' writings.  I routinely teach WR115 and Wr121 on my campus.  These are considered a paragraph-to-essay course, with emphasis on rhetorical modes, while the 121 is the first in the series of transfer courses, with an emphasis on solid essay writing skills being overlaid with argumentation and critical thinking concepts.  I feel this text bridges the gap between the two and am planning to make it a required text for both.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Has a pleasing compare and contrast mode when addressing the ideas students may bring with them to a college course, versus what instructors and professors are really looking for.  Guptill does an excellent job of linking these expectations to the actual learning that may take place in a writing class.  Because of this compare/contrast structure, the accuracy of the descriptions of standard writing curriculum are brought into nice relief, which heightens the accuracy of all the information in the text.  Nicely done.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because Writing in College: from Competence to Excellence, is written with an eye to not just what good writing is, but also, the more effective mindset to approach all college learning experiences, the text should maintain a high degree of relevance and longevity to the college/writing community.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"A strength of the text is its ability to speak to the college student in clear terms.  Many analogies are provided which help illuminate the concepts and are easily approachable.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Good consistency throughout.  The author demonstrate clear excellence in her understanding of teaching and writing.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each section is easy to read and understand on its own.  Each module is able to be pulled out as a stand-alone.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is very cohesive from the start.  The juxtaposition of the Research module with the previous explanation of some philosophical approaches to college writing courses is somewhat abrupt, but, on the other hand, entirely necessary, and I am not sure how this could be structured to move away from this.  Because the modules are easily separated, and, I would expect, follow an individual instructor's course flow, this really should not be an issue in any way.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Absolutely no issues with the interface of the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no grammatical errors--a very clean read.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way, and in fact, addresses some of the issues regarding preserving gender neutral references in writing in a realistic and useful way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am very pleased with this book.  It really does a nice job in explaining not just the technical aspects of writing, but the connection to the larger academic community which can be forged by expressing original ideas in a reflective manner.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":539,"first_name":"Phyllis","last_name":"Nissila","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I reviewed the text with our institution's developmental writing class in mind, Writing 97 which is an introduction to college essay writing. I preface my comments by saying I believe it is more suited to our higher level writing class, WR115, which bridges the gap between the developmental writing (97) and Writing 121 in our institution. \n\nFor Writing 97 purposes, the text would benefit by including more exercises for the writing techniques covered, although the hot links to Online exercises from supplementary materials such as Purdue's, OWL resources, and Diana Hacker's Writing Reference exercises are very helpful. There are many such references and links.\n\nThe chapters are text-intensive; therefore, for the purposes of a class similar to our WR97, I believe they would benefit with more of a variety of presentations such as more side bars, the above-mentioned exercises, and information offered in more graphic formats for visual learners.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"For the information presented, very accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe the information remains relevant and offers classic writing techniques while suggesting a few newer instructional methods such as the \"I say/they say\" approach to argument writing. An additional effective element of the text is the chapter covering what writing professors expect, and the attention given critical thinking which is such an important element to crafting argument papers, in particular.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The prose is accessible for the transitional student I reference (the WR115 class in our institution) and sufficient context for specialty terms and jargon. I believe the addition of a glossary of terms in a back matter section would have added benefit.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"For the student in our developmental writing class, the text would benefit with more variety in the presentation of the material--more graphics, exercises, etc., as noted above.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical, clear fashion.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is consistent.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar in this writing book is very good.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The examples and citations are derived from diverse sources.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I particularly appreciated the hot links to many good resources Online, as noted previously. I believe the \"side bar\" inserts featuring student responses and perspectives on various writing topics would be of both interest and help to students. The \"how to\" examples for various writing skills such as topic sentences, three-level thesis statements, and instruction on such \"writing mechanics\" as how to avoid wordiness, fix run-on sentences, fragments and common punctuation problems, etc, seem to cover many of the most common areas of challenge for writers transitioning from high school to college level writing. The attention to rhetorical techniques and matters of \"grace\" and style in the last two chapters in particular will also help students upgrade their writing skills for college papers.\n\nFor students in developmental writing classes at the college level (perhaps one level lower than I believe this text might be best suited), a course using this textbook would be strengthened by the addition of supplemental materials featuring more practice exercises for each element of the essay, more sample and \"whole essay\" readings, and more punctuation and grammar exercises. There is some attention to ESL needs (such as in syntax development and various \"agreement\" issues such as subject/verb and verb tenses), which would benefit the developmental students as well, as many international students fit this demographic, but more may be necessary.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":546,"first_name":"Steven","last_name":"Kelly","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Kansas State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"At less than 100 pages, Writing in College (WIC) is an admittedly brief text. While it doesn’t cover every college writing scenario (an impossible task), it serves as a fantastic primer for students who are making the transition from high school expectations to college expectations. In this way, it’s more like a college writing manifesto than a traditional textbook, which will be refreshing to instructors and edifying for students. \nThe text offers practical writing instruction for beginner college students. It doesn’t hedge; it’s very frank about what college instructors/professors expect from students, how they grade, and what their concerns are (while also revealing that it’s different for different instructors). WIC helps students understand that they’re junior scholars, rather than “knowledge consumers.” I wish I’d had this introduction when I started undergrad, as it would’ve saved me from confusion and amateurish writing mistakes from the get-go.\nThough there’s no glossary or index, the text’s brevity and easy-to-follow “conversational” structure makes those features largely unnecessary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Having spent the last decade as either a student or instructor, I can vouch for the text’s accuracy about college writing expectations, at least when it comes to writing argument-driven essays. Guptill perfectly captures  the difference between college writing and high school writing, especially highlighting the need for students to consider their audience, to do original thinking, and to critically engage with ideas. Chapters 1 and 2 are especially useful in this regard.\nMore importantly, I believe other college writing experts would support Guptill’s ideas and overall approach. In particular, WIC helps students abandon the rigid and stale “5-paragraph essay” form and see the advantages of writing a more complex, “organic” essay (Chapter 3 handles this subject fabulously). The text forwards the kind of writing that will allow students to excel in a college environment.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"WIC seems relatively timeless, as it engages college writing from a rhetorical and processual approach, rather than format- or topic-specific ones. I can see this book being just as honest, relevant, and useful a decade from now.\nOne thing that may need continued work are the hyperlinks embedded in the text, as URLs change or get deleted or as pages/visuals change with new formatting. But it seems that those features could be easily changed to keep up with the times.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Guptill’s prose is wonderful. It’s written conversationally and often uses humor and illustrations that college students will find relatable. The text avoids abstractions and instead delivers practical, concrete information. Students will have no trouble engaging with the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"WIC maintains a high degree of consistency. It's adequately self-referential (without being overbearing), which should help remind students about concepts discussed in other chapters. The text also has a clearly unified purpose--it all relates back to the specific \"genre\" of college writing.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"As mentioned previously, the text is brief: 9 chapters, approximately 10 pages/chapter. That said, students should easily be able to read and digest chapters within 15-30 minutes (depending on their reading speed, choices to follow links embedded in the text, etc.). Each chapter also makes use of clear, bold subheadings.\nOne downside of the text's modularity, though, is that later chapters sometimes require readers to recall content from earlier chapters. Each chapter could technically stand-alone, but it makes more sense if readers understand the broader context. I can see how that might potentially discourage students; however, I think the text's brevity and lucidity serves as a buffer here. (It's also worth mentioning that on a meta-level WIC is essentially an argument-unto-itself about how to write excellent college papers. In other words, it's putting its own lessons into practice, which instructors and students alike can appreciate.)","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Guptill has organized WIC deftly. Altogether, the text takes a top-down approach, focusing on higher-order concerns first and then moving on to discuss lower-order concerns. In my experience, approach like this is conceptually beneficial for students and accurately aligns with the values and objectives of college writing programs.\nThere are 9 chapters, but they can ultimately be grouped into three broader sections. \nThe first three chapters tackle the most important concerns of writing a college assignment: an awareness of genre, audience, and purpose/focus. \nThe next block of chapters (4-7) deals with development, organization, and source integration. Chapters 4 and 5 are especially cogent and useful discussions about finding, evaluating, and using sources. \nThe final block (chapters 8 and 9) handles style and conventions. Chapter 8 has some great information about writing with concision and grace.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"WIC's interface is great. It's easily navigable, including intra-text links (like how the links in the table of contents let readers jump directly to each chapter without having to scroll) and easy-to-manage links to sources outside the text. If you have the .pdf file open in a web browser, you can easily right-click links and open them in new tabs. \nFrom a design perspective, the text is clean, crisp, and attractive. I especially enjoy the emboldened, boxed-out \"Student Voices\" asides, which give readers concrete insight from actual college students. These asides add depth and relatability to the text without interrupting it.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't find any grammatical errors. It looks professionally edited and is written expertly--to be expected from a text that's about excellent academic writing.\nI did find one minor formatting mistake: on p. 53 there's a part where the text says there’s “emboldened” text in the second usage of a quotation, but the bold is missing there. It should be easy to fix, though.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"WIC is in no way culturally insensitive or offensive. It takes a global perspective; when it uses examples, it often engages different cultural and geographic backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, I love the clarity, frankness, and flexibility Guptill's text offers. It demystifies and simplifies (without over-simplifying) the practice of writing in college in a way that's beneficial for students, graduate students, and instructors alike, on par with Graff and Birkenstein's landmark _They Say/I Say_ text. \nWIC is equally useful to both writing instructors and instructors from other disciplines, especially considering its brevity. Given the chance, I'd certainly use it in future classes. It would also serve as a great supplementary text for instructors who are a required to use a curriculum-specific textbook.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":550,"first_name":"Carol","last_name":"Russell","position":"Instructor (16 years)","institution_name":"Kansas State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers many areas that beginning writers face.  It covers the basics from understanding the assignment and what the professor wants, to creating the rough draft, to incorporating sources, and finally to grammar.\n\nThe focus of the '3 story thesis' in Chapter 3 is especially useful.  Additionally, the idea of creating an outline using \"key sentences\" rather than topic points is something I will be implementing in my teaching.\n\nThis text is complete \"with concise discussions, clear multidisciplinary examples, and empathy for the challenges of student life.\"  (About the Book)\n\nAlthough, this text may not be intended to use as the sole text for a writing course, I found most of the content to be valuable information when teaching the beginning writer.  Specifically, I can see this text to be invaluable to the Graduate Teaching Assistant in any writing course.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Writing in College:  From Competence to Excellence offers accurate information on many areas of writing.  It is especially grounded in the areas of formulating ideas and generating a thesis.  Guptill offers alternate perspectives on many of the fears and problems beginning writers face.  She encourages her readers to become \"conscientious writers.\"","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Guptill uses such sources as OWL, MLA, Chronicle in Higher Education and many others. Most of the information presented, either in text or via an external link, are current and will not become obsolete in the near future.  There will be some that will, undoubtedly, need to be updated as new and more useful information is made available.  However, this is true of every text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"From a student perspective, this text provides excellent definition and context for all of the technical terms used. Guptill uses external links to make everything as clear to her readers as possible.  It is very clear this text is written for students in a writing course.  She goes further by stating that what most students learn in their high school writing class may not be what the college professor is looking for.  Guptill states that \"the assumption behind high-school instruction is that the teacher is the engine of learning.\" However, she reminds her readers that in college \"writing a paper isn’t about getting the “right answer” and adhering to basic conventions; it’s about joining an academic conversation with something original to say.\"  These are valuable lessons for the beginning writer.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Perhaps the most obvious consistency in the framing of this text is how Guptill focuses on writing at a college level, for a collegiate audience.  She begins by addressing what a college professor wants and how to produce a paper that may satisfy \"thorough understanding of context, audience, and purpose, mastery of the subject, detailed attention to writing conventions, skillful use of high-quality, credible, relevant sources, and graceful language.”","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The references at the end of each chapter, with links to each was especially helpful, especially to a beginning writer.  Each chapter deals with a topic students face as they sort through writing in an academic environment.\nI think a student reading this text would appreciate, as I did, the student comments interspersed throughout each chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Each chapter clearly addresses something a college student would either have questions about or would need to know.   In an 16 week semester, it is conceivable that each chapter could be addressed in 2 weeks.  Given that the exercises at the end of each chapter are not asking students to write a paper, it allows each instructor to structure the chapters (and the lessons within) to coincide with assigned essays.  \n\nAlso, I would have liked page numbers.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I read the text online. I am especially impressed with the expanded content by way of the internal links to relevant sources.  There was only one link that did not work.  The use of bold face type, boxed information, bullets etc. made for easier reading.  Referring to previously read chapters is a good practice, however, Guptill provides links to previous chapters, which can be somewhat distracting if a student gets into the habit of looking at all links provided.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This text is culturally inclusive.  There were no obvious signs of insensitivities. Guptill could have addressed obvious differences in writing perspectives as it pertains to various backgrounds, but I did not feel it was necessary.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I like the way the text speaks to the college student.  I can see myself utilizing many of Guptill's ideas and approaches to teaching the beginning writer.  Although the author focuses on the argument driven essay, the advice, examples, and exercises can be applied to nearly all writing for the beginner.  I agree with the author when she states, \"Experienced writers don't figure out what they want to say then write it.  They write in order to figure out what they want to say.\"","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":576,"first_name":"Lyda","last_name":"Woods","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Guptill's text is indeed a \"warm invitation\" to join the academic community in which research writing is a key method of communication. What is really wonderful is her approach to writing as that of joining an already existing discourse community, a community that she sets about helping students decode. The text has an effective table of contents, perceptive suggestions from real students throughout, but no glossary nor index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I believe that Guptill's student-centered approach helps to reduce the bias that instructors without a sociology background may not even be aware exists.  By that I mean, she listens and shares students' insights about learning to write and attempts to understand the mind set behind certain kinds of common errors.  This approach reminds me of the fascinating work by Dr. Flowers through the Bay Area Writing Project, in which she explored \"think aloud\" protocols with students who were in the act of composing academic writing.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content in meaningful and up-to-date and the section on incorporating sources is one of the best I've read because it really looks at how students need to lead into and out of cited material in ways that enhance and support their own arguments.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I love the way the lesson on \"key\" sentences flows right into the section on outlining to show us that they are connected.  She encourages students to write their key sentences into their outlines.  This strategy provides helpful scaffolding as students climb toward writing the entire paper.  I also like the student input here:  \"A good paper has cohesion. I love outlines, so I really like the idea of writing my first sentence of each paragraph as my plan. This way, you know what to write about and you know that your paper will flow easily. As a reader, this is an important characteristic to me. If the paragraphs are just jumping around in all different directions, I quickly lose interest in trying to follow along. The reader should not have to struggle to follow\nyour paper. Flow can make the difference between an okay paper and a scholarly product.\"","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes the text is internally consistent in terminology and framework.  The student insights, boxed off to separated them, accompany each section as well.  I really learned a lot reading all the student feedback and appreciate its inclusion throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Yes, the text is easily and readily divisible.  One could use part of the text, such as the sections on key sentences and outlines, without incorporating the rest of the text.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics move logically, at least for me, from global to local.  By that I mean that Guptill explores higher -order cognitive challenges and assumptions about writing first and looks at sentence and paragraph level concerns later.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I experienced no interface issues at all.  The table of contents is hyper-linked for ease of navigation.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I encountered no grammar errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I experienced no cultural insensitivity.  Rather I was impressed by the exploration of academia as a culture, particularly in Chapter 2.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Amy Guptill is able to see writing from the students' perspective, which is a gift.  For example, students struggle with the idea of writing about a topic that their audience, primarily their instructor, knows better than they do.  Guptill describes this experience well:  \"When you write for a teacher you are usually swimming against the stream of natural communication. The natural direction of communication is to explain what you understand to someone who doesn’t understand it. But in writing an essay\nfor a teacher your task is usually to explain what you are still engaged in trying to understand to someone who understands it better. \"","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":602,"first_name":"Cybele","last_name":"Higgins","position":"ESL Faculty","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence addresses all the areas and concepts behind orienting students who are new to writing expectations in college. It is comprehensive in covering everything from moving beyond the five-paragraph essay while not negating its usefulness, to deciphering professors' assignments and expectations of critical thinking, to perfecting the foundational paragraph. The table of contents clearly shows the chapter titles that address the range of sub-topics that need to be considered to produce excellent writing in college. Although it is meant to be a short textbook, the addition of a simple glossary would be helpful, as would a Chapter 10 to conclude the book and bring the book full circle back to the Introduction, sending writers off with excitement to explore their new understanding of excellence in college writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, contains no errors, and is unbiased. The accuracy of the book is enhanced by the author's apparent experience as a subject area professor who understands what new college students needs to navigate research-based writing assignments as well as how to work with professors who may or may not incorporate writing strategies into their content courses.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book will always be relevant. It contains no content that will become dated. The plentiful and effective links to additional resources can be easily updated as needed. The strategies it presents will never become obsolete so long as critical thinking and evidence-based writing is expected in college.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear, easy to read, and engaging. Key terminology discussed includes context, definitions, and links to resources that explain further. The clear writing style is in itself a model for students new to college writing.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Overall, the text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Each chapter presents the topic, hooks the reader to want to learn the 'why' of the topic, explains comprehensively, and finally provides two consistent and extremely useful sections: Other Resources and Exercises.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity of the text  is one of the factors that makes it quite accessible to readers. The chapters are all about the same length, have clear sub-sections with sub-titles that flow from one to the next, and clear resources and exercises sections highlighted in red and blue. It is easy to follow the book from where one left off after putting the book down for a few days. Moreover, the way the content presentation is divided makes it so the book or sections of the book could be used in a variety writing, research writing, or subject area courses.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented logically and clearly. The book sets the stage for readers to understand the larger context of college writing, gets into identifying what professors want and why, breaks down how to plan writing with organizational structures to fit the task, and then emphasizes the importance of clear paragraphs and mechanics.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface of the text, including navigation, charts, and text boxes, is clear. There is nothing in the text that might confuse the reader.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no grammar errors in the text. The writing style is enhanced by grammar that communicates effectively for the task. The grammar choices the author makes are all in the service of clear communication with no extra wordiness or unnecessary complexity.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Overall, the text is culturally relevant and not offensive. The book is written in language that should appeal to and catch the attention of readers who have recently graduated from high school in the United States, Canada, etc. The quotations from students create identification with the topic; to enhance this, quotations from a wider variety of student names might broaden the appeal. One concern is that are a limited number of words and references that should be revised to make the book more culturally accessible (\"Booyah!\" in several chapters and \"bullshit\" in Chapter 9). A few minor revisions to each chapter with a wider audience in mind -- non-traditional or older students, international students, non-native English speaking resident students, community college students -- would smooth out the cultural references and expand the book's appeal.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I plan to use this book to help get my Academic and College Transition ESL students ready to enter college.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":606,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Love","position":"Instructor of Writing","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Amy Guptill's textbook offers a comprehensive discussion of writing in an academic (primarily four-year/university) setting, with an emphasis on the thesis-driven essay that includes research. The focus of each chapter (e.g., \"Understanding the Assignment\"; \"Constructing the Thesis\"; \"Listening to Sources\"; \"Getting the Mechanics Right\") supports the book's larger focus on academic writing, and the chapter topics fit together well. While the book does not contain an index or glossary, the table of contents makes it easy to see which topics are addressed in the book.\n\nThe historical focus in Chapter 1 on the origins of universities and of scholarly writing is an interesting element of the book and adds to its comprehensiveness.\n\nAs mentioned in the book's \"Reviewer's Notes,\" the audience for *Writing in College* is clearly \"well-prepared\" students. As a community college instructor, I found some of the material less applicable to my own teaching than it might be to that of an instructor in a four-year college or university. But for the audience that the book is trying to reach, I would call the book comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the book to be accurate. Many of Guptill's assertions are supported by sources (usually available in full text online) that she provides direct links to in her text. Also, Guptill occasionally brings in her personal experience as a writer (and, more often, the views of students, in their own words) to support her assertions. I did notice a few places in the textbook where I felt that a phrasing could be modified to move beyond a focus on the four-year college environment. (An example--again reflecting my experience as a community college instructor--is in Chapter 3 where Guptill asserts that professors don't want to see obvious theses in essays (21). I personally love to see a thesis in a student's essay that's as clear as a bell! Guptill is clearly aiming for a more nuanced student essay here.)","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Guptill's book seems relevant and to have good powers of endurance. References to popular culture (e.g., texting language) are frequent enough to make the book feel current without being intrusive. Guptill also has a good handle on changing conventions in academic discourse and refers to how academic writing has been trending toward a plainer, more direct style; and how \"invented\" rules like end-of-sentence prepositions can be safely disregarded by most college writers. I found the book timely and up-to-date in an enduring way.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Guptill's textbook has some wonderfully clear chapters and sections. Her discussion of what makes a good thesis (main idea) in an essay in Chapter 3 is lucid and engaging. Guptill also has a nice way of stepping outside her role as an instructor and looking at the conventions of academic writing as (admittedly) sometimes a little odd. She does this at the start of Chapter 2 in her inviting discussion of the irony of the typical writing situation in college: how the writer is writing for an audience (i.e., the instructor) who in many cases understands the subject better than the student (9). (As Guptill points out, this situation is the reverse of most other writing situations, where writers are trying to inform/educate/entertain a less-knowledgeable reader. No wonder writing essays isn't very exciting for a lot of students!)\n\nParts of the book would benefit from added clarification. The primary area of need involves statements leading into numbered lists, a format Guptill uses frequently to identify the varied reasons or methods for approaches or expectations in academic writing. Often a paragraph preceding a lengthy, numbered list will end with a phrase like \"Some points:\" or \"Here are some possible reasons:\" Reading these brief lead-ins, I was often left scratching my head, wondering, \"Points about what again?\" or \"Reasons for what, did you say?\"\n\nThese lead-in statements could possibly be revised by placing them in bold type, and instead of a general phrase like \"Here are five common strategies,\" include an assertive passage separated from the text that precedes it, stating something like, \"Here are five ways to make your thesis both original and grounded in the sources.\" A phrase like this (especially if bolded and separated from the preceding text) would be easy to refer back to and reduce confusion about what is being discussed in the ensuing lists.\n\nI also felt that many of the longer passages Guptill quotes to illustrate effective paragraphs, such as those in Chapter 6, \"Back to Basics: The Perfect Paragraph,\" could focus on topics that are more easily understandable to a wider, 21st-century audience; quoted passages about the \"the cold fusion controversy of the 1980s\" (55), for example, could be replaced by something equally newsworthy but more easily understandable to a wide set of readers, such as the benefits of a whole-foods diet or the vast amount of plastic cluttering up our seas.\n\nI also felt that the clarity of the textbook could be improved by Guptill's better identifying the authors and/or subjects of the texts that she is quoting (such as in Chapter 7: \"Intros and Outros\"). A lengthy quoted passage in Chapter 7 may begin with a lead-in statement as brief as \"Victor Seet on religious embodiment:\" (61). After reading such brief introductions-to-quoted-examples, I was left wondering, \"Who is Victor Seet? What is religious embodiment? Are these students?\" (etc.) There needs to be more of the \"top bread slice\" in these \"quotation sandwiches\" Guptill makes, preparing readers for the big quotes so we know what to expect from them.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"I found Guptill's book consistent in terms of tone (upbeat, encouraging, sometimes humorous) and terminology. Each chapter ends with a section on \"Other Resources\" and with helpful suggestions for writing projects. I did notice that some elements are present in some chapters but not others. For example, Chapter 5, \"Listening to Sources . . . ,\" ends with a section called \"Conclusion\"; I did not necessarily see that feature in other chapters. I also observed Guptill referring in Chapter 7 to examples of passages written by students (she identified them as such); I hadn't recalled this reference-to-students'-writing from previous chapters and wondered why there was this apparently new reference to students' work.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book seems very modular to me. I can imagine an instructor effectively assigning portions of the text in a course; or assigning just a single chapter. My favorite chapter of the book, Chapter 9, \"Getting the Mechanics Right,\" is a smart, reassuring, and accessible look at grammar and usage rules in writing; it's comprehensive in itself considering its brevity and would be a great stand-alone reading assignment for any student who might feel that her grasp of writing's mechanics could be better.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"For the most part, the organization/structure of Guptill's book works for me. Her approach is organic (a term she defines, in its rhetorical sense, in her text): she starts with broader concepts like understanding the assignment and exploring a thesis, and moves much later into more sentence- or surface-level features of writing like clarity and mechanical correctness. My main reservation about the book's flow is the above-mentioned observation that some of the long, numbered explanatory sections need clearer lead-in statements that readers can refer back to to remind themselves of what is being listed.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"From an interface standpoint, the book is inviting and easy to navigate. The live links within chapters take readers to the intended websites (as far as I can tell); and Guptill's chapter titles and subheadings nicely identify what is discussed in the named section.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"*Writing in College* is a grammatically great read! I noticed only two very minor grammar elements that could be smoothed out: a subject-verb needing agreement in Chapter 1 (\"Neither of these assumptions are true\"); and a \"than\" needing to be a \"then\" in Chapter 2 (\"than the bat would cost\"--p. 16). Otherwise, grammatical elements look good to me.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"As mentioned, the book is geared toward well-prepared students and makes this clear up front. I appreciate Guptill's comments in Chapter 9 (\"Getting the Mechanics Right\") about how students with working-class or transnational or multilingual community affiliations will \"have to expend more effort than their middle-class English-speaking counterparts to master the standard conventions [of written English]\" (76).\n\nAs suggested above, I did feel that the examples chosen by Guptill for effective paragraphs, introductions, etc., could be more accessible to a general audience. Many students might find academically specialized topics like sociology's balance theory (53) bewildering and would probably be better off with more media-friendly examples.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Amy Guptill's *Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence* is a well-informed, readable textbook geared toward well-prepared first-year college students. The book has an organic arrangement from chapter to chapter and offers clear and engaging explanations of how to develop an interesting thesis, \"converse\" with sources in one's research-based writing, and create flow and mechanical accuracy in one's essays. The book could be strengthened with more descriptive lead-in passages to numbered explanatory sections; fuller, more descriptive introductions to lengthy quoted examples; and (in some cases) more accessible choices of topics in the quoted examples. On the whole, I found the book informative and well-written, a worthwhile contribution to the composition field.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":609,"first_name":"Christopher","last_name":"Rose","position":"Full-Time Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text, was for the most part, comprehensive, and covers all of the major areas that ideally should be reviewed in a composition course.  While some sections could technically use more, such as section on sources and mechanics (I would love if it covered the use of dashes), I wouldn't expect a text to cover everything and an instructor should be able to make up for any minor gaps in the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no issues with the accuracy of the text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The only section that could need revision in the future is the section on sources, as sources are heavily affected by technology and it constant needs updates, but that's not a fault of the text.\n\nI was happy that it included a section on gendered language.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The prose is easy to follow for early composition students and relevant examples.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology of the text is consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The separation of the sections of text makes it very easy for a teacher to assign as needed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The structure and organization of the text is very close to the same structure of my courses.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"While it's easy to switch between chapters on the epub version of the text, this feature isn't present in the pdf version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text attempts to avoid any cultural references.  However, in the first chapter, the text mentions high school and there's an assumption that everyone reading the text is a traditional student.  The high school references can be damaging to nontraditional students, ESOL students, and any student that may have come through something other than the American secondary education system or those that had problems with that same system.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I was pleasantly surprised by this text as it covers the same subjects I teach in my course and most texts from publishers fail to reflect the content of a composition course.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":614,"first_name":"Michael","last_name":"Sutcliffe","position":"Writing Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is appropriately designed for its audience and purpose. In a brief “About” section, the author explains this text is best-suited “for students who have largely mastered high-school level conventions of formal academic writing and are now moving beyond the five-paragraph essay to more advanced engagement with text.” The author has left out discussions of rhetorical theory or multiple argument structures or modes in favor of establishing a seemingly simple yet nuanced, workable approach to composition. The author has constructed a sequences, modular text based on understanding structures and conventions that define the academic essay genre by relating the writing process to aspects of the writing situation – the author frequently comments on instructors’ attitudes and reasoning leading to a gentle demystification of academic writing in general. As such, this text is quite appropriate for basic writing and first-quarter composition but less so for subsequent writing—research-argumentation courses. The text offers a good treatment of integrating sources but stops short of a question driven research process. The text is, however, conspicuously missing an explicit discussion of pre-writing and revision, but both are embedded and implied in activities related to the development of “an organic college essay.” The brief treatment seems sufficient for this approach, and, since these aspects of process writing have been prolifically written about (both in published texts and on the web), instructors should have no trouble supplementing. Please also see the following section on cultural relevance.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text seems to take a pedagogical approach inspired by genre analysis, although without explicit use of that term. As such, the text is echoing (and in several instances exceeding) other composition texts on the market today. I found no inaccuracies.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Often, students (and some faculty) think of rhetorical structures as timeless or constant. Unfortunately, this misassumption is the source of many ineffective assignment drafts. The explosion of technology has impacted academic genres and changed the expectations of audiences in subtle (and sometimes invisible) ways. This text makes no mention of online writing as a rhetorical situation and seems to suggest essays as a genre that does not change across disciplines and modalities. However, the analytical tools and questions that subtend this text’s pedagogy do suggest a means of unpacking these changes, so students would be blindsided by merely memorizing a template that is later found to be outmoded. The text uses hyperlinks to reinforce and validate some claims, and each chapter concludes with a list of “other resources.” While this does create a liability as web addresses often change, it does connect the approach to its surrounding context and some ongoing conversations about writing.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This author’s pedagogical approach works to demystify academic genre conventions and clarify the writing situation itself. In early chapters, significant attention is paid to explanations of why composition courses are required for college students and how instructors tend to view their relationships with students. Most students are oblivious to the sight-unseen financial investment that the voting public has made in their education, and this text reminds them of their place in a larger community. Conversely, the text uses accessible language appropriate for most undergraduates and advanced English language learners.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Use of consistent font sizes and weights and linear dividers effectively separate sections of the text, and titled section breaks mark chapters into easily consumable bites – each is roughly 10 pages making the text easy to align with homework reading-writing assignments. Bolded “bubble” sections in each chapter bring other scholars’ voices into concert with the author, but the consistency of their integration makes them fit seamlessly without the interrupted feeling common to textbooks. There is a consistent absence of graphic and visual media that is detrimental to the currency of the text for many students, but, again, this is an aspect that is easily supplemented or amended.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Writing textbooks are tricky to think of as modules, as this suggests a writing process that is divorced from its social-political-economic context. Nevertheless, this text does create divisions between chapters and ideas that allow for portability and adoption of a section without the entire text. Common terms and a genre analysis pedagogy link the sections but without necessitating one to understand the next.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Most scholars think of the rhetorical situation and the writing process as a triangle and a recursive cycle respectively. This forces linear composition textbooks into a somewhat artificial arrangement that reinforces the erroneous belief in writing as a linear event. Like most others, this text introduces students to writing as they enter a new class and progresses through aspects of essay development with corresponding chapters. Unfortunately, this works only until students write their first essay, usually in week 2-4. At this point, students need information from each chapter. This text does, however, make this needed information easy to find. Instructors could reference sections while responding to student writing directing students to read ahead as needed.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"As previously mentioned, this textbook is all text (understandably so as most images and graphics require permission from for-profit copyright holders). As a result, it could be tedious to some learners. Still, the arrangement of mini-lessons followed by activities does offer instructors a ready-made way to diverge from reading/lecture into collaborative activity.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The author has chosen an academic voice that is reminiscent of an introductory course. Terms are accessibly colloquial without impeaching the academic ethos, and the author’s sentence structure and variety makes for easy reading. \nWhile not a handbook, this brief rhetoric does give students some interesting, useful mini-lessons on academic style and grammar expectations like comma use. Thankfully, the author maintains her approach contextualizing choices as stylistic, rhetorical decisions rather than as “right” or “proper” use.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"Because the text takes a genre-driven, structural approach to essay writing, I do feel that it would benefit from a discussion of discourse as a means of distributing power and its role in distributing power unequally. First year composition courses are often the only place where students are introduced to the idea that their work conveys inherited biases and assumptions associated with and about race, gender, age, classes, etc. Learning academic literacies (like essay writing) is very much a process of learning to be accountable for those biases and responsible for the implications of our work. For a text that is specifically oriented towards unpacking the college essay and its academic context, it is conspicuously quiet on the ways that formal education and the essay often replicate systems of straight, white, male privilege. Nevertheless, the genre structure does allow for easy supplementation.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"My thanks to the author for making this text available! All too often, the pressures of tenure push scholars to limit their work to the for-profit publishing industry making it virtually unavailable to most of us who would build upon their expertise.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":619,"first_name":"Eleanor","last_name":"Latham","position":"Professor of Humanities/Developmental Literacy Coordinator","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This depends largely on audience: for a student coming from a high school that teaches the \"5 paragraph theme,\" who placed out of college composition, attending a university, who is taking a social science class, the book provides useful, if general, information. \nOn the one hand, the book covers essential elements of college level writing: the writing process, using sources, and sentence mechanics.   On the other hand, I'm not sure why a student who placed out of college comprehension would need information on sentence mechanics, and I am sure that a student with the kind of problems addressed in that chapter would not be able to apply the general advice in previous chapters or understand what the examples are intended to show (to say nothing of not being able to understand many of the examples). \nThe book is not at all comprehensive in terms of being a composition or rhetoric text.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The author is a sociologist writing about writing; the accuracy is about the same as one might expect from a rhetorician writing about sociology.  Some material is simply wrong (most current documentation systems do not include URLs) and in others it fails to identify something as specific to social sciences (such as using APA documentation without any hint that science writing usually prefers CSE (Council of Science Editors), Humanities (undergraduate) classes want MLA, Anthropology wants a version of APA (AAA) and so on.\n\nWhere the author specifically draws on a composition text (They Say/I Say, for example), she does so accurately.  General information about such things as the writing process are accurate (by which term I mean consistent with how professors specializing in composition and/or rhetoric teach those things).  The use of \"key sentences\" rather than \"topic sentences\" reflects current composition practice.  (On the other hand, having a \"topic outline\"--set up as if it were a formal outline--seems misleading.)\n\nI was surprised to see advice on gender-based language issues as promoting one way of avoiding gender stereotyping: using the plural pronoun exclusively.  I was even more surprised to see that approach billed as something modern/progressive professors would accept while the stodgy, old-fashioned professors would not.  Of course, modern/progressive professors often prefer \"new\" pronouns such as ze and zir; professors valuing concision prefer s/he over \"he or she\"; professors who want \"they/their\" often insist that students make the general antecedent plural (not \"A doctor must keep their knowledge up to date\" but \"Doctors must keep their. . .\")","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"As mentioned above, the examples of source documentation are already out of date.  Most of the rest of the book is sufficiently general that, unless process-writing goes out of fashion, it will remain current.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This section is complicated by the audience issue: for a Junior or Senior university student, the prose is accessible; for a Freshman or Sophomore student, some of it is accessible (and would be to an adult student at pre-college level) and some of it is not.  The text is about composition, and it almost entirely avoids technical terminology related to composition or rhetoric.  The exception is in the \"grammar\" section.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"So, the book has quite a bit about how professors work and think, and the kind of expertise they have (and do not have).  Those materials are clearly aimed at university students (as opposed to community college students), who \"placed out of\" freshman composition.  Materials on paragraphing and grammar are more appropriate for freshman students who did not place out of freshman composition--but they would then, presumably, be taking freshman composition.  Although universities do use first year Masters students as teaching assistants in freshman composition classes, most universities now provide and require such TAs to complete workshops on composition theory.  In any case, students taking a freshman composition course would likely have access to a composition textbook.   \nI was surprised to see advice on ignoring traditional punctuation conventions to distinguish restrictive from non-restrictive clauses, followed later in that chapter for how to punctuate restrictive versus non-restrictive clauses.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I honestly cannot imagine this text being used for a composition course.  I can see a social science instructor having it as an optional text, something to recommend to those students whose first paper was especially benighted.  In that case, a student could certainly read only part of it, or read it in any order.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text follows a standard organization for composition texts, starting with general information (what your professor wants) and ending with grammar (typically an appendix in a composition text).","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Most of the chapter footnotes had at least a couple and in some cases most of the footnotes with the red underlining to show a link running through the footnote, making it look like those items had been crossed out. Incidentally, blue is a more typical color to show links, and red is especially problematic in terms of disability access. \nThe drop down menu on each page that provided a link to other chapters was very helpful.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical accuracy, of course, depends on whether the text is supposed to be formal or informal and on which grammatical conventions the author has deemed outdated.  In terms of the author's section on grammar, the book has no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"In terms of avoiding racism or sexism, the book is fine.  In terms of \"backgrounds\" the book is suitable only for university students (and not \"non-traditional students\" such as first generation university students).  I thought the suggestion that a student who was not willing to follow the author's advice should abandon academia and learn a trade, maybe even become a  plumber was particularly hurtful--of course, I'm sure that students who are interested in a trade would never see this book.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This is NOT a college composition textbook.  It is a somewhat idiosyncratic discussion about how university students (who placed out of college composition or perhaps who believe that what they learned in a college composition course is irrelevant outside of that course) should write in their social science classes.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":623,"first_name":"Tim","last_name":"Krause","position":"Adjunct ESOL Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The strength of this book is that it is not intended to be an all-encompassing reference overloaded with details concerning every potential writing dilemma, nor a step-by-step essay generator. Rather, it offers a bird’s eye view of best practices that introduce students to academic scholarship. As such, it’s a bridge between the prescriptive nature of high-school-level writing and the independent thought of college-level work. The nine chapters focus on elevating the core elements of written academic inquiry -- expectations of scholarly work, constructing theses and arguments, interacting with secondary sources, organization, style, and mechanics -- but limiting its focus to broad strokes that offer the biggest bang for the buck.  This is less about teaching new skills, but all about polishing what students already know. As an ESOL instructor, I can imagine using this textbook as a framework to guide critical thinking and reflection while supplementing it with the nuts-and-bolts specific to my situation, namely grammar, research, and citation. There is a basic table of contents, but no index. Terminology is typically explained in context, but it would be helpful to highlight it and include it in a glossary. There is little or no discussion of different rhetorical styles, vocabulary (e.g., transition words), citation styles, or instruction in common skills such as brainstorming, outlining, summarizing and paraphrasing, etc. -- that is all assumed to have been covered in previous courses. There are example passages, but no full-length model essays or papers. One important area that I wish the book addressed at length is topic selection and topic narrowing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information seems to be accurate. I did not notice any unintentional errors or typos. The author has distinct expectations of college students and expresses opinions on some familiar grammar and style arguments (e.g., that vs. which), but provides appropriate explanation for both.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The tone feels fresh, and the content seems relevant, including, for example, the current shift in thinking regarding the use of “they” and “their” as a single, non-gender-specific third person. That small section likely will need to be updated sooner rather than later as the usage quickly becomes more widely accepted. The larger issue in terms of longevity has to do with the many links to external sources that may need to be updated and replaced over time. Several are unnecessary and distracting links to publishers of books that are mentioned as resources. I think these references would be better served with basic bibliographic information so that students could then choose to find the books in the library or from a retailer, if they choose. Other links, however, point to valuable content on third-party sites. They all seem active at the moment, but they may not exist a year or two from now. Updates, however, should be relatively easy and straightforward to implement. In terms of relevancy, I find that this book is extremely relevant in shifting students from using information to write toward using writing to inform.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Although academic vocabulary -- especially in the sample texts -- may slow some readers, its otherwise conversational tone makes this book a quick and easy read. Concepts are demonstrated through examples and exercises. Furthermore, the book attempts to paraphrase key points through testimonial pull quotes by real-life students who share authentic observations in everyday language. Ironically, I think the chapter on clarity and concision happens to be the least clear and direct. More simplified examples might be more quickly understood.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, the book provides a consistent presentation.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter seems to work independently so that individual parts could be reorganized or omitted. Internal sections are clearly delineated, though that could be improved by starting major sections within chapters on a new page, especially since this is a PDF and there isn’t as much need to save space/paper as a printed version may require. That would facilitate using or omitting individual sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Unlike writing books that build from sentence to paragraph to essay, this book works from the top down, starting with academic expectations and the philosophical shift away from a five-paragraph essay through the big idea of good theses and organization of information toward the details of specific types of commas that plague student writers. I believe this is a useful process because it reflects how we write, examining audience and purpose first, then editing and revising for the finer details, such as punctuation.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Overall, the PDF seems fine. The links to external materials all work at this time. The layout is simple and easy to read. I remain ambivalent about the book’s pull quotes featuring comments from actual students. I like them in concept, but I’m not sure how much they help student readers in their current format. This might be just a matter of layout rather than content. There is almost no graphic relief. While this book does not have to be laden with illustrations, perhaps some additional way of offsetting the example texts and pull quotes might provide for easier reading and navigation.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not observe any unintentional grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"While I did not observe anything culturally insensitive or offensive, neither did I observe any conscious effort by the text to be inclusive or diverse. Some of the references or examples may, in fact, be from a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, but it is not obvious. This may be partially due to the fact that this book focuses on academic research writing rather than creative or personal writing. Instructors may wish to supplement examples and resources that clearly reflect diversity.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"One thing I really appreciate about this book is its respect for students and teachers. It honors the students where they are now and leads them to a new level in academic scholarship. It introduces big ideas, but leaves room for instructors to supplement with specifics. It provides expectations as much as instructions. It helps students learn how to learn. Its tone is collegial and realistic, not pedantic or contrived. I also appreciate that the exercises are interesting and open-ended investigations rather than right-or-wrong answers or trite prompts. I am excited about incorporating it in my advanced ESOL writing course this fall.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":628,"first_name":"Jarrod","last_name":"Dunham","position":"Instructor - English Composition","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides a comprehensive, demystifying guide to academic writing - its purposes, conventions, and many of the most common errors that even well-prepared students commit. For students who are prepared, committed, and interested in improving their academic writing, this book is incredibly useful. All of the things that I recall having to learn as an undergraduate through trial and error and by scrutinizing professor's feedback are concisely covered here.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the book is accurate and up-to-date with the most current research and practices in the field.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"This book was crafted with current students in mind, and as such does an excellent job taking into consideration very recent issues (such as text message abbreviations) that have emerged in student writing. On questions like this, the book is both highly relevant and can be kept up-to-date.\n\nOne of the book's great strengths is that it takes advantage of the electronic format to provide useful links to outside sources that corroborate information in the book, provide examples, or offer additional instruction. However, this is also something of a weakness: while most of the links appear to be stable, a couple are obsolete already. It is a small task to substitute a fresh link for a broken one, but even with regular updates, some of the links probably will not be functional. That said, the linked material is best understood as supplementary rather than integral to the text, so the occasional non-functionality of a link or two hardly compromises the value of the text as a whole.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The book is well written and clear, but may be long-winded for many undergraduate students. The text seems to assume a relatively sophisticated undergraduate reader, and it is well-suited to that audience. However, it may be a bit dense for a freshman composition course, particularly in an institution where incoming students demonstrate varying degrees of preparedness.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is commendably consistent, each chapter building on work done in previous chapters, and frequently referring back to content covered in previous chapters in order to reinforce the internal pedagogical structure.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"In terms of assigning this text in a classroom, it's biggest weakness might be a lack of modularity. Chapters tend to be short and as such can easily be assigned for out-of-class reading, but I struggled to come up with complementary readings to assign alongside it, and the book is really best read in its entirety.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I appreciate the structure of this book. As I recalled my own experiences as a novice scholar, I found that this text mirrored the course of my own questions. It's certainly the case that the text will be most effective for students who already have some experience (and maybe accumulated frustration) with writing college papers, but for those students, this book provides a highly systematic guide to improving on their work and identifying and avoiding the mistakes they may have committed on past efforts.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface of the text is broadly good, though there are a couple problems. The book uses text boxes to highlight input from student contributors, and these occasionally sit awkwardly on the \"page.\" Some of the longer student comments spilled below the margins, with the result that the end of the comment simply couldn't be read. Links were occasionally difficult to select (or selected on accident), and while having the option to immediately navigate to endnotes by clicking on the supertext number is excellent, I found it difficult to navigate back to the text after reading the endnote. These are mostly annoyance rather than significant issues, however, and for the most part there are offsetting upsides in terms of the convenience with which additional information can be incorporated.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a handful of minor errors in the text, mostly on the order of typos, but they are rare and do not interfere with comprehending the content. Most readers will likely not notice them at all. I'd suggest, in any case, that there is some merit in the occasional typo, as it makes the case that obsession with \"correctness\" at the expense of content really isn't necessary or productive.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I was pleased with the way the book handled culturally sensitive issues that emerge in writing classroom. For instance, it specifically deals with the difficulty of gendered pronouns (e.g., resisting the old practice of rendering every hypothetical student or scholar as male), and with concerns about the accessibility of formal academic English to speakers of non-dominant varieties of English. Many texts ignore these issues, perhaps considering them off-topic. I consider it a virtue of this book that it addresses them, insofar as it answers questions that students may have and provides an introduction to issues that students may perceive but lack a vocabulary with which to confront or explore.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This book would have been immensely beneficial to me as an undergraduate. Virtually everything it covers is something I had to learn by experience, and the quality of my earliest scholarship would have been much improved with the benefit of these lessons. I do not think I would require it as a primary text in a freshman comp class, but it has a lot of value as a supplementary or recommended text, particularly for students whose plans include graduate school or writing-intensive professions. It might also be valuable in a research writing or advanced composition class. Students who are most prepared will get the most out of it, but the book also offers excellent exercises at the end of each chapter that will be of value to all students.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":841,"first_name":"Keryn","last_name":"Neary","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Concordia University - Portland","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers a wide range of topics addressed in the writing classroom in a way which is through and clear. The division of chapters to reflect the writing process works well for students moving from high school to college level writing. The subject matter is clear and allows for direct connections. I really appreciated this text as I use They Say/I Say in the classroom, and this text made connections to that which I was able to highlight with my students. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found this text to be accurate in the way that it address the subject matter. It followed conventions and pedagogies which are currently being taught in the writing classroom. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The material here is fairly standard and should be considered relevant for a long while. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing and examples provided are very clear and easily accessible to students. I tested a chapter of this book on a freshman level writing class and was very pleased with their understanding. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Throughout this text the writing is consistent and easy to navigate. The framework of the chapters is clear and terminology used is defined and easy to understand. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I was able to pull one chapter out of the whole in order to develop a lesson and it seemed that it would be easy to do that throughout this text. While the book works well as a whole, the division of chapters allows for teachers to adjust what would be needed with the particular group of writing students they're working with. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The flow of the text led clearly from one concept to the next in a logical fashion which reflected the writing process. As this is just one way to address the teaching of writing, and personally the way that I prefer, I found it very useful and clear, but I could see that with some methods of writing instruction the structure may not work as well. Nonetheless, this text offers chapters which could be easily reorganized to achieve a number of different goals. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Interfacing with this book worked very well and I found the text easy to navigate. The headings were clear, the few images in the text were easy to understand and the hyperlinks worked well. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Thankfully, as this is a book on writing, the grammar was spot on. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Writing is a way to bring equality to groups with diverse backgrounds. This text does not address issues in a way which would be considered offensive or insensitive and works to encourage students toward developing stronger academic writing skills. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am looking forward to using this text with my future work with college writers. I was glad that my students reactive positively to the text when I tested it in class and really appreciated the connection to the text we were already using. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":881,"first_name":"Rachel ","last_name":"Morgan","position":"Instructor ","institution_name":"University of Northern Iowa ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence is an excellent supplemental text to a freshman writing course. In nine chapters, the book covers expected material from a first-year writing course: expectations of college writing, evaluation of research, incorporation and utilization of research, a focus on cohesion and mechanics. The book approaches the student as a \"junior scholar joining the academic community,\" and takes great care focusing on clarity and concision, including chapters on improving topic sentences and theses. The text engages contemporary college students, understanding that OWL Purdue, Google Scholar, and even Wikipedia are part of the conversation in a current composition classroom. Overall, the book delivers on its promise to take the well-prepared high school student and introduce the student to introductory college writing. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"A great benefit of the book is its hyperlinks, which link to academic articles, AAC\u0026amp;U rubrics and commissioned studies. In regards to teaching college writing, the book shows both adherence to time-tested standards of practice (attention to mechanics, organization, and fluency), yet it incorporates a contemporary conversation that addresses writing as a skill employers are seeking and the need for a new college student to learn discipline specific writing. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"\"They Say / I Say\" and \"The Nuts of Bolts of College Writing\" are two contemporary, popular texts that introduce college writing and research in plain speak, and \"Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence\" references both these texts and appears very much to translate the college-level writing assignment from professor to student in open and clear communication. Hyperlinks in the texts and footnotes (there are no end notes) take the student to relevant articles, studies, and information that support contemporary writing practices. The book's clear organization would allow for easy updates as necessary. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book's use of graphic organizers and images create great clarity, and no doubt easily aid visual learners. Chapter 3, with images, debunks the shape of a traditional five-paragraph essay, and shows an essay, that through research, reveals more questions and answers, moving past the five-paragraph model. Chapter 4, \"Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats\" opens with a table that evaluates sources from academic journals to websites. The author understands students should see complex concepts, such as evaluating research, in several digestible formats. \n","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book's main concern is scaffolding the college writing experience to a new college student, and therefore does not first approach the subject of writing through terminology. For example, the first two chapters, respectively, outline the expectations of professors and students, and walk a student through developing and understanding a writing assignment. Standard terms are used to describe writing, but the book is more concerned with students using and mastering the task of writing rather than recognizing terminology. The framework of the book is extremely consistent and follows the pattern and organization typical of most composition handbooks. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Chapters such as \"Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources\" would make excellent out of class reading to accompany a lecture or activity on academic sources. Students who might need more guidance at the sentence-level will find the second half of the book helpful as it discusses common problems in writing such as comma usage and awkward word choice. This book is adaptable and could easily be included at various points in a typical composition course, but it could also be recommended independently as a resource for a student who needs more structured guidance.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"From chapter to chapter, the book is extremely organized. Clear examples are provided, often in images and tables. Each chapter ends with a useful section of resources and exercises. Unlike more lengthy books, the exercises are curated and easily adapted for in or out of class use. Students should be able to navigate the text easily, particularly the last three chapters, which address issues like writing a more effective introduction or conclusion paragraph. Often the examples progress in a series of three, so the student can see which specific clauses or sentences improve a paragraph's cohesion or a thesis' development. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text is easy to read, with the majority of hyperlinks being easy to navigate between outside material and returning to the text. However, a few links to publisher produced material or articles are broken. At 85 pages, the book is easy to digest and use as a reference. The images and graphic organizers, while not plentiful, are well-chosen, clear, and apt. The section on mechanics is easy to follow, marking its sentence examples as \"informal\" and \"formal\" as well as \"incorrect\" and \"correct.\"  ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text is largely free of grammatical errors, and shows good attention to editing and design. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. The examples used show a wide variety of subjects, scholarship, and time periods. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":991,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Boyes","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Virginia Commonwealth University Honors College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text does not seem to be designed as a rhetoric manual or handbook, rather it is a general introduction to any kind of college/academic writing.  This text would be a great companion resource for composition courses but is not comprehensive enough to stand alone.  This text would also be ideal for summer institutes or “bridge” classes. As an introduction to college writing, the text is comprehensive.  The text does not have an index or glossary, which would be useful.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text appears to be unbiased and accurate. The author goes out of her way to be inclusive in her examples of  student's backgrounds.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This text is relevant and up-to-date. Guptill includes references to technology and social media that are contemporary. Guptill’s links and sources are also current and relevant. Because the text is hyper-linked, the text will require frequent updates/checks on those links. Some of those links are already broken. The chapters covering research will also bear scrutiny over time as how we find sources (via databases or Google Scholar) is likely to change.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a clear, conversational style with students as the intended audience. All terminology and jargon are more than adequately explained.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Tone, terminology, and logical framework are all very consistent in this text. Guptill builds from the idea of finding something to write about/figuring out assignments to addressing the actual structure of writing. Guptill's style and the content she addresses in each section is very patterned and clear.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"This is the weakest area for this text. While the sections of this book are clearly organized with headings and sections, the layout and design of the text could be improved upon greatly. The book’s arrangement is very text heavy with few graphics and illustrations. Even though the writing is super clear and accessible, students who are used to accessing information via the web, may find the walls of a text a bit daunting. Additionally, some of the hyperlinks could use more contextualization/instruction so that students aren't just wandering off the page to marginally relevant sources. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Again, Guptill's style and structure is logical. An instructor could easily follow Guptill's organization or could jump around the text without any trouble. Because each section focuses on a specific skill set---creating clear paragraphs, for instance--an instructor could easily use this book as a whole or in parts.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no interface issues in the PDF or the online version. I did not try to the ePub version, so I cannot speak to that. The book would benefit from having an interactive glossary and index.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This text contains no significant errors in grammar, except where intended to illustrate poor grammar. There are a couple of typos, though.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Guptill's text is culturally sensitive and inclusive. She addresses how geographic and cultural backgrounds can effect writing and speaks to the ways that students can identify and avoid \"nonstandard\" or informal English in their writing.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am definitely going to include this book as a companion text for my research writing course. Guptill's sections on writing paragraphs and getting mechanics right are especially inviting and clear.  Additionally, the length of this book is spot on. Students don't want a 300-page tome, they need this kind of pocket guide to get started. I appreciate how Guptill truly kept her audience in mind when she created this book.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1015,"first_name":"Kimberly","last_name":"Fahle","position":"Coordinator of Writing Services","institution_name":"Virginia Wesleyan College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers a lot of important topics related to college writing. The background on higher education generally was an interesting and helpful background not found in many other writing or composition textbooks. One area that I felt this text lacked, however, was a discussion of rhetorical situation and genre. Concepts such as audience, medium/mode, purpose and genre are key to my writing pedagogy, but weren't covered in the text. While the text lacked in those areas, the discussion of organization, argument, and source use was very thorough and helpful. Drawing on Graff and Birkenstein's They Say/I Say provided an excellent framework for students to approach the use of secondary sources. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this book is accurate and adheres to the principles of writing and writing pedagogy central to the field of composition. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is up-to-date and has potential for longevity in terms of helping students complete traditional essays. One area not covered in the text which may negatively impact its longevity is its complete privileging of traditional alphabetic texts to the exclusion of multimodal composition, which is becoming more and more prevalent in college courses across the curriculum. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language of this text is very clear and engaging. The tone is friendly, yet still authoritative. It seems ideal for incoming college students. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The tone and structure of this text is consistent, creating a very coherent text. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This text makes good use of subheadings, blocks, and boxes to support clarity and engagement. The only thing that might make the text more successful in this area is the use of visuals. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of this text is logical and effective. I particularly appreciated the placement of sections related to grammar placed at the end of the text with an accompanying explanation of why it was there within the text and how this relates to a successful college writing process. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface is easy to use, but hyperlinks within the table of contents and within each page to subsections would be helpful. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Not only does this text appear to be free of grammar errors, it has a nuanced and thoughtful discussion of grammar and debates over \"correctness\" that I believe is important for a college composition course. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"In terms of cultural relevance, I appreciated the discussion of gendered language and issues to consider relating to it. One aspect missing from this discussion, however, was issues of gender identity and pronoun preference. I also appreciated the discussion of informal and formal language and its relation to background, identity, and class.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The excerpts from students found in each chapter were a great mechanism for students to get the perspective of other students, not just teachers and \"experts.\"","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1024,"first_name":"Jenfier","last_name":"Kurtz","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Virginia Western Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text offers a nice overview of the basics that writers need to consider when developing college level essays. The chapter on analyzing an assignment offers a useful discussion of the different types of writing that may be requested from students, examining terms such as analyze and critical thinking. The chapter on developing an effective thesis statement which focuses nicely on a thesis driven essay as a type of argument. Beyond the explanations of concepts, the book also includes some exercises that give students an opportunity to apply the concepts. These exercises dive into some depth, asking students to truly engage with the concepts rather than the easy types of comprehension questions often found at the end of chapters. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This information seems not only accurate and error-free but open-minded in its discussion of the techniques needed for effective college level writing. All borrowed information is borrowed from reputable sources with clear credit to the sources provided through footnotes. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is not only up to date, but written in a way that it remains relevant despite MLA updates or other changes. The topics are covered from a concepts focus, discussing the overall concepts needed for effective writing. The section on using sources does refer specifically to academic articles from databases, but does so in a way that eliminates the need for changes if database formats change. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This book is a bit text-heavy, with lengthy paragraphs for the explanation. While this does offer clear context for the content (and does avoid unnecessary jargon) there is value in conciseness. Sometimes the explanations take on more of a second person reference that I prefer, with statements such as \"If you suspect that you're in a quoting rut, try out some new ways of incorporating sources\" (45). While this is useful information, it can be confusing to students who are being taught to avoid the second person in their essays. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text remains consistent in its format and organization. The use of terms is consistent, and the tone (which is rather casual and conversational) is consistent throughout. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text does seem like it could be broken into sections and/or used piece-meal if an instructor so desired. Each chapter can function as a stand alone feature, which makes this a text that can be used section by section throughout a course. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Each chapter stands alone, yet is also organized in a manner that flows logically from the first chapter, which talks about the role of writing in academic and work pursuits, to the final chapter, which reviews the importance of correctness in writing. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no difficulty navigating the text, and found that the presentation of the content on the page was familiar. There were no distracting features, although there are a few links that could become problematic in terms of maintaining access to the linked pages. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no glaring grammatical errors within the text. However, I did not read it specifically seeking grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book offers references and quotes from a variety of texts. This makes the content all inclusive, avoiding any specific cultural of racial bias. The textual references are related to general concepts from history, science, and literature. These should remain relevant for a long time. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a well structured and comprehensive book that can assist students as they write college level essays. It is not specifically focused on \"English\" types of content, and thus can be a resources for a variety of courses. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1150,"first_name":"Ellen","last_name":"Polansky","position":"Adjunct Instructor, First Year Writing","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text might be well suited to first year writing seminars (typically writing intensive courses taught by faculty from the disciplines). For a straight-up first year writing class that isn’t anchored in a thematic or disciplinary area, however, it might serve as a solid complement to other teaching materials that cover a wider array of genres, conventions and rhetorical practices.\n\nThe author presents college as a time for students to shed fixed ideas about their perceived weaknesses. This book offers simple strategies that put many students’ earlier experiences into this new context. Amy Guptill demonstrates eloquence when she explains how certain familiar concepts -when used in a college writing context-- take on more nuance and therefore deserve a second, deeper look.\n\nOne strength is the book's emphasis on presenting strategies for college level writing while also reminding student readers that no model or framework will fit every writing situation.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy seems fine.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The author thoughtfully takes into account the range of issues college writers may bring to their courses. Hyperlinks to on-line resources that reinforce or extend the material in the text are used frequently. Many of these websites - especially those linking to college writing program sites -- appear to be maintained and kept current.\nThe text focuses primarily on \"standard\" written essays with less attention paid to new genres of writing such as blog posts and multi modal formats.This is something that could be updated at some point.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The author addresses students directly with a reassuring, no nonsense (sometimes self-effacing) voice. Student voices interpreting or re-framing the material are sprinkled throughout the text. This is a nice touch as it offers reassurance to novice college writers while reinforcing concepts. \n\nWhile the explanations are often clearly and efficiently worded, the written examples are sometimes based on topics that are too technical or arcane. As a result, a student reader might get caught up doing the work of figuring out the content rather than absorbing the concept being illustrated. One can imagine many student readers becoming intimidated by the written examples and then tuning out.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author introduces terminology and sticks with it to reinforce concepts throughout the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Many chapters stand alone without needing to refer to preceding or following sections. Chapter and section titles model how to grab the reader’s attention. (“Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources”) Chapters and sections offer an engaging twist on what may seem like familiar concepts to novice college writers (i.e. “Some sources are better than others”).","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters and sections are ordered strategically. Sentence level concerns come towards the end of the book while the notion of academic writing as entering a conversation comes first. This sends an important message to beginning college writers that mechanics are legitimate concerns, but the bigger shift they will see in college involves the more global aspects of their writing.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Some hyperlinks are perfectly curated to enrich or expand the chapter content. Others might send a student reader off on a confusing or possibly irrelevant detour. Good links are those that connect to online writing resources that explain new concepts such as “meta discourse.”","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The author has clearly taken great care since this is a writing text!","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"While the intended readership seems to be wide ranging and inclusive, some of the writing examples - while not in any sense offensive or insensitive -- could be a bit more inclusive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text offers a nice take on a vexing concern for both students and instructors alike: building strong revision habits. The author devotes a chapter to making a strong case for revising rough drafts. She carefully describes how writing and thinking are intertwined and also how precision (rather than elegance) should be the goal for academic writing. Most importantly, she provides a useful framework for students to use as they take a second look at their writing.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1370,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Beadling","position":"Associate  Professor","institution_name":"Youngstown State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book does a really thorough job of discussing working with sources.  The chapter on thesis statements was also very good.  Later in the book, there is a \"Back to Basics\" section which could have either been eliminated (since this book assumes competence) or could have been expanded (to offer support to students who still need to work on some of these topics - introductions, paragraphing, etc.).  There is no discussion of genre or different kinds of research writing.  No index included.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Text is accurate, error-free, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The majority of links still work, but I found 10 or15 that were dead.  I imagine this will be a continuing problem.  There is also some discussion of social media, which will have to be checked to maintain relevance.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very readable without being simplistic or overly complex for undergraduates.  Accessible and engaging.  Good use of examples and details throughout.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I think this book is extremely modular and would be easy to use various parts and chapters in a stand-alone manner.  The chapters on working with sources could be useful in a variety of writing contexts, as could the chapter on thesis statements.  The chapter on understanding assignments could also be very useful in a variety of courses.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The structure mirrors the writing process, which would make it useful in a course with several writing projects or  one longer research project.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Very easy to navigate.  Images and charts were readable.  Nice interface overall.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors that  I saw.  Very clear and engaging prose.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book emphasized the need for care in writing about and  researching various groups.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book does assume that the student is competent in writing, and thus would not be a good choice for a beginning or remedial course.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1505,"first_name":"Chad","last_name":"Judkins","position":"Adjunct Professor of English","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I think this is a wonderful little book for teaching writing, since it delivers what is so rare in writing texts: well-lived context. It gives the students perspective and a holistic view of what they need to accomplish in writing, and it does it with simplicity, brevity, and wit. \n\nThe entire book is only 91 pages, which makes it easy to digest. It will work as an excellent metacognitive text for a writing course, although it will need to be supplemented with more examples of good essays and a rhetorical guide that discusses persuasion, logic, and writing for different audiences. There are, however, links to resources at the end of every chapter that can be found online. This book also does a fine job of discussing writing as a student and for academic purposes and greatly helps to contextual that unique position.\n\nLike the commonly used _They Say, I Say_ (Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, (New York: W.W. Norton \u0026amp; Co, 2009), this book offers students a look at \"how writing works\" in college and academic life and it encourages them to enter the conversation. The main advantage in this book is that it is a bit faster to read than TS/IS, but it is not so comprehensive in terms of offering templates for the students to use. Instead, it is a more perspective-based text, which offers advice on the key areas of thesis, paragraph structure, punctuation, and other requirements to do well in college and in writing critically. The two books could be easily used together, in whole or as excerpts.\n\nOne of the other big advantages to this book is its tone: it is friendly, humorous, and down to earth. It favors the practicality of \"what do I have to do to succeed\" that students tend to use in approaching college courses and it addresses why writing is something that matters in their lives. It also clarifies why students need to think for themselves in their writing and explains how universities favor individual thought over regurgitation and repetition. It has a kind, but no nonsense approach that will appeal to students and keep them reading it, even if they don't have to.\n\nThe text itself is also a good example of academic writing for students, implementing quotations, footnotes, and other citations throughout its text in a way that is less evident among other textbooks. As a result, it can be studied as an example of style on its own.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and error-free, with the exception of some hyperlinks that do not function. The material can generally be found with a Google search, however, so it's not critical. \n\nOverall, I find the analysis of writing and argument to be well written, accurate, and timely. For a 91-page textbook, this is very well done. It is true that more could be added to the examples, but that is something an instructor can supplement on their own.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content here is up to date and should endure for at least a decade, and probably longer, as long as expectations for writing in college courses remain the same.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is very clearly written. Clarity and brevity are its main advantage, along with the pleasant tone and humor.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is very consistent in its presentation of material, its accuracy, and its general framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It would be very easy to use this modularly, and in fact the first chapter is something that I think will apply in nearly every college course, since it offers writing advice at the same time as it introduces students to the expectations of the college environment. The later chapters on thesis statements, punctuation, etc, can also be excerpted and used as modules.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The overall organization is very good. It begins with a broad explanation of the conceptual underpinnings of the college environment, moves into an explanation of why writing is important in academics and in life, and then proceeds through relevant subareas.\n\nIncluded throughout are excerpts from student contributors, authors, and other relevant material that provide insight into the topics under consideration.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The only issue is the occasional broken hyperlink, but it is minor.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no apparent grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Cultural relevancy is high, since it is a good introduction to college itself. It applies equally to every student. It is, of course, targeted at American universities and written from that perspective, but this is not something that can be faulted, since that is where it is going to be used.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, an excellent gem of a little book. I put it right up there with many of the other compact introductory guides to college writing and college expectations.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2144,"first_name":"Elizabeth","last_name":"Stearns","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"The Ohio State University at Newark","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"One of the strengths of this text is its thoughtful treatment of specific elements of the writing process, but it is not as comprehensive as other writing textbooks. Chapter 3, for example, discusses how to craft a complex, compelling thesis statement using a “three-story” model, and this is certainly something that developing writers will find helpful. However, there isn’t a discussion of the pre-thesis stages of the writing process that writers can use to *arrive* at a thesis. In many college classes, students are given prompts asking them to develop arguments that demonstrate mastery of a particular concept or subject, and so the very process of taking the course may supply the opportunities for preliminary thinking required to formulate a thesis. However, Guptill says that the textbook “is well suited to composition courses or first-year seminars” (“About the Book”). As a first-year composition instructor, I find that many of my students aren’t sure about how to find a suitable topic and work their way toward discovering what they think about it, so more guidance on these early stages would be a welcome addition. On pp. 11-12, Guptill does discuss briefly how free-writing can be a useful strategy to try after receiving an assignment, and I would like more of this kind of material.\n\nThat said, the textbook does a great job of providing practical and helpful guidance on the writing elements it covers, including the thesis statement, introductions and conclusions, paragraph structure, how to handle college-level research, and considerations of style and mechanics. Also helpful are the introductory chapters that give students a broader view of the role writing plays in the academic world and what professors expect of their students’ writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"As I read the textbook, I did not come across any sections where I questioned the accuracy of the guidance being offered.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The writing advice, tools, and examples that Guptill offers in the text probably won’t expire any time soon. Her guidance on using electronic databases and navigating resources like Google Scholar would only need updating if the technology, or means of accessing it, changes, but there doesn’t seem to be much danger of this in the very near future. If changes are required, I think that they would be easy to implement. One nice feature of the textbook is that the provided examples showcase effective instances of writing across a variety of topics that won’t become outdated. For example, rather than referencing examples from current popular culture, Guptill includes excerpts from essays and books on broad topics such as “the cold fusion controversy of the 1980s” (ch. 6), embodied cognition, and 12th-century theologian Peter Abelard (ch. 7). I think that these are representative of the types of topics students might encounter in a college classroom and are more accessible than examples in other writing textbooks that I’ve read.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"No complaints here. The writing is very accessible and would, I think, strike students as friendly. Guptill writes clearly, modeling the style that she advocates students adopt.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter of the text focuses on a key feature of college-level writing and can be used separately. In addition to this helpful modularity, there are some ideas reinforced in multiple chapters. For example, Guptill stresses the importance of students approaching their writing tasks consciously and taking an active role in the learning process. Another thread is the comparison between how students might have approached writing prior to college (namely the “five-paragraph essay”), and how Guptill is proposing students approach higher-level writing assignments. This is helpful because it draws from the knowledge students already have while showing them new ways of thinking.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As I read the textbook, I had thoughts like, “Oh, this chapter would be a nice supplement when I teach introductions and conclusions.” The textbook could be used on its own or employed as an accompaniment to other texts, either as a whole or in chapters. There are instances where the text refers to something from an earlier chapter, but these references aren’t so numerous or essential that lacking the earlier sections would impede a reader’s understanding.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The textbook is well organized and arranged logically. I like that the chapter on introductions and conclusions follows the chapter on paragraphs, since this reflects the order that I use when I teach these components. The only critique that I have is what I mentioned in the first part of this review, that I would have liked to see a much lengthier discussion of pre-thesis brainstorming and idea-development strategies.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I did not encounter any difficulties navigating or using the text. All the links that I clicked on worked.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noted only a few instances (5 or so) of small errors, primarily sentences that were missing minor words. Also, there is one paragraph excerpt that is supposed to have parts emboldened, but doesn’t (p. 53).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text does not have any problems with cultural insensitivity and I don’t think that readers would find any aspects of it offensive. There is an assumption that the primary audience has recently graduated from high school, which might be a bit problematic for non-traditional students. I have one admittedly picky little issue with a sentence on page 5: “By the end of high school you probably mastered many of the key conventions of standard academic English such as paragraphing, sentence-level mechanics, and the use of thesis statements.” I understand that this phrasing is in line with the overarching concept of the textbook, which is that it’s helping move students from “competence” to “excellence.” However, I think that many competent first-year writing students would not identify with the suggestion that they’ve “mastered” anything about writing. This is the only instance where this type of phrasing appears, but it comes early in the text, and might make some students feel a bit inadequate. Like I said, I’m being picky!","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I like the presentation of ideas in this textbook and think that students would find the concepts, illustrations, and examples useful. I think that I could pull chapters from it to supplement other materials, and that it would provide students with helpful overviews of topics that I cover in class. Periodically, there appears advice and encouragement from students who contributed to the textbook, and this provides positive sentiments of “you’re not alone, writing IS challenging” that readers might find reassuring.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2556,"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Garrard","position":"Dr. Jane Garrard, Professor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is extremely comprehensive and extensively covers all the major areas in college writing, such as research writing, critical thinking, and mechanics, just to name a few. After each thorough and easy to understand chapter, there are relevant follow up exercises that are interesting and require both comprehension and application.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"From my experience as a college writing professor for seventeen years, the text is both thorough and accurate.  It covers the main and most important areas in writing. Nothing was omitted and it all rang true.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"It was definitely current and relevant. It wasn't too dated, and it addressed topics of relevance in the introduction, such as Facebook and texting. It also made the immediate point that learning to write will help students in various facets of their lives.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text was well- written and easy to understand. The jargon was appropriate for the college reader. Explaining some of the terminology, such as literature review and peer review, was quite helpful, so that students are familiar with all the relevant terms.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text was internally consistent. There were no noticeable variations in terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text was structured in a way that was easy to follow and made sense. After wading through a couple chapters, I knew what to expect going forward. There was definitely comfort in its predictability. Each chapter contained just enough information. It was informative without being overwhelming.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics were definitely arranged in a logical, clear fashion that made sense. The mechanics section, however, might be placed closer to the front of the book.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The only thing that I found difficult was that the text was small. I would have liked to have seen it larger with more spacing .","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There was no mechanical errors that I could detect.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There was nothing that was culturally insensitive as far as I could tell, nothing that I would deem offensive. It seemed pretty objective.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I liked that the book was packed with useful and relevant information. I particularly liked the follow up exercises at the end of each chapter which encourage students to think critically and become more interactive in terms of their own learning.  I also enjoyed the section on what professors want. That would definitely pique student interest.","created_at":"2019-02-04T17:01:47.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-02-04T17:01:47.000-06:00"},{"id":2700,"first_name":"Chris","last_name":"Werry","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"San Diego State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook provides a broad and welcoming introduction to academic writing. It is an excellent general introduction to academic culture and composition, containing smart tips for thinking about why professors assign writing, how they tend to evaluate it, and how students should approach writing in a university context. The comprehensiveness of the text is a definite strength, and I imagine many students could profit greatly from reading this before coming to university.  Depending on the class you are teaching, it could also be a potential limitation. For example, there is little on the specifics of argument analysis. That may not matter if argument analysis is not a focus of the class being taught. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy and formatting are excellent.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because the text is a general introduction to writing and academic culture it is likely to age well. It also covers broad areas such as understanding what professors want, decoding assignments, constructing a thesis, finding and managing sources, etc., that are likely to remain current for a long time. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing is consistently clear, engaging, and inviting. It includes many comments by students. These are invaluable. They provide excellent tips and are very reassuring.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms, categories and concepts are consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The page design of this textbook is simple but strong. Many chapters are also self-contained and so could be mixed and matched. There are sections on academic culture and expectations, constructing a thesis and argument, sources, pargraphing, building an introduction and conclusion, cohesion and clarity, and mechanics.  A student who wanted to focus on one of these areas could easily read a chapter without needing to have read all the preceeding ones.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text moves from introductory sections on academic culture, differences between writing in academic contexts and high school, to constructing a thesis and argument, managing sources, pargraphing, building an introduction and conclusion, and tackling cohesion clarity, and mechanics.  This is a useful organizational structure for a general guide to academic writing.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The textbook is easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The references are fine. A number are from sociology ( the author's home discipline). Again, a major strength are the reflections, tips and observations from students that are woven into each chapter. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I was particularly impressed by the sections at the start that help students understand why writing matters, its intellectual value, its relationship to critical thinking, professional success, and to academic development. This was inviting, instructive and motivating (it could easily have been hectoring). I also enjoyed the section explaining differences between writing in high school and university, and the section explaining academic culture and glimpse into professor's training and approaches to writing. ","created_at":"2019-03-27T00:19:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-27T00:19:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2763,"first_name":"Cleatta","last_name":"Morris","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"LSUS","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book takes a refreshing, atypical approach to freshman rhetoric and composition.  It’s neither a writing handbook nor a reader and doesn’t pretend to be.  Instead, it gives practical advice to new college students on how good writing can help them throughout their college careers and beyond.  It explores the expectations that college professors have of their students before moving on to the fundamentals of academic writing beyond the five-paragraph essay.\r\nThe book offers footnotes, hyperlinks to sources and supplemental readings, and clear examples throughout.  It also offers two or three exercises at the end of each chapter.  It does not contain an index or a glossary.  An index would be useful, however.\r\nThis book is an interesting way to help students understand the importance of developing their critical thinking and writing skills, but it’s not as comprehensive as it could be.  It could touch on more than one pattern of organization, and it could use more examples and more exercises, particularly in the last two chapters; faculty must depend on handbooks and supplemental readings to serve as writing models.\r\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book seems unbiased and accurate in its approach to the subject matter, college-level writing.  On the downside, it contains an uncited quote from a television series and at least one dead hyperlink.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The sources are fairly up-to-date (most 2007 or newer).  The topic doesn’t call for constant revisions except for those areas that intersect with online technology, and the book could be revised easily enough.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is accessible to its audience; the tone is conversational without being too informal.  The student anecdotes add to the accessibility.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in its approach, tone, and layout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are fairly short, have clear headings, and are fairly self-contained.  The instructor would have no trouble assigning chapters or even parts of a chapter as needed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"While I might have organized the text slightly differently, the author’s approach works fine.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no issues with the book’s interface/appearance.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"The text contains numerous grammatical and mechanical errors:  a spelling error, a redundancy, multiple sentence fragments (semicolon issues), and agreement errors.  The author doesn’t see the pronoun-antecedent errors as an issue, however; she explains her preference for using they/their with a singular subject in a section about gendered language.  I suspect she has a similar attitude toward her use of semicolons and sentence fragments.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally sensitive and straightforward.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The first three chapters are the strongest and most relevant to freshmen-level writing students.  They discuss the importance of clear written communication and explain the differences between high school- and college-level writing.  Chapters four and five are good for addressing multiple aspects of outside sources.   Chapters six, eight, and nine are the weakest:  they skim the surface of grammatical and mechanical issues and could be eliminated without undercutting the rest of the text. ","created_at":"2019-04-11T12:12:27.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-06T11:38:47.000-05:00"},{"id":3136,"first_name":"Lucas","last_name":"Street","position":"Director of the Reading/Writing Center and Instructor of English","institution_name":"Augustana College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"For a slim, 84-page text, Writing In College is indeed comprehensive. Guptill provides practical, student-centered advice on transitioning from high-school writing to college writing. Yet this advice is couched in context, both theoretical and experiential. Guptill wants students to know the “why” behind academic writing, even when that “why” isn’t necessarily flattering to the genre. I expect her honesty will give this text credibility among students and faculty alike.\r\n\r\nWriting In College doesn’t pretend to be a compendium of every possible academic genre. It focuses on only one: the academic argumentative essay, as assigned in and written for undergraduate courses around the U.S. Each step of the process is covered here: from understanding the assignment to putting the finishing touches on sentence-level edits.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, the book provides no index or glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Guptill’s text has a strong basis in writing theory, from seminal theorists like Peter Elbow and Joseph Williams to more recent scholarship from AAC\u0026U. She also leans on contemporary cognitive theorists like Daniel Kahneman. And as a sociologist as well as writing instructor, Guptill brings a strong WAC background to her text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is very up-to-date, referencing Google and Wikipedia extensively in the “Secondary Sources…” chapter, comparing them to academic databases, and advising students how they are and aren’t useful. I also appreciated how some of the end-of-chapter activities ask students to put online essay mills to the test by evaluating the samples found there.\r\n\r\nHowever, while I appreciate the number of hyperlinks included in the text, I imagine it will take some doing to make sure they’re updated as websites come and go in years to come.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The prose is very student-friendly: breezy, conversational, but not dumbed-down in the slightest. It’s enjoyable to read and not at all dry. Guptill frequently includes \"personal experience\" sidebars from five very diverse student writers, whom she credits as co-authors. Jargon is always explained. The tone is pitched just right to engage students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This is a single-author text (except for the \"student experience\" sidebars mentioned above), so it’s very unified.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Chapters are short (8-10 pages each), self-contained, and include section headings. Although these chapters do refer (and link) to each other, they can be assigned and read independently. In my composition classes, I did assign all nine chapters, since none seemed superfluous.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is very well-organized, providing a logical, pedagogically sound progression from higher-order concerns like thesis construction to lower-order concerns (“Getting the Mechanics Right”).","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"As mentioned above, the text contains numerous links (3+ per page). All footnote citations also link to the sources online. Other than some charts and diagrams, though, the layout is fairly barebones. Images might have been nice to include--although they could have also cluttered things. Both the PDF version and online version are easy to read, with attractive typefaces and layout.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"There are a handful of typos and a few major errors, including at least two comma splices. I also noticed some minor punctuation issues such as an occasional missing hyphen, comma, or apostrophe.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally sensitive. The five students from whom Guptill solicited quotations about the writing process seem a diverse group.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Writing in College demystifies the most important elements of college writing via useful heuristics and a highly readable, accessible (and at times cheeky) style. Guptill’s slim text helps students new to academic writing avoid common pitfalls. \r\n\r\nI’ve assigned the entire text in my composition classes this year and it’s worked well as a student-friendly guide to not only the “how” but the “why” of academic writing.","created_at":"2019-07-31T15:43:40.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-31T15:43:40.000-05:00"},{"id":3245,"first_name":"Adam","last_name":"Pope","position":"Assistant Professor, Writing Program Administrator","institution_name":"University of Arkansas","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers the general gist of the writing process in a classroom in college. This text would be well-suited to a WID or WAC course where writing is simply a part of the class that needs some special guidance. The text works as a style manual for writing in academic contexts and does this well. It doesn't serve well as a Writing Studies course textbook, but I don't think that was the intent of the author. Because of this I would say it does what it does very comprehensively, but it doesn't cover everything a Writing Studies book would. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The textbook is accurate in what it covers. It does not cover the field of Rhetoric and Composition's traditional stomping grounds, but instead focuses on providing a stylistic handbook to students of writing. The advice is internally consistent and stands upon sources that make sense in usage. It does not, however, interact with field-specific knowledge from writing studies. This is a practical choice, and the book stands alone just fine. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"This book is relevant to writing studies courses, though I would argue it is particularly useful for those teaching a WID or WAC approach. The text doesn't hew to traditional Rhetoric and Composition approaches, borrowing instead a form-based approach that treats writing as a schema that can be replicated and tweaked with formulas. While this can be effective to scaffold writing into a course that isn't within the realm of Rhetoric and Composition, I find the lack of engagement with Composition and Rhetorical theory to limit its use in a classic writing studies application. This lack, however, makes it a stronger fit for an instructor looking to add writing to their course without learning the terms of Rhetoric and Composition.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clearly written. The author distinguishes between sources, original text, ideas, and suggestions very well. The formatting the text uses allows lists and other examples to pop out visually. The text is very direct and plainly written for a student audience and doesn't convey a sense of superiority or putting on airs. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Sections are consistent. The text references itself and other ideas on a regular basis, creating a unified whole that functions as a single book rather than a collection of articles and essays that happen to belong in the same binding. This shared vision is effective, though the downside is that the sections all speak to a larger focus on the goals of the  book. This is not a choose your own adventure text. It is a very specific way to teach writing. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text has a useful level of modularity if you wish to cover the major ideas of the author. However, the particular sections don't have a navigational hierarchy within them that leads to an easy transition between different sections. The sections are very much a single argument with sub-points rather than something that can be picked apart easily. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book has a clear flow and directionality. It references its own flow and direction on a regular basis and is internally in conversation with its own ideas and structure. The structure moves from a simple introduction to more complex concerns and then closes with style. This is a normal move for a style manual or writing manual, a category I would apply to this particular text. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Some links do not work and result in a dead end.  The lack of sub-sections within the major chapters is problematic for easy access to new areas, especially for folks with limited access to scrolling, such as those using a screen reader. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is clear, functional, and has no issues I find. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is not culturally offensive in my reading. It focuses entirely on the cultural migration from high school to college and focuses on the need to understand the culture of college courses and the way that academics and faculty work. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a very interesting book that tackles writing from the angle of a style guide or writing manual rather than a rhetorical text that one would find in a Rhetoric and Composition program. The text mirrors treatises on style and writing like Strunk and White and other classics such as They Say/I Say. While it would not be my first choice for a Composition course, I think it has a great potential to bridge writing for students in a WID or WAC setting where writing needs to be covered in a clear and direct way. ","created_at":"2019-11-01T13:16:13.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-11-01T13:16:13.000-05:00"},{"id":3249,"first_name":"Bradley","last_name":"Hartsell","position":"Adjunct English Professor","institution_name":"Emory \u0026 Henry College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook does a really good job of walking the reader (i.e. the student) through the process of writing effectively in higher education, starting with demystifying writing (which is sneakily really important; writing can often be perceived by students and young writers as an imposing ivory tower, of sorts) and on through feet-on-the-ground strategies for improving writing (e.g. the three storied thesis is a great tidbit that can stick with students). The one thing slightly holding back the textbook's comprehensiveness is Chapter 9 is comparatively skimpy, trying to cram fundamental grammar lessons (e.g. 'affect' vs. 'effect'; 'definitely' vs. 'defiantly') into an otherwise bite-sized chapter, in a text that is ostensibly for high-level writing students who would've either already mastered these elements of grammar (reminders are helpful, sure, but a whole chapter seems superfluous) or should be reading a composition-focused textbook, not a rhetorical-based one.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information is well-sourced, and to my eyes, is accurate and error-free. Some hyperlinks no longer work, but I feel that's more a relevant in the 'Interface' category than 'Accuracy.' The thing that slightly gives me pause is much of the first chapter characterizes an ideal professor, and while 'biased' feels too strong an accusation, it seems aimed to heavily prepare young writers for a particular, almost idyllic style of professor. I'm not sure of the better way of conveying this to a student (you certainly wouldn't portray an ambivalent or constricting professor), but Guptill's form in Chapter 1 does bring the issue of 'unbiased' into question.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Barring unforeseen shifts on language and our current understanding of written communication, this textbook seems relevant for quite some time. Again, however, the few out-of-date hyperlinks hurts the text's relevance. All of the in-text material, however, appears perfectly relevant, barring the glaring issue that the first two chapters are strangely miscast. Guptill demystifying writing and conveying the attitude of a modern professor works well rhetorically and philosophically, an effective motivational tool to the reader, but presumably, the professor assigning this book is having Guptill explain his or her own motivations and pedagogy, which would theoretically be conveyed by the professor themselves during class meetings and/or in their syllabus.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Guptill breaks down fairly loft ideas and ideals down to prose that's actually fairly accessible. End-of-chapter exercises do a good job of reframing the lessons in the corresponding chapter. I do wonder if some of the in-chapter exercises could be slightly more explained, like the three-story thesis lesson, for instance, does a good job, by using real examples, of building basic statements of fact (level 1) into more complex argumentative statements (level 2) and into the ultimate level (3) of assessment, analysis, and arguability. However, sometimes it's not totally clear what separates Level 2 from Level 3, besides more words. Despite this small critique, the text's clarity is one of its strongest qualities.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter settles into welcoming patterns of introduction, tiered pedagogies, examples, student testimonials, a graphic or two, and exercises. This being solely written by Guptill seems to be the reason for such strong consistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Well-broken down into digestible pieces in what is ultimately a very digestible, 85-page textbook. Clickable chapters in the index is convenient, plus the nature of Guptill's rhetoric means much of this book could be arranged in pretty malleable ways by the professor (i.e. Chapter 7 (Intros and Outros) this week, Chapter 3 (Constructing the Thesis and Argument) next week). ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The strengths found in part in the textbook's modularity hurt it in its organization. Chapters 1 \u0026 2 are well-placed but it's unclear Back to Basics: The Perfect Paragraph comes in at Chapter 6, after two chapters regarding sources, which themselves came over the thesis/argument chapter. Similarly, Chapter 9 being the grammar crash-course chapter feels slightly out of place and then the book ends all of the sudden with a (very) brief conclusion that still feels attached to the grammar chapter 9, and 3 exercises that feel like an afterthought. It feels like a more appropriate conclusion would restate the early chapters' demystification of writing and/or reflecting on the process of building theses and arguments.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is clean and unobstructed, with graphs/figures well-placed within the text. Again, the issues are with the hyperlinks, both the aforementioned broken links, but also, some of the links go to seeming-placeholder AAC\u0026U/database pages that are likely to leave the reader feeling like they wasted time; not enough of the links/references link out to beefy articles/resources that could lead to further, relevant reading.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The textbook does not appear to contain any grammatical errors, not to my eye, at least.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Other than the odd footnote in the first chapter encouraging a sect of students to become tradespeople, Guptill's writing is middle of the road (though lively, not boring) and sensitive; the text's examples, while relevant, don't seem politically or socially-charged.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, I appreciate the digestibility and the tenor of Guptill's book. As stated in the relevance category, it's not sure how a professor is supposed to assign the first couple of chapters; if I were a composition instructor (which I am), I don't know what my students get out reading Chapter 2: What a Professor Wants when I am the professor and I can just tell them. I really like this book in breaking down what makes effective theses, arguments, intros, and using sources, which is what I feel is the strongest part of this text. Like I said, the first 2 chapters are well-written and well-meaning but awkwardly, and I wonder about the linear progression of this book (it seems better served to be taught from out of order). And I wouldn't use this book as my composition, grammar-base, even for high-level writers. I find this textbook, ultimately, to be a good supplemental piece of a writing-intensive college course, but not to be used as a primary text.","created_at":"2019-11-01T16:13:53.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-11-01T16:13:53.000-05:00"},{"id":3629,"first_name":"Kevin","last_name":"Zepper","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Minnesota State University System","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I appreciate Guptill's approach in this textbook. In the previous textbooks I've reviewed for my composition courses, I've never seen anything quite like the first two chapters in Writing In College. In the first chapter, \"Really? Writing? Again?\"  there's the justification for the new college student to adjust to more writing and seek improvement. Maybe this is something assumed or left unsaid, but Chapter one dishes out the reality of writing for students. Chapter Two, \"What Does the Professor Want? Understanding the Assignment,\" is another important message left out of many of the writing texts I've examined. On a side note, I appreciate the explanation in the section regarding what a \"professor does.\" The remaining chapters are all direct and focus on the positive aspects of developing a writing process.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"After reading through the text twice, I feel the information is at least as accurate as other readers or college composition writing texts I've read in my twenty years of teaching. Given the audience, I feel the language is appropriate for incoming first-year students.\r\n\r\nThe reason I am rating this category a 4 is I was hoping for some sample essays as models for students. In my experience, some students learn new material in this fashion. Of course, there is the cost factor of selecting anything outside of the author's own contributions. \r\n(I would like to point out a typo on page fifteen, first line of the sentence. Shouldn't the word be \"it\" instead of \"if?\")","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Writing doesn't change much. Philosophies of content and literary theories are added to on a regular basis. I feel Guptill's ebook is quite relevant given what's out there.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I never had the feeling that Guptill was trying reach beyond the first-students level of reading comprehension. For me, it was a reasonable fast read and manageable for creating assignments.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The appearance and layout appear reasonably uniform. Though not a deal breaker, the bold boxes did break up the text, but were distracting in some ways. I was hoping for quotes from experienced writers, tips on how to approached a specific issue, like free writing or revision. It's a small quibble!","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"In my personal opinion, this is an easy text to negotiate, simple to assign sections for further discussion through the writing process.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters almost mirror the importance of each step in the process of writing. There is nothing I've read which deviates from the set chapters or content therein.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read my download of Guptill's text on a fourth generation iPad. It was readily available t read through my iBooks app. There were no issues with the interface whatsoever.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"(I would like to point out a typo on page fifteen, first line of the sentence. Shouldn't the word be \"it\" instead of \"if?\")","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn't detect anything considered malicious or offensive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am seriously considering this as a text in future sections of composition. If I can feed a reader of some kind, hopefully open source, I would have the perfect combination to continue my next twenty years teaching college composition!","created_at":"2020-03-07T11:34:33.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-03-07T11:34:33.000-06:00"},{"id":3718,"first_name":"Jamie","last_name":"Parmese","position":"Adjunct Assistant Professor of English","institution_name":"Raritan Valley Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"For the intended audience of this text, I would say that this text does cover areas and ideas of the subject appropriately considering that students in ENGL 111 or even ENGL 112 would seem to be the ones who might be able to benefit a lot from this text.  This textbook does not claim to cover all ideas relevant to composition, but again, considering its intended audience, I think it does a fair job.  Although I was unable to find an index or a glossary, students would appreciate the sections of information that define concepts like how to build a thesis part by part, offering alternative forms of communicating potentially annoying questions with professors, etc.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the information in this text to be accurate.  I appreciated its honesty in the beginning that professors have different preferences and that getting to know a professor's preference of writing is just part of the world of academia.  I know from anecdotal experience how stressed students are each semester that they come into my own ENGL 111 and ENGL 112 courses worrying about whether or not they will meet my expectations on the first day as I hear over and over again, \"Each professor is so different.\"  I think students would appreciate confronting that reality head-on through the tips of communication that this textbook offers.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I think the content is up-to-date and not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time.  Not only does this textbook obviously focus on writing and composition, but it also effectively markets to students the value of communication.  Too often, professors hear complaints from students about how our particular course will help them even though they are in a different X major.  For instance, the fact that employers' most highly valued skill from prospective employees is communication is valuable and encouraging, as well as possibly motivating, for students to know.  I doubt that the high value of communication will change.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Overall, I found this text to be written in accessible prose.  The varied use of capitalization, italics, bold font, etc. signals to the student that certain pieces of information are important - particularly in the boxes of quotes containing valuable advice.  Not only do the boxes of tips offer clarity, but they really do evoke a warm, inviting tone for students to feel that professors are truly on their side.  Too often, just from anecdotal experience, I find that it takes a long time to earn the trust of students who feel that they have been \"tricked\" or \"cheated\" by past professors.  The inviting tone of this text makes not only the advice clear but helps students to consider the content.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent in terms of framework.  I think the terminology could have been a little more consistently framed in terms of all important words being bold, for instance.  Instead, there is a variation of fonts throughout the text, which yes, as I mentioned before, is important in signaling to the reader that these terms and concepts are important, but I think that a little more consistency in how that information is signaled could possibly benefit readers in helping them keep track of these terms and concepts.  The more consistent a text is in signaling important concepts, the easier it is for students to go back and refer to them for more study.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I do think that one drawback of this textbook is that there is not much color, along with the fact that there are long sections of black text on white background.  I have found other open textbooks to be a little more visually engaging, and I think that this textbook could have benefited from that a bit, especially since the content is solid.  Because of the lack of visual engagement, I do think that the long sections of black text on white background with few graphics, images, etc. could be overwhelming and possibly create a boring experience for readers - not all will want to have the discipline to keep themselves engaged in reading such a long, uniform text.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I think this text has great organization.  Just from the chapter and section titles, it is clear that the authors took into careful consideration students' very real concerns and worries that they have when they start to enter the world of college writing.  I think the fact that the textbook is under 100 pages also helps in not having the text be overwhelming to an unmanageable point for the reader.  I have seen one open textbook that was over 500 pages, which I think would be a turn-off for the student reader.  I think that how this textbook is organized by phrases that students use, such as \"correctness\" in writing really makes it effectively inviting for them.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had zero problems navigating this textbook, which is definitely a strength there.  Thanks to its clear organization, navigating around this textbook is simple and accessible.  I did not have any problems with the links, and in fact, I found them very useful that again, I found tapped into students' real concerns - for instance, in Chapter 9, how employers hesitate to hire - or might not hire at all - prospective employees who write with incorrect grammar.  I think this is a challenge for teachers to address, too, by the way - so often, professors are encouraged to consider grammar as the least area of concern, when in reality, it might make or break a hiring chance.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors in this text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"To be honest, I found one of the opening lines of the textbook to be a bit insensitive to diverse academic backgrounds.  This line was, \"You may have performed so well in high school that you're deemed fully competent in college level writing and are now excused from taking a composition course\" on page 1.  I understand the author's point in trying to market the value and importance of good composition, which I think is done very well overall, but many students - especially first-year ones - come into class on the first day feeling very insecure already about their writing skills, and I'm not so sure that reading this opening line will help too much with that.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, I think this textbook would make an excellent companion to the standard ENGL 111 and even ENGL 112 textbooks that we use in our English department, and that is only because the standard textbooks we use are really anthologies that contain literary or non-fiction pieces for the students to write about.  This textbook reminded me very much of a popular book on writing that a professor at my undergraduate university referred me to when I started taking writing intensive courses, and it changed my outlook and confidence in my writing skills for the better.  I think that this textbook could do the same for students beginning college and beyond.","created_at":"2020-04-13T20:36:32.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-04-13T20:36:32.000-05:00"},{"id":4012,"first_name":"Regina","last_name":"Daus-Haberle","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence, while brief, addresses the key concerns of incoming first year students as they transition from high school writers to college-level academics.  With that focus in mind, Amy Guptill prepares students for the metamorphosis in writing and analysis that occurs in first year writing classrooms and in introductory subject-matter classrooms.  Guptill identifies the most critical steps involved in producing high quality college-level writing, and her lessons demystify the writing process so that students can follow concrete steps towards achieving mastery and gaining confidence.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Guptill's approach to writing is both accurate and approachable--great qualities for a first-year writing text.  She explains concepts clearly, and more importantly, she explains why and how students should be thinking about the writing process in clear, concise, understandable terms.  Guptill also explains concepts of audience in a bias-free manner, emphasizing that there is a difference between standard written English and more informal language.  Identifying that distinction and explaining why it's important to be able to switch between registers of speech is a valuable way to frame ideas of appropriate rhetoric.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text provides time-honored and time-tested explanations for how to master the art of communicating effectively in writing with an updated and upbeat twist.  Its lessons will certainly remain relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"One of the greatest strengths of this text is its accessibility and clarity.  It is written in a conversational style which students will find readily accessible and engaging.  Moreover, Guptill addresses concerns and difficulties students are likely to encounter.  She then explains strategies for mastering discrete elements of the writing process in easy-to-understand language.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The style, structure, and tone of this text are all consistent throughout.  The chapters are short and retain a common structure:  Guptill introduces the chapter's concept, intersperses her explanation with student testimonials which are engaging, offers additional resources, and finally provides follow-up exercises.  This model works well and enables the student to grow in familiarity with the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is remarkably well organized and lends itself to easily assigned and utilized chapters.  It is quite short, but that works incredibly well since it provides the necessary content without being overwhelming for the student.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is well-organized as it breaks down the writing process into a logical procedure--with each chapter building on those that came before.  It is very easy for a student to follow.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no interface problems with this text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am excited to introduce this text into my first-year writing courses!  It will become my primary \"how-to-write\" text, and I think my students are going to really find it helpful.","created_at":"2020-06-19T13:58:23.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-19T13:58:23.000-05:00"},{"id":4090,"first_name":"Nicholas","last_name":"Papas","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Middlesex Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text would work well as a first-year writing text. While it does not cover \"all areas and ideas of the subject,\" it provides a fairly comprehensive (and readable) discussion of important concepts and ways of thinking. I would add that one of the most appealing aspects of the text is that it does not try to be comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The views presented in the text are well-grounded and nuanced. Having said that, because the text tries (and succeeds) to talk to student in a \"real\" way, there are certainly some statements, because of their clarity and boldness, that may ruffle some feathers. Again, I see this as a positive aspect, providing opportunity for discussion and, yes, critical thinking.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content itself is likely to remain relevant, though it is certainly a product of the times. Many of the links to outside content don't work (already). This is unfortunate because the links that do work are useful.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The style is clear and engaging.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I noticed no problems with internal consistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into nine fairly short chapters. There are clearly labeled sub-sections within each chapter. The short chapters lend themselves well to being assigned individually at different points in the course. The sub-section titles would make it easy to refer students to a particular section for review.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters are organized in a logical way. The same is true for the sections within each chapter.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I read this as a PDF file on an iPad. As such, the interface is pretty simple. The only intra-text navigation is done through the table of contents--which works fine.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"A few typos. No major concerns.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"One of the strengths of the text is that it addresses a fairly specific audience. This allows the author to speak to the concerns and assumptions of this audience. This strength could also be a weakness when the text is assigned to non-traditional students--students who may not have \"mastered [American] high-school level conventions of formal academic writing,\" but who may have an academic background that would transition just as well, if adequately scaffolded, to successful demonstration of the course's stated learning outcomes.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I actually enjoyed reading this \"textbook.\"","created_at":"2020-06-25T18:44:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-25T18:44:45.000-05:00"},{"id":4272,"first_name":"Tasha","last_name":"Williams","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Leeward Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text does a great job of anticipating possible student perspectives and addressing them in a way that appeals to students. Its inviting tone stands to benefit first-year writing students greatly because it covers key concepts. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised by the discussion of instructors' professional duties. I believe the effective discussion demystifies the instructor role, thus rendering us more approachable. The second chapter focuses on the importance of knowing the audience and what teachers expect from assignments, which is a good topic that is seldom addressed explicitly. Understanding the assignment is essential to successfully achieving the goals of the writing assignment. The discussion of the three story thesis is very helpful and written in a non-condescending tone. It is strategically placed as a foundation for subsequent chapters. The remaining chapters help students develop paragraphs and address technical issues in their writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author is accurate and unbiased. It is refreshing to encounter a text that provides practical guidance for students with regard to topics that teachers sometimes discuss with fellow practitioners. She does a good job of addressing these topics with a down-to-earth approach to students.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I look forward to sharing this text with my students because of its relevance to their experiences. The author incorporates a discussion of how writing has increased due to technological needs which is current with the times. With the increase in online classrooms due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online classrooms will benefit from resources that spark conversations in an online format.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"One of the best features of this text is its ability to discuss the content in an accessible manner and break down information.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are relatively short and easy to comprehend.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The information in the text is logically organized. The text does a good job of building upon key concepts.  While the chapters stand alone, each chapter reinforces important skills that are covered in previous chapters.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no significant interface issues. The text refers to chapter numbers, but the chapters could also be numbered for consistency.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar does not interfere with the reader’s grasp of the content.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"While the text does not appear to be culturally insensitive, it could be more inclusive of more students’ experiences. Chapter one begins with a discussion of why writing is important in terms of enhancing one’s professional career, but students who belong to underrepresented groups may feel that they are learning to write for other peoples’ purposes rather than their own. In addition to discussing how writing has the potential to enhance students’ careers, it could also address how writing may enhance other important aspects of students' lives such as family and community.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-07-28T21:26:44.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-07-28T21:26:44.000-05:00"},{"id":4474,"first_name":"Ann","last_name":"Pelelo","position":"Professor of English","institution_name":"Clarke University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"There is not an index or a glossary, but all areas and ideas listed within the Table of Contents are covered well for the intended audience—high school writers who are transitioning to college writing. The explanations are, at times, brief, but the author supplies numerous ancillary links to augment the information presented. Given the generality of the topics, this book could be used within and outside of composition classes; that is what I find most attractive about it.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Some of the content in Chapter 1 is “cringe-worthy.” For example, “Most of your professors have had little to no formal training in pedagogy (the science of teaching). They’re extensively trained in their scholarly or creative fields, well versed in relevant theories, methods, and significant findings. Many taught during graduate school, but most come to their jobs relative novices about teaching.” This generalization can be a misleading and/or inaccurate description of many institutions of higher learning.  The author continues: “Even those who spend a majority of their time on teaching think of themselves as scholars or artists who also teach.” She also writes: “Your professors—immersed as they are in their own fields—may forget that you have such varied demands, and they may not take class time to explain the particular conventions of their field.” Although I understand, as a person who has spent 25 years teaching full-time at the college level, what the writer is trying to convey about the “college environment,” these generalizations put forth in the beginning of the book make me uneasy, and I worry about how students will receive them. I loved, however, that also in this chapter the message is clear that in college students “drive their own learning.”  The content of the remaining chapters is on-point for the intended audience, and it echoes many of the important lessons about writing that I’ve been trying to convey to students throughout my teaching career.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date.  Some things like paragraph unity and development of argumentative thesis sentences will remain static over time.  Nuances about contemporary writing are touched upon in the last chapter. In fact, that chapter includes a discussion of gendered language—a hot topic of debate today. The exercises found at the ends of chapters were useful and in-tune with “the real world.”","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in lucid and accessible prose.  It also consistently provides adequate context for the ideas discussed. I especially appreciate how the author takes the reader through the rhetorical situation in an authentic and practical manner—this will be attractive and useful to students. I also appreciate how, in Chapter 3, the author explains the distinctions between high school and college writing and how to write an effective “college’ thesis statement.\r\nIn addition, Chapter 4 includes a helpful overview of what makes a source “good.” The simple and usable chart that explains different levels of quality sources, their uses and how to find them will be useful to students.\r\nAnd Chapter 5, “Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources,” relates well how sources should function in student writing. The explanations are clear and logical.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text’s framework is consistent. Each chapter ends with “exercises.” And each chapter includes many links to ancillary resources. In addition, footnotes are used frequently and consistently.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is easy to imagine using specific chapters of this text in a variety of different classes.  One doesn’t necessarily have to have read Chapter 3 in order for Chapter 4 to be useful. However, if the author does refer to information found in a previous chapter, she provides a link to it.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of ideas is logical and clear throughout each chapter and among the chapters themselves. Each chapter begins with an overview of its contents and the “why” of its significance. Therefore, students encounter early in each chapter the importance of the information that will follow and how that information connects to their future college experiences.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The book contains many helpful embedded links. However, when using the pdf version of the text, once a link was accessed, “going back” took one back to the beginning of the book—not where one had left off.  In addition, I found many “dead links.” Furthermore, some links were labeled in misleading ways. For example, on page 12 a link is named “assignment prompt,” but it takes one to the main page of the Purdue Writing Lab. Given that the publication date is 2016, I wonder how often the author should check the links included in this text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I frequently encountered clunky sentence structures and clunky transitions between sentences and between ideas, but that clunkiness did not take away from the content.  There are a few typos as well (“than” instead of “then,” for example).  I also noticed some punctuation errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Cultural sensitivity is a complex subject. However, in my review of this text, I did not encounter culturally insensitive language or examples, other than the frequent use of “mastering.” Furthermore, the tone and language are accessible for many ELL students. Some of the statements that are meant to be humorous may be lost on those learners, but losing out on the humor has a negligible impact on the important content.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-12-18T16:18:09.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-18T16:18:09.000-06:00"},{"id":4989,"first_name":"Martha","last_name":"Ucci","position":"Professor of English","institution_name":"Bristol Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"As a reader for a first year composition course, this is an excellent choice.  Guptiill strikes the perfect balance between composition rhetoric and good old fashioned advice.  Indeed, her lens is squarely focused on the user, which is the student.  There are live links to articles and bold boxes that reveal student's perspective and experiences that will certainly resonate with students who want to see themselves represented in the text.  The content covers a brief examination of the vernacular of higher education to the mechanics of writing.  Topics such as vetting research articles and paraphrasing content is especially pertinent to the novice research paper writer.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and offers humor at times to invite the student writer to embrace the often arduous task of academic writing.  For example, there is a reference to a video on how to conquer writer's block, followed by a witty Sponge Bob Square Pants video.  Students need levity and so many texts are one dimensional.  However, that is not the case with Guptill's book.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The purpose of the text is very clear and Guptill incorporates data from employers who are seeking strong written communication skills, as well as critical thinkers.  She also recognizes the role faculty play in shaping how students write and think about writing from their own scholarship.  One of the exercises includes interviewing a faculty member about their process for writing and how that in turn leads to generating articles for publication.  In fact, she refers to faculty (kiddingly) as \"egg heads.\"  Student's will gravitate to the witty elements in the text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Guptill's prose and examples of writing are very concrete.  She breaks down the process of writing into manageable parts, while encouraging students to break free form the conventional  5-paragraph essay.  Her chapter on paraphrasing is especially effective.  She provide examples of successful introductory paragraphs and some not-so successful paragraphs.  She addresses being concise in writing, as well as the importance of cohesiveness.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is very consistent.  The basic format of each chapter remains same throughout, lending consistency for the user.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One of the best features of this text is that the chapters are very digestible. They are not too long for students to lose focus.  The exercises at the end of each chapter really reinforce the concepts presented and allow students to gain greater practice in achieving their writing goals.  There are several articles that Guptill refers to throughout the text which invites more depth and credibilty to the topic being covered.  I was especially pleased to see the AAC\u0026U Written Communication Rubric used and explained in the text..","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is neatly organized and very adaptable for student use.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is great.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammatical elements are well done.  The footnotes are very rich with articles and Guptill's own observations.  Lots of fun to read.","cultural_rating":1,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive.  I would say the the students quoted in the text may not represent the diverse body of student writers in college, especially the community college.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think this is a great text to incorporate in a first year writing course.  Students will really engage with the text and it offers a variety of concepts suitable for the \"reluctant\" writer.","created_at":"2021-05-26T11:59:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-26T11:59:39.000-05:00"},{"id":5015,"first_name":"Julie","last_name":"Mainka","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Butler Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I am not sure if comprehensiveness is the main goal.  The chapters which are present are quite strong, but discussions of cultural competency were largely missing.  In my teaching, critical thinking about cultural contexts is far more important than having a perfect paragraph, mechanics, etc.  This book largely seems to cover the basics of writing in a college-context, but there does not seem to be much explicit discussion of how to critically think by incorporating intersecting communities, identities, schools of thought, etc. In other words, more emphasis on critical thinking and how scholars use cultural lenses to critically think would be useful.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate concerning the basics of entering a scholarly conversation, but it leaves out a large part of the academic conversation: navigating intersecting cultural contexts.  If you plan to supplement heavily, this a great book to get accurate information on basic information.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is largely relevant to today’s students.  It would be helpful to be more explicit about the diverse backgrounds of the students coming into a first-year composition course, however.  There are up-to-date examples and some discussion of contemporary pronoun usage.  The inclusion of real student comments are great as well!  This shows how the skill at hand is directly relevant to a real person.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"In general, I loved the authorial voice most of the time.  The author is often warm and inviting.  She attempts to welcome the student into the academic conversation rather than slamming them with rules or scaring them into “writing well”.  The explanations and examples are usually very clear and blend a colloquial and academic style well.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is very consistent in terminology and framework and is, in fact, explicitly linked in multiple places.  Each chapter is implicitly and explicitly connected to other chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are short and sweet.  Since this book does not include a reader, this is one of its best features.  Each chapter functions well alone and as a complete guide.  I had so many ideas for which readings to pair with each chapter!  The way the book is structured is also wonderful.  The author focuses on why one writes, the purpose of writing, gathering information, and THEN putting everything together.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"This is related to my comment above.  The basic organization is wonderful.  I would add more concerning critical thinking and cultural competency, but this can be added into almost every chapter instead of presenting a separate section for it.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I used an older generation iPad and had no issues with the text or links. In fact, I loved that there were so many links in order to clarify or offer more insight.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found a couple of insignificant typos, but that’s it!  This book was clearly edited and proofread several times.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"I did not find anything to be intentionally malicious, but there were only small attempts to be inclusive.  In general, there seems to be an effort to avoid explicitly discussing intersectional identities.  As much as I loved the book, this seems to be a severe oversight.  In all of the composition courses I’ve taught, I assign students current issues to research, analyze, and process.  Doing this kind of work requires an ability to find the intersections of identities and be able to complicate the issue at hand through various lenses.  Although this book strongly advocates for this type of thinking, there is little attempt to put it into practice. Sometimes this is manifested as something seemingly small, like assuming that most college students are traditional students. However, this can have a large impact on students.  In general, I would advocate for explicit discussions of (dis)abilities, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, etc.  Staying silent and hoping that the material is universal can cause some students to feel excluded.  In other words, I feel everyone benefits from an explicit appeal to intersectionality. I would like to end on a positive note, however.  There were some attempts at inclusivity (e.g. pronoun discussion, non-standard English discussion, etc.).  These are excellent inclusions, there just needs to be a far more explicit attempt at diversity and inclusion.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"One thing I loved was the humanizing of professors.  Guptill explained how many professors have little professional training in HOW to teach and how grading is a very difficult part of being a professor.  She added some longer discussions as well as many small references throughout the text.  I think introductory students often do not know what a professor does, so this helps to demystify the professor (and their job) and show the students that we are just fellow humans who struggle just like they do. We ultimately have the goal of helping them as much as we can, but we are also people.","created_at":"2021-05-31T15:02:44.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-31T15:02:44.000-05:00"},{"id":33390,"first_name":"Kate","last_name":"Nolin-Smith","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Wisconsin - Superior","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers most of the basic components of a first year composition course in terms of expectations, general researching, and academic writing. There are clear sections dedicated to forming a thesis, writing paragraphs, and structuring an essay. \r\nHowever, there could be more to address types of arguments, appeals to the audience, and citing sources.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information in the text is accurate and presented in an unbiased manner.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Most of the information presented in the text is up to date and could easily be updated if needed.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is written in a straightforward manner and avoids complicated or wordy explanations.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text has a consistent \"voice\" throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text has clearly marked topics and subsections in each chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of information is easy to follow and structured in a logical way.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This text is free of any obvious interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no obvious grammar errors in the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-09-20T22:21:46.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-09-20T22:21:46.000-05:00"},{"id":33533,"first_name":"Vivian","last_name":"Chin","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Hawaii Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The nine chapters of this book cover material ranging from what college professors might expect to how to avoid informal speech patterns in writing. The titles of the chapters seem straightforward and not confusing. Although this textbook does not include a section specifically aimed towards English Language Learners, the chapter, \"Getting the Mechanics Right\" seems helpful for ELL students and for students who must code-switch into so-called standard English.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I would only note that in an example in the chapter, \"Getting the Mechanics Right,\" it is highly unlikely that anyone would text with an accent on the e in cafe: \"INFORMAL: u shd go 2 café b4 wrk bc coffee, and that this error might alienate students.\" I question the author's reliability simply because of this trivial point.  On the other hand, one might use autocorrect while texting and one's phone would automatically put an accent on the e in cafe.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The material in this book seems very useful to students. I have downloaded this book so that I will remember to use it! I do think that the language may be a bit elitist at times, However, the chapters are thoughtfully titled and seem to contain sufficient information for students to follow and to do well in a college composition course.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Students with developing reading abilities may have trouble comprehending this book, however, much of the possibly unfamiliar vocabulary is useful for students to learn, e.g., \"substantive.\"","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The language of this book does seem to be consistent. The voice does not talk down to the reader. The word choice is appropriate for the audience.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The exercises at the end of the chapters seem useful. I think that a summary or a bullet point list of important points would be helpful at the end of each chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I appreciate the organization of this textbook as it begins with possible expectations and ends with a chapter on diction. It follows a logical pattern, moving from general to specific.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"With the help of my students I was able to navigate this book. Unfortunately it was a bit counterintuitive for me as one needs to expand the Main Body of the book to be able to access chapters. Students were able to figure this out, however.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors. :)","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"This book seems to be blind to the writing and experiences of people of color. Because of this weakness or omission, it avoids the token representation or cursory inclusion of people of color, which can be just as offensive as our erasure.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"A useful book.","created_at":"2021-12-13T16:30:48.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-12-13T16:30:48.000-06:00"},{"id":34895,"first_name":"Olga","last_name":"Gould","position":"Assistant Professor Reading/Literacy","institution_name":"Eastern New Mexico University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence by Amy Guptill is written in the easily comprehensible for Higher Education students language. This publication targets college-level learners. In a very reader-friendly, engaging, and informative style, this study-guide explains to the beginning writers the most essential aspects of writing for academic purposes. Every chapter and each section of it focuses on a specific question, which also adds to comprehensiveness of the information discussed and clarified by the author. Guptill addresses her reading audiences in a friendly and inclusive manner which may also contribute to the college students' ability to engage with this reading and deeper comprehend the meaning of the conveyed ideas.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This publication appears to be accurately written. Moreover, this book is composed in a very good academic English language. Additionally, it includes an entire chapter on proofreading, editing, and mechanics. The author does not seem to be biased in her discussion of the issues with the academic writing. On the contrary, this author's role may be viewed as a liaison between a beginning, struggling student-writer and faculty. Guptill attempts to balance the professor to student communication on writing within academe. The rich information she is providing is accurate and up to date. Thus, Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence can be considered a reliable source of information.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Guptill refers in her current book to the recent research publications most of which were published during the first two decades of the 21st century. As anticipated, the topics this author addresses will stay relevant to the field of teaching students the academic writing strategies and skills for quite a long time. The content of Guptill's publication is not expected to become obsolete in a short period of time as a large number of students enter colleges and universities with their underdeveloped writing skills. Additionally, it seems quite natural and explainable that the first-year(s) students might have never had any sufficient exposure to the knowledge on the expectations of the academic writing, such as literature review, research report, etc. So, it may be concluded that the book Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence by Amy Guptill will not become outdated and will not need too many updates soon.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Guptill's text presents a very clearly written and well-explained piece of college reading. This author supplies every chapter with the examples positioned within the adequate contexts. All the terminology used in the classes concerning with writing for academic purposes is thoroughly explained. The author exemplary demonstrates the difference between the everyday spoken English language, texting, and professional and academic writing. This book is written in lucid and accessible prose the purpose of which is to make the complicated ideas easy to understand. So, the clarity of all the detailed notions seems to be outstanding.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence by Amy Guptill is internally consistent in terms of its framework. Many significant attributes and terminology used in the field of college writing are consistently present throughout this entire publication. The tone of this text is steadily even within the selected by this author frame. So, Guptill not only explains how to write but also demonstrates it via her publication.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One of the best features of this publication is its modularity. The author divides her text into chapters, sections, and subsections. Importantly, these smaller sections frame is consistent and makes it easy for audiences to read while knowing what to expect in every following, similarly structured chapter. The chapters, sections, subsections, and blocks with the supplemental information have headings and subheadings. The additional information aligns well with the content of the chapter or section it supplements without causing interruptions in the reading process. So, the modularity of this publication seems to be very thoughtfully streamlined.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Organization of this publication is outstanding. The topics are presented in a logical and clear fashion. The book chapters and sections are evenly distributed in terms of their volume and content load. Focusing on a beginning writer, including the first-generation in college student, this text is mindfully organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Thanks to the modern days' affordances of the internet-based reading, the book by Guptill contains the links to the additional sources mentioned within its chapters or in connection to their content. This feature allows the audience to easily navigate between the different reading platforms and choose the appropriate time for doing so. For example, different readers might prefer to explore the provided links prior, during, or after reading basing their preferences on the level of their interest in each of the discussed aspects. Adding the links, rather than chunks of the texts, facilitates the flow of the reading process in the audience and minimizes or eliminates the distracting effect.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Guptill's book presents a well-written text without grammatical errors. It may serve students as an example to follow.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence by Amy Guptill does not contain any culturally insensitive or offensive language. This reading seems to be highly welcoming and inclusive for both the Domestic and International students from diverse backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"With the publisher's and author's kind permission, I will add this book as supplemental resource for my students in my Writing courses. \r\nP.S. I truly loved reading this book and will use its content in my instruction with salient reference to its author, full APA citation, and the link to this text. \r\nThank you.\r\nSincerely,\r\nDr. Olga Gould","created_at":"2024-02-16T12:57:17.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-02-16T12:57:17.000-06:00"},{"id":35484,"first_name":"Kate","last_name":"Aguilar","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Gustavus Adolphus College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is a wonderful guide for students. It clearly explains how students were taught to write in high school and how and why expectations differ in college. It then gives a clear and concise roadmap for how to become more effective and efficient writers at the college level. It was a joy to read, covered all relevant and important topics, and provided a wealth of resources for educators and students to discuss and practice the skills outlined.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is beautifully laid out in a way that can help students build the skills necessary to write at the college level and keep going. It does not pretend to be the only guide on the subject but is continuously signposting to other works and helpful online resources. It demonstrates to students that there are several resources available but all recognize certain elements of strong academic writing. It is also useful in that it remains broad, which can pair nicely with a discipline-specific text or website.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is perhaps more relevant than ever in a world of AI. As students are looking to AI to do the writing (and sometimes thinking) for them, this book makes the strong argument that good academic writing is a form of thinking that helps us grapple with broader questions/issues in the discipline and world. It makes a case for why good writing still matters and always will. AI can help us perhaps grapple with word choice and sentence structure in new ways, but it does not give us the opportunity - as writing does - to think out loud and to become better thinkers and writers through doing and revision.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and concise serving as its own exercise in strong academic writing. It makes a compelling case for why good writing matters and what that entails at the college level.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent and cohesive. It builds by helping students understand why writing is assigned as a form of critical thinking, how they can approach it broadly in any academic setting, what they might find difficult in every piece of the writing journey, and how to approach those elements with curiosity and confidence.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is a wonderful resource for any academic classroom. As a historian, I took bits and pieces of it to assign at various points of the semester so that I could get students to think through how to approach various steps of the writing and research process in manageable ways. It provided a wealth of resources that students can utilize in real-time as well as useful examples to practice with in class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book was wonderfully organized. It helps students think through why writing at the college level differs from high school writing, and how and why it matters to the academic process. It talks about how to approach writing and research in a meaningful way that moves beyond the familiar trope that it is just good practice. It makes the argument that writing is a type of critical thinking and that grappling with research questions and one's argument on the page allows one to approach their discipline in new and fascinating ways. Each chapter builds to helping the students write most effectively and efficiently as a whole.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface was accessible and easy to read. The book was easy for students to work through as a whole but also to utilize in small, more manageable parts. The resources at the end of each chapter were fabulous.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I only noticed one grammatical error.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally relevant in that it speaks to a broad audience and also powerfully incorporates the student voice.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I found this book very enjoyable to read, accessible for faculty and students, well-organized and well-written, and compelling, overall, for why the writing process matters at the college level and how to approach it as a student in multiple disciplines.","created_at":"2025-05-19T14:47:05.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-05-19T14:47:05.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:44.000-06:00"},{"id":284,"title":"The Process of Research Writing","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2007,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"The title of this book is The Process of Research Writing, and in the nutshell, that is what the book is about. A lot of times, instructors and students tend to separate “thinking,” “researching,” and “writing” into different categories that aren't necessarily very well connected. First you think, then you research, and then you write.The reality is though that the possibilities and process of research writing are more complicated and much richer than that. We think about what it is we want to research and write about, but at the same time, we learn what to think based on our research and our writing. The goal of this book is to guide you through this process of research writing by emphasizing a series of exercises that touch on different and related parts of the research process.","contributors":[{"id":3630,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Steven","middle_name":"D.","last_name":"Krause","location":"Eastern Michigan University","background_text":"Steven D. Krause grew up in eastern Iowa, earned a BA in English at the University of Iowa, an MFA in Fiction Writing at Virginia Commonwealth University, and a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing at Bowling Green State University. He joined the faculty at Eastern Michigan University in 1998."}],"subjects":[{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"},{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":173,"url":"http://www.stevendkrause.com/tprw/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-12-29T16:02:50.000-06:00","name":"Steven D. Krause"}],"formats":[{"id":329,"type":"Online","url":"http://www.stevendkrause.com/tprw/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":330,"type":"PDF","url":"http://www.stevendkrause.com/tprw/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":20,"reviews":[{"id":580,"first_name":"Margaret","last_name":"Wood","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Klamath Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book thoroughly covers the material that first-year college research writers need to know  including an introduction to basic academic research concepts, searches and source evaluation from library and web resources, a thorough discussion of summary, paraphrase and direct quotation, collaboration and peer review, topic selection,  hypothesis and thesis development, annotated bibliography, text analysis and evaluation, engaging seriously with opposing viewpoints, working with evidence and attributes of evidence, the components of a traditional research essay, alternative forms of presentation (web-based project), and finally MLA and APA documentation. There are also hyperlinks to help readers move to relevant information in other chapters. \n\nWhile concepts like ethos, logos, and pathos are mentioned in passing, they are not deeply developed. Other topics I generally teach alongside research which are not covered include strategies for defining terms, inductive and deductive logic, and logical fallacies.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not identify any inaccuracies or biases. There are areas where focus may be a bit different. For example, the model my institution uses for annotated bibliographies uses the rhetorical precis as a summary model, and also encourages a brief evaluative analysis. On the other hand, the emphasis given to the antithesis is new to me, and looks like a very good idea. I did identify a couple of grammatical issues -- two cases of \"effect\" instead of \"affect\", and one pronoun agreement problem.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Good writing principles don't tend to change that much. The discussion of the Web-based research project is very timely.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a conversational style which should be easy for students to understand. All technical terms are clearly explained. There are also aids for comprehension and review including: a useful bulleted list at the beginning of each chapter outlines material covered in that chapter;  highlighted boxes which provide guidance for class discussion on the topic; sample assignments; easy-to-read checklists of key points.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is entirely consistent. Hyperlinks help to connect key points to other chapters.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The material is subdivided into clear and appropriate chapters; moreover, the chapters provide clear subheadings. However, I did identify one instance where subheadings indicated material that is not present in chapter four: Three Ideas for Collaborative Projects * Research Idea Groups * Research Writing Partners * Collaborative Research Writing Projects. \n\nAlso, as previously mentioned, some material that I would like to include is not covered in this text.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I feel that chapter 3 should be placed later, at a point in the term where students have actually begun the writing process.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Images, though used infrequently, are blurry, and hyperlinks, at least as I was able to access them, did not appear to be active.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Mentioned above -- two \"effect\"/\"affect\" issues and one issue of pronoun agreement","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not identify any culturally insensitive issues. The one essay topic used throughout, a thesis involving The Great Gatsby, I did not find particularly relevant, since my institution excludes literature from its research projects.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Solid and thorough advice on research writing. Quite heavy on text, but advice is useful and frequently innovative.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":616,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Sanders","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text offers a comprehensive discussion of all the elements of writing a research project. \n\nThe author covers evaluating sources, using library research, incorporating research into essays, collaborative work, creating a thesis, as well as writing annotated bibliographies, close reading, opposition, alternative project formats, and citing sources.\n\nAlthough there is no index or glossary, the text is organized in discrete chapters available on the site as HTML or PDF for easy navigation.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Although I found no inaccuracies, both the APA and MLA handbooks have been updated since the versions used in this text.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the content will not be obsolete any time soon, but the citation chapter is not based on recent APA and MLA handbooks.\n\nThe section on alternative ways to present research (Chapter 11) could be updated to include YouTube, Prezi, and more recent technology.\n\nThe modular format would make it very easy to update.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written at a level that is appropriate for the target audience, college students who need to build research and writing skills.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text is internally consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I consider the modules to be one of the main strengths of the text. The sections have useful subheadings. \n\nIt would be easy to select specific chapters as course readings.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters follow an intuitive sequence of developing a paper from topic to research to draft.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This text is easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammar errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There are ample opportunities here to add cultural diversity to the sample topics and writing tasks.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am thrilled to offer this text to my students instead of the incredibly expensive alternatives currently available. \n\nI am particularly interested in using this book for online writing courses, so students who desire more thorough discussion of particular stages of writing a research project could build or refresh foundational skills in these areas.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":889,"first_name":"Samuel","last_name":"Kessler","position":"Postdoctoral Fellow","institution_name":"Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"The Process of Research Writing\" covers most of the areas students need to understand as they begin research writing at a college level. It has explanations of theses, bibliographies, citations, outlines, first paragraphs, etc. There is no index or glossary, the latter especially being something that would have been very helpful and easy to put together. Krause has many useful definitions and quick-help guides throughout the text, but they are so scattered and ineffectively labeled that it can be very difficult to find them without reading through whole chapters in one's search. On the whole, buried inside these pages, is a very effective guides to *teaching* about research writing. In truth, this book is a teacher's introduction to a class (or, more realistically, three or four class sessions) devoted to college-level academic writing. Unfortunately, there are a lot of words that one has to get through to find all these subject, which can make for tough going. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Based on the questions and errors I see my students making, Krause has done a strong job of highlighting the basics of proper academic research. He spends much time on sources, especially on learning to differentiate between scholarly, trade, and journalistic sources, as well as how to steer clear and note the signs of online schlock (i.e. much of the internet). His tips for peer-to-peer editing and self-reflexive assignments are just the sort of things our students needs help working on.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"This is a strange book. The portions that are about implementing class assignments or explaining terms like thesis and antithesis, as well as the examples of an outline or a good first paragraph, are all excellent tools for a classroom. \n\nBut there are so many instances of irrelevant or outdates explanations. No college student today needs to read about why writing on a computer is a useful thing to do. No student needs to read about how email can be a tool for academic exchange. A section on using computers for research? On how to copy and paste within a word document? (And no-one calls it the \"World Wide Web\".) These are issues for the late 90s, not for students in the second decade of the twenty-first century. \n\nThere is also a fair amount that is personal and peculiar to the author: a discussion of why he uses the term \"research essay\" instead of \"research paper\"? That is just wasted space, and actually without the argumentative merits of a research thesis that he had been teaching up to that point. \n\nFor students at research universities, or even at second-tier state and private colleges, the information about libraries and library catalogues changes so quickly that I could never assign those passages. Instead, we'll spend class time looking at our specific library interface. And often, so much material is being sent off-site these days that in many humanities fields its not even possible to scan the shelves any longer. And in science, books are almost irrelevant: online access journals are where the latest research is stored. A bound edition of *Science* from the 1970s contains very little that's important for a scientific research paper written in 2016--unless that paper is about the history of some form of experiment. ","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Krause writes in a folksy, breezy second-person. Now, so does Tom Friedman of the Times, though that is one of the main criticisms of his otherwise insights books. Krause has a tendency to be overly wordy. This book should more closely resemble Hemingway than Knausgaard in order to be practical. For students who have Facebook etc. open while they're reading this book, every sentence that's not directly relevant will make their minds wander. There are so many sentences that simply need to be cut. To use this book, I'd need to cut and paste just the relevant passages. And without an index or glossary, assigning sections to students is very hard. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"\"The Process of Research Writing\" is internally consistent. Krause maintains the same tone throughout, and defines terms as he goes along. The chapters vary considerably in length, with the short chapters always being more useful and focused, with less superfluous verbiage and fewer authorial quirks. ","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"\"The Process of Research Writing\" is a very difficult text to use. The HTML and PDF versions are identical, which defeats the unique way the internet functions. I read this book on both Safari and Chrome, and in neither browser do the hyperlinks work. The tables of content at the heads of each chapter do not link to their respective sections. The projects, assignments, and definitions do not appear in different windows, which would make them possible to keep open while continuing on in the book. There are many instances in which moving back and forth between sections would be very helpful, and that is simply not possible without having multiple windows of the same book open and going between them that way--something that is very clumsy. And again, there are so many superfluous words that even assigning specific chapters means getting through a lot of talk before actually encountering the various hints, tricks, and explanations that are important for learning how to do college-level research.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"\"The Process of Research Writing\" reads like a series of lectures that are meant to be give in a large lecture class, with assignments appended throughout and at the ends. The order of the books is, overall, what one would expect and need for teaching the basics. However, there is a good deal in Chapter 10 that should have appeared earlier (outlines, for instance), and that becomes part of one long chapter that is difficult to use and should have been divided into smaller sections. ","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"As mentioned, in neither Safari nor Chrome do the hyperlinks work. And there appears to have been no planning for links from the chapter tables-of-content to their various associated sections. This makes it very difficult to get between sections or to return to where one was after going somewhere else in the book. Further, there are many links on the internet that remain stable over long periods of time. The Library of Congress, for instance, about which there is a section concerning its cataloguing system, should have a link. As should WorldCat, which for many people who do not have access to a major research library is the best place for learning about texts. Many services like LexusNexus, ABC Clio, and the NY Times archive all also maintain stable websites that should be externally linked. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Except for a smattering of typos, the book has fine (though informal) grammar. This is not a text that could also be used to demonstrate high-level academic writing. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There is nothing culturally offensive here in any way. ","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"In many ways, this is a much better book for teachers of first-year students than for the students themselves. There are many sections of this book to pull out and assign, or to read together in class, to help students gain an understanding of college-level research. But this is not a book I'd ever assign to my students in total. The suggestions for in-class and homework assignments are all high quality pedagogy. But students shouldn't read about their own assignments--they should just do them. Departments can give this book to first-year professors to help them create class periods where they teach their students how to write papers. That would be an excellent use for this text. But as a book for students themselves, I cannot recommend it. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":905,"first_name":"Leana","last_name":"Dickerson","position":"Instructor ","institution_name":"Linn Benton Community College ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The author certainly outlines and examines elements of research writing, and does so in a very clear, organized, and thoughtful way. There is no glossary or index included in the text, but the chapters and headings in the table of contents and at the beginning of each section very clearly outline what is to be expected from the text. Most all of the concepts are very thoroughly explained and examined including topics that typically are glossed over in research writing texts, including the opposition to argument, close reading, and the importance of research writing to a variety of career pathways. Although thorough in what is present, there are some issues that I would want to touch on with my research students including developing effective argument, logical organization, and examples of the revision process. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information in this text is accurate and adequately explained. It seems readily accessible for any college age student, but doesn’t expect students to come with a background in research or writing. MLA formatting for works cited pages is up to date, and even addresses the fact that the format for citation changes regularly and points to appropriate resources outside of the text. The only formatting issue that I noticed were some in-text citations (examples throughout early chapters) that included a comma which is no longer expected by the MLA. In the works cited section (and throughout, in examples) when referring to book titles, the author does use the underline function instead of an italicized book title; the author also refers to the use of either italic or underlined differentiation, yet MLA suggests italics in text form. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of this text is very straight forward and although essentially up to date, may need updates as relevant technology develops. Updates should be simple and clear to implement as needed because of the strict organization of each chapter. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the content clarity in this text to be refreshing for college age students. Often, as an instructor, I ask my students to read a text and then I must re-visit the content in lecture format to ensure that my students are not lost on terminology or foundational knowledge. This text does not assume any prior knowledge from the reader, but also does not feel rudimentary. The formatting and highlighted importance of some information also provided clarity and consistency throughout. The author paced information well, building on major concepts from the beginning and returning to them throughout. The final stages of the text bring students to a major essay that easily shows how each concept included throughout the text can weave into a larger project. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text is consistent, and feels organized with format, terminology, and the building of content from beginning to end. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The sections in this text are easily broken into segments that can be taught or read at any point throughout the writing process. The text does build on exercises from the beginning to the end, but each of these can be taken out of a linear timeline and used for multiple kinds of projects. The author actually refers to this organization in text, making it clear how each element can work alone or for a streamlined project. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Concepts build upon one another, and yet can be returned to (or jumped to) out of order and still be easy to access and utilize. The text is broken up nicely with bolded, bulleted, or boxed items which designate a stopping point, a discussion to consider, or important details or concepts to focus on. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The layout and navigation of this text online is very accessible, organized, and easy to read. The text PDFs often open in a full browser window, other times they open as PDF documents, but either way include a clean, streamlined format. The text does not seem to be able to be downloaded, making it potentially difficult for students to access without internet access. One issue that I did encounter was that in PDF format, or in html, hyperlinks do not function. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is clear, free of grammatical errors, and flows well. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is relevant to all audiences and very approachable for college age students. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I found this text to be a refreshing change from what is typically find in research textbooks; it’s relevance to more than just the assignment will help students connect research to the broader concept of academia and other facets of their lives. The antithesis section is a useful way for students to really engage with an opposing opinion and how they can then incorporate that into a successful research project. Also, the differing ways of presenting research I found to be useful for students to think about their project beyond a stapled stack of pages, and to expand that to differing modes of communication and presentation. I look forward to being able to use this text with students. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":944,"first_name":"Jocelyn","last_name":"Pihlaja","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Lake Superior College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The length and scope of this book are appropriate for a semester-long research writing course, with twelve chapters that move from foundational concepts into more specific skills that are needed for the crafting of a paper incorporating MLA or APA citation. In particular, I like that the early chapters cover the questions of \"Why Write Research Papers?\" and how to think critically, the middle chapters provide specific activities in the skills of quoting and paraphrasing, and the later chapters bring in assignments (such as writing an annotated bibliography) that help students practice and build content for their ultimate paper.There is no index or glossary to this book; however, the table of contents provides an overview of the chapters that guides navigation well.  ","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"In terms of the thinking, this book's information is logical and sound. The explanations of concepts and activities read easily and do a fine job of explicating the why and how of research writing. In a few places, however, the word \"effected\" is used when it should be \"affected.\" Editing also is needed when the author uses phrases such as \"in the nutshell\" instead of \"in a nutshell.\" As well, in Chapter 4, there is pronoun/antecedent disagreement when the author uses \"their\" to refer to \"each member.\" Also, each chapter contains at least one \"Hyperlink\" to supplemental information, yet the hyperlinks are dead. For the most part, the text is clean and well edited, but we English teachers are line-editing sticklers, so even small, occasional errors stand out. Overall: the ideas presented are accurate and free of bias, yet there are a few, niggling errors.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"When it comes to relevance and longevity, this book is problematic. In fact, it is so outdated as to be unusable, at least for this instructor. Certainly, the concepts presented are solid; they don't change with passing years. However, typographically, the book is passe, as it uses two spaces after periods. Even more troubling is that it refers to the Internet as \"new\" and comes from a point of view that sees this thing called \"the World Wide Web\" as novel while also noting students might want to rely on microfilm and microfiche during their research. In another example, the author suggests to students that a benefit of writing on computers is that they can share their work with each other on disc or through email. Truly, such references make the book unusable for a class in 2017. Another issue is that the Modern Language Association has updated its guidelines several times since this book's publication; ideally, a text used in a research writing class would cover, if not the latest guidelines, at least the previous version of the guidelines. A full rewrite of the book is necessary before it could be adopted. As the book currently stands, students would roll their eyes at the antiquated technological language, and the teacher would need to apologize for asking students to read a text that is so out-of-date.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing in this book is both accessible and intelligent. It's eminently readable. Specifically, the inclusion of things like an \"Evidence Quality and Credibility Checklist\" at the end of Chapter 1 and the continual use of grey boxes that highlight major concepts is very good. Also extremely helpful are the examples of student writing that end nearly every chapter; these models demonstrate to readers what is expected from each assignment. Finally, the explanations of quoting and paraphrasing are superior -- so clear, so easy for students to digest. Were it not outdated in terms of technological references, I would definitely consider using this book in my classes due to the clarity of the prose.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"For the most part, the book is well structured and consistent in its design and layout. Each chapter provides general explanation of a concept, moves into a specific assignment, and ends with an example or two of student responses to that assignment. Very quickly, readers know what to expect from each chapter, and there's something comforting about the predictability of the layout, especially in a book that is being read on a screen, using scrolling. When it comes to the terminology, my only note would be that the book starts out using a relaxed second-person point of view, addressing students as \"you,\" but then, at the end of Chapter 2, the author suddenly begins also using the first-person \"I.\" This first-person point of view continues throughout the book, so it becomes consistent from that point on, but for me as a reader, I never quite adjusted to that level of informality, particularly when all the sentences using \"I\" could easily be re-written in the third person. Before reading this text, I hadn't really considered what I like in a book, but now I know: because I want the text to model the ideal, I would prefer a more formal (and consistent) point of view. Today's students struggle to create essays that don't include \"you\" or \"I\" -- even when they very consciously are trying to avoid those words. Learning to write from the third person POV is surprisingly challenging. Therefore, my personal preference would be a textbook that consistently models this approach.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters in this book are of a perfect length -- long enough to develop the ideas and present comprehensive explanations yet short enough to be ingested and excised. Put another way, I could see grabbing bits and pieces of this text and using them in my classes. For instance, without adopting the entire text, I still could pull the instructions for the Anti-Thesis essay or the Annotated Bibliography, or I could use the explanation of the purpose of collaboration. Indeed, the chapters and exercises in this book are tight \"modules\" that allow an instructor to pick and choose or to reorganize the chapters to better fit with an individual course structure. For me, although I won't use this entire text, I can envision incorporating pieces of it into my teaching. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of this book is one of its greatest strengths. It starts with a broad overview of research into an exploration of the process behind seeking out reputable sources, weaves in a few shorter essay assignments that serve as building blocks for a longer paper, and culminates with the ideas for a final, capstone research project -- something that naturally grows out of all the previous chapters. Each chapter in the text flows easily out of the chapter before it. One of this text's greatest strengths is how each successive chapter builds on the concepts presented in the previous chapters.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"As noted earlier, the hyperlinks in the book don't work. As well, the screenshots included in the book are blurry and add little, except frustration, to the content. Outside of those issues, though, the book is physically easy to read and navigate, largely thanks to the easy clicking between the table of contents and individual chapters. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"As suggested earlier, the book, as a whole, reads easily, yet there are some errors with the homonyms \"effected\" and \"affected,\" along with pronoun/antecedent disagreement. I also noticed a handful of places where there are extra spaces around commas (in addition to the use of two spaces after periods). ","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"This text is definitely not insensitive or offensive; its tone is fair and balanced, free of bias. On the other hand, this book does not really bring in examples that address diversity. Students reading this book will not see acknowledgment of different races, ethnicities, sexual preferences, or personal histories. Thus, in addition to updating the references to technology, if this book were rewritten, it also could more deliberately address this lack. As it is, the content of this book does feel whitewashed and free of cultural relevance.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"There is a lot of promise in this text because the explanations and assignments are so good. But unless it is updated, I don’t see it as usable in a current classroom.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1078,"first_name":"Amy Jo","last_name":"Swing","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Lake Superior College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers most of the main concepts of research writing: thesis, research, documenting, and process. It's weak on argument though, which is standard in most research composition texts. The book provides a clear index so finding information is relatively easy. The other weak spot is on evaluation evidence: there is a section on it but not comprehensive examples. Students in general needs lots of practice on how to evaluate and use information.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information is accurate mostly except for the APA and MLA section. Writing and research writing haven't changed that much in a long time. It's more the technology and tools that change.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"The ideas about research and writing in general are fine, However, the references to technology and documentation are very out of date, over 10 years so. Students use technology very differently than described in this text, and the technologies themselves have changed. For example, the author talks about floppy disks and AOL messenger but not about Google Drive, Wikipedia, Prezi, or how to use phones and tablets while researching. Our students are digital natives and need to understand how to use their devices to write and research.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is quite readable in general. Concepts are easy to understand. Sometimes, they are almost too simple like the section explaining what a library is. Students might not be sophisticated library users, but they understand in general how they work.  The chapters are concise, which is nice for student use too.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Except for pronoun use, the book is consistent in tone and terms. Not all the terms are ones I use in my own teaching, and it would be nice to see explanation of more argument/research frameworks like the Toulmin Model of argument.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The chapters are pretty self-contained and clear as individual units. I can see including certain chapters and leaving out others that aren't as relevant to my teaching style or assignments. One could easily assign the chapters in a different order, but students ask lots of questions when you assign chapter 6 first and then weeks later, assign chapter 2 or 3.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The basic chapters make sense in terms of how they are created and categorized but the order is problematic if an instructor were to assign them in the order presented. For example, the chapter on creating an annotated bibliography comes before the one on documenting (APA/MLA). Students can't complete an annotated bibliography without knowing how to cite sources. Same with evaluating sources. There is so much information on locating sources before any clear mention is made of how to evaluate them. I find that is the weak spot with students. If they learn how to evaluate sources, it's easier to find and locate and research effectively.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Not many images. Students really like info-graphics, pictures, and multi-media. The hyperlinks to other sections of the book do not work in either the PDF or HTML versions. I do like some of the illustrations like mapping and how research is more a web than a linear process. For an online textbook, there aren't a lot of hyperlinks to outside resources (of which there are so many like Purdue's OWL and the Guide to Grammar and Writing).","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"There were quite a few errors : comma errors, spelling (affect/effect), some pronoun agreement errors, capitalization errors with the title in Chapter Four. The author also uses passive voice quite a bit, which is inconsistent with the general familiar tone. In some chapters, there is constant switching between first, second, and third person. I focus much on point of view consistency in my students' writing, and this would not be a great model for that.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"There is no cultural offensiveness but not much diversity in examples and students names either.  Marginalized students (of color, with disabilities, of different sexuality or gender) would not see themselves reflected much.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"This is a good basic reference on the process of writing and research. However, it would not be too useful without updated information on technology and documentation. As a web-based text, it reads more like a traditional physical textbook.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1098,"first_name":"VINCENT","last_name":"LASNIK","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This comprehensiveness is one of the strengths of The Process of Research Writing.  The Table of Contents (TOC) is fine—and each separate chapter also reproduces the contents listing from high-lever through low-level subsections at the beginning of each chapter.  This duplicate listing feature helps orient students to what is covered (and what is not) for every chapter in-context.  Yes—It is a fair evaluation that there can generally be easy-to-fix, quickly recognizable updates, enhancements, and notable improvements to virtually any textbook 10-15 years after its initial publication date (particularly related to changing terminology and nomenclature within the dynamic English lexicon, technology applications (databases, websites, ‘search engines,’ current good ‘help sites’ for students learning the latest iteration of APA style for manuscript formatting, in-text citations, and end references, etc.)—and the Krause text is a prime candidate for such a thorough revision.  For example, digital object identifiers (the doi was first introduced circa 2000) did not become widely/pervasively established until well into the first decade of the 21st century; the ‘doi’ is an ubiquitous standard today in 2017.  Nevertheless, many of the basic (boilerplate) concepts are clearly noted and credibly, coherently explained.  The text could use some effective reorganization (as I note elsewhere in my review)—but that is arguably a subjective/personalized perspective more related to the way we approach writing instruction and student academic development at Rogue Community College—and perhaps less of a global/universal criticism.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"See my comments in other sections that impact this issue.  Overall, Krause’s text appears, “accurate, error-free and unbiased.”  There are no obvious problems with this observation/contention.  Some of the ‘out-of-date’ specifics in the text need updating as I note in detail in my other comments.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the text describes research-writing strategies that are fairly well-established if not generic to the undergraduate English composition content area; thus, the overall longevity of the existing text is good.  I have suggested, however, that any such ‘how-to’ guide should be updated (as this particular version) after its first decade of publication.  The content for online research, for example, reflects an early 2000s perspective of emerging technology terms (e.g., defining blogs as “web-logs” is easily 12-15 years behind the use of the term in 2017), and some of the online websites mentioned are no longer relevant.  These types of ‘out-of-date’ past-referents/links, however, can be easily updated to 2017+ accuracy.  I have made a few suggestions about such an update—including my offer to assist Steve Krause (gratis and pro bono) in this update should my collaboration be desired.  Otherwise, Krause might go the more open ‘peer review’ route and assemble a set of active teachers, instructors, and adjunct professors (such as me) who are on the ‘frontlines’ of current praxis for research-based, critical thinking, problem-oriented writing courses across the 11th-12th grade and through the undergraduate and workforce education community.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written is a clear, credible, and cogent prose throughout.  This is one of the particular strengths of Krause’s text—and recursively provides an exemplar for well-written composition.  On occasion, the clarity for students might be improved by additional ‘real-world examples’ (i.e., more ‘showing rather than mere abstract telling) explicating some obtuse concepts and numerous rules (e.g., for research strategy, proofreading/editing, using search engines and conducting library research, etc.)—but a similar constructive criticism could easily be made of nearly all similar sources.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text wording, terminology, framework and process emphasis are highly consistent.  There are overlaps and dovetailing (i.e., redundancy) in any/every college textbook—but Krause keeps these to a minimum throughout.  Some updating of terminology would be appropriate, useful, and needed as I note throughout my OER review.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is superb in this regard.  The chapters and exercises are highly modular—which supports the customized reorganization I apply myself in my own courses as noted in my other comments.  Numerous subheads and special highlighted ‘key points’ textboxes augment this modularity and improve the narrowing of assigned readings, examples, and exercises for most writing courses.  The Process of Research Writing is clearly not, “overly self-referential,” and can easily be, “reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader” by any instructor.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"One of the principal weaknesses of the set of chapters is that the given ‘table of contents’ structure is conceptually disjointed—at least insofar as my research writing course is designed.  Therefore, to provide a more coherent, logical sequence congruent to the course organization of my Writing 122 (this is an intermediate/advanced-level English Composition II)—it was necessary to assign a completely different order of The Process of Research Writing (Krause, 2007) high-level chapters/pages for weekly course reading assignments as follows:\n\nWeek One: Table of Contents; Introduction: Why Write Research Projects?; and Chapter 1: Thinking Critically About Research; Week Two: Chapter 2: Understanding and Using the Library and the Internet for Research.  These three starting chapters were reasonable to introduce in Krause’s original sequence.  Continuing into Week Two, I also added Chapter 4: How to Collaborate and Write with Others (but I highlighted limited/specific passages only since WR122 does not emphasize collaborative prose composition activities and extensive group-writing projects using such apps as Google Docs).  Week Three: I then assigned Chapter 10: The Research Essay—since it was important to orient students to the intrinsic, namesake umbrella concept of researching and writing the research essay—the essential focus of the course I teach.  IMPORTANT NEED TO RESTRUCTURE THE OER as it exists: Viewed from a course rationale and content/skill acquisition conceptual level—I have no idea why Krause did not place ‘Writing The Research Essay’ as high as Chapter 2.  It comes far too late in the book as Chapter 10.  This is actually where the chapter belongs (in my view); the other topics in the remaining Chapters’ (2—12) would more cogently and effectively proceed after first exploring the high-level nature of the research essay task in the first place.  The subsequent skills for conducting Online Library Research; Quoting, Paraphrasing, Avoiding Plagiarism, creating a testable ‘Working Thesis,’ producing an Annotated Bibliography (some courses also use a précis assignment), Evaluating and Categorizing Sources, etc.—are realistically supporting, scaffolding, and corroborating functional/operational skills designed to design, research, and produce the research-based essay project.  Therefore—from a project-based and problem-oriented pedagogical strategy/approach—a sound argument could be proffered that putting Chapter 10 second in a reordered book would help students on many levels (not the least being engaging interest and promoting contextual understanding for why learning the content of the remaining chapters makes sense and can be critical/applicable to the research-writing process.\n\nContinuing on my own WR122 course text-sequence customization—in Week Four—we move into the attribution phase of the writing process in Chapter 3: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Avoiding Plagiarism.  Logically, we then move (in Week Five) to Chapter 5: The Working Thesis so students can ask significant/original questions and determine a point of departure into their research essay.  This seemed like a good time to add the concept of ‘opposition views’ (i.e., counter-claims, rejoinder and rebuttal) discussed in Chapter 8: The Antithesis.  In Week Six—we moved into essay formatting, in-text citation and end references, so Chapter 12: Citing Your Research Using MLA or APA Style {(focusing on reading pp. 1-2 (brief overview), and pp. 18-33 about APA style)} was assigned.  In addition, students also perused Chapter 7: The Critique preceding a related argumentative assignment (i.e., a movie review project).  For Week Seven (concurrent with an annotated bibliography project for the main term paper—students read Chapter 6: The Annotated Bibliography, and Chapter 9: The Categorization and Evaluation (of sources) that was ostensibly/logically relevant to the annotated bibliography project.  Concluding the course for Weeks Eight-Eleven—there were new required readings.  Students were instructed to review previous readings in The Process of Research Writing (Krause, 2007)—time permitting.  Also Note: Chapter 11: Alternative Ways to Present Your Research is completely optional reading.  It is not particularly applicable to this course; there is a student’s self-reflection about the research process on pp. 3-11 that may have some nominal merit, but it notes MLA style (versus my course’s use of APA 6th edition style only) and is in any case not required.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is not fancy; standard black and white (high-contrast) font used throughout.  For emphasis of key points, Krause does use special ‘highlight boxes’ with gray background, a thick black stroke on the outside of the rectangular textbox.  While the gray level might be lowered (in the update) for improved contrast—the true-black, bulleted, bolded key-terms are easy to perceive/read.  The only criticism I have is the distracting overuse of quotation mark punctuation for emphasis; this should be corrected in any updated version.  Otherwise, most of the book’s interface presentation supports a good user (student) experience, good printability, and good accessibility per ADA and general disability (e.g., visually impaired learners) protocols.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are no significant/glaring occurrences of grammatical errors in the text.  I am not a ‘grammar snob’ in any case.  The prose seems clear, cogent, thoughtful, well-written; it generally uses solid grammar, mechanics, and punctuation.  The exception is the overuse of a somewhat casual/conversational tone combined with (what is more of a recognizable issue) a distracting overuse of quotation marks—many of which are simply neither needed nor helpful; most could be quickly removed with an immediate improvement to readability.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I do not see significant, relevant, or glaring faux pas pertaining to any biased disrespect for multiculturalism.  All persons (e.g., races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and cultural backgrounds) are equally respected and appreciated.  The content area (English composition) is very amenable to a relatively generic, culture-free perspective—and Krause’s examples and prose is well-within any applicable standards of post-modern, scholarly, formal non-fiction in written Standard English.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"[1] The Process of Research Writing was ostensibly presented/published to Creative Commons in 2007.  No identifiable part/portion of the original edition text appears to have been updated (changed, modified, or improved) since then (i.e., at least 10 years); This is perhaps the single, most apparent flaw/weakness for this textbook.  An in-depth revision to 2017 post-rhetorical model essay-writing standards and APA conventions would be invaluable—and quite bluntly—is sorely required.  A newly updated Version 2.0 for 2017-18 should be critically planned (and scheduled or already ‘in progress’ if it is not already).\n\n[2] There are many insightful, practical, and high-value approaches to the research writing process; in this regard—the nominal OER title is superbly appropriate for late high-school and beginning college (undergraduate) research essay projects.  Even though some of the technical components (e.g., APA style) require updating/revision (which makes basic, reasonable sense after a ‘decade on the shelf’ for any academic research writing source)—Krause’s chapters can effectively replace many expensive, glossy college entry-level textbooks!  After presenting the core concepts in a coherent and self-evident manner, Krause supplies a plethora of examples to illustrate those concepts.  Then (and this is one of the true strengths of this OER)—each chapter (particularly Chapters 5-10) highlights student-oriented exercises to practice those same core concepts).  Because of this latter emphasis—the Krause OER is ‘learner-centered’ (as opposed to ‘content centered’), problem-oriented and performance-oriented as well—providing opportunities for creative, resourceful teachers to adapt/adopt the OER to course assignments.\n\n[3] There does not appear to be a single (standalone) PDF for this OER.  This is a notable flaw/weakness for this textbook.  Conversely, however, although a single PDF would have some convenient ‘easier downloading’ advantages for students—having separate chapters affords every teacher to create a customized chapter-order (as I have efficiently done to correspond to my course design).  The chapters support excellent modularity and the accompanying exercises/examples demonstrate the concepts Krause explicates with a fine degree of granularity for any teacher.  Thus—integrating any textbooks or teaching/learning resources (like OERs) always has tradeoffs—plusses and minuses, positives and negatives.  The obvious key, therefore, is taking the liberty of using the OER as a supporting scaffold or buttress to an instructor’s original design concept—rather than the foundation around which a course can be designed.\n\n[4]  Some minor weaknesses for prose instruction are (a) Krause’s acceptance of passive, sophomoric signal phrasing (i.e., According to X…)—as opposed to strong, active voice such as ‘’X found…’; and (b) a general overuse of quotation marks throughout the book.  This is not meant as a harsh criticism—merely an observation that readability could be improved with a newer version that eliminates most quotation marks (Note: In APA style—these punctuation symbols are only used for verbatim quotes.  This makes for a cleaner, clearer manuscript).\n\n[5] One of the solid/helpful strengths of the book is a relatively accurate presentation of APA style for in-text citation and end references (Chapter 12).  It appears that like many academics—Krause is more familiar and comfortable with the Modern Language Association’s MLA style/formatting.  No problem there—I was simply trained on APA beginning in 1984 so it is native to me; I also use the latest version of APA style in all of my writing (college composition) courses.  Thus—it should come as no surprise there are a number of obvious APA-associated inaccuracies including (but limited to): (a) meekly accepting ‘n.d.’ (no date) and ‘n.a.’ (no author) sources when a little investigative research by the student (and adherence to the APA rule hierarchy for dates and authors) would easily come up with a sound date and author.  Another error (b) seems to be more typographic (formatting) and/or refers to an earlier edition of APA style: the end references in the PDF (and html versions?) use underline in place of italics.  The 2011 APA 6th edition style does not use underline in the end references.  There are other small (faux pas) errors such as (c) noting generally inaccessible proprietary online databases and servers (again—no longer done in APA).  A thorough, meticulous updating of this OER source would probably take care of many of these APA-error issues.  I’d be happy to work with Steve on this update at any time.\n\n[6] I use Amy Guptill’s Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence by Amy Guptill of State University of New York (2016) for my English Composition I course that emphasizes general essay writing and a simple research-supported argumentative essay.  I teach that course using the following assigned readings:  Week One:  Chapter 1 (Really? Writing? Again?), pp. 1-7, and Chapter 2 (What Does the Professor Want? Understanding the Assignment), pp. 9-18; Week Two:  Chapter 6 (Back to Basics: The Perfect Paragraph), pp. 48-56; Chapter 7 (Intros and Outros), pp. 57-64; Week Four: Chapter 9 (Getting the Mechanics Right), pp. 75-85; Week Five: Chapter 8 (Clarity and Concision), pp. 65-73; Week Six: Chapter 3 (Constructing the Thesis and Argument—From the Ground Up), pp. 19-27; Week Seven: Chapter 4 (Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats), pp. 28-37; Week Eight: Chapter 5 (Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources), pp. 38-47.  I then switch over to Krause’s OER for my English Composition II course.  At Rogue Community College, Writing 122 emphasizes intermediate essay writing and analytical, more rigorous and original research-based essays involving critical thinking.  I completely reordered the chapters as described above to fit into my course design.  I like Krause’s individual ‘modular’ chapters—but the particular ‘scope and sequence’ he uses are debatable.  Overall, however, The Process of Research Writing easily and effectively substitutes/replaces other costly tomes from for-profit academic publishers—even those that offer bundled DVDs and online-access to proprietary tutorial sources.  Used in conjunction with other freely available PDF OERs, websites, YouTube videos, tutorial/practice sites from innumerable libraries, blogs (e.g., the APA Blog is particularly helpful)—as well as original/customized sources created by individual instructors for their own courses—the Krause book offers a good, solid baseline for developing research-based writing competencies particularly appropriate for the first two years of college.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1117,"first_name":"Karen","last_name":"Pleasant","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook covered the basics of writing a research paper (the term \"essay\"is preferred by the author) and would be appropriate for an introductory college writing course, such as WR 121 or WR 122.  A table of content is provided, but there is no glossary.  The textbook guides a student from exploring the initial topic selection through the finished product, although I would have liked the use of citations to be covered in more depth. If I chose this as the textbook for my class I would also need to add supplemental materials about thoroughly developing an argument as well as revising  a paper.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The author presented the material in an unbiased manner and does so in a way that provides high readability for students with little to no background in writing a research paper.  Excellent examples are provided to reinforce concepts and thoughtful, creative collaborative exercises round out each chapter to give practice in skill mastery. Both MLA and APA formatting styles are included, but the APA section needs to be updated.  The book was published in 2007 and many of the APA guidelines have changed., including the preference for using italics versus underlining for book and journal titles.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Each chapter is self-contained and stands alone and , therefore, could easily be updated.  Most of the information is relevant and could be used indefinitely.  I like that Chapter 11 recommended alternate ways to present the research and suggested more contemporary technology based methods. Chapter 12, about APA and MLA citations, is the chapter that currently needs to be updated and would need to be checked for accuracy annually against the latest APA \u0026amp; MLA guidelines.  As it reads, I would handout current materials for APA citation sessions and not use this chapter in the book.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is well organized and is very user friendly.  I think students would enjoy reading it and be able to relate readily to the content.  Examples given and exercises provided help to clarify the content and reinforce the concepts for students. The textbook flows well from selection of initial topic ideas to finished product and will help students to work through the process of writing a research paper.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"New terms are thoroughly explained and are used consistently throughout the textbook.  The knowledge students gain as they progress through the book feels logical and organized in a usable fashion.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is organized so that each chapter stands alone and the order the information is presented can be easily modified to fit the needs of an instructor.  The book is that rare combination of being equally functional for both student and instructor.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented as needed to guide students through the process of writing a research paper, but could be done in another order if desired.  Bold and boxed items are used to emphasize key concepts and  chapter exercises.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The textbook is visually appealing and easy to read with adequate use of white space and varied font sizes.  I explored the textbook via the PDF documents, which were easy to download, although the hyperlinks were not accessible.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were noticeable grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The textbook is inclusive and accessible to all and didn't have any content that could be deemed offensive.  The approachable layout and writing style make the textbook relevant to college students from a variety of backgrounds.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would definitely adopt this open textbook for my writing classes.  The author provided some wonderful ideas for teaching about research papers and I found many chapter exercises that I would be willing to incorporate into my class .  I am especially intrigued by the use of writing an antithesis paper as a lead in to adding opposition to the research paper and look forward to getting student input and feedback about some of the alternative ways to present their research.  Compared to textbooks I have used or perused in the past, this book seems more inviting and user friendly for students new to writing college level research papers.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1268,"first_name":"Betsy","last_name":"Goetz","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Riverland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers all subject areas appropriately.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the text is accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Relevant and current.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I liked the clarity of the text, especially the specific exercises for students to apply the theory they have learned.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text is consistent -- good terminology!","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Clear sections to focus on key points of research writing.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Not confusing","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Overall, lacking grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Relevant -- research writing and thesis building are timeless.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1423,"first_name":"Marie","last_name":"Lechelt","position":"ESL/English Instructor and Writing Center Co-director","institution_name":"Riverland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"The Process of Research Writing\" is a textbook that includes all of the major topics covered in most college research writing courses.  The style of writing makes it easily understood by students.  Depending on your focus in your writing class, you may want to supplement this text with more about argumentative writing.  Other writing models, homework exercises, and classroom activities found by the instructor would also compliment the use of this text.  While I would not use this textbook in my course from start to finish, I would jump around and use a variety of sections from it to teach research writing.  This text could be used for a beginning writing class or a second semester writing course.  Based on my students writing experiences and abilities, I would eliminate or include certain sections.  There is no index or glossary included. The hyperlinks to other sections also do not work.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and error-free.  I didn't detect any biased information either.  The MLA and APA information have changed since this book was published.  The peer review work, plagiarism, critiquing sources, and many more of the topics are almost exactly what I teach to my students.  This format will work well for them.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"While most research writing content does not change over time, there are many parts of this book that could be updated.  These include examples (The Great Gatsby), hyperlinks, and references to technology.  The technology aspect is especially important.  Since technology is constantly changing, most textbooks (print and online) are out of date as soon as they are printed.  Because of this, teachers are constantly having to use supplemental material, which is fine.  Just like our class websites, we have to update this information every semester or even more often.  If you choose to use this textbook, keep in mind that this will be necessary. The MLA/APA information is also out of date, but this is also to be expected.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity is one of the benefits of this textbook.  Although the style is somewhat informal, it included appropriate topics and terminology for students learning to write research essays.  Students can understand the topics with one or two readings and discuss the topics in class.  There were a few places that seemed like common knowledge for students at this level, like the library or using computers.  Unfortunately, we do still have students who do not come to us having already learned this information. So, I don't think these sections would have a negative impact on other students.  Students can also be given optional sections to read, or as I plan to do, the teacher can skip around and only assign some sections.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The majority of the terminology is common knowledge in research writing teaching.  The text is fairly informal in writing style, which I believe is an advantage for students.  Many times, students will read a text and then I will need to explain the terminology or ideas in depth in my lectures.  Since I prefer to complete activities and work on students' writing in class, instead of lecturing, this book will work well.  The chapter on the \"Antithesis\" was new to me.  While I have taught these ideas, I have not used this term before.  This is a chapter I may not use and instead include supplemental material of my own.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are divided clearly and could be separated quite easily to use as individual units in a writing class.  If the hyperlinks worked though, they would be helpful.  Exercises build upon one another, so one could not assign a later exercise without students first understanding the other sections of the text.  I plan to use this text in a research writing class, and I will be skipping around and only using some sections.  I do not believe there will be any problem with this.  While students may at first feel that starting on Chapter 4 might be strange, they are very adaptive and should have no difficulties with this format.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The Table of Contents is clear and easily understood.  Each chapter follows a logical sequence, and students will be able to transition from one topic to another without difficulty.  The use of charts, headings, bold, highlighting, and some other visual aids help the reader to understand what is most important to remember.  Although, this could be improved upon with the use of color and graphics.  While the content is valuable, I would most likely skip around when using this book in the classroom.  While the author begin with an introduction and then jumps right into research, I focus on topic selection and thesis writing before research begins.  Of course, as the author mentions, students will go back to their thesis and research many times before finishing the writing process.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text is easily navigated, and students would be able to follow the topics throughout.  The lack of graphics and color is noticeable and detracts from the content.  In a world of advanced technology where students click on hundreds of websites with amazing content each week, online textbooks need to meet this standard.  This textbook is similar to a traditional textbook.  Some links are also inactive.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were some typos and small grammatical errors but no glaring instances.  They also did not impact understanding.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This book contained no offensive language or examples.  However, we have a lot of diversity in our classrooms, and this is not reflected in the book. Expanding the examples or including links to diverse examples would be helpful.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I will be using this text in a second semester writing class.  It has valuable information about research writing.  I believe it could also be used for a first semester writing class.  As mentioned above, I will use sections of the text and skip around to accommodate the needs of my students.  Supplemental materials will also be needed to meet current technology needs.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1525,"first_name":"Jennie","last_name":"Englund","position":"Instructor, Composition I \u0026 II","institution_name":"Rogue Community College, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Twelve chapters are broken into multiple parts. \n\nOn Page 3 of the Introduction, the text emphasizes its purpose as an \"introduction to academic writing and research.\"  The following chapters present more than substantial information to give introductory (even well into master) research writers a foundation of the basics, as well as some detail. It differentiates itself as \"Academic\" research writing through thesis, evidence, and citation. Two of these concepts are revisted in the conclusion. The third (thesis) has its own section, which this reviewer will use in class. \n\nI'm grateful to have reviewed an earlier electronic text. This provided the ability to compare/contrast, and note that this particular text was more comprehensive and in-depth than the guide I had previously reviewed (which was more of a framework, good in its own right.)\n\nHad the guide contained a thorough section on revision, I'd give it a perfect score! Thus, the book very very nearly does what it sets out to do; it provides most of The Process of Research Writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Retrieval dates are no longer used on the APA References page. This reviewer would have preferred titles italicized instead of underlined.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text opens with an introduction of the project, by its author. The project began in 2000 as a text for a major publishing house, but eventually landed via author's rights as an electronic text. Therefore, essentially, the book has already been around quite a while. This reviewer concludes that time, thought, and execution went into publishing the material, and predicts its popularity and usability will grow. \n\nTimeless, the guide could have been used with small updates twenty years ago, and could be used with updates twenty years from now. \n\nThe guide could be used as the sole text in a composition course, supplemented by more formal (as well as APA) examples.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is organized into 12 chapters; it logically begins with \"Thinking Critically about Research,\" and concludes with \"Citing Your Research Using MLA or APA Style.\" The text includes most of what this reviewer uses to teach academic research writing. However, the book omits the editing/revising process. \n\nThe guide poses purposeful questions.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"On Page 7 of the Introduction, the text reports being \"organized in a 'step-by-step' fashion,\" with an invitation to the reader to use the book in any order, and revisit passages. The reviewer found the organization to be consistent and as systematic as the actual composition of an academic research paper.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The meat of the text begins with the definition and purpose of \"Research.\" Immediately, a nod to working thesis follows, which is revisited in Chapter 5. Sources are examined and classified into a chart of \"Scholarly Versus Non-scholarly or Popular Sources.\" The segment on \"Using the Library\" would complement a course or class period on library usage.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The Table of Contents is fluid and logical. Within the text, concepts are revisited and built upon, which the reviewer appreciates. Examples and exercises are given.\n\nChapter 10 contains an outline of a student research paper (which follows). The paper examines the problems with and solutions for  university athletics. The paper is in MLA format.  Tone is less formal than this reviewer would use as an example of academic research writing. The reviewer would have welcomed an example of an APA paper, as well.\n\nThe last chapter fully realizes instruction introduced at the beginning: citation defines academic writing, and academic writers credit their sources, and present evidence to their readers. I wish this last part emphasized thesis again, too, but in all, it is a very structured, reader-friendly guide.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Charts are integrated and understandable, though the majority of the book is text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"This review found some grammatical errors including capitalization. Book/journal/magazine/newspaper titles are underlined in lieu of italicized.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Student examples include Daniel Marvins, Ashley Nelson, Jeremy Stephens, Kelly Ritter, Stuart Banner, and Casey Copeman. Most examples of citations are from male authors. Text would benefit from multi-cultural authors. \n\nExamples/topics include The Great Gatsby,African-American Physicians and Drug Advertising, Cyberculture, ADHD, Diabetes, Student-athletes, and Drunk Driving.Examples are culturally appropriate and multi-disciplinary.\n\nConsistent pronoun used: he/him/his","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Third-person narration is used; the author addresses the reader directly (and informally). While this perhaps makes a connection between the author and the reader, and adds to understanding, it does not reflect academic research writing, and may confuse beginning writers? \n\nChapter 5, \"Writing a Working Thesis,\" is among the most clear, comprehensive, and straightforward instruction on the topic this reviewer has seen. I will use this section in my Composition I and II courses, as well as Chapters 1, 3, and 12. I wish this form had a place to rate usability. In that case, this guide would score highly. I commend Dr. Krause's execution and composition, and applaud his sharing this at no cost with the academic community.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1673,"first_name":"Sheila","last_name":"Packa","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Lake Superior College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is a comprehensive guide to research for students in College Composition courses. The text is concise and interesting.  Critical thinking, research and writing argument are integrated into his suggested assignments.  \n\nThe author covers the research question, library resources, how to paraphrase and use quotes, and collaborative writing projects. There are suggested exercises in the process of research, such as a topic proposal, a guide to developing a strong thesis statement, a full exploration of refutation (called the antithesis), the critique or rhetorical analysis, the annotated bibliography, and a guide to help students to accumulate a good assortment of sources.  MLA and APA documentation is covered. Note that this text is published in 2007. Therefore, I recommend the use of MLA 8 Handbook for up-to-date guidelines for correct documentation. The Research Paper is full explained.  In the chapter, Alternate Ways to Present Research, the author focuses on a Portfolio. He discusses web publication of research and poster sessions. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I value the clarity of ideas. The text is error-free, and I like the example essays written by students that will serve to inspire students. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is relevant.  The author guides students through the process in a way that is easy to understand and also academically rigorous.  The MLA 8 Handbook is a needed supplement (and that is affordable). ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing is clear and concise.  The organization of the chapters is logical and leads the students through steps in the process of research, writing a reasoned argument, and professional presentation of the research.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology is clear and the framework for research is clear and sensible. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book's modularity is definitely a strength. It's possible to use chapters of the text without using the entire book and to omit chapters that are not a focus of the instructor.    ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book has a logical arrangement of chapters and the assignments are valuable. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is great. It's readable online or in pdf form. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors. There is one detail that reflects changing rules of documentation.  In MLA, titles of books, magazines, and journals are now italicized instead of underlined. In this text, they are underlined.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is free of bias or stereotypes. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2234,"first_name":"Jess","last_name":"Magaña","position":"Assistant Teaching Professor","institution_name":"University of Missouri-Kansas City","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is a comprehensive introduction to planning and writing research papers. The suggested activities seem helpful, and the lack of an index or glossary does not interfere with understanding.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information is accurate and straightforward.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Some information is out of date, such as the section regarding email, but the main concepts are well explained and relevant. An instructor could easily substitute a lecture or activity with updated information.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The clarity is excellent.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"There are no inconsistencies.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is organized in a way that lends itself to changing the order of chapters and adding and subtracting topics to suit the needs of each class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The progression of chapters is logical.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The \"hyperlinks\" helpfully direct readers to related topics (although these are not actual links in the online version), which contributes to the modularity of the text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few errors, but none that significantly obscure meaning.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This text could use updated examples showing greater diversity in authors and work. I recommend instructors find supplementary examples relevant to their classes.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I intend to use this text in my courses, supplemented with a few activities and more diverse examples to suit my students' needs.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2459,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Wilde","position":"Adjunct instructor","institution_name":"Columbia Gorge Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is a wonderful guidebook to the process of writing a research essay.  It describes the steps a college writer should take when approaching a research assignment, and I have no doubt that if students followed the steps outlined by the text, they would be sure to succeed in generating a quality thesis statement and locating appropriate sources.  It is not comprehensive in that it has very little to say regarding composition, clarity and style.  It does not contain an index or glossary.   ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Sections on MLA and APA format are inaccurate in that they are outdated.  It would be preferable for the text to refer students to the online resources that provide up to date information on the latest conventions of APA and MLA.  ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The bulk of the chapters are timeless and filled with wisdom about using research to write a paper.  However, the book should contain links or otherwise refer students to the web sources that would tell them how to use current MLA/APA format.  There are some passages that feel anachronistic, as when the author recommends that students consider the advantages of using a computer rather than a word processor or typewriter.  The sections on computer research and \"netiquette\"  feel outdated. Finally, the author describes the differences between scholarly sources and periodicals but does not address the newer type of resources, the online journal that is peer-reviewed but open access and not associated with a university.   ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing is strong and clear.  Dr. Krause does not indulge in the use of jargon.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The different sections open with an explanation of what will be covered.  Then, the author explains the content.  Some chapters are rather short while others are long, but generally each topic is addressed comprehensively. In the last several chapters, the author closes with a sample of student work that illustrates the principles the chapter addressed. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divisible into sections.  To some extent the content is sequential, but it is not necessary to read the early chapters (such as the section on using computers, which millenials do not need to read) in order to benefit from the wisdom in later chapters. I used this text in a writing 121 course, and I did not assign the entire text. I found some chapters helpful and others not so relevant to my particular needs.  Students found the chapters useful and discrete, and they did not feel like they had to go back and read the whole thing.  The section on writing an annotated bibliography, for instance, could be used in any writing class.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in the order in which a student approaches a writing assignment. First, the author asks, why write a research essay, and why do research? Next, the author addresses critical thinking and library/data use; quoting, summarizing and paraphrasing; collaboration and writing with others; writing a quality thesis statement; annotating a bibliography; categorizing sources; dealing with counterarguments, and actually writing the research essay. It's quite intuitive and logical.  It seems clear that this author has had a lot of experience teaching students how to do these steps.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The interface is straightforward, but I could not locate any hyperlinks that worked. Navigation through the book was no problem.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book is well written overall.  The writer's style is straightforward and clear.  There are occasional typos and words that feel misplaced, as in the following sentence: \"The reality is though that the possibilities and process of research writing are more complicated and much richer than that.\"  There should be commas around the word \"though\", and the tone is fairly conversational.  These are extremely minor issues. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The examples feel inclusive and I was not aware of any cultural insensitivity in the book overall. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The book is really helpful!  I particularly appreciate the sections on how to write an annotated bib and a good thesis statement, and I think the sections on writing a category/evaluation of sources, working thesis statement, and antithesis exercise are unique in the large field of writing textbooks.  \r\nThe book contains no instruction on grammatical conventions, style, clarity, rhetoric, how to emphasize or de-emphasize points, or other writing tips. In that sense, it is not a great text for a composition class.  But I think it's extremely useful as a second resource for such a class, especially for classes that teach argumentation or those that require an analytic essay.  I feel it is most appropriate for science students - nursing, psychology, medicine, biology, sociology.  It is less likely to be useful for a general WR 121 class, or for a bunch of English majors who largely use primary sources.","created_at":"2018-12-13T00:22:12.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-12-13T00:22:12.000-06:00"},{"id":3692,"first_name":"Valerie","last_name":"Young","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Hanover College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is both general and specific. General enough for use in a variety of courses and disciplines, specific enough to garner interest for faculty who want to teach students the fundamentals and more nuanced aspects of research writing. The basics are here. The text could be assigned in specific modules. The text will benefit from an update, especially in regards to references about collaborative writing tools and internet research.\r\nThe text is missing a chapter on reading research and integrating research into the literature review process. This is a relevant skill for research writing, as student writers often struggle with reading the work of others to understand the body of literature as a foundation for their own assertions.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content and information seems like it could be helpful for any undergraduate course that has a research writing project. The unique aspects of this book are its features of collaborative and peer review writing practices and all of the exercises embedded in the text. The author gives examples and writing exercises throughout the chapters. These examples could serve inexperienced students quite well. They could also annoy advanced students.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"There are some references to the World Wide Web and the Internet, and library research that seem a bit outdated. There isn't much advanced referencing of commonly used internet research options, such as Google Scholar, citation apps, etc.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Some points are clear and concise. Other pieces go into too much detail for one chapter page. Because the pages are long, and not all content will be relevant to all readers, the author could consider using \"collapsible\" sections. This could be especially relevant in the APA \u0026 MLA sections, offering a side-by-side comparison of each or offering overviews of style basics with sections that open up into more details for some interested readers.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"no issues here","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The chapters are relatively concise and each starts with an overview of content. The web format does not allow for much navigational flow between chapters or sections. It would be great to hyperlink sections of content that are related so that readers can pass through parts of the text to other topics. It does look like the author intended to hyperlink between chapters, but those links (denoted \"Hyperlink:\" in the text) are not functional.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall flow is appropriate for an interdisciplinary lens. Readers can move through as many or as few sections as needed. The chapter topics and subtopics are organized fairly comprehensively, and often by questions that students might ask.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"The long blocks of text in each chapter aren't very reader friendly. Also, once the reader gets to the end of the long page / chapter, there is no navigation up to the top of the chapter or laterally to previous or next content. Text doesn't adjust to screen size, so larger screens might have lots of white space.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"no issues","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"no issues noticed. Some examples could be updated to be more inclusive, culturally diverse, etc.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"This book has some good lessons, questions, and suggestions for topics relevant to research writing. The text could benefit from a more modern take on research writing, as some of the topics and phrases are dated.","created_at":"2020-03-29T23:23:33.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-03-29T23:23:33.000-05:00"},{"id":4119,"first_name":"Milena","last_name":"Gueorguieva","position":"Associate Teaching Professor","institution_name":"University of Massachusetts Lowell","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is a process based research writing textbook, a rarity among composition textbooks. It is often the case that foundational writing courses are supposed to cover process and then, very often, instructors, students and textbook authors all forget that process is important when they have to  dive into the technical aspects of conducting and writing about and from research, usually in a 'second course' in the first year writing sequence. This is not the case with this book: it is a thoughtful, comprehensive exploration of writing from research as a multi-step recursive process. This approach can help students solidify the knowledge and skills they have acquired in prior courses, especially the multi-step recursive nature of writing as a process while developing a set of strong writing from research skills.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The foundations of research writing are presented in an accessible yet rigorous way. The book does away with the myth of research writing as something you do after you think about and research a topic. The author articulated this idea very well, when he wrote, ”We think about what it is we want to research and write about, but at the same time, we learn what to think based on our research and our writing.”","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Overall, an excellent handbook (it can be used non-sequentially); however, some of the information on database searches and  working with popular internet sources as well as collaborative writing (especially as it relates to the use of technology) needs updating.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The appropriately conversational tone translates complex academic concepts into easy to access ideas that students can relate to. The same is true for the many activities and exercises that demonstrate a variety of real life applications for  the research skills presented in the book, which helps students see that research and research based writing happen  everywhere, not just on campuses , where  students seem to write for an audience of one:  the professor who assigned the paper.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The material presented is rigorously and consistently presented in various modes: text, activities and exercises.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It can be used in a variety of ways; it has excellent modular stucture.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Excellently organized: reviews and expands on what students might already know about academic writing as a process; introduces the fundamentals of research and research writing and then uses both of these sets of skills in various research projects.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Although it has some very useful and appropriate visuals , the text could have been more user friendly; it is difficult to follow.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Excellently proof-read,","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"the book is culturally sensitive and contains appropriate examples and/or references.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"An overall excellent composition text that provides useful exercises and assignments (such as the antithesis essay) that can help students build complex and nuanced arguments based on research. Highly recommend!","created_at":"2020-06-28T16:49:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-28T16:49:58.000-05:00"},{"id":4872,"first_name":"Li-Anne","last_name":"Delavega","position":"Undergraduate Research Experience Coordinator","institution_name":"Kapiolani Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook builds a good foundation for first-year students with topics such as developing a thesis, how to find sources and evaluate them,  creating an annotated bibliography, audience, and avoiding plagiarism. While the content is explained well and students are slowly walked through the research process, the textbook ends abruptly ends with a quick overview of the elements of a research essay after students organize their evidence and create an outline. A part two textbook that covers the rest of the writing process, such as structuring paragraphs, how to write an introduction and conclusion, and revising drafts, is needed to help students get to a finished product. As a composition-based textbook,  I also felt it could have used a section on building arguments. The true gem of this textbook is its activities/exercises and comprehensive but accessible explanations.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Aside from outdated citations and technology-related content, the process-based writing instruction is accurate and answers common questions from students about research and basic writing. I feel like the questions, checklists, and activities posed are helpful for students to really think through their writing process, and the author explains things without judgment. While students can benefit, I feel that faculty would also benefit from using this as a teaching manual to plan their classes.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The writing instruction is solid and is still used in many textbooks today. Obviously, the sections on technology and citation are outdated, but some sections still have good reliable advice at their core. For example, search language, unreliable web sources, and collaborating online have evolved, but the concepts remain the same.  I would cut those sections out and just take what I needed to give to students. The author has no plans to update this book, and someone would need to rewrite many sections of the book, which is not easy to implement.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is largely free of jargon and terms are clearly explained. The author's tone is casual and conversational when compared to other textbooks, which makes it more accessible to students and acts as a guide through the research process. However, it does lend itself to longer sections that could use heavy editing and it does sound like a mini-lecture, but I liked the way he thoroughly explains and sets up concepts. His tone and style are a bit inconsistent as others have noted.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent since research and writing terminology is the same across most disciplines. If you're a composition instructor, you'll find the framework is just common writing pedagogy for academic writing: focus on the writing process, freewriting, peer review, audience, revision, etc.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book was intended to be modular and chapters are mostly self-contained, so it is easy to use individual chapters or change the sequence. There are unusable hyperlinks in each chapter that refer to other sections, but those are additional resources that could be replaced with a citation guide or other common resources. Sections, activities, examples, and key ideas are clearly labeled and can be used without the rest of the chapter. However, some writing concepts, such as a working thesis, are mentioned again in later chapters.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Parts of the book are easily identifiable and the content within the chapter flows easily from one concept to the next. I felt that some of the chapters should have appeared earlier in the textbook. Students would have to wait until chapter 10 to learn about the research essay. Revising a working thesis comes before categorizing and reviewing your evidence.  The peer-review chapter that advises students to read sections of their writing aloud to catch mistakes comes before brainstorming a topic. However, the sequence will depend on the instructor's preference. An index or a complete, searchable text would have helped so you don't need to guess which chapter has the content you need.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The PDF is the more polished and easier to read of the two versions.  Overall, the PDF was well laid out, with clear headers and images. I found the colored boxes for the exercises helpful, though a lighter color would make the text easier to see for more students.  The text uses different styles to create organization and emphasis, which made some pages (especially in the beginning) hard to read with the bolded and italicized clutter. I would have loved a complied version with all the chapters. \r\n\r\nThe HTML version is difficult to read as it is one long block of text and the callouts and images are not well spaced. There is, unfortunately, no benefit to reading the web version: no clickable links, dynamic text flow, or navigational links within each page so you will need to go back to the TOC to get the next section.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book has grammatical and mechanical errors throughout but does not impact content comprehension. Other reviewers here identified more notable errors.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The language, examples, and references were generally ok, but the overall textbook felt acultural.  Some consideration was taken with pronouns (relies on they/them/their) and gender roles.  As others pointed out, there are many areas that could have used diversified sources, topics, references, examples, and students.  Some of the textbook's activities assume able-bodied students and sections such as peer collaboration would benefit from a more nuanced discussion when he brought up resentment over non-contributing members, being silenced, and access to resources. There are a few red flags, but one glaring example is on page 5 of chapter 10. An excerpt from an article titled “Preparing to Be Colonized: Land Tenure and Legal Strategy in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii”(which includes the sentence, \"Why did Hawaiians do this to themselves?\") was used to show students when to use \"I\" in writing.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a good resource for writing instructors. As this book was written in 2007, faculty will need to cut or adapt a fair amount of the text to modernize it. It is not a textbook to assign to students for the semester, but the textbook's core content is solid writing pedagogy and the focus on using activities to reflect and revise is wonderful.  Those outside of composition may find the basic exercises and explanations useful as long as students are primarily working out of a more discipline-specific (e.g., sciences) writing guide.","created_at":"2021-05-01T05:44:17.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-01T05:44:17.000-05:00"},{"id":33480,"first_name":"Julie","last_name":"Sorge Way","position":"Instructional Faculty","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, I think this book’s strongest suits are its organization, clarity, and modularity. It is useful and adaptable for a wide range of courses involving a research component, and as the book itself argues, research is a part of most learning at the university level, whether or not a single traditional “research paper” is the end goal of a course. This is a great book with adaptable and useful content across a range of disciplines, and while it is low on “bells and whistles,” the content it provides seems to be relevant, helpful, and also fill a gap among other OER texts that focus more on rhetoric and less on research.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Because this is a book on research writing rather than cutting edge science, etc. it is unlikely to be made inaccurate by the passing of time.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"In a desire to move past the simple “Comp II” textbook, Krause’s work here is relevant to a variety of fields. In creating a course with a major-specific research component, many parts of this text are relevant to what I’m doing, and due to its modularity and organization (see below) I am able to make use of it easily and draw students’ attention to the parts that will help them most with our learning objectives.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Krause’s writing style is uncomplicated and direct. His examples are ones I think most students could relate to or at least connect with reasonably well.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"While the book is internally consistent in its tone, level of detail, and relevance to Krause’s original writing goals, in the process of applying it to different courses (as almost inevitably happens with OER materials) it is inconsistently useful for the course I in particular am planning. This is certainly no fault of the book’s. One example would be that it presents MLA and APA format for citing sources, but not Chicago/Turabian.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Certainly, its modularity is a real strong suit for Krause’s book overall – individual instructors planning different types of coursework that involve writing and research can easily adapt parts that work, and its Creative Commons license makes this even better.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Clear and direct organization is another strong suit in Krause’s text. The information is presented in an orderly and easy to navigate way that allows instructors and students alike to hone in on the most useful information for their writing and research task without spending undue amounts of time searching. This is much appreciated especially in an open access text where instructors are more likely to be “picking and choosing” relevant content from multiple texts and resources.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Simple but clear – basic HTML and PDF navigation by chapter and section. Like many OER texts it is a bit short on visual engagement – the colorful infographics and illustrations many people are used to both in printed textbooks and interacting with internet content.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors noted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Widely relevant (at least in the North American context I have most experience with) but as always, instructors should preview and adapt all material for the needs and context of their own classes and students.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-11-23T09:18:54.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-11-23T09:18:54.000-06:00"},{"id":34221,"first_name":"Kevin","last_name":"Kennedy","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"I think this book would make an excellent supplement to other class material in a class focused on writing and research. It helps a lot with the \"why\"s of research and gives a high-level overview.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate, and talks a lot about different ways to view academic writing","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This would be quite relevant for a student early on the college journey who is starting to complete research-based projects.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and concise, though that conciseness sometimes leads to less content than I'd like","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent throughout","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I could use the first chapters of this book very easily, but the later ones get into exercises that my classes wouldn't necessarily use","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book is organized from the high level (what is academic writing with research) to the more specific (here are some specific exercises)","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I don't like the flow from contents to chapters, and they feel distinctly text-based. This is a no-frills text, but that's ok.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"I didn't note anything glaringly obvious","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I think that this text stays away from the cultural and focuses mostly on the cognitive. This prevents offensive material, though it may make it less appealing to students.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2022-12-02T09:14:49.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-12-02T09:14:49.000-06:00"},{"id":35307,"first_name":"Thomas","last_name":"Kneeland","position":"Assistant Professor of English (Tenure-Track)","institution_name":"Anderson University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers a wide range of material for better understanding the process of research writing. From contextual backing to theoretical framework, this text is one of the most comprehensive texts I've used to teach Rhetoric Composition and Research courses.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Due to the nature of the content, which is pretty black-and-white, there isn't much room for a biased approach. That said, I maintain that the contents of this text are thorough, accurate, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book will last for years because the writing process, while an evolutionary experience for the individual writer, will remain the same for the most part, especially in terms of research. I don't believe that there's anything in this collection that would suggest the probability of obsolescence.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"While a relatively difficult read, because the author has taken great care to be detailed, it is clear enough to grasp the concepts and best practices for research writing. My students are able to have classroom discussions and pose questions when they do not feel confident in understanding the material.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Compared to other books on research writing, I find this one to be complete and consistent in terms of terminology and overall framework. It wasn't anything that I hadn't seen before, but it did feel more dense than others.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Compared to other titles, I think this text does a good job of being modular. I can tell when we're moving to a new section, chapter, or idea. My only critique is that I wish it was more visually appealing in terms of the graphic presence. I feel that more students would internalize the information more if it were more visually digestible.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"For the most part, I'd agree that the topics are presented logically. I saw no issues with navigating based on the topics.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No issues regarding interface.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors identified.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I don't look at this book as whether it is culturally relevant, because these are basic principles for writing that can be applied to just about every discipline of study.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2024-11-07T12:11:13.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-11-07T12:11:13.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/the-process-of-research-writing","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:57.000-06:00"},{"id":333,"title":"Choosing \u0026 Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Choosing \u0026 Using Sources presents a process for academic research and writing, from formulating your research question to selecting good information and using it effectively in your research assignments. Additional chapters cover understanding types of sources, searching for information, and avoiding plagiarism. Each chapter includes self-quizzes and activities to reinforce core concepts and help you apply them. There are also appendices for quick reference on search tools, copyright basics, and fair use. What experts are saying about Choosing \u0026 Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research: “…a really fantastic contribution that offers a much needed broadened perspective on the process of research, and is packed to the brim with all kinds of resources and advice on how to effectively use them. The chapter on plagiarism is really excellent, and the chapter on searching for sources is utterly brilliant.” – Chris Manion, PhDCoordinator of Writing Across the Curriculum at Ohio State University “… an excellent resource for students, with engaging content, graphics, and examples—very compelling. The coverage of copyright is outstanding.” – J. Craig GibsonCo-chair of ACRL's Task Force on Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education","contributors":[{"id":3581,"contribution":"Editor","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Cheryl","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Lowry","location":"Ohio State University","background_text":"Cheryl Lowry, training and education specialist, Ohio State University Libraries."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":221,"url":"https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-01-03T09:33:52.000-06:00","name":"Ohio State University Libraries"}],"formats":[{"id":690,"type":"PDF","url":"https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":691,"type":"Online","url":"https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1618,"type":"eBook","url":"https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":49,"reviews":[{"id":808,"first_name":"Dr. William","last_name":"Vann","position":"Information Studies Faculty","institution_name":"Minneapolis Community and Technical College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"While there is neither a back-of-the-book index nor a compiled glossary in this outstanding textbook (key terms are defined, however, throughout the chapters), one cannot deny its comprehensiveness.  In fact, this text covers so much ground it is unlikely to be used in its entirety for any single college course.  Information literacy and research skills courses will find the first eight chapters to be a robust introduction to their subject matter, replete with interactive activities and auto-graded assessments.  Composition courses engaged in research-based writing will likely work through the first eight chapters selectively, but then dwell on chapters nine and ten on argument formation and writing. Such courses may also benefit from the excellent chapter thirteen on Joseph Bizup's BEAM method of deploying research sources in scholarly communication.  Chapters eleven and twelve on copyright and fair use, respectively, are likely to be used only by advanced undergraduates, faculty, and professional librarians, but they do serve as a handy reference nonetheless.    ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"All of the chapters of this textbook contain authoritative and accurate information, in line with national information literacy standards and sound pedagogical methods for composition and critical thinking.  The only section of the text I took issue with was the \"Fact or Opinion\" part of the second chapter, where the authors try to distinguish between fact, opinion, subjective information, and objective information.  The authors' attempt results in claims like \"the death penalty is wrong\" being rendered as opinions, while claims like \"women should stock up on calcium to ensure strong bones\" are judged to be subjective information. Facts and objective information are superior, on this way of thinking, because they are the result of research studies, particularly empirical, quantitative ones.  \n\nI suspect that this way of drawing the distinction would do little to challenge the naive relativism most undergraduates bring to the classroom. (How many of us, when analyzing a text with beginning undergraduates, have had to entertain the question \"Isn't that just the author's opinion though?\") A better approach would be to talk about claims that are empirically justified (facts), claims that are justified, but not empirically (value judgments - \"x is wrong\", prescriptive claims - \"women should do x\"), and claims that are not adequately justified by any means (opinions).  In this way, answering a research question like \"Is the death penalty unjust?\" is not merely an exercise in subjective opinion-making, but rather an exploration of reasoned argumentation, only some of which may be empirical or based on research studies.   ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is current and will likely be so for some time.  Examples, activities, and tips are marked off from the main chapter prose, so will be easy to refresh when necessary. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"There is no lack of technical terms in the world of information studies, but this textbook does a fine job of providing definitions where appropriate in each chapter. Concepts and methods are explained in context, and illustrative, easy-to-follow examples adorn each chapter. \n\nThe only area of the text that falls a little short on clarity is the interactive activities. These are usually multiple choice or matching questions, but some of the word choice in questions left this reader confused, and in some cases the instructions could have been more explicit.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Being authored by committee, we might expect this textbook to suffer in the consistency category. Yet it does not, thanks again to the fine editing job by Cheryl Lowry.  Perhaps the book's provenance as a series of online tutorials put together by librarians and faculty at OSU is partly responsible for this.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As the authors suggest on the first page, the research process isn't always linear. So reading a text modeled on the research process oughtn't to be a straightforward chapter-by-chapter march either. Consequently, faculty and students can comfortably read this text selectively and skip chapters as needed.  For the most holistic understanding of the research process, however, it would be sensible to work through at least chapters one through eight in their entirety.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I appreciate how the text's organization mirrors the research process itself. The first chapter takes on research questions, exactly where student researchers need to begin their projects. Subsequent chapters explore types of information sources, how to find and evaluate them, and finally how to deploy them in a well-argued scholarly product.  The writing in each chapter is clear and crisp, with important concepts amplified by colorful visualizations. \n\nAs mentioned above, the chapters on copyright and fair use which occur near the end of the book feel like a logical interruption to the book's flow, and they might well fit more comfortably as appendices for occasional reference by advanced undergraduates, faculty, and librarians.     ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The \"look and feel\" of this textbook is clean and very intuitive to navigate through. The design strikes a pleasing balance between prose, graphics, and special formatting features like the explanatory, grey-background \"TIPS\" found in each chapter.  Subheadings, bulleted and ordered lists, and judicious font choices make the text easy to read in all its online file formats. \n\nOne weakness of the interface is that several of the linked activities point to OSU Libraries' resources, thus requiring OSU authentication to be accessed. While it is understandable that the authors wanted to include their libraries' proprietary information sources in the activities - these are the sources their students and faculty will be using in actual practice, after all - this obviously makes this text less of an \"open\" textbook.  Those outside of the OSU community who would like to adopt this textbook will therefore have to come up with their own replacement activities in such cases, or do without. \n\nA few of the links in the text did lead me to a curious OSU server error message: \"Error: Unknown export format\", but I expect these links will be repaired as they are reported to the authors.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This textbook has clearly been edited with careful eyes by Cheryl Lowry, as grammatical errors are few to none. The grammatical hygiene of the text can probably also be attributed to its collective authorship - over a dozen librarians and faculty of the Ohio State University Libraries developed the content, which was born out of a series of online tutorials.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This textbook is culturally relevant in its use of examples and depictions of college students. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text is a substantial contribution to the open textbook movement, and its quality easily meets or exceeds anything comparable in the commercial publishing arena.  Highly recommended. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":820,"first_name":"Kelly","last_name":"McKenna","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book provides a thorough introduction and how to regarding sources in academic writing.  With the exception of the first chapter on writing research questions, the rest of the book is focused on sources, which is relevant for any type of academic writing not just research papers.  The information is relevant across disciplines and readable to a wide audience.  It is clearly written for and geared towards undergraduate students, particularly from Ohio State University.   \nThe index is detailed making it easy to locate specific information and includes hyperlinks for clear navigation.  A slightly altered index format would make the chapter topics more readily available and accessed.  All subjects and chapters are aligned rather than clearly indicating each of the chapters found within the text.    ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content throughout the book is accurate and clearly written.  There does not appear to bias in reading the material.  The book includes numerous resources linked throughout the text, however some are no longer active resulting in error messages.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Due to the significant number of links throughout the book, it is likely updates will be necessary on a consistent basis.  These links are extremely beneficial, so ensuring they are accurate and up to date is essential to the content of this book.  Much of the book reads as a \"how to\" regarding sources, so although practices for scholarly writing will likely not become obsolete the sources and  technology used to locate the sources will evolve.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The informal tone of the text is engaging and applicable for the intended audience.  The writers are aware of their audience, avoiding technical jargon.  Also, throughout the book they provide numerous examples, resources, activities, and tips to provide insight and relevancy to students.  ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The structure of the book is clear and well organized with each chapter providing scaffolding for the next.  Although the text is internally consistent regarding terminology there are formatting differences between and within some chapters.  Blue boxes throughout the text contain tips, examples, answers, etc.  Organization, readability, and consistency could be improved if these were constant throughout the text similar to the presentation of activities in the text.    ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Sections of the book could be easily assigned and read in isolation.  Subsections of material are clearly marked and chapters are presented in organized fashion with clear delineation between segments.  The inclusion of numerous activities, examples, resources, and tips improve modularity.   ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book is created as a tool for students completing academic writing and follows this course.  Topics contained in the book are presented in a clear and logical structure.  As mentioned above, with exception of the first chapter, the material is relevant to all undergraduate academic writing, not just research.    ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The layout and display work well as a PDF or electronic book.  Numerous visuals are included throughout and are free of distortion or other distracting or confusing issues.  As mentioned above, the index could be improved by clearly articulating the subheadings as within a chapter.   ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book contains minimal to no grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Some sections of the book are specific to Ohio State University potentially limiting its relevancy and audience in specific chapters or sections.  ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":887,"first_name":"Heather","last_name":"Jerónimo","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Northern Iowa","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is a comprehensive review of the various types of sources one might need to complete a research project or paper. The book begins with a clear explanation of how to formulate a research question, while the majority of the chapters focus on finding and evaluating sources. The topics in this text are well-chosen and reflect several aspects of academic writing in which beginning researchers might struggle, such as how to do a precision search, understanding biased versus unbiased sources, and how to decide between quoting or paraphrasing. This book is written at a level that undergraduates should easily be able to comprehend, while the content of the chapters gets increasingly detailed and complex throughout the book. There is no index or glossary at the back of the book, but there is a very complete table of contents at the beginning of the text. Readers might find it useful if the chapter titles in the table of contents were in bold, as the detailed breakdown of sections—while helpful—can be overwhelming when one is looking for the main categories of the book. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text provides helpful and unbiased examples for how to do research in many different areas. The practice activities relate quite well to the content of the chapters, although some links do not work. One of the strengths of the text is its applicability in a general sense to many different types of research.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"In most chapters the information is kept very general, allowing the text to enjoy relative longevity, as the process of how to conduct academic research, cite quotes, etc., likely will not change drastically in the near future. For example, in the section on databases, different types of databases are explained, but the author does not reference many specific databases to which students may or may not have access. With an understanding of the concept, students then are equipped to find the databases that pertain to their field and that are offered by their institutions. There are several references to Ohio State throughout the text that will not be helpful to all readers, but they do not impede the reader’s comprehension of the text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"It is a very readable text, written at a level that makes it easily accessible to undergraduate students. The author has avoided jargon that would be confusing to the readers.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Even though the book gives examples of various types of research and sources, it maintains a high level of consistency throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are clearly divided in a way that allows the reader the option to skip between chapters or to read the chapters in succession. This text could be put to a variety of uses within the classroom. As an instructor, one could use it as a primary text for a Research Methods or Composition class. One could also suggest that students read only certain sections in a class that was not primarily focused on the writing of research papers but that had a research component. This text is a valuable how-to manual that students can reference throughout their academic journey. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text has a logical organization and flow. The book transitions from more basic information at the beginning to more specialized knowledge in later chapters, allowing students to gradually become more immersed in the topic. The structure permits students to read the text from cover to cover, or to read only the information and chapters about which they are curious. The activities serve as good checkpoints to assess students’ knowledge and break up longer readings. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface of the text is easy to manage and does not distract from the content. The placement and accessibility of the activities provide quick and easy checks to assess whether students have understood the concepts of the chapters. The images support the text and are linked closely to the message.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are few grammatical errors in this text. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. Like many textbooks, it could be more intentional in its inclusion of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, perhaps in the examples or practice activities.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":935,"first_name":"Patricia","last_name":"Akhimie","position":"Asst. Prof of English","institution_name":"Rutgers University-Newark","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook does not include an index or glossary but is full-text searchable, returning a an easy to read and access menu of clickable search results to take readers directly to the desired information.  In addition, an expandable Table of Contents for the book is available as a tab so that readers can view an overview of topics and jump to other sections at any time.  This textbook offers a review of research methods that is certainly comprehensive.  Instructors will likely find that individual sections, rather than the whole work, are most useful in planning lessons and constructing student assignments in research based and writing intensive courses at the undergraduate level.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This textbook is accurate in its representation of research methods and of the reasoning behind these approaches.   In addition, details about citation styles, and search tools, seem error-free.  Treatments of the more complex aspects of research, such as constructing an argument, are unbiased and thorough.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The textbook should be useful to students and instructors for some time.  It should be noted, however, that research software and citation styles are updated, though infrequently.  Thus, the video walkthroughs of particular databases, for example, may be obsolete or misleading after some time.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is remarkably lucid and approachable for undergraduate readers.  Discussions of complex ideas are illustrated with useful graphics that readers and instructors will find particularly helpful.  The video walkthroughs are perhaps the most attractive illustrations for instructors.  These guides will be appealing and easy to use for students intimidated by large databases and their idiosyncrasies.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook is immanently usable.  It is consistent in its tone as well as in its use of terms.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is clear that this textbook has been designed with modularity in mind.  Individual sections will be more useful than others, depending on the type and level of the class.  In addition, sections can easily be assigned at different points over the course of a semester.  For example, sections might be assigned at intervals that reflect the stages of the development of undergraduate student’s independent research paper.  The section on formulating research questions might appear early in the semester, the section on citation styles toward the end.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the book reflects the stages of research.  This means that navigating the textbook will be intuitive.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Navigating this textbook will be intuitive, the Table of Contents tab makes moving between sections very easy.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Readers will find the textbook free of simple typos and errors.  ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Readers will find the textbook inclusive.  Some readers may find that the attempt made in the textbook to speak to research in the humanities, social sciences and sciences has meant that discussions can be vague at times but this is to be expected in a textbook on this topic aimed at a broad range of readers and researchers. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":953,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Lantrip","position":"Reference Librarian","institution_name":"Umpqua Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is an excellent source for guiding undergraduate students through the research process, from understanding the purposes for doing research and writing a research question, to composing a thesis and contributing to a scholarly conversation. Students learn where and how to find relevant sources and how to evaluate and use them ethically. The main text is supplemented with links to useful resources, videos, worksheets, examples, and exercises. These are all high quality sources, making this a comprehensive resource for teaching information literacy and the research process. While no index or glossary is provided, terms are well defined within the text. Links are provided to other sections within the text where terms are further discussed.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is error-free, unbiased, and accurate. Ideas and concepts are in accordance with the Association of College and Research Libraries’ “Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education,” with the exception of several small sections that could easily be clarified or adapted. \n\nThe opening section of Chapter 3 states that researchers should find sources in order to meet their information needs. However, it states that one information need is “to convince your audience that your answer is correct or, at least, the most reasonable answer.” This should be clarified for students so that they understand that they should start their research with an open mind as opposed to looking for sources which support their predetermined thesis.\n\nThe section “The Sources to Meet Needs” in Chapter 3 states that convincing one’s audience is an information need and that students should find sources based upon what their audience would be convinced by. Researchers should not choose their sources based upon what would convince their audience, but rather upon what sources best answer their research question. The most relevant and highest quality sources should not be omitted from the research process because the researcher does not think that his/her audience would be convinced by them. It is part of the researcher’s job to educate and convince his/her audience why the chosen sources and the research are relevant and of high quality. \n\nChapter 13 mentions briefly, “Putting your sources to work for you in these roles can help you write in a more powerful, persuasive way—to, in fact, win your argument.” It is very important for researchers to make convincing arguments through using quality sources, doing quality research, and presenting the information in an understandable way. Students should understand that the goal of scholarly conversation is not to “win” arguments, but rather to contribute to the world’s shared knowledge. While one argument may hold for a time, it will most likely be refined in some way by future researchers. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The main content of each chapter is current and does not contain terms that will soon be outdated. Specific examples and exercises are arranged separately from the main chapter text and can be updated independently. Some of the content discusses and links to Ohio State University Libraries databases which are unavailable to students at other institutions. While some of this knowledge is transferable, the specific information about these databases is unique to OSU Libraries. It would be useful if this information could be generalized in the main flow of the text so that it would be applicable for students at other institutions. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is very readable and easy to understand. Concepts are explained clearly. Exercises and examples are provided to help students grasp each new concept. It is written in a casual tone that appears to make an effort to put its readers at ease while giving solid information about how to complete research and writing assignments successfully. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology used in this book and its framework are consistent. Each chapter, chapter sections, examples, and exercises are organized in a consistent manner throughout the book, making it easy to follow. Students can refer to specific sections of the book or read it straight through. Because links are provided to sections of the book where important terms are defined or discussed further, students can easily jump to relevant sections of the book. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided into chapters and subsections which lead the reader seamlessly and logically through the research process. The book could easily be assigned to be read linearly, but it would also work well for instructors to assign specific chapters as applicable to the course content. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book takes students through the research process in logical steps, from choosing and refining research questions, to producing and sharing what they have learned. For students who are unfamiliar with the research process, it would be most useful to read the book linearly as each chapter prepares students for future chapters. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This text is easy to navigate in both the PDF and online versions. Images are clear. There are currently no broken links. The contents in the PDF version could be made clearer by making a greater distinction between the main chapter and chapter section titles.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text has negligible grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I highly recommend this book for teaching information literacy and the research process to undergraduates. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":959,"first_name":"Jarrod","last_name":"Dunham","position":"Instructor - English Composition","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"A very comprehensive guide to the writing of the research paper. I've taught research writing for several years, and this book covers all the material I'd typically cover in a class. Previously I've not used a textbook in that class, but I'm teaching an online section this term and find that the book offers a very effective substitute for the lectured and activities I'd otherwise be presenting in class.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text is accurate and up-to-date with the most recent developments and issues in the field. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text is very much up-to-date. It shows an awareness of changing conventions in academic writing, and emphasizes the latest technological tools for researching and managing citations. It frequently links to outside resources, which could be problematic in the event those resources were removed or relocated, but in practice I never encountered such an issue.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity is one of the book's strengths. It is written in clear, simple, and concise prose, resisting the kind of \"academese\" that is frequently employed in textbooks and gives students a false impression of what academic writing should look like. I found all of the content very easy to understand, and, although it's intended for slightly more advanced classes, accessible for Freshman writing students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is highly consistent, both in terms of the terminology it employs, its organizational structure, and its systematic incorporation of tips, learning activities, and quizzes.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided into 13 chapters, each of which addresses particular aspects of research writing and can be employed on its own, or in conjunction with other related chapters. I found that assigning chapters in order was generally perfectly appropriate, although there was no issue with assigning the odd chapter out of order - links to previous or later content are provided where appropriate, so students can easily navigate to other relevant sections of the text.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This text is very nicely organized. It moves from the beginning stages of the pre-writing process - choosing a topic and identifying appropriate guiding questions - through the research to the writing of the paper itself. I found that the organizational structure of the text very closely mirrored the structure I use myself in teaching research writing. As such, adopting this text for the course (and adapting the course to the text) was a delightfully straightforward exercise.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface of the text is excellent. It is very easy to navigate, very attractive, and all tools work as intended. Some features are only available to those with Ohio State University log-ins, which yields a handful of frustrating moments, but in general I didn't find this to be a significant issue.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is error free and written in a simple, accessible, and engaging style. It's not merely an easy read, but one that effectively models clear and concise academic prose for writing students.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"To the extent such issues come into play, the text is inclusive and culturally sensitive. The content of the text is mostly neutral on such issues - they simply tend not to come into play - but I was pleased to find a comprehensive chapter on the ethical use of sources, which introduces an ethical dimension to the research and writing process that many students may not anticipate or otherwise be prepared to navigate.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall I was quite pleased with this text. In my online section of Research Paper Writing, I have assigned nine of the thirteen chapters, and am very pleased with the breadth of content covered thereby. With one exception, I've been able to assign those chapters in the order they appear in the book, which simplified the planning process for myself, and offers a structure to the course that will be more readily apparent to my students as well. Late chapters on Copyrights Basics and Fair Use struck me as unnecessary and a little off topic, but it is of course easy to simply not assign those chapters, and since this is not a print book they have no bearing on materials costs. \n\nFor an online class like the one I am currently teaching, this is an excellent primary text. Even in a face-to-face class it could prove to be a very useful supplemental text. Normally I resist the use of supplemental texts in face-to-face classes, but since this one is free it is ideal for that purpose: instructors and students can simply rely on it to whatever extent feels useful.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":966,"first_name":"Dale","last_name":"Jenkins","position":"Advanced Instructor","institution_name":"Virginia Polytechnic Institute \u0026 State University (Virginia Tech)","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Having taught freshmen how to write college research papers for the past 18 years, I gave the text high marks on addressing all of the key elements college students need to engage in academic research.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text implements content from a host of sources which is extremely useful, but the grammar needs a few tweaks.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This represents a strong aspect of the text. The writers did a good job of winnowing out unnecessary components of the research process, although my freshmen would not delve into the Fair Use and Copyright chapters.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book gets outstanding marks on clarity. Students will find this to be a definite strength of the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The authors did a good job with consistency. I kept my students in mind as I evaluated this aspect of the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Students would find this book extremely accessible in terms of modularity. I don't see them being overwhelmed by the text or high-brow jargon.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I noted a logical progression to all thirteen of the chapters. Students in upper-level classes would find the chapters on Fair Use and Copyright more significant in their academic studies.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The hyperlinks and the interactive elements of the book will be extremely appealing to students as well as being substantive.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"The book still needs some work in this regard. Pronouns don't always agree with the antecedents, and I noted several shifts in voice in the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text doesn't have any instances of cultural insensitivity, and I pay close attention to this aspect of textbooks when I peruse them for potential use in my courses.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The hyperlinks, using different types of media, and the chapters on \"Why Precision Searching?\" and the discussion of plagiarism proved to be well-crafted and accessible for students. I also commend the authors for the lack of jargon that would leave students in its wake. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":975,"first_name":"Vanessa","last_name":"Ruccolo","position":"Advanced Instructor of English","institution_name":"Virginia Tech","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Ch. 1 has a great overview of regular versus research questions and the difference between qualitative and quantitative research. \nCh. 2 covers primary, secondary, and tertiary sources as well as popular, professional, and scholarly.\nCh. 3 includes a source plan (i.e. what do you need the sources for and what is your plan). \nCh. 4 gives tips and hints for searching on a library database.\nCh. 5 gives different search options, like the library or Google Scholar.\nCh. 6 is all about evaluating the sources you find, including clues about sussing out bias and thoroughness, as well as discussing currency of topic.\nCh. 7 discusses why you should cite sources.\nCh. 8 discusses ways to cite sources.\nCh. 9 is looking at argument as dialog and what is necessary in that exchange and a recommended order of components.\nCh. 10 covers quoting, paraphrasing,and summarizing and signal phrases.\nCh. 11, 12 are copyright and fair use.\nCh. 13 covers the roles or research.\n\nI will use Ch. 1 and 2 in my classes, as I think the breakdown of research is useful and clear. Ch. 3 also has useful  imbedded tools that will help students plan; Ch. 4 and 5 might be used as references post-library visit. I will also use Ch. 6 and Ch. 10. \n\nI think the information provided for distinguishing scholarly, popular, and professional is helpful and I hope the resources help students understand good, reliable sources a bit better. The same is true for searching for sources, and I think the sections on search engines and evaluation of sources are going to be quite useful.\n\nWhile the information on copyright, fair use, and why and ways to cite sources is fine, I won't be using these for my English classes as I find them not as helpful or relevant.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I think the book is quite accurate in terms of information provided. They use sources that both I and my students use, so clearly the book is addressing real needs in the classroom. It also makes suggestions that reinforce the concepts our librarians share with the students and instructors, so I find this to be extremely helpful. \n\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book suggests Purdue OWL, a source I also use; however, I realized this year that OWL was behind in updating some of the MLA citation changes. So that's something maybe for the book authors to note or address when recommending websites.\n\nWith that said, I think the book covers key specifics like university library websites, Google Scholar, and search engines, in broad enough terms to keep it relevant. Also, the graphics are simple and not dated, and there is one drawing of the \"outernet\" that shows what social media, Youtube, etc. would look like in the \"real, outer\" world. This drawing is the only thing I saw that might be dated soon, but its point is still solid.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very easy to read, clear terminology and explanation of terms, and lists are also provided to help break up each page's prose, which means the information is presented in a visually clear form as well.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I think the consistency of terminology as well as the scaffolding makes sense on the whole. I didn't seem places where the language changed or seemed to have several writers or definitions.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Perhaps one of the best parts of this book is how each chapter is contained, succinct, includes an activity, but still builds on and with the other chapters. Each chapter is stand-alone and clear and easy to read online, or if you chose to print it. The creators clearly had the online reader in mind, however, and the chapter lengths and fonts are comfortable.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall, I like the organization, specifically for chapters 10-6. I would change the order of the final chapters so that Ch. 9 and 10 come before Ch. 7, 8, 11, 12. I would also move Ch. 13 \"The Roles of Research\" to earlier in the book, perhaps around Ch. 3 or Ch. 6. If I use these materials, I will reorder some of the chapters for my class so that the scaffolding and explanations work a bit more side by side.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Again, comfortable, easy-to-read pages, simple graphics and the charts used are helpful and appropriate. I especially appreciated that the authors didn't use images that showed people or figures that could both date the book and also make students feel talked down to - I hate images like this and refuse to use textbooks that incorporate them, so kudos!\n\nAdditional resources are easy to access.\n\nI wish the email option (for sending yourself a page) pulled up a screen in which I could type the email I wanted it sent to. Instead, it pulls up Messenger, which I don't use.\n\nThe Table of Contents didn't let me jump to the chapter when I pulled down the menu. Was that just my computer/browser?","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Now, I didn't read through as though I was grading (it is winter break, after all!) but nothing jumped off the page. If something had, if there had been a mistake, I would still use the text; if there had been several, I would have considered abandoning it for class. However, the information is still so good I i might have told my students to find the grammar mistakes as part of an assignment just so that I could use the research parts still; however, I didn't not see any.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No, nothing. Perhaps if the authors include more examples for citations they could pull from culturally different sources then, but the material here was so broad in terms of textual sources it was in no way exclusive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I will be using parts of this book in my English classes. Well done to the authors - a helpful, free supplement.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1101,"first_name":"Scott","last_name":"Miller","position":"Reference and Instruction Librarian","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very comprehensive and even goes beyond what might be expected in this kind of textbook. Along with choosing and using sources, the authors include a section on making an argument. Topics are dealt with appropriately and the text employs tests and activities along the way. I found some of the activities were not particularly well designed and sometimes answers to questions were based on assumptions by the authors as to context that in real life may or may not be appropriate. For instance, they claim that the periodical/journal title \"Coral Reefs\" is a scholarly journal, but judging by the title alone in a real life exercise there is no way to know whether it is scholarly or popular in nature.\n\nThere could have been more discussion about context and how it defines whether a sources is primary, secondary or tertiary. '\n\nWhat the this textbook does not have is any kind of index or glossary, which I found disappointing.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I did not find any instances of inaccuracies in the text. I did find, however, some assumptions in the text that were not always warranted. I took issue with the assumption that mainline news sources are objective (p. 42). It is very clear that news articles are often biased. I think telling students that mainline news sources are objective effectively disarms instead of promotes critical thinking by students doing research.\n\nOn page 126 there is a discussion about using quotations where the authors say that all quotes are to be put within quotation marks. This is not true of block quotes in MLA or APA style and they omit any mention of it.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"This textbook should retain its relevancy for several years, but it will lose its effectiveness very soon, since many of the dozens and dozens of links in the text will surely break before long. In the short term the links are a great feature, but they do severely limit the longevity of the book. I also found them annoyingly pervasive.\n\nIt should also be noted that the MLA citation example on page 122 uses the outdated MLA 7th edition guidelines.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Overall, I thought the book was very clearly written and easy to follow. The one section I struggled reading was the section on sources and information need. It seemed to want much more editing and was often wordy and almost obscure.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I did not notice any lack of consistency in terminology or framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is one the book's strengths. It was clearly organized into topics and subtopics which sometimes could be addressed in an order chosen by an instructor. There were, however, occasional self-references to earlier sections or previously used external sources.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Moving from the simpler aspects of choosing and evaluating sources to the more complex uses of them and how arguments are constructed made good sense.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"I found the interface to have significant problems. At least a dozen links would not work from the PDF text when opened in Firefox. \nI often got the message, \"error: unknown export format.\" The links seemed to work when viewing the text online, however.\n\nThe textbook's usefulness outside of Ohio State is severely limited by the frequent use of sources only available through OSU student logins. The textbook was written for OSU students, but it really fails as a textbook for any other institution unless it is significantly modified.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found a few missing punctuation marks, and only two missing or wrong words in sentences. For a textbook this long, that's very good.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The textbook used interesting and non-offensive examples.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"While it's a good textbook for choosing and using information sources it suffers from being too specifically written for OSU students, as well as including an overabundance of links that will reduce its longevity. Not including any kind of index or glossary is also a drawback.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1138,"first_name":"Dawn","last_name":"Kennedy","position":"Ed.S, Health Education","institution_name":"Anoka-Ramsey Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Choosing \u0026amp; Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research serves as an excellent guide for teaching the research process.  It takes the learner through the process of academic research and writing in an easy to understand manner.  As an educator in a community college setting, I am working with students who are new to the research process. This text will be useful when working with students to start developing the appropriate process of research writing.  The text has neither a back-of-the-book index nor a glossary.   It is beneficial that key terms are defined throughout the chapters.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information presented in the text is accurate at this point in time and unbiased.  One concern is that some of The information presented in the text is accurate at this point in time and unbiased.  One concern is that some of the links do not work.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is up-to-date at this point in time.  Most examples and exercises are arranged separately from the main text and can be updated as needed. Some of the content links to the Ohio State University Libraries databases which may not be assessable to students outside that institution.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is clearly written, well-illustrated, and user-friendly for the undergraduate audience.   It avoids technical jargon and provides definitions where appropriate.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Choosing \u0026amp; Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Regarding the book’s modularity, users of this text can be selective in chapter choice.  In this sense the text is useful to instructors and students who wish to focus on a single component and /or use the text as a reference.   For a better understanding of the research process in its entirety, reading the text in the order written may prove to be more beneficial.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text's organization mirrors the research process in a logical, clear manner.   Chapters 1-8 lead the reader through the basics of research literacy and research skills; chapters nine and ten explain the process for making an argument and writing tips; Subsequent chapters zero in on copyright and Fair Use information.  Key concepts and points are supported with highlights, examples and colorful illustrations.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text displays generous use of visuals which are clear and free of distortion.\nThe activities provided support the concepts and skills being addressed and are easy to navigate.  One concern is the activities which are linked to Ohio State University may not provide access to all, resulting in limited access of information and frustration for the reader.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"•\tThe text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a text does an excellent job of explaining the research process in a logical manner. The text uses examples, illustrations, and skill practice to support the learning process.   I recommend this text for use in it's entirely for teaching and learning the research process and as a resource for the rest of us.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1226,"first_name":"Constance","last_name":"Chemay","position":"Head of Public Services, Library Services; Asst. Professor, User Instruction","institution_name":"River Parishes Community College, Gonzales, LA","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book does an excellent job covering the subject, and even goes beyond what its title suggests, with chapters on writing and formulating an argument. The chapters on copyright and fair use are exceptional. However, it lacks both a glossary and an index. Some terms are defined in their appropriate chapters, but not all. Some students, particularly first-year or those who may be enrolled in developmental courses, would benefit greatly from a glossary. The activities, while appropriate for their contexts, are mixed in their effectiveness; some provide good feedback with clarification, but most offer little more than a smiley face for a correct answer or an “x” for a wrong answer with no other feedback.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"For the most part, this book is accurate and unbiased, but one area where I noticed discrepancies is the chapter on citing sources. MLA released its 8th edition in April 2016, yet the examples provided are 7th edition. I also noticed errors in the example for APA; only the first word, proper nouns, and those following major punctuation marks are to be capitalized in article titles following APA formating guidelines. Regarding bias, the book is unbiased; however, I disagree with the discussion of news sources regarding mainstream versus non-mainstream (or mainline as used in the text); main-stream media includes \"traditional\" sources, e.g., television, newspapers, and radio, as opposed to online sources, especially social media.  The authors’ inclusion of Fox News, a right-leaning national television news network, a contemporary of CBS, NBC, and ABC, as non-mainline rather than mainline shows bias, in my opinion. It’s difficult to find news from any news source, mainstream or not, right, left or center, that doesn’t have some bias or opinions in its reporting.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This textbook itself is written so that it will be relevant for a long time. However, there are some exceptions. The discussion of citation styles uses examples for MLA that reflect the 7th edition rather than the 8th, which was released in April 2016.  The book covers this discrepancy somewhat with its tip regarding choosing a citation style, with its remarks that styles do change and its recommendation to check with one’s instructors. Another issue is the potential for link rot regarding external websites; in fact there are a few dead links in the text and activities already. A couple of online resources mentioned and linked to, IPL2 and the Statistical Abstracts of the US, have been retired for at least a couple of years, which makes me wonder about when the book was actually last reviewed edited.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is well-written, easy to read, conversational. Most technical language is defined and used appropriately.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is consistent in terms of its terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is extremely modular in its organization at the chapter level and within the chapters. It can be easily reordered to meet specific course or instructor needs. It does refer to other sections of the text, but these references are appropriate, emphasizing more in-depth information elsewhere in the book. Sections that are unique to OSU can be replaced/revised to make the text relevant to other institutions as needed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"It is well organized and reflects the processes and stages of research. While the research process is not linear, the topics are presented in a logical manner that guides students through the process. I did note that a couple of sections in chapter 7, on ethical use of sources don’t really seem to fit there, however. The paragraphs on page 118 discussing a lack of understanding of the materials and lack of time might fit better in other chapters.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"While the online version works well, the PDF format has issues. Some of the in-text navigation links work (the TOC links) while others found throughout the text don’t, often giving an “error: unknown export format” message. There are also a few dead links in both the online and PDF formats, as well as in some of the online activities. Some links direct users to OSU Libraries’ resources, either their catalog or their licensed databases, but not all such links are clearly identified as such.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"For the most part, this text is well-written, grammatically; however, it does have a few grammatical/typographical errors, possibly more than one might expect from a text of this length, and assuming that the author is most likely a committee rather than an individual, more eyes reviewing the text should catch such errors. There are also instances of tense inconsistencies, shifting from present to past in the same sentence. Two paragraphs on page 47, under “Finding Data in Articles . . .,” repeat the same four sentences verbatim in different order. This occurs again on page 88. While these are not grammatical errors, they are certainly editorial errors. Most of the online activities have typos, as well, more so than the textbook.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This textbook is not culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I do like this book. I think it puts the topic in terms that students can readily use and understand. I'd even recommend the chapters on copyright and fair use to faculty! I do think that it could benefit from the inclusion of a glossary and an index, as well as regular and frequent review, especially in regards to the linked resources. The PDF version definitely needs revisions since it seems that most of the in-text referral links throughout the text don’t work. Since it is tailored to OSU’s library resources, any instruction librarian using the book can substitute content relevant to his/her institution; non-library faculty using the text can consult their own librarians for help with this.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1342,"first_name":"Deborah","last_name":"Finkelstein","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"George Mason University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very comprehensive. The authors consistently explain concepts well and provide easy-to-understand examples that are approachable for the undergraduate audience. For example,  the authors don’t just say, “narrow down your source,” they go through steps to narrow it down, walking students through the process. (p 9) Very thorough. They also spend a page and a half giving examples of “Regular Question” vs. “Research Question.” (p 13-14) This ensures that students will understand the difference. They also do well with explaining fact vs. option, objective vs. subjective, primary vs. secondary vs. tertiary sources, popular vs. professional vs. scholarly magazines, when to quote vs. paraphrase vs. summarize, and other concepts that are critical to performing research. \n\nThe book does not have an index. The table of contents is quite thorough and very useful in understanding the breakdown of the book or locating certain topics.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is error-free.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"There are many digital examples in the text. As long as authors make updates as technology inevitably changes in the future, the book should remain relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book has a conversational tone that is connective, trustworthy, and approachable for the undergraduate audience. This makes it easy to read and easy to understand.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent with tone, and terminology.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"In the introduction, the book encourages students to “jump around a bit in this guide to meet your needs.” (p 5). The book stays true to this idea. Students could read the book straight through, but it is well-designed for “jumping around.” The sections stand alone, and instructors could easily assign sections in the book out of order. This book could be used as the only textbook in a classroom, or an instructor could use these modules to supplement an existing textbook. Topics are easily found in the book thanks to an excellent table of contents, a clear organizational structure, and a great use of headers.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is well-organized and follows a logical structure. Individual topics are also well-organized. The authors break processes into step-by-step, making is easy for students to learn.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Great use of visual aids. For example, there is a chart on how to narrow down research topic (p 9), and a chart on the roles of resources in research (p 179). These items are great for visual learners, and they make the text come alive while emphasizing important concepts.\n\nThe book shares links to outside sources. This provides students that would like more information that is beyond the book with resources. It additionally provides students links to activities, such as one that asks them if a source is primary, secondary, or tertiary (p 34). On occasion, it links to outside companies, such as citation management software, news outlets, and social media, making the book a resource. In this way, the book utilizes the medium of a digital book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally sensitive. \n\nThe book is designed for Ohio University students. Examples given occasionally apply to Ohio, such as when the authors are providing examples of newspapers, they list two out of six that are from Ohio, including the campus newspaper (p 43) There is also a link to the OSU Libraries’ newspaper database (p 44), and when talking about citation management software, they mention the three that are available at OSU. It’s not a large enough issue that one should not use the book; it’s still easy to understand, but it is a limitation and worth mentioning to students.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I teach a 300-level English class on performing research and writing research papers. I plan to utilize this book next semester due to the excellent organization of modules, the approachable tone, and the great explanations and examples.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1519,"first_name":"Kristine","last_name":"Roshau","position":"Instructional Technology Specialist and PT Faculty Librarian","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is extensive! Like the title suggests, it truly is a full guide to academic research, from developing a topic, finding sources, and using them appropriately.  It also follows the logical order of the search process, from identifying an information need, evaluating source quality (and purpose), and how to perform complex searches. It also highlights several common areas where academic research can be performed, from the college library catalog to specialized databases and how to find academic sources on the free web. \n\nThe book also covers what to do once sources have been found, including the importance of properly citing sources, ethical use of source material, and how to cite unusual or non-standard source material. It then moves into addressing the writing process: developing an argument and idea, writing tips, and a large section on copyright, fair use, creative commons, and public domain.\n\nThe table of contents is very granular, which is helpful. The sections vary in length, but given the overall size of the book (190 pages) having a very specific TOC is useful when returning to the text as a reference source.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not find any objectionable or questionable content. The authors have done a good job of selecting examples for each section (often with associated online activities or examples linked out to the web) that are varied and unbiased, but also represent realistic examples of what students might be encountering during their research process. I was really pleased when looking through the section on citing sources - styles can change, but the book is written in such a way as to be comprehensive about the purpose of citing sources, and links out to many helpful web sources, citation tools, etc so the information will remain accurate in the textbook even if the style guides themselves are updated in the future. \n\nThe section on copyright is similarly done.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"See previous note - it is clear the authors have taken care to include examples that will remain relevant, not evaporate into popular culture, and provide flexibility where the content may be updated or changes (such as copyright law and citation style guides). They do provide a LOT of external links and activities, not all produced by Ohio State. So it's possible that some of their links may break in the future. It does appear that they have made an effort to either link to open sources they control, or which are unlike to change significantly (ie: government websites).\n\nIf I were using this text, I would probably modify some of the resource sections (eg: databases) to reflect those that the students at my institution have access to, though the writers do make a point of identifying OSU access-only resources where applicable. I would also update the copyright/plagiarism section to include our college's student handbook blurbs, etc.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The tone is extremely approachable in all of the areas I checked. This is extremely important in academic research where there are a lot of areas of possible legal entanglement, and the authors have done a credible job of breaking down complex concepts into approachable prose and examples.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The textbook is consistent in both writing and structure; however, I do with the table of contents was split into sections in the same way the content is. Page numbers are given though, so that's not really a big deal. There were one or two places where I saw formatting errors, but nothing overly distracting - it did not adversely effect the content.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"It is visually appealing and for the most part, easy to navigate. No huge blocks of text, and it also intersperses activities, tips, and examples. The text is also organized in such a way that it can be used as a reference, without needing to be read from start to finish in order to make sense, which is helpful for the researcher who may need to pop in for just pieces of the work.\n\nHowever, there is a strong presence of external sources (often OSU library webpages) and activities that are linked out of the text. The writing itself is certainly standalone, but the book would lose a lot of its character if it were printed and not viewed digitally. I would have liked a References or bibliographic section that listed some of these resources, but there wasn't one, meaning the user would not be able to search for the resource if the linked text didn't work.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I can see the potential for too many asides for activities to be distracting, but they are generally held to the end of their relevant sections, so it wasn't too overwhelming. The organization follows a logical research process, walking the reader through from beginning to end.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"As mentioned before, there are a few places where it looks like images have distorted the intended formatting, pushing items to empty pages, etc. But these instances are rare. A few of the images could be higher resolution, but they were certainly legible (and I was viewing this text at 125% zoom on a larger screen, so my experience is probably not representative of every reader). \n\nIt is long though, and I would have loved to be able to jump to sections through anchor bookmarks in the content page - that would be a nice touch. \n\nI also found a few broken links, which is not totally surprising, given the volume of them in this book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"None noticed in this review.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No objectionable content found - the authors have chosen inclusive examples wherever possible, while remaining realistic about subjects students might be researching.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Not all of the links to activities are self-describing (there are no plain URLs, but many of the activity links contain the same 'Open Activity in Web Browser' text, which would be confusing if a user was navigating with a screen reader.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1563,"first_name":"Diane","last_name":"Kauppi","position":"Library Faculty, Technical Services \u0026 Systems","institution_name":"Ruth A Myers Library at Fond du Lac Tribal \u0026 Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text did a great job of covering the subject and the table of contents were laid out well. The content was well thought out. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the accuracy to be good. The content is a good representation of what a student needs to know in order better understanding library research. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content itself is good \u0026amp; should stand the test of time for the near future. The only exception is that even though it's only one year from the publishing date (2016) many of the links are broken. And I would have preferred a OER text that was geared more generally for application to any institution vs. the inclusion of OSU specific references, links, resources. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"For a text written to a 4-year university/college audience the text was good. For a 2-year community college audience some of the terminology would need to be defined.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I found the consistency to be good. It followed through each section with including tips, activities, etc. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I think the modularity was good. And the text could easily be broken down into smaller sections to be used as units by themselves or refresher units. The only issue would be where there are links within a module that link to other modules. Add to this that these links didn't work-- I rec'd errors each time I tried a module link. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The overall organization and flow as great. As stated on p 6 (\"... as though you are conducting a research project while reading them [the sections]...\") this  made my logical side happy. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I like the links to activities for students to practice the skills being taught. The problem though was that many of the links no longer work. Additionally, many of the links are to areas not available to users who are not affiliated with OSU. And as mentioned in another review section, module links to other modules didn't work either. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found the grammar to be quite good with only a few exceptions or where it was clunky at times. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I thought the text was neutral in this area. Nothing that blatantly jumped out at me. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I appreciated the link to application of research to other areas of our lives outside of academic research. I try to get this point across to students, especially when they are hesitant and resistant to library research. \nI found the \"tips\" \u0026amp; \"summaries\" to be a nice added 'pop' \u0026amp; easy for referring back to later.\nI liked the bold letters/words for emphasis. And the suggestion to \"brush up\" on p 31 was a nice touch vs outwardly assuming they don't know.\nThe downloadable templates are a great resource for students. \nOverall, I found the text to be a good resource.\n","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1574,"first_name":"Susan","last_name":"Nunamaker","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Clemson University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is comprehensive. It goes in-depth covering the topics of research questions (specifically how to narrow down topics), types of sources, sources and information needs, precision searching, search tools, evaluating sources, ethical use of sources, how to cite sources, making an argument, writing tips, copyright basics, fair use, and roles of resource sources.  The textbook hits all of the topics that I plan to cover in my upcoming classroom-based research course with the exception of techniques for completing and writing a literature review.  The textbook touches on the topic through a section on \"background reading\", but does not go in-depth.  Otherwise, the textbook covers every aspect of academic research.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no errors or bias issues in my initial first read of the textbook.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information and techniques provided within this textbook are up-to-date and relevant for academic research.  I reviewed several textbooks before choosing this one for my upcoming masters-level classroom-based research course.  I chose this book because of its relevance in regard to the practical skills needed in order to complete research assignments within the course, as well as, writing a capstone research paper.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is clear and exceptionally readable.  It is organized by research skills in an order that makes sense to the reader.  For example, the book begins with a chapter on choosing one's research question.  Verbiage is clear and concise for all levels of academia to be able to effectively utilize this text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This textbook is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.  Each chapter of the textbook builds on the last.  The reader is not necessarily expected to have prior knowledge of research before reading chapter one, but should easily be able to have a good frame of reference for academic research by the end of the textbook due to its high-quality framework for scaffolding knowledge with each chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This textbook does a great job of sectioning academic research into small bites for the reader.  It was easy for me to create modules from the textbook's chapters, spreading the information within the text over an 8-week course.  The modularity of this textbook was a selling point for utilizing the textbook with students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This is a well-organized textbook.  Each chapter builds on prior chapters.  Chapters are organized in a logical manner.  The first chapter begins with the purpose of research questions and builds content to assist the reader in narrowing down options for research questions.  The textbook progresses to assist the reader in building skills as an academic researcher throughout the textbook.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface issues were discovered during my initial exposure to the online format.  I printed the PDF (because I still love paper) and all display features printed properly.  The online navigation is easy to use and pleasing to the eye, as well.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar issues were detected during my initial review of the textbook.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in my opinion.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is an excellent textbook if you are looking to utilize it to introduce students to the academic research and writing process.  Its layout and design and conducive to module-based instruction, and the content is well thought out and beneficial.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1583,"first_name":"Jonathan","last_name":"Grunert","position":"Assistant Professor of Library Services: Information Literacy Coordinator","institution_name":"Colorado State University - Pueblo","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook covers the concepts found in the ACRL frameworks in a way that is meaningful and accessible to academic researchers at all levels. It adequately provides a discussion of the complete research process, with clear signposts as to which steps writers might need to revisit to improve their work.\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content appears to be accurate to 2016, with some acknowledgement that finding sources is an activity that has seen many changes in the past few decades, and will likely seem more, and rapidly.\n","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Information discovery and retrieval is a rapidly changing process in a changing field. But much of the content in this textbook—as far as general advice and instruction for finding resources and the ways to use them—remains relevant. As information processes change and as information uses change, I have no doubt that librarians will be at the forefront of maintaining the relevance of a textbook like this one through various edition changes.\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is clear, and accessible to researchers at all levels. Jargon, where present, is well-explained, and the contexts for the various components of the textbook are provided.\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text and frameworks in this book are consistent with ACRL frameworks as well as with the ways librarians tend to talk about finding and using sources. Furthermore, the book consistently uses the same terminologies to clearly explain sometimes difficult practices.\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I would be very comfortable using any chapter of this book to teach a component of the academic research process. The chapters are discrete, with well-defined boundaries.\nThe modularity of this textbook helps reinforce the overarching idea in this book: the iterative research process. Students might read the chapters in virtually any order, and come away with a valuable understanding of the research process.\n","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This textbook presents the research process in the way that many students and faculty think about the process—from the perspective of the end goal, and through the organizational structure of an academic paper.\nBut, it also indicates throughout the process places when the researcher needs to revisit an earlier step, to modify the project, or to make the end product more meaningful.\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No issues in the interface; nothing distracting from the content.\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Some minor punctuation errors, but no grammatical errors that distract from the content.\n","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This textbook comes from an American perspective for ways of searching for, retrieving, and using information, as well as the traditionally American ways of constructing arguments. Though there is not discussion of other cultural ways of arguing academically, this textbook does not dismiss or otherwise denigrate other cultures; nor is it insensitive in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Many examples are university-specific to the libraries at Ohio State University, as should be expected from a textbook such as this. As such, this book will be most helpful to students using the book at OSU. However, instructors using this book need to be aware of this focus, and must prepare to supplement with materials accessible by researchers outside OSU.\n","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1614,"first_name":"Bryan","last_name":"Gattozzi","position":"Lecturer, General Studies Writing","institution_name":"Bowling Green State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was impressed how the text began helping students understand the benefits of leading a research project by writing research question(s), following with assessment of research methods, and thinking about research writing as an avenue to test a hypothesis instead of one simply confirming a previous, and perhaps uninformed, belief. \n\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book didn't seem to dismiss any possible research method. Instead it provided suggestions of how and when any individual research method may be relevant. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book was published last academic year and the content included is still relevant, mostly because best-practices in research (and research writing) haven't changed much. \n\nThe volume of research methods students can use given the internet's power is ever increasing, yet the book does well to isolate a handful of long standing tenets that academic writers have used for decades while allowing for discussion of web-based writing and multi-modal presentation  methods instructors may increasingly require students to use. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Each section is concise, clear, and easy to follow . . . for me. \n\nI assume students will be capable of reading the text, performing quizzes provided, and plotting out a research path to complete their assignment(s). \n\nThen again, as an academic I obsess over these issues. I can see a student yawning while reading this text. \n\nThe content isn't especially fun to read yet the information provided in relevant and time-saving if students are willing to relax, read actively, and apply the material to the assignment their instructor has given. \n\nI don't imagine many students would seek the book out and read about research methods, yet an instructor can pair excerpts from the book with specific assignments along a student's research path to help the student retain and apply the helpful suggestions in the book. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text does well to allow students to name the process they're going through when composing a research question then deciding on what research path fits their question. Students are guided to consider what blend of qualitative / quantitative, primary / secondary / tertiary, or public / professional / scholarly research will fit their research and writing goals. \n\nThe book refers back to the same terms throughout and provides students with active learning worksheets to plot a research AND writing plan to complete their work, one they could conceivably follow throughout their academic and professional career. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Each subheading contains, on average, not more than a page of content allowing instructors the ability to easily limit reading assignments from the book to concise, focused sections. \n\nThe book is very process-based, and follows the workflow necessary to write a successful academic researched assignment. \n\nThe limit of this strategy might be students being overwhelmed with so much discussion of process they'd be paralyzed to inaction. \n\nAn instructor, then, would have to be direct in assigning reading materials relevant to a student's immediate research goal.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I like how the text follows the path a student would follow: from narrowing a research question, selecting and reviewing research materials, then choosing how to implement them ethically in writing. \n\nIt also details how to process research considerations students may not consider including how to archive research results, to respect copyright law when publishing blog posts or submitting student work to an online repository. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text contains many online activities, sample research artifacts, and instructional handouts. Some require on Ohio State student authentication. The text is still useful without access to these materials, though an instructor would have to alert students to this issue. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Text was proofread well. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Didn't see any culturally insensitive content. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1630,"first_name":"Scott","last_name":"Rice","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Appalachian State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very comprehensive which sometimes detracted from its usefulness. There were a few units that may be superfluous, but I did appreciate that the author seemed to err on the side of inclusivity, leaving it to other adoptees how much content they might use and repurpose.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book is error-free and appears to be free of bias.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The book is pitched to an Ohio State University audience, so some of the resources pointed to would not be the same as a potential adopter's institution might select.  In addition, the book needs some updating regarding the impact of social media on the information cycle. Social media formats are mentioned, but a fuller treatment of how they fit into the information climate would be a good addition.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text was clear and easy to read, and provided numerous examples for its points.  It also did not rely on jargon in its explanations, which makes it much more accessible. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text was consistent in its use of terms. I found its tone consistent, as well as the level of explanation for the wide variety of concepts explored.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The organization of the text into units makes it very easy to break the content apart into smaller units and use it for a variety of purposes.  I could see using the content for different parts of several courses, as well as incorporating it into e-learning content.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical fashion, following the path that a typical research assignment might take.  This will also make it easier to fit within the flow of a course that uses the textbook to teach about the process of academic research.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The interface of the text itself works appropriately, but some of the ancillary quizzes and extra material did not work so well. Many of the graphics did not work as well within the pdf format as they do in the web format.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The textbook was free of grammatical errors and was easy to read. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text did not appear to be culturally insensitive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am exploring the creation of a for-credit information literacy class at my institution and this book is a possible candidate for adoption for the course.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1633,"first_name":"Rachelle","last_name":"Savitz","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Clemson University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is quite comprehensive regarding finding, using, and understanding sources.  It provides the process of sourcing from start to finish with examples and activities provided throughout to support the reader.  Various ways to find sources are described.  There is a focus throughout on software and databases for the students at the authors institution and that can be confusing to readers from other institutions.  The information provided regarding citing, ethics and copyright, and fair use was informative and would be beneficial to the reader.  There were sections throughout that could have been more in depth and more specific.  For instance, when going over the various ways to cite sources, additional examples could be provided and the version/edition should be listed.  For instance, was the APA citation in APA 6th edition format?  Also, make sure to address citing from secondary sources as students do this often and tend to cite what they read even if they read it from another text.  The TOC was helpful and allowed ease of understanding what was to be covered in each section.  One main complain that I have was regarding the additional information provided to help the reader in writing a paper.  This information would be helpful for basic college writing but not for academic writing, thesis or dissertation writing.  The sections required for some of these papers are not discussed and the text eludes that the sections provided regarding writing an argumentative piece would be appropriate for all.  Also, synthesizing information could be explained a bit more and with more depth.  Synthesizing includes more than critiquing and summarizing.  All in all, the sourcing information is spectacular and the additional information could be expanded upon. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy of sourcing was spot on.  Some of the additional categories discussed, as mentioned in the first section of this review, could be expanded upon to fully explain that category, if it is to be included in the book.  The examples and activities provided were quite good and would be very beneficial for students to apply what they are learning in real-life contexts.  Links were provided for extending information.  I did not attempt to open every link but making sure they are up-to-date will be important as time goes forward. I also feel that the section on popular texts can be misleading.  Stating that the Washington Post is \"popular\" eludes that it is not reliable or valid.  This is not necessarily true as many experts in various fields write sections in \"popular\" newspapers.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"As previously stated, a lot of links go to OSU resources.  This could be problematic for any reader that is not at OSU.  More information should be provided to support any student in the world as that part would be confusing to many students.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to read and follow.  All new information is explained and then examples and activities are provided.  This is student friendly and allows any reader to quickly follow along and understand what is being stated, especially regarding the sourcing elements.  As stated above, there are some sections that could/should be expanded upon for clarity and this might be best for beginning university students but the text was easy to understand in regards to sourcing, citing, and fair use.  More information on how to use the sources and sections of papers would be beneficial to all students.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter seemed to follow a similar structure that followed the TOC. ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Reading the book online provides ability to chunk the text based on assignments and can be read chapter by chapter, entirety or starting at different places.  Due to the extensive amount of outside links and examples, this would be quite different if read in paper format.  This book truly has to be read online to ensure benefit from all of the additional activities, links, examples, sources, etc.  In addition, the many links specific to OSU would not be helpful for other students.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is consistent from chapter to chapter.  Information is explained and then examples and activities are provided to further knowledge.  This works well for readers that needs examples. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Using a laptop provided no issues.  However, when using a smartphone, the pages changed in size and various display features did not load properly or at all.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Very few grammatical errors were noticed.  ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No cultural issues noticed other than the many OSU references and sources.  This could be offensive to other institutions as they will not be able to access many of the links.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1650,"first_name":"Anthony","last_name":"Patterson","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"North Carolina Central University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Choosing and Using Sources is an extremely thorough text taking readers through the research process from formulating research questions to fair use and copy right issues. I particularly liked the online examples and resources including quizzes and videos. The table of contents is thorough but there is not a glossary. While this is a strong text some discussion of theory and how theoretical frameworks are used in academic writing.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"While the text could have addressed additional areas, the authors were accurate and detailed. Chapter 8 - How to Cite Sources is well done and accurately takes novel researchers through when they should and should not provide citations.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The authors present how to develop, approach, and conduct sound research in a well thought out format. This text is up-to-date addressing issues like Wikipedia and Google Scholar. While issues around these information sources will change, the way this text is set up, it can easily be updated in the future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is well written, clear, and easy to follow. Jargon such as primary, secondary, and tertiary sources were explained clearly with appropriate examples. This text will be accessible for my students and most others pursuing advanced degrees.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The authors are consistent throughout the text when discussing topics like presenting arguments and the relationship this has with concepts like research questions and the sources researcher select. While consistency is expected is difficult to do especially when writing as a team. More impressively is the consistency of supplemental materials throughout the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book has long chapters and occasionally I had some difficulty knowing where one section ended and another began but overall it is readily divisible. Another important aspect of the text are the supplemental materials like online quizzes and videos which are also clearly align with the sections in the text. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I was skeptical at first when I began reading but the overall organization of this text is good. Even though the text is about writing and sources, a section of theory and incorporating theoretical frameworks would have strengthen the book. However the topics selected flowed well and led potential researchers through a logical process.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"A few problems linking to sum supplemental materials but overall I was impressed by the quality of the graphics as well as the links to quizzes and videos that were provided.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not come across any grammatical or typographical issues.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not see any cultural insensitive examples or information provided. However I also did not see a lot of racial or ethnic diversity in examples throughout this text. Overall, I feel the authors approached the subject matter appropriately.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1701,"first_name":"Mairéad","last_name":"Hogan","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"National University of Ireland, Galway","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers the subject matter in a comprehensive and detailed way. The way in which the material is presented is very suitable for students who have not previously been involved in academic research as it starts at the very beginning and assumes no prior knowledge. It has additional features that help to reinforce the material, such as activities and MCQs. These help to reinforce the learning and test the reader’s understanding. Additionally, the examples used are very useful and helpful in gaining understanding of the subject matter.\n\nIt goes into the material in depth and not only tells students how to progress their research but also explains clearly why they should be doing it this way. For example, it explains to students how to differentiate between good and bad sources. However, I have one small concern with this aspect. They do not tell students how to differentiate between different standards of peer-reviewed journals. They do mention looking at citation count but state that is not a useful measure for very recent articles. Some discussion on determining the quality of the journal itself would be helpful. For example, looking at citation counts for the journal, rather than the article would be one example, as would looking at rankings. \n\n Overall, I would see this as an excellent reference book to last students through their academic careers.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The material itself is accurate. However, many of the links to additional material either do not work or are inaccessible to those without OSU credentials.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The material is mainly presented in a way that will last. However, many of the links no longer work so these should be checked and alternatives put in on a regular basis.  Additionally, there are links to videos that may not be there in the future, although all I clicked on were available. However, the text description of the videos did not work. Many of the activities (MCQ’s etc) have a dated feel about them in terms of layout and interaction. The design of them could do with some updating.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing itself is very clear and easy to understand. Diagrams are used to good effect to clarify concepts (e.g. use of Venn diagrams to explain Boolean concepts). However, some of the terminology is not as clearly defined as it could be. While terms are generally explained clearly in the text, it would be nice to have a glossary of terms. Additionally, the MCQs are not always clear as if the reader gets an answer wrong it is not always apparent which is the correct one. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in writing style and interface.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is structured in a modular format whereby the reader can dip in and out of different sections, as they need to. Equally, for a student starting out, it is structured in a way that is likely to follow the steps in the same order as the student, making it a good companion to their research projects.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book was organised in a very natural and sensible way and flowed smoothly from one topic to another. Links were provided to related sections of the book where relevant so that if the reader forgot what was meant by a particular topic, they could easily hop back and forth. The book started at the very beginning with good coverage of developing a research question and then progressed through tools and sources to help with this. \nThe additional activities were all web based, which works fine if you have easy access. However, I was using a kindle with poor broadband so struggled to access it at times. It also felt a bit disruptive leaving the book to do the activities. It’s also not always clear whether links lead to another part of the book or to an external site.\nThe tips are a useful addition. The stand out when flicking through the book and help to reinforce the important points. It is also useful the ways steps are clearly broken down into sub-steps.\n","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I downloaded it to Kindle, and found a number of issues. It struggled to deal with larger fonts, resulting in some text not being visible.. There were also references to “the bottom of the page” but the bottom of the page varies depending on font size. \nNot all of the activities worked. \nSome of the activities required OSU credentials to access them, which was frustrating.\n","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were some minor grammatical and typographical errors but nothing major.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The book is very US centric in its use of examples. For example, there is an American football example and news sources referred to are US based generally. Additionally, copyright discussion is US centric.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, I found this to be an excellent book that will help students in their research projects. I think it is a book that they will use for a number of years as it is has sufficient depth to help at different levels.\nThe one main change I would make would be to broaden OSU references and activities so they are referring to databases in general, for example, rather than simply talking about the OSU one. Much of the material is relevant regardless of institution but a reader unfamiliar with databases would not be aware of this and might skip over some very useful information.\n","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1750,"first_name":"Craig","last_name":"Larson","position":"Librarian","institution_name":"North Hennepin Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very comprehensive, sometimes almost too much so (sections on copyright seem to be more detailed than the average college student would need or perhaps be interested in; the section on the lifecycle of information, while interesting, also is a bit questionable as to its overall relevance). Instructors who choose this book for a one- or two-credit information literacy course will have much more material at their hands than they can reasonably cover in a semester. This book would make a good companion volume to just about any course involving research. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and unbiased. As an example, I was interested to find that the author actually recommends that students use Wikipedia, at least in the very early stages of research, to get an overall picture of their topic. So many college instructors, regardless of the subject, seem to have a strong aversion to Wikipedia. Here, the author actually goes into some detail on how using the references in an entry can lead the researcher to additional sources he/she might not find through other means. Some of the activities are a bit misleading or written in such a way that there could be more than one right answer, which isn't necessarily an error, but could be tightened up a bit.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is largely relevant and up-to-date, though I was a bit surprised to not find a section addressing \"fake news,\" which has become such a watchword over the past year. I was also a bit surprised that, although the author has a section talking about which \"neighborhood\" certain types of information \"hangs out,\" there wasn't a discussion of different domain names, such as \".edu,\" \".org,\" and \".com\" and what they indicate to readers. Also hampering the book's relevance somewhat is an overabundance of examples and activities that require an Ohio State student ID to log-in. Many of these would have to be re-worked or re-written for the book to be useful at other schools.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In large part, the book is clearly written and new ideas are clearly explained. The writer does a pretty good job of avoiding jargon and technical terminology or where it can't be avoided, of providing examples and clear definitions of terms. Some of the activities aren't so clearly written that there is one obviously correct answer. Also, some of the scoring of activities isn't clear enough to indicate to the user what was wrong and why it was wrong or even the correct answer that should have been chosen. Not every concept is adequately explained or thoroughly developed (for instance, the crucial process of moving from an initial reading to a research question could use further clarification and development). Another area that could use further discussion and development would be how to use databases.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is largely consistent, though there are occasions where the consistency falls through. For example, most of the accompanying activities will open in a new window, but not all. There were several occasions where this reader closed out an activity window and closed out the entire book as well. This is an area that someone really should take a look at, as it can be confusing and irritating for the user. Also, the fact that many of the book's activities require an Ohio State student ID effectively locks out users from other institutions.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is largely modular, with sections that can easily be broken apart and assigned at different points in the course. There is a very useful table of contents, broken down by subject into smaller pieces that can easily be accessed. As mentioned previously, the book is very comprehensive, almost too much so at times, so having this table of contents is very helpful.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The book is fairly-well organized, though there are things placed in odd locations that could be touched on earlier or later, as the case may be. For instance, there is a good discussion fairly late in the book about deciding whether to quote, paraphrase, or summarize, which would have been much more useful if it was placed in the section of the book that directly addresses each of those activities. Instead, it is placed in a section on academic integrity (which, again, is very Ohio State-specific, too much so, really). I also question the relevance of a chapter on creating an academic argument, which if it is to be included at all, would seem to make much more sense earlier in the book, when students are learning the basics of research and how to apply it to their writing.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The book is largely free of significant issues, although as mentioned previously, many of the activities require an Ohio State student ID to log-in and use, which makes them useless to students from other institutions. Also, the activities are sometimes difficult to follow--one doesn't know why one answered incorrectly or what the correct answer even is in some instances. And the fact that some activities open a new browser window and some don't can also be confusing. There are a few activities that lead to broken links.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are the occasional run-on sentences and spelling mistakes in the text. It's almost impossible not to have some issues in this area. However, the infrequent errors don't detract from the book or its overall usefulness, though it might be a good idea for someone to go through the text and try to clear some of these up.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book does a good job of avoiding being culturally insensitive or offensive. Activities and examples are written in such a way as to be inclusive. Many of the examples link directly to sites that deal with minority themes and issue.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I think, on the whole, this is a very useful book and one that could be put to immediate use in many instances. However, the number of activities and examples that require an Ohio State student ID to access make this less relevant than it could be if the author had striven for more universal examples.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1772,"first_name":"Anne","last_name":"Behler","position":"Information Literacy Librarian \u0026 Instruction Coordinator","institution_name":"The Pennsylvania State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text offers a comprehensive breakdown of the  academic research process, with special effort made to demystify jargon that may present itself in either the classroom or library environment.  Beginning with establishing a research question and carrying through to integrating and citing sources, the text includes practical tools for students to use in their own research, as well as links to supplemental information. If anything, the text errs on the side of providing too much information, such that a novice researcher may feel overloaded. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text offers an accurate articulation of the research process, and avoids bias by covering a wide variety of potential information sources, including the use of web search engines other than Google. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Because the information landscape is constantly shifting, the text will require fairly frequent review. This is particularly important when it comes to how web sources are addressed. For example, the book does not  address fake news and/or dealing with problematic web resources, and it glosses over use of social media as an information source. However, the concepts related to the research process itself change very little, and the information presented about them has staying power. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in accessible language, and works to address uses of jargon that are typical within the academic environment by providing explanations for what professors typically want when they request a particular item in the research process. This is an effective way to establish relevance with students, as well as clarify academic expectations. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The language within the text is consistent and accessible, with helpful insertions of definitions and/or links to explanatory supplementary information online. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text's sections are clearly and logically labeled, and could very easily be plugged into a course in part or whole. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The order of topics in the text follow the research assignment process, from point of assignment decoding through to writing and source citation. Given the audience for the text and its intended purpose, this makes great sense. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text contains links to many outside web sources that may provide helpful supplemental information for the reader; however many of these links were found to be dead. Comprehensive review of all links is highly recommended. In addition, I recommend continuing review of available videos related to the topics, as many selected are either rudimentary or contain dated material. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The writing and grammatical quality of this text are of the highest quality. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant and inclusive in its examples. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"As stated, this book holds great utility and relevance, but requires updating for links to external web resources. It will also need to be adapted to keep up with the changing landscape of information sources themselves. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1802,"first_name":"Kristin","last_name":"Green","position":"Reference and Instruction Librarian","institution_name":"Penn State Worthington Scranton","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The aspects of academic research that are prudent to cover within the first year of any undergraduate student's general education are all covered within this textbook.  From an introduction to the ethics of source use to crafting basic Boolean search strings, all facets of entering scholarly discourse are addressed in brief chapters that feel modern and accessible.  While instructors may wish to supplement or replace some of the exercise sets in the text with their own assessments, the content of the text provides ample coverage if selected to serve as a primary textbook for a foundational information literacy course.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate in addressing the current state of the information landscape as encountered in the realm of academic research, as well as the legalities of copyright and fair use.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"All content within this book is current and the content within chapters sections are written in a style that today's undergraduate students will be able to learn easily from.  Many of the concepts, processes, and principles that are covered in the text have an inherent longevity that will prolong the relevance of this text past its initial publication date.  However some chapter sections, tutorials, and videos are institution-specific reducing the overall relevancy of using the entire text at other locations.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a clear and concise style that current students will find very accessible.  The authors consciously defined any technical terminology or jargon as it was introduced throughout the chapters. Furthermore, the technical concepts that were more complex to define are often accompanied by visuals to help convey what is being defined.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and format of the book, along with the linked exercise sets and visualizations, provide a solid consistency that will helps students focus on learning the content rather than being bogged down with understanding the textbook format.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Instructors could easily parse different chapters of this book to use for modular instruction, especially in \"one-shot\" or other limited instructional scenarios.  Some of the chapters are a bit self-referential which may generate a minor degree of confusion if used out of the holistic context.  ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"While there is a logical flow to most of the chapters, some seem a little out of place such as the \"Making an Argument\" chapter.  I would have preferred a division of chapters into sections, where the writing-related chapters were separated from the source-related chapters.  I also think the chapters that covered Copyright, Fair Use, ethical source use, and citations would have a stronger flow if organized together in their own section.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The ability to navigate through the book from the table of contents page is a great feature for students, especially when the instructor is choosing to assign only particular chapters or work through some of the chapters in a different sequence.  The linked exercise sets are also easy to navigate through, allowing students to focusing on applying learned concepts rather than learning new interfaces.  However, throughout my review some of the linked external content would not open for me and links to external materials always have the possibility of changing which may result in future inaccessibility ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were detected when reviewing this book.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is not offensive nor culturally insensitive in any manner.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"For any instructor looking for an open textbook to orient undergraduate students to the basics of the academic research and writing processes while simultaneously providing context of contemporary issues surrounding these scholarly activities, this is a comprehensive and accessible choice!  ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1825,"first_name":"Lydia","last_name":"Bales","position":"Academic Skills Tutor \u0026 Librarian","institution_name":"Staffordshire University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Considering the book is not overly large, the guide manages to be very through and comprehensive guide to locating sources and using them correctly. It even goes further in giving some great information on making an argument and writing out the research. The chapters are in easily digestible chunks covering the process of searching and evaluating resources in a useful and cross-discipline manner.  It covers the source search process of research in an easily digestible manner.  ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The topics are accurate and have been written in a way that they will not date too much. The links and examples of the services provided may need updating to keep them accurate but the nature of the online format makes this easily possible. The Copyright chapter is obviously only applicable to those studying in the US. Having a version of this chapter available discussing copyright law in the UK could be useful any access the course for a different location. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The topics, examples and videos used are relevant and useful and should not date too much. The links and examples of the services provided may need updating to keep them accurate but the nature of the online format makes this easily possible.  Some of the examples and links are specific to Ohio State and America and this can limit the relevance for students who do not have the ability to access Ohio State resources or are not based in America. Also the copyright section specfically is obviously only US copyright law limiting it's usefulness for students based in other locations. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing style is straightforward and easy to follow. It is sometimes slightly repetitive but overall the information is clearly presented and the vocabulary used is not too advanced. The style is informal and it makes a weighty topic much easier to process. I think it would be useful to have a glossary in the resource for students who maybe have not come across some of the topic specific words before and need them defining. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I was impressed with the consistency considering the work is made up of different author’s contributions. I could not identify different voices within the text, which helped improve the flow of the work. The arrangement of the contents tab is very useful to help navigate to specific sections of chapters as well as the overall chapter. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The layout of the book makes this modular. You can choose which sections to look at in any order and they read clearly and separately well. The other sections are signposted throughout the text and you can link back through to these using the hyperlinks provided. I think the order could be slightly improved by moving the citing and copyright information after the information on argument and writing but because you can choose how to read the book then it is not really an issue. I think it is important to note that if you cannot play the video content or the links in the book are Ohio State Specific the book does lose some of its positive features.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall, the structure is straightforward and logical. It flows in a manner that is easy to read and to process. Using the navigation you can work your way through the book in any order you feel is appropriate. As I stated I feel the referencing and copyright information could be in a different place but because you can choose to read this in a different order, it does not really matter. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Having read the online version on both a PC and a tablet I found the interface both easy to use and accessible. The page and chapter length worked well on both platforms and it was easy to access the links and activities contained within the resource. I could not access the videos on the PC due to not having Adobe Flash and it would be useful to have known I would require this to access the resource in its entirety. The video content is a refreshing change to just text and the images used are overall relevant. The videos do not all include a text version and this would be useful for accessibility. A few of them do have this option. Some of the images in the text viewed blurry on my PC and tablet. I am not sure if this was an issue with my own software or an error in the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any errors during this read through. In some places, the text was a bit repetitive but this not disrupt the flow too drastically. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The examples used are not offensive and are diverse in their range. They have not given examples that define the guide for specific subset of students, which makes it more applicable. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Just for accessibility purposes, I think all the videos need a text version not just some. In addition, the RefWorks program has now been updated and it is called New Refworks with a changed logo and this could be updated in the book along with the guide to setting up Refworks if your institution subscribes. I feel that there are many links that you could not access unless you were an Ohio State user and this could disrupt the flow of the book for some users. \n\n","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1852,"first_name":"Lori","last_name":"Jacobson","position":"Associate Director, Curriculum Development","institution_name":"William \u0026 Mary Writing Resources Center","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book provides a comprehensive introduction to the use of sources in academic writing.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is a polished, professional and appropriate tool to help students improve their information literacy. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is relevant for undergraduate students and their instructors. It focuses primarily on fundamental approaches to finding, evaluating, and deploying sources in order to enter the scholarly conversation. While the authors occasionally mention a specific tool, or insert links to outside sources, these are placed within \"Tip\" boxes that can easily be updated.  \n\nBecause this book was created for students at Ohio State University, it is sometimes quite specific about tools or processes that are unique to OSU. Instructors using this book at other institutions may sometimes need to suggest their own's institution's available tools to keep the text relevant for their students.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is well-crafted for an undergraduate audience, taking an easy-going, friendly tone and clearly defining key terms and concepts. It is also accessibly structured, making it fairly easy for users to jump between topics, rather than requiring a linear read. Links between related sections are provided wherever it is appropriate.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book uses a consistent design scheme and structure. Features that appear in each chapter include graphics, tip boxes, examples, activities, and summaries. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each unit of the text stands on its own and could be easily assigned as an individual reading. Rather than being self-referential, the text will suggest that more information on a related topic can be found in one of the other modules. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is organized to flow in roughly the same sequence as a typical research project. Students who are reading the text while working on a project should find individual sections logically presented and relevant. This is clearly not a text designed as background reading; rather it functions best as \"just in time\" information for students working through the research process.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found the text quite easy to use in it its online form. It is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and thoughtfully arranged.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed a couple of typos, but no significant grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The examples provided are of broad interest, and most readers will have some familiarity with them. There were no insensitive or offensive comments or examples. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Choosing \u0026amp; Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research is a practical tool for novice researchers. It asks students to begin the process with a research question, and then provides a step-by-step approach to creating the question. All the other chapters flow from this effective beginning, and should increase students' information literacy by helping them understand types of sources available to researchers, the relationship between sources and information needs, how sources should be evaluated, and how they can be deployed effectively and ethically. Additional chapters on argumentation and copyright round out the book's overall usefulness to students engaged in a research project. This book could be easily paired with a staged research project, and would provide students with the \"just-in-time\" information they need to successfully complete the assignment. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1899,"first_name":"Hilary","last_name":"Johnson","position":"Learning \u0026 Teaching Librarian","institution_name":"The Open University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text does not include an index or glossary. However, it covers a complex (and dry) subject in an economical and stimulating fashion. Each reader would learn about the subject from the basic text but the authors have enriched the text by embedding audio-visual resources, download-and-keep checklists and formative activities of excellent quality.Chapter 9 'Making an Argument' is particularly strong and complements Chapter 1's analysis of research questions well. It is an excellent resource for undergraduates, post-graduates and beyond, and could also be useful for professionals researching topics to support evidence-based practice protocols.\n\nMore tips about applying facets to search results on services like Summon, EDS or Primo would be a useful addiition. I was surprised the authors did not employ language to frame the skill development in the language of 'employability' and life-skills, which might hook readers who are not planning to engage in academic research in the long-term.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The accuracy of the book was excellent, My score would have been 5, except the advice about copyright legislation and fair use is only applicable to students of Ohio State or elsewhere in the USA; so an institution in the Britain, Ireland or Europe would not be able to use or recommend chapters 11 or 12. However, these chapters are well-judged for the intended audience; succinct and comprehensible, where so many guides are too woolly or arcane to be useful to a general readership.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Chapter 1 had a dead link to an audio-visual resource. The explanation of how to use Wikipedia for academic study was nuanced, classic and practical. The explanation of how to use truncation and wildcards were similarly time- (and platform-) proof. There is much current interest in 'fake news' and the manipulation of Facebook and Google algorithms. So it could be timely to add a section on the known issues and some practical strategies to compensate for them.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The authors use excellent, clear English that should be comprehensible to anyone with academic english reading proficiency. My only qualms related to an ambiguous use of the term \"poster\" (this word has a particular meaning in an academic setting which was not explained) and more extensively around the slightly simplistic and dated language used for the university library catalogue and abstract \u0026amp; indexing databases. One of the activity sheets is structured like a decision-tree and starts with the question \"are you working from a database\"; with modern resource discovery platforms and other aggregating tools, students may not be able to tell whether they are looking at results from a single database, all the databases from one supplier or multiple databases from a variety of suppliers. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The stylesheet and planning of content is elegant and the quality is consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is split into useful subsections, with clear formatting to demarcate between topics, tips and activities. The authors have also helpfully embedded hyperlinks to relevant chapters or sections earlier or later in the book.The length of individual subsections is consistent to make reading online easy (balancing scrolling and page turning). However, the length of embedded audio-visual materials varies so a student planning their time might be surprised in places.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text has a sensible progression of topics, with hyperlinks back and forwards to connect relevant topics. And the final chapter, 'Roles of Research Sources', pulls together the lessons learnt with a useful acronym (BEAM), giving the book a strong ending.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I accessed the text on a variety of browsers, screen sizes and operating systems without any problems with the interface.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I only spotted two minor errors - site instead of cite and White's definition (page 186) without an apostrophe.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Not all the video materials embedded are captioned making them inaccessible to some categories of disabled users.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1967,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Heinz","position":"Librarian","institution_name":"Texas Tech University ","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides beginning student researchers with a clear and complete path to the research process for class assignments and undergraduate research projects.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is presented is accurate and in an unbiased manner for students to easily grasp the process and concepts. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book was written in 2016 and may need some minor updates.  The material is presented in a logical manner that leads students through the process as they begin their research.  Each chapter can be used independently as the instructor fits the chapters into course content.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is easily understood by an undergraduate and doesn't require extra readings or content to be understood.  It is concise and clear which will be appreciated by the student as they conduct research. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is consistent in it's framework which leads the student to each step logically avoiding confusion or frustration.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters can easily be used independently and refer students to other chapters with supporting information.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is written to lead students in a logical manner through the research process.  The length of the chapters allows a student to easily read the chapter for that step in their research, apply it and refer to it easily.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book downloads easily onto a laptop or e-reader.  The graphics display nicely on either size screen and enhance the text.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noticed.  ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  Examples used are appropriate.  ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book introduces beginning student researchers to the academic research process in a thoughtful and deliberate manner.  The books lack of jargon and abbreviations will help international students learn how to better navigate an academic library for research.  Instructors in all disciplines should consider this book as an additional textbook for their classes requiring research for assignments, class projects and/or papers.  ","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2057,"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Theissen","position":"Reference Librarian/Professor","institution_name":"Fontbonne University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The research process is explained in detail, from how to develop a research question to where and how to research through the application of copyright, fair use and citation styles.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and unbiased. Most of the links, which are plentiful and well placed, are either broken or link to resources at OSU's library, which I could not access. Use of this book would require time to correct this.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is stable. Other than updating the links, little would need to be done to use this text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clearly written; jargon is appropriately explained. Self-checks allow students to make sure they understand the material.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each section logically builds on the previous, and tone is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text has a great deal of modularity. Each section is listed in the Table of Contents and covers a few pages or less. There is no index. It is easy to find and move to sections quickly. the structure allows one to pull sections out for other courses (which I have done).","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The research process is explained step-by-step with appropriate detail and excellent graphics.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Images, charts, and diagrams serve to explain and support the text. Many seem rather large and I found them a bit distracting. Additionally, there are page breaks in strange places, leaving large blocks of white space on pages while the narrative continued on the next page. This was very confusing. It would also be helpful if the links would open in a new window.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors noted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"It seemed inclusive where applicable. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text impressed me as appropriate for high school students or college freshmen. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2166,"first_name":"Justin","last_name":"Megahan","position":"Librarian / Associate Professor","institution_name":"Fontbonne University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text does a good job covering academic research. There is a table of contents, but I feel like a glossary and index would be helpful for this book.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate. I did not notice any errors.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date. There are many databases and websites referred to in the text so it is important to check those relevant links on occasion. It would be straightforward to update the text as needed.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text clearly steps the reader through the research process. The process is discussed in detail over the 13 chapters.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is modular. Chapters can be rearranged without confusion. The Copyright Chapter is a good example of a component that can be used separately as a supplemental reading in another course.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book is organized logically. The addition of a glossary and index could help navigation.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The book has images, charts, and videos that are useful. There are quick activity questions that tests the students’ knowledge on the current topic. These activities do link out to OSU’s site so it is important to make sure those links continue to stay active.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book does not have cultural concerns.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Many links direct the reader to OSU resources that have restricted access.\nThe discussion of OSU resources and tools needs to be modified to fit the reader’s institutional resources.\n“ACTIVITY: Quantitative vs. Qualitative” has a link that is no longer working.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2273,"first_name":"Sara","last_name":"Abrahamson","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Minneosta West Community and Technical College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is very comprehensive.  The complete research process is broken down from start to finish.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Very accurate information.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is very relative to today's researchers and does a fine job of detailing types of sources.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very easy to read with content that is easily understood by even a first-time researcher.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The content was very consistent and easy to follow because if it.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"LOVED the easy of reading because of the small, digestible informational pieces!","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The flow of the text was perfect, following the research process from beginning to end.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I enjoyed the hyperlinked Activities, however, they did not all work for me.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors found.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Very culturally unbiased.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Excellent text that I wished I had years ago!","created_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2280,"first_name":"Kathy","last_name":"Lamb","position":"ELL Specialist/ English Instructor","institution_name":"Miami University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers most areas of academic research, and has a table of contents but no glossary, which is much needed. Topics are clear and concise, transitioning smoothly from general to more specific, such as “What is a Research Question?” to “Narrowing Topics” and finding “Related Terms”.  Perfect for college freshmen.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The source is up-to-date and it would be relatively easy to update information.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easily understand and flows in a clear manner. Ideas and topics progress easily and examples are used to offer context.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Ideas build one upon another and academic vocabulary is repeated throughout.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Some parts of the book seem a little “text heavy”, but overall it is well organized with efficient flow. The embedded links in the text connect earlier concepts","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"One problematic is that there lacks a glossary. The table of contents is very long, but broken down so that one is able to easily reference topics. Chapters are concise enough to be read in a timely manner and effectively used.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"For some of the online activities it was confusing to discern which answers were correct or incorrect. And, after clicking on and completing an activity one must go back to the former page in order to navigate further.  On the other hand, being able to access other information about the chapter topics via link is a handy tool.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is culturally relevant and not offensive or insensitive in any way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2371,"first_name":"Lori","last_name":"Meier","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"East Tennessee State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is exceedingly comprehensive. It addresses all elements of academic research (i.e. choosing questions, exploring and selecting sources, searching strategies, citation issues, copyright) as well as providing abundant links for student use. It is lacking an index or glossary - although many concepts are defined in the various chapters.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is accurate and comprehensive. I would not hesitate to use this resource with undergraduate or graduate students as a beginning primer for research.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant and timely in regards to the various resources and tech tools it mentions (Google Scholar, EndNote, Ref Works). Given the subject matter I suspect that this book will have longevity to users.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and provides definitions for jargon/technical terminology that is used. It is very comprehensive which might be a bit intimidating for the first time reader, but all elements needed for cogent research are included and therefore necessary. I appreciate the use of student scenarios as a way to step-by-step show the thinking process of choosing research questions.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent and thorough. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text would be ideal for use as single chapters in courses where the content is needed. While the content is crafted with Ohio State University students in mind it is still very relevant for use by students and scholars. I am already thinking how I might use this next semester with an undergraduate honor's thesis student - both as modules to be read but also as a reference source.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book is organized in a logical manner but spends only a brief amount of time about qualitative and quantitative research as peer-reviewed sources and only gives basic definitions for those two terms. I would perhaps suggest an additional section on qual/quant/mixed methods research methodology and perhaps a quick overview of research methods or samples via discipline. Additionally, a mention of the common IRB process for Human Subject Research might be helpful to those students using academic sources that discuss that process. It is a very clear text and this could be added with just a few pages of information that might be beneficial to students.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Navigation links worked well for me. The book is easy to read and the display features are not troublesome to me.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatically sound.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Appropriate and is accessible to a wide audience.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-11-08T18:27:31.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-08T18:27:31.000-06:00"},{"id":2409,"first_name":"Kathy","last_name":"Moss","position":"Clinical Professor","institution_name":"University of Missouri","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The hyperlinks and examples include a wide range of topics that include cooking, surgery, architecture and sports.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Credit is given to an editor, production and design specialists, as well as several content contributors. No additional information is provided to support inference regarding author credibility.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The open textbook Choosing \u0026 Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research presented material that is relevant to my current issues course, including Background reading, Developing a complex research question, Classifying sources, and Evaluating sources.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The topics are presented clearly, using an engaging conversational style and frequent tips and activities. A reader who has no background in information science may be hampered by some terms used in the book (e.g., blog, podcast, Wikipedia, browser, database, Gawker, Reddit).  The book does give intentional attention to the technology-naïve audience with some skills (Control-F) and topics (brief description of LexisNexis Academic, Lantern Online).","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms and organizational framework are consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I plan to assign particular chapters of this text that are most relevant to my course's goals.  The consistency of the text's terminology and organization should permit this reading plan with minimal distraction to the reader.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The information is clearly organized with a contents listing, chapter numbers and section headers. This organization facilitates easy access for learners with a specific interest in a single topic.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The author’s frequent use of hyperlinks invites students to explore topics more in-depth.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I note a few minor typographical errors that did not adversely affect my ability to comprehend the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book includes examples of non-Western sources such as the allAfrica news database. Some of the links and examples are only available to individuals who have accounts with The Ohio State University. Though the book includes examples in audio and video formats, it could be improved by giving specific attention to topics related to accessibility.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The book provides the opportunity for readers to apply the topics by analyzing its frequent examples. ","created_at":"2018-11-27T21:43:35.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-27T21:43:35.000-06:00"},{"id":2514,"first_name":"Cindy","last_name":"Gruwell","position":"Professor/Research Librarian","institution_name":"Minnesota State","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Choosing and Using Sources does a very good job of covering the topic of Academic Research.  Each chapter focuses on an aspect of the research process and thoroughly covers the content with easy to read text and examples/activities for student practice. Most importantly first-year students through seniors should find the content informative and presented in a collegial format.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"All of the content is accurate and explained in a manner that is easy to grasp. There are some minor typos in some of the activities, but they do not confuse the reader. The text is bias-free and includes interesting examples that students can relate to. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The overall content is highly relevant and will age very well. Updates would definite be easy to handle and manipulate. By breaking down each chapter into a variety of content areas, readers will be able to focus and review areas of concern.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Having read several print and online texts of a similar nature, it was a pleasure to come across a text that is clean, consistent, and concise.  Each topic has an appropriate amount of information to get the point across as well as tips that lead the reader to additional information.  The presentation is consistent throughout without any bloating often found in print texts.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The authors of the text did an excellent job of producing an online text that is consistent and easy to use.  No tricks that make it difficult to navigate or confusing to read.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One aspect of the text that I especially like is the modularity that allows for the use of a particular chapter or page(s).  Too often texts have chapters that make readers feel like there is no end in sight.  The concise nature of this work blends extremely well with the modularity of the complete text.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"What makes this text easy to adapt is the layout from beginning to end.  Each chapter and section scaffolds upon the other which will allow students to build their skills in a natural manner.  Knowledge attained will easily transfer from one topic to another as they move through the book.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"While I believe that the text is excellent and I have adopted it for my class, I do find myself frustrated by not being able to move from one section to another within a chapter without having to go back to the contents list.  This surprised me because most books and tutorials have forward and backward links, especially within chapters.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few grammatical (spelling) errors in several of the exercises, however, they do not interfere or confuse the reader.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This is definitely a professional work that has no cultural issues and is an excellent example of a non-biased text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"While looking for an OER text I was delighted to come across this book.  The content and flow fit in with my class content extremely well and is an excellent resources for courses in the liberal arts, general research, and library-centric classes.","created_at":"2019-01-11T11:12:17.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-01-11T11:12:17.000-06:00"},{"id":2740,"first_name":"Miguel","last_name":"Valderrama","position":"Adjunct Assistant Professor","institution_name":"New York City College of Technology","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is a great resource of all steps needed to be taken in an academic research process. The book's index clearly displays a suggested methodology to follow and makes it easier to comeback for the review of previous chapters. In general the book is easy to read and every time a new world or a particular terminology related to the topic comes up, it is clearly defined and put into context.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"This book collects a series of methodologies that have been proven to be efficient when they are put into use during the process of academic research. These techniques are not only presented and described to the readers, they are also actively used in the various examples, pretty much in every chapter in the book. These techniques may not be the only way a person can start and develop a research process but they are certainly a clear and convenient way to do so for beginners. There may be complex terminology entered to the discussion which may slow down the reading process. However, this is effectively addressed by separated easy to access links; This provide more in detail definitions and exercises from a particular section.    ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is a guide that presents many particularities of research methods and techniques that have been used for long time. These methodologies have been proven to be very effective in academic research. This book not only collects many of these techniques but carefully relate them to new searching tools that are part of the communication era we live in nowadays. This was not the case just couple of decades ago. I anticipate long life to the methodologies presented in this text with years or decades before they could become obsolete. Within this context, the searching tools may keep changing but the methodologies that are used here could keep working efficiently; at least as a way to approach to a research process for an undergrad student.     ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author uses a clear and easy way to understand the language and terminology that makes part of a research process. Without getting too deep into technical terminology the book marks clearly words that deserve more understanding and usually provides separate links which connects the reader with a deeper explanation. The text doesn't have very large paragraphs all around which to me allows readers to keep a good and dynamic paste. Links to previous discussed topics presents a quick way to review previous content without loosing the paste.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Through out the entire text it is consistent that at the beginning of every chapter there's a statement related to what the previous set of contents was, also in several parts of the book this first paragraph makes a point about how this relates to what it is about to be presented in that chapter. This is why several words allusive to the subject of research are reuse constantly in different chapters. This makes lots of sense to me as a way to keep the reader's familiarity with these terms which will also ended up increasing retentivity levels in the subject. Since the book is clearly broken down into steps they all seemed to be well placed in order to present a cohesive  structure that guides the process of research.  ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Academic research it is a process that should be flexible by nature in many ways. Even though some parts of the process could be done simultaneously to others, this will definitely not apply to all of them. This book brings up an interesting way to order this process which even though may look rigid at times it tries to make sure that some parts are developed before others in the research. It is presented that way so that there's enough understanding of the bases before there can be any progression or even conclusions. This is mostly reflected in the techniques that are presented, where some of then have as their main job to detonate creative thinking. For  example: the importance of the set of questions that are asked at the beginning is that the answers will be used mostly to clarify the end goals of a research.   ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This text is organized following a clear and efficient way to develop an academic research process. It is well distributed in chapters that are all connected to each other in one or other way. The book is efficient at establishing this connections, specially at the beginning and end of every chapter where there's mentioning of the previous and following topic's main ideas. This helps readers to keep track with the overall content.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This book presents an excellent graphic approach to expose its content. The electronic version has the really nice feature of having the index accessible at any point of the reading process. This text is full of links that are either deeper explanations of a particular topic or a set of exercises that are directly related to what the reader is learning.  If the idea was to present the information in a format that doesn't look congested to the eyes and that it is not distracting the reader from the important ideas, the editors made an excellent job. This book can't be easier to read, follow through and understand. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Besides a couple of punctuation spaces here and then I was not able to perceive any major grammatical errors. The book is well written all around. Punctuation is pretty much excellent and its composition keeps the reader in track with the content effectible. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Particularly the topics used as examples were very diverse in therms of gender allusion, cultural backgrounds and specialized fields. Research is a process that apply to all disciplines and the professionals working in them. This makes the research process a particularly broad one. The book makes efforts to present this idea by using numerous examples that connect with different segments of the population at numerous levels.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This books is an excellent tool available to anyone who wishes to start a serious research process in almost any particular professional area or field, even amateur researchers can benefit from its content. The book was written to merge the topic content with a series of exercises, tests and examples using a cohesive testing dynamic that helps to increase retention.  This dynamic becomes the most efficient way to understand what it takes to start a professional research. The steps to follow the process are laid out clearly in this guide and the important things that need to be taking in account during the research process are highlighted and deconstructed to obtain a deeper overall understanding by the reader or researcher.   The fact that the reader is being quizzed constantly during the entire book generates a stronger connection with the important subjects and a good way to evaluate the reader's understanding in real time as well. Highly recommended to undergrad and graduate students and perhaps even amateur researchers becoming familiar with the process of research  as well. ","created_at":"2019-04-07T14:40:48.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-07T14:40:48.000-05:00"},{"id":2877,"first_name":"Kathleen","last_name":"Murphy","position":"Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Music Thearpy","institution_name":"Loyola University-New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book includes all relevant information to help students choose appropriate sources for an academic research paper.  It clearly defines different types of sources that can be used, and the difference between primary and secondary sources.  It gives an overview of how to search various databases,  and defines and describes boolean operators. The chapter on ethical uses of sources clearly defines plagiarism and how and when to cite so as to avoid plagiarizing.  The chapter on copyright is an excellent addition; that information is not common in many texts related to academic writing.  Each chapter contains extra activities students can work on independently to help with understanding and application of the material covered. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall, I found the book to be accurate. I did find one error in Chapter 7.  In the section titled \"Challenges in Citing Sources\" the entry labeled \"Running out of Time\" was repeated.  In regards to bias--I did not find the content to be biased; however, the majority of links where students could go to get extra information were connected to Ohio State University. The one notable exception were the links to the Perdue Online Writing Lab.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and relevant.  Choosing and using sources for an academic paper has not changed much. What has changed is how to access and find the sources to choose and use.  This book does a nice job of explaining how to find sources--databases, google scholar, and search engines. My only concern is the frequent suggestion to search Wikipedia. As an academic, I find this a little troubling.  To the author's credit, they did not that one should not cite Wikipedia or use information from Wikipedia in an academic paper.  I am not able to comment on ease of updating information, as that is a technical issue.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in clear, accessible language, with limited \"jargon.\"  At times I found the writing to be too simple, written more for high school students than college students.  Definitions are provided for all relevant terms.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is internally consistent. It moves through the process of choosing and using sources in a linear fashion. However, to their credit, the authors note that writing an academic research paper is not always a linear process.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is broken up into smaller units that cover a topic relevant to the chapter theme.  Sections of this book could be assigned as individual assignments based on areas of difficultly students seem to be having.  Alternatively, a professor could develop a class session or two around each of the chapters.  These book seems to be very versatile; there are links to previous chapters that readers can click on to refresh their memories.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical and clear way.  The book moves through each topic associated with choosing and using sources in sequence that most researchers would follow.  The table of contents, with main headings and subtopics provide a step-by-step guide to help undergraduate students through the research process.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"There are many links in throughout the book that students can click on to get more information or to practice skills.  Navigation back to the main text is a little trickier.  Sometimes, clicking on the back arrow will get the reader back to the page s/he was studying before clicking on the hyperlink. More often, however, the back arrow will take the reader back to the Table of Contents, or front cover of the book.  Not all the links worked when I went through the book","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not fine any grammatical or mechanical errors.  I think the book is well-written and appropriate for high school students.  I think the language may be too simplistic for most college students.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not come across anything that was culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think this book is an excellent resource for high school students, and maybe college freshman who need help in choosing and using sources for an academic paper.  The book is logical, gives an overview of the process and provides excellent examples and extra activities to enhance learning. I think it also could be used as a self-study guide.","created_at":"2019-04-30T20:15:11.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-30T20:15:11.000-05:00"},{"id":2964,"first_name":"Eric","last_name":"Bradley","position":"Research and Instruction Librarian","institution_name":"Goshen College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The focus of the book is on published sources for college level research and writing. In this area it is comprehensive. It does not address other areas of academic research.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, error-free, and politically neutral. The last piece makes this a excellent source in the current United States political climate.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content reflects the current realities of the information landscape. Several of the chapters use up-to-date wording that may need to be updated more frequently, but the excellent modularity of the text allows for accommodation.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is straight forward and uses contemporary language of the information and academic landscapes.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text follows a consistent framework throughout the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided in a way to teach across a course. While the text builds upon itself, many of the chapters stand alone well. I have skipped several chapters of the text and it has not caused any disruption with students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Excellent organization. The text guides the reader step by step through the research process.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The overall interface is strong. The images and charts are excellent, although the use of branded logos in some of the images may become dated. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors noted.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is focused on academic research practices for a North American context. While not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way, it does not take into consideration research practices of other cultures.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I use this text as a replacement of Booth et al.’s Craft of Research. Beside the benefits of being a open textbook, this text provides a more relevant guide to finding sources in the current academic environment.","created_at":"2019-05-31T14:56:12.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-31T14:56:12.000-05:00"},{"id":3133,"first_name":"TyRee","last_name":"Jenks","position":"Research Librarian \u0026 Library Instruction Coordinator","institution_name":"Montana State University - Billings","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is very comprehensive and covers all the necessary aspects of information literacy and student research.  There is no index or glossary included, but terms are well explained within the text.  The extensive coverage of topics, like types of sources and copyright, was thorough while not being so in-depth as to bore students.  The activities, quizzes, and short videos reinforce the concepts covered in the chapters and add interest, however some quizzes would benefit from additional explanation as to why answers are right or wrong.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text seems to be accurate.  Very minor spelling errors and a copy/paste duplicate.  No apparent bias.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is up to date and relevant for students while being broad enough to be useful for a longer period of time.  Updating information would be easy.  The text contains a lot of hyperlinks that an instructor would need to stay on top of to keep the links current. In some cases the links were to very reliable sources that will remain stable for a long time (i.e. Purdue OWL) while others are more transient (i.e. YouTube videos).","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In general the text is clear, including good explanations of terms and concepts.  It contains very little jargon and the prose is accessible.  In “The Details Are Tricky” section, the finer points of primary, secondary, or tertiary information could be confusing to students who are trying to comprehend the basics.  The author’s inclusion of informative tables with sample responses as well as the blank template for students to use was helpful.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"There is consistent use of terminology and layout throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book has good modularity, excellent graphics, and the text and/or activities can easily be used at the point of need in an information literacy class or one that is discipline specific.  Chapters can be used individually or rearranged as needed.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall the organizational flow worked well, however the chapters on copyright and fair use might make more sense when grouped with the chapters on the ethical use of sources and how to cite sources.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The EPUB and web versions of the text are easy to navigate with a clickable table of contents and left/right arrow navigation at the bottom of each page. Other than some images that could be resized, the formatting lent itself to consistency throughout the text giving students a uniform experience.  In some cases the URL links were just written text instead of hyperlinked which was a little inconsistent.  Pleasant graphics added value, explained concepts, balanced out the text, and added visual interest. The inclusion of links that lead out to further explanations of concepts (i.e. the peer review process or how to read a scholarly article) are a nice addition.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no major grammatical errors that would be distracting to the reader.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is applicable to students in all disciplines, and there are no concerns about cultural relevance or insensitivity.  The text is heavily OSU centric (i.e. referencing the OSU code of conduct and requiring students to log in to OSU resources for some activities and examples) and requires effort on the part of instructors at other institutions to make the necessary changes making the content applicable at their institution.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"With modifications this text could be incorporated into a three credit information literacy course for undergraduates or into other disciplines.  The fair use and copyright sections could be useful to instructors as well as students.  Could easily integrate with the ACRL Framework.  There is some great general information on writing and making an argument that are applicable across disciplines.","created_at":"2019-07-31T14:01:18.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-31T14:01:18.000-05:00"},{"id":3193,"first_name":"Kris","last_name":"Frykman","position":"Community Faculty","institution_name":"Minnesota State University System","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Comprehensive overview, with examples, to punctuate learning.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Clear, accurate process in showcasing academic research.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Appropriate book for researchers of all levels.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Chapter follow-up questions and videos are included to further enhance clarity.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology and examples are included to further make the content accessible for the reader.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided in sections so that students can study and apply one concept at a time.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Content is clearly organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Charts, diagrams, examples, and videos are highlighted to exemplify key contents.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No discernable grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Appropriately culturally sensitive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-10-18T16:32:53.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-10-18T16:32:53.000-05:00"},{"id":3239,"first_name":"Audrey","last_name":"Besch","position":"Temporary Faculty ","institution_name":"East Tennessee State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is very comprehensive! From choosing sources to the final research project, this book does a wonderful job of providing all the steps. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Information is accurate for the purposes of writing research and using sources. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Up-to-date and relevant, this text does a good job of outlining various types of sources that can be used and the appropriate ways in which to use them. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very easy to read content that would be great for students, especially those who are just starting the academic writing process for research. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text remained consistent in it's use of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Text has an appropriate use of subheadings and includes activity sections that focus on concepts. Material was broken into easy to grasp ways that didn't seem too lengthy. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Content is well organized and in a logical format for the content provided.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Book did not have any navigation issues and all images were appropriately used for content. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"To the extent of my knowledge, there were no grammatical errors in this text. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There were no culturally insensitive issues or offensive language in this text that I could find. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-10-31T13:59:17.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-10-31T13:59:17.000-05:00"},{"id":3600,"first_name":"Racheal","last_name":"Rothrock","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Miami University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is comprehensive in its covering of topics related to choosing and using sources, though it does not go into great depth for each topic. Rather this text provides a broad overview around the topic of sources. This text seems to be written for an upper-level, undergraduate student audience. No glossary is provided.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This information is presented in an unbiased way that informs on the topic rather than presenting a strong bias or slant toward a particular type of source (though, there is cultural bias—see review comments in “cultural” section). The text does provide details on what approaches might be more helpful in certain situations. This provides a balance of usefulness for students trying to determine which sources to use, while also not assigning value to some sources over others or create a hierarchy. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The text demonstrates a current understanding around the topic of sources, taking into account the shift away from paper and toward digital sources. While overall this text should be useful for several years, there are some areas that may require updating (e.g. links, OSU policies or statements, specifics about various citation styles, software options available, copyright laws, etc.). Throughout the text, the authors do depend on examples that are specific to OSU (e.g. a section on “WorldCat@OSU”), and this might provide less useful for non-OSU students.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written with simple language and explanations are given for more technical terminology (e.g. peer-reviewed, quantitative, qualitative, etc.).","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Little specialized terminology is used throughout the text, however, the language and terminology used is consistent throughout. The format, structure, and approach the authors use, is also consistent throughout the text and forms a cohesive narrative. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is broken up by main topics and then within each topic, subtopics are provided to support the main topic. The length of each subtopic is fairly brief and examples are provided throughout with graphical separation for clarity. While the topics and subtopics support each other, each subtopic could be assigned individually and would maintain usefulness.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall, the organization is logical and clear. There are a few topics that might be shifted in their order, but this is not a critical need. For instance, moving the information about copyright closer to the section on ethical use of sources might make sense, but does not overly disrupt the general flow of the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no significant issues. A fixed bar at the bottom of the screen allows for navigation to pages directly preceding and proceeding the current page and a clickable contents button at the top right side of the page allows further navigation between sections. Overall, visuals do not appear to be distorted, however, many of the visuals are quite large, taking up the majority of the screen, and could be reduced in size without losing effectiveness. Additionally, on pages 9 and 11, a graphic is presented that contains text that is too small to read. While it is not necessary to read the text in the visual in order to understand the lesson of the section, because it is provided, it would be reasonable to make this large enough to be legible. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text seems to be free of any major grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"This text is written from an academic, western cultural perspective that is relevant to the particular topic and audience (i.e. “A guide to academic research”), but does not take into other ontological or epistemological scholarly perspectives (e.g. testimonios or oral histories as significant sources). The visuals and examples do privilege the U.S. and mainstream cultures, such as through a photo of a White woman using her Mac computer in a library, a photo of a football team, an illustration with the U.S. flag in it, an example question of “How has NASA helped America,” an example opinion of “George Clooney is the sexiest actor alive,” etc. The text is not overtly insensitive or offensive, but it also does not appear to take up or address non-dominant perspectives and cultures in any substantive way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-02-28T16:09:01.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-02-28T16:09:01.000-06:00"},{"id":3657,"first_name":"Marybeth","last_name":"Beller","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book provides a thorough review of the research process; that said, a professor will have to add discipline-specific information and requirements, such as expected citation practices and research methods.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no errors in the text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I will use this book for my undergraduate research course as it gives a very good introduction to research, from narrowing the topic to turning questions into hypotheses.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is very clear and provides graphs, links and videos for the reader to have additional information as needed.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter is organized similarly to the others and is written in the same easy-to-follow, technical-free language.  It removes any inhibitions a reader might have.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter section has its own heading and link.  The entire book could be assigned or sections of the book could be just as easily assigned.  A drop-down table of contents menu allows the reader to move freely between topics.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This guide is beautifully organized for the beginning researcher but can easily be followed through the table of contents for students needed refreshers on particular elements of research.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found no interface issues at all in navigating the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical errors in the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I believe the book would be welcomed by a diverse group of people.  There is no insensitive language or use of poor examples in the book.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed the organization of the book and that the author takes the time to include links to additional information as well as videos for students who want to spend more time with a particular concept.","created_at":"2020-03-13T13:46:25.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-03-13T13:46:25.000-05:00"},{"id":4369,"first_name":"Kaia","last_name":"Henrickson","position":"Assistant Professor of Library \u0026 Information Science, Information Literacy Librarian","institution_name":"University of Alaska, Southeast","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text does a good job highlighting the steps in the research process, from formulating a strong research question, to finding and evaluating sources, to incorporating ideas from research into writing, and finally, to citing and using sources properly. Each chapter can stand on its own as useful content for a research-based course, or the entire text could be used to walk students through the entire research and writing process. Based on tutorials created for Ohio State University Libraries, some sections, like Chapter 5 on search tools as well as some of the activities, are fairly specific to OSU. Still, much of the text and many of the activities are applicable to all student researchers. This would be a great base text for someone who wanted to remix and add in information from their own university library and student service supports to replace the OSU-focused sections.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The material is accurate overall.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Text content, as well as videos and activities, are fairly current. Sections are small, so making updates should be fairly easy.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"While the text is generally clear, there are sections that are a bit cumbersome or wordy. The Evaluating Sources section, especially, seems overly complicated.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"References and links to other helpful sections within the text are appropriate and useful. Key concepts and ideas are repeated and built upon as the text progresses.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is divided into manageable sections, and there are few sections which require a lot of scrolling. Those that are longer are broken up by subheadings. Embedded video content, visuals, and boxes are used to break up the text for easier reading and more visual appeal.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text clearly progresses through the steps in the research and writing process from start to finish, but it can also be accessed by section if a particular subtopic is all that is needed. Each chapter stands on its own, as well as being integrated into the whole.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The web version of the text has no paragraph indents or lines of space between paragraphs, which makes it a bit difficult to read, especially when there are longer blocks of text. There are many videos included that only have automatically-created closed captions (and a few with no closed captions available at all). A few of the graphics are blurry, but most visual and audiovisual content is clear and easy to read. With some of the linked activities, it is unclear what to do when you have selected an incorrect answer, and there is not much feedback for students who answer questions incorrectly.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few typos and other minor issues here and there in the text. Some of the linked activities have more significant errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive, but it also doesn't present much in the way of diversity in examples or ideas. In addition, there is a noticeable amount content that is focused on Ohio State University resources and students, and this may not be relevant for readers from other universities.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-11-04T21:06:44.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-16T15:51:46.000-06:00"},{"id":5076,"first_name":"Darci","last_name":"Adolf","position":"Director of Library \u0026 Media Services","institution_name":"Oregon Coast Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found \"Choosing and Using Sources\" to be quite comprehensive and included the major areas that I cover in my LIB 101 Research skills class.   In my class I like to cover each area of Eisenberg's Big6 Research model:  Task definition, information seeking strategies, location and access, use of information, synthesis, and evaluation.   I was pleased to find the subject of synthesis covered under the writing chapter-- many research textbooks leave this out.   I did not find anything that talked about Evaluation of the process and product.  Also, I would've liked to have seen social justice and equity issues in information publishing and access addressed as a chapter or portion of a chapter.  The textbook has a great Table of Contents, but no index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This textbook seems to contain accurate and error-free content.  I spot-checked most of the chapters and didn't find anything I didn't believe to be true, and links weren't broken.  Because this book is mostly factual in nature, there aren't areas where an author's opinion was used over facts, and opinions seem to be be appropriate and unbiased.  For example, the author remarks on the use of blogs in research:  \"Blogs – Frequently updated websites that do not necessarily require extensive technical skills and can be published by virtually anyone for no cost to themselves other than the time they devote to content creation.\"  This is a wide-held belief among librarians.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content appeared to be up-to-date throughout the book.  The area that might change the quickest is the types of sources, Chapter 2 in the book.  They did a good job including an overview of all of the major source types and should stay relevant for a good period of time.  Because they've listed these source types in a single chapter, updates to the text should be fairly straight forward and easy to do without disturbing much of the rest of the book.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text was clear to me, a seasoned librarian.  But I think there were terms used throughout the textbook that might not be familiar to a student first starting out in library research.  So I would add some clarification around some of the language if I were using this textbook for a lower-level class.\r\nFor example: There are several types of specialized databases listed including: Bibliographic, Full-text, Multimedia, etc.   Many first year students wouldn't know those terms, or others such as \"circulation, World-cat, discharge, InterLibrary Loan\"  and so forth.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text was consistent throughout in terms of terminology and the overall frame.  As I mentioned previously, some of the terms might need to be defined for the first-year student, either in-text or in a separate glossary.  The framework is well-done, with clear chapters and sections--it was definitely written by those who teach research at the college level.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook has 13 chapters that are again sub-divided into six or more sub-topics.  This makes it very easy for an instructor to pick and choose which topics to cover.  The thirteen broader subjects makes it easy to use the entire textbook for a term-- or just choose the pieces you want to use.  For example, I would use the \"Ethical Use and Citing Sources\" chapter if I were doing a one-shot in a classroom, but might choose to use most of the chapters for an online class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The structure was easy to follow.  If I were setting it up myself, I'd probably combine the chapters on Ethical Use of Sources (Ethical Use and Citing Sources, Why Cite Sources, and Challenges in Citing Sources) with the chapter on \"How to Cite Sources,\" but it's easier to have them separate and combine them for a class than to have a big block of text that would make it difficult to work through.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The textbook online version was done in Wordpress, and was easy to view and navigate.  There were several other choices for students, including a PDF that could be viewed off line.  There were charts, graphs, and links throughout that added to the content, but not so much as to be distracting.  Any visuals were simple and enough white space was left as to not overwhelm, with colors that were contrasting visually.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I spot-checked throughout the text in each chapter and did not find any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The textbook seemed to be inclusive of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Ohio State University has included a lot of links to their own pages, handouts, and resources that would need to be changed or omitted by a new user.  For example, they have a handout from the OSU Writing Center, and they link to the OSU World Cat platform.  These would need to be changed by the adopter.","created_at":"2021-06-11T15:23:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-11T15:23:45.000-05:00"},{"id":5104,"first_name":"Nell","last_name":"McCabe","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Berkshire Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is very-student friendly and covers all aspects of writing a student research paper, including steps that students frequently overlook such as the value of preliminary research and the different ways to incorporate different kinds of information in a paper.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text provides a well-balanced, research-driven approach to guiding students through the process of writing an academic research paper. Spelling mistakes, flaw grammar and usage, and factual errors are few and far between (as in I didn't find any during the course of this review).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Kinds of sources and the means of evaluating them are broad enough to be long-lasting, but the examples and other supporting details are timely and relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text uses student-friendly language and avoids jargon and other symptoms of academia run amok, while still maintaining high standards and expectations for students. Connections between the different stages of conducting research and developing an argument are well laid out and clear.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms associated with locating, evaluating, and incorporating a range of different kinds of sources are clear and consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The chapters do stand alone and I could image someone using bits and pieces or leaving out bits and pieces, but since the text is primarily focused on supporting the needs of a college research throughout the research process, it is hard to image much need for separating it into discrete modules. You could certainly rearrange the order of the chapters too if that worked better for your approach to teaching student research.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The flow of one chapter into the next is well-integrated and smooth. The order of the chapters","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no issues with the interface; everything worked as expected.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"See above.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The book does not go out of its way to make obviously inclusive examples. Increasing the cultural perspectives represented in the examples would enhance the overall value of this text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-06-15T09:54:31.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-15T09:54:31.000-05:00"},{"id":5108,"first_name":"Kelly","last_name":"LeFave","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This student friendly overview of academic research, including a strong focus on information literacy, covers many of the salient points that college level writing and writing for research classes curricula contain, making it a strong choice as a comprehensive and useful overview. Chapters include enough depth of coverage to make the leap from information to practice for students; self-directed activities are provided to check knowledge, work through concept applications, and offer more specifics.  The book provides an easy-to-navigate Table of Contents, but an Index and Glossary do not seem to be available.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Some errors appear that a thorough proofread would catch.  Some resources may need to be updated since information practices and modes change so quickly; some references and links direct students to OSU information that would not apply to all readers.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book’s topic – academic research – necessarily demands constant updating given our fast-changing digital landscape and the shifting paradigms we are witnessing for locating and evaluating information in our times. Resources can become obsolete fairly quickly in this environment. The book’s content is largely up-to-date, though a thorough review of linked resources, perhaps annually, would be beneficial.  For instance, a video on RSS mentioned a Google feature that looks to be no longer available, though finding alternatives proves simple when searched online.  The book’s organization makes updating or replacing linked resources easy, so keeping the content relevant would be straightforward with regular review.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Content is presented in a style engaging for students, using the “you” pronoun address to walk readers through a thinking process that applies and links ideas to practice; this effective approach is used for many of the book’s concepts. The writing strikes a good stylistic balance between engaging the student reader and informing/challenging that same reader by modeling research brainstorming or methods.  The style seems appropriate for college level readers and college level curricula.  The topic of academic research does include some technical terms at times, but the book’s approach is to define and explain such terms a part of its content.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Stylistically and organizationally, the content is consistent and easy-to-follow. A user begins to anticipate knowledge check activities or “try it out” activities at particular points in each section.  The knowledge check quizzes, which are simplified multiple choice questions, seem at odds with the highly contextualized concept explanations in much of the book’s prose; perhaps a different approach to knowledge check quizzing, which as an element can be helpful, would work better.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Headings and subheadings follow a logical organization and are easy to navigate in the book.  Some sections do refer to—and link to—other book sections, but most would work as stand-alone modules.  An instructor or course designer could pick and choose sections and adapt them for their own purposes.  As a whole, the book remains self-referential to the context of a specific university, which limits the easy adaptation of the book, and perhaps even sections, for faculty and course designers at other educational institutions.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book’s organization is easy to navigate and coheres with the overall focus on presenting academic research and information literacy in a way that invites students toward a practical and fuller understanding. Topic order makes sense and is organized via headings and subheadings well.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Overall, no significant navigation issues or interface distractions.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"A few errors that look like typos remain in the book.  Otherwise, grammatical errors are not an issue for readability.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"A more nuanced and inclusive awareness of cultural relevance and diversity is worth considering for the book.  The choice of some example topics, such as school shootings, might be distracting or traumatic for some student populations, while adding more examples that showcase interests or topics related to non-dominant cultural ideas would widen the sense of inclusivity throughout the book.  Choices might be contingent on the demographics of the Ohio State University population, but more awareness of this aspect of the book might also make it more appealing as a resource for others to adapt","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-06-15T19:18:23.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-15T19:18:23.000-05:00"},{"id":33426,"first_name":"Elbert","last_name":"Davis","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The author does an incredible job in explaining the research process, from choosing a research question to how to search for sources (and citing those sources), and more. There are relevant self-check quizzes throughout the book to check for understanding, along with other supplemental resources. As the book was published through The Ohio State University, some of the sources are only available to OSU students, but the author makes it clear when this is the case.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author did an excellent job with the accuracy of the book, Two specific examples that stood out: taking care to mention that Wikipedia is a great as a starting point, but not as an endpoint for research. Lowry also clearly explained that educational use did not automatically mean fair use, which seems to be an issue with students and faculty alike.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book should remain relevant in years to come, as academic research seems to follow the same basic pattern. The only issue would be if The Ohio State University changes the links used in the book, although I expect these to be easy to update. The book would still be able to be used without the supplemental links though.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book seems to be targeting an introductory audience. Lowry does a great job of breaking down the jargon of academic research into plain English for the beginning researcher.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I thought the author used approprate terminology for a student learning about academic research.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is designed into specific chapters for the different aspects of choosing a source. While there are specific sections devoted to The Ohio State University library, I would not expect to have any trouble assigning the other chapters in my courses.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The author started at the beginning, with how to design a research question before going into choosing a source, which gave good background knowledge.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The contents of the book were clean and crisp. No distortions were noted. Navigation from the table of contents was easy.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Nothing offensive was in the book.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I have a difficult time in getting beginning graduate student to understand the different types of sources and fair use. I think using most chapters of this book would help a great deal in that comprehension.","created_at":"2021-10-24T12:50:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-10-24T12:50:58.000-05:00"},{"id":35334,"first_name":"Yang","last_name":"Kang","position":"Associate Clinical Professor","institution_name":"University of New England","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is a comprehensive handbook designed to help students navigate the approaches of academic research. It provides a crucial foundation for learning how to search, evaluate, and apply sources in clinical research.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Although this book was published in 2018, its content is still accurate and unbiased regarding evidence-based research.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The practical guidance and clear explanations make this textbook an excellent tool for students who are new to clinical research.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is suitable for students who may not have a strong background in research. The research examples help bridge the gap between theory and practice.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Consistency in terms of terminology and framework is throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided into several chapters that cover essential topics for academic research, including identifying research questions, evaluating sources, and how to cite sources.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters are organized logically, beginning with foundational concepts and advancing to more complex research strategies.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall, the textbook content is clear and easy to follow up. There’s no distortion of images/charts or any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader. However, I wish the figure captions were provided to avoid referral difficulties. (i.e., Figure 8-1a, Figure 10-2)","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There are no significant culturally insensitive issues.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This textbook is a valuable resource for students looking to strengthen their research skills.","created_at":"2024-12-10T08:33:20.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-12-10T08:33:20.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/choosing-using-sources-a-guide-to-academic-research","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:20:08.000-06:00"},{"id":359,"title":"About Writing: A Guide","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"This writer's reference condenses and covers everything a beginning writing student should need to successfully compose college-level work. The book covers the basics of composition and revising, including how to build a strong thesis, how to peer review a fellow student's work, and a handy checklist for revision, before moving on to a broad overview of academic writing. Included for those students who need writing help at the most basic level are comprehensive sections on sentence style and grammar, verbs, nouns and other tenets of basic grammar. Finally, the sections on research and citation should help any student find solid evidence for their school work and cite it correctly, as well as encouraging an understanding of why citation is so important in the first place. This is a guide that is useful to writing students of all levels, either as a direct teaching tool or a simple reference.","contributors":[{"id":3847,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Robin","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Jeffrey","location":"Klamath Community College","background_text":"This guide was created by Robin Jeffrey, LRC Director at Klamath Community College, in Spring of 2015. The Revised Edition was created by Robin Jeffrey, LRC Director at Klamath Community College, in Summer of 2016."}],"subjects":[{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"},{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":380,"url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","name":"Open Oregon Educational Resources"}],"formats":[{"id":658,"type":"Online","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/aboutwriting/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1603,"type":"PDF","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/aboutwriting/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1604,"type":"eBook","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/aboutwriting/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2088,"type":"Hardcopy","url":"http://www.lulu.com/shop/robin-jeffrey/about-writing/paperback/product-23853977.html","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":56,"reviews":[{"id":793,"first_name":"Kayla","last_name":"Forrest","position":"Graduate Teaching Assistant","institution_name":"The University of North Carolina at Greensboro","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, the text does a nice job addressing many aspects of writing, with a specific focus on academic writing.  In particular, I found that the grammar sections were helpful in breaking down grammatical concepts that often confuse and  frustrate students.  The checklists often asked effective questions which would help students as they compose, research, and revise, as well.\n\nHowever, there are some sections of the text which are a bit slim, such as the thesis section, which provides guidelines for testing a thesis, but not building one.  Additionally, while the text introduces and describes four different types of writing (expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative), the majority of the text focuses on persuasive writing, rather than narrative, descriptive, or expository.  Also, given the changes to MLA Style, that section of the text is outdated.\n\nAdditionally, the text does not include an index or glossary, though the online version is interactive, and allows one to go directly to sections of the text listed on the table of contents.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"As mentioned above, the MLA section is outdated due to the recent changes and publication of the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook.  Otherwise, I did not notice any errors, and the text appears to written without bias.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As previously mentioned, the MLA section is out of date.  As with all writing textbooks which include sections on citation styles, there is a risk that some sections of the text could be out of date; however, with the way the book is written, updates could be added with relative ease.  I found that the addition of CMS makes the text more relevant, as it seems to be an increasingly popular style within the academy.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Overall, the text is written in accessible prose, and I believe it would be very easily understood by new or beginning college writers.  There are, however, some sections of the text which include only charts and which could use a bit of context to help explain what the charts are, and how they might be useful to the readers.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The discussion of different forms of writing at the beginning of the text seems to imply that the text will cover all four, but that is the only consistency concern I identified. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text does an excellent job with modularity.  It would be easy to assign brief sections of the text to fit with various topics of discussion throughout a semester. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The overall organizational flow is easy to follow.  The one thing I would suggest is that the \"Revising\" section go before the various grammar sections, as generally, revision is a higher order concern when compared to editing/grammar.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no interface issues that I could see.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Since this book does not offer a lot of \"real world\" examples, and focuses mostly on generalized concepts and strategies for writing, there is not a great deal which makes it either culturally relevant or culturally insensitive, which would enable the book to have a longer longevity, in my opinion.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"While there are some sections which need to be updated or could use more explanation/context, overall, I think the book would serve as a useful aid for students in college writing courses.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":833,"first_name":"Holly","last_name":"DeGrow","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Mt Hood Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text has good coverage of many aspects of writing. The divisions and discussion of types of writing are useful for beginning students who are trying to get a grasp on purpose. Maybe that preliminary section could finish off with a brief discussion of how these rhetorical modes are rarely used individually but more frequently occur in combination? An example or two from the sorts of writing tasks they might encounter in other disciplines and how to conceptualize those using exposition, narration, description and argumentation might be useful in helping students see beyond just writing as a single class, and help them recognize that writing is something they’ll be doing in most of their college classes and throughout their lives. \nI love the section on understanding an assignment, and it uses helpful examples. I’d like to see that section expanded, as it is brief, but often students end up on the wrong track when completing a writing assignment because they don’t take a careful look at the instructions or cannot fully grasp what is being asked of them. A few more examples of real writing prompts/assignments from within Humanities and from other disciplines would augment the useful examples already contained here. “Determining the Purpose” could also include a few other types of common writing assignments; increasingly, I am seeing assignments that ask students to summarize or clarify a theory and then apply it to their own lives/experiences, or contrast several opposing views. “Recognizing Disciplinary Expectations” was quite brief and needed a few specific examples to help students understand that concept. There is a big gap between “Assessing the Writing Situation” and “Testing Your Thesis” where some information, examples, or maybe even an exercise on thesis should appear. “Constructing an Outline,” also, would be better served by examples and a few sample topics/organizations to show students what options are available for setting out a plan. \nIn a nutshell, it's a great start but many sections are quite brief and underdeveloped. \n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Moderate tone, accurate content, unbiased application of ideas. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"There are no readings and examples tend to be from past history rather than current events, so I would imagine this text would be relevant until the next update of MLA, APA, or CMS forces revision of the section on documentation. ","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The overall instruction is quite clear and straightforward, though at times it feels a bit basic. The citation chapters are very thorough and contain useful and easy-to-understand instructions and examples for what has to be cited, how to use in-text citation, and how to create a list of works cited (in three main citation styles). I appreciated the information on signal phrases and how these differ by discipline (a concept that is often hard for students to grasp). \nI’d love to see the “Transitions” section include the difference between transitions within paragraphs and between paragraphs, as well as a few examples of paragraphs that flow well. Other methods to transition, like subordination, punctuation choices, or the known-new approach, would be great ways to show students that having a smooth flow can depend on more than just adding transition words, which often create a feeling of artificiality not found outside of beginning-level work.\nThe “Analyzing a Text” section asks some great questions and is quite comprehensive in its approach to breaking down not only written arguments but also visual ones. However, there is no application – I’d love to see some of these concepts put into action with some sample passages and visuals. \nThe section on person use is good but also brief – I would love to see more of an explanation of the three points of view, including second person and why most academic writing avoids it. \nMore examples throughout, particularly in the sections on writing a summary, inductive reasoning, common forms of evidence, etc. and a distinction between summary and paraphrase, would be useful to help students understand those concepts. \n","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Terms and concepts are explained clearly and used consistently throughout. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Easy to use and broken down into manageable pieces. I think this text would be particularly good for online tutoring or online writing courses, where portions could be embedded. Each section makes sense on its own and functions as an independent unit. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The writing process is covered well from start to finish, with a few exceptions, such as thesis, which is referenced but never explained. It also might make more sense to put the information on revision before the information on grammar/editing, as usually revision comes before editing in the writing process. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"From a graphic design standpoint, the formatting is a bit problematic and there is a ton of empty white space. The section on visuals features very small visuals that need to be better incorporated into the written accompaniment, perhaps even through something very simple like text-wrapping. In PDF form, many pages have only a few words on them, which may make readers impatient. I think this whole text could get condensed down to about 2/3 its current length if space were used more wisely. However, this is just true of the PDF version. The web version is much better and doesn't have some of the same issues. ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The author's grammar is of course impeccable! As far as grammar instruction, sections have good advice on how to correct errors but could include more information on why – e.g. why would we use a subordinating clause? What are relative pronouns used for? The section on subject-verb agreement focused mostly on tense and I would have loved to see more on difficult situations like when there are many prepositional phrases that separate subject from verb, or when the subject is compound, or when the subject is an indefinite pronoun. The grammar flow charts were useful but tiny and hard to read. There is heavy emphasis on parts of speech but my students have fewer problems with these kinds of rudimentary errors and more issues with errors not included here, like commonly confused words and punctuation (neither of which are addressed). ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There are few examples and no readings, so this is difficult to address. A few of the examples do address past presidents, so perhaps including President Obama, or leaders of other nations, would be a good addition. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"If used in a classroom, it would definitely need to be supplemented with more student and professional examples, but it is a good starter text for composition students who need to work on the basics. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":847,"first_name":"Kole","last_name":"Matheson","position":"Affiliate Instructor ","institution_name":"Old Dominion University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"Determining if a book about writing is comprehensive, saying that all areas and ideas of the subject are covered, is not possible without first defining the context for such a determination.  I have chosen to assess About Writing: A Guide by Robin Jeffrey from the perspective of an instructor of college composition, following principles of rhetoric first defined by Aristotle. \n\nTo align with an Aristotelian definition of rhetoric, writing textbooks should treat the five elements of the rhetorical canon: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.  About Writing: A Guide is comprehensive in that it covers each of the five elements of Aristotle’s canon to a significant degree; however, this book is not satisfactorily comprehensive as a stand alone text for a semester of college composition.\n\nWith regard to (1) invention, in which students explore methods of gathering information and producing texts, About Writing explores strategies for understanding writing assignments and exploring sources; however, specific strategies for prewriting are wanting. Regarding (2) arrangement, in which students consider organizational schemes controlled by genre and audience expectations, About Writing is smart to include sections on outlining and document planning; however, covering how organizational schemes might vary according to diverse rhetorical situations and genres would require supplementation of additional materials.  (3) Style, in which students consider revision and grammatical choices, is most comprehensively explored by About Writing; indeed, chapters on revision strategies for academic diction and grammar choices abound.  Chapters treating (4) memory and (5) delivery, are wanting in About Writing.  Strategies, which explore how student writing might be more (4) memorable, such as adapting messages for a variety of technologies and modalities, are briefly explored in a section on visual communication; methods for (5) delivery, in which the optimal media is chosen to communicate the message, are limited to documentation conventions.\n\nAbout Writing does not have an index but does include an interactive glossary in the form of text-embedded links.\n\n\n","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The content of About Writing is accurate with one exception of disciplinary semantics, which may vary across discourse communities.  Nevertheless, chapter one is entitled “Types of Writing Styles;” however, the chapter covers what I would call purposes for writing, not styles.  For example, the distinctions of expository and persuasive writing are explored in this chapter, which are important features of a text about writing; however, these are purposes, to inform or persuade, not styles.  Style, rather, is how a message is delivered.  Excepting this issue of terminology, the content of chapter one is useful to basic writing classes even if the semantics of style might confuse students who are taught an Aristotelian definition of the term.\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content of About Writing is up-to-date with one major exception.  This year, 2016, MLA updated a number of citation conventions.  About Writing does not reflect these changes.  For example, how scholarly articles are now identified with, for instance, “vol. 43, no. 1” rather than “43.1.”  However, the text is arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in clear, level-appropriate prose and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used via the text’s interactive glossary.\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is certainly consistent in terms of terminology and framework.  Each chapter follows a patterned organization which makes for a navigable reading experience  from one chapter to the next.\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text can be easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course.  Among About Writing’s most user-friendly features is its modularity; nowhere are blocks of text found without appropriate subheadings.  Therefore, the text could easily be reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.\n","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion.  Part one begins with composing concepts and strategies, followed by parts two and three, which explore academic writing and research.  Logically, part four follows with discussion on citation conventions, and the book closes with sections five through eight, exploring the conventions of grammar and revision strategies. \n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface of the text is seamless.  Nowhere does the reader experience navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, or any other display problems.\n","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"With one exception regarding the commonly confused relative pronouns, who vs. whom, found on page 45, no grammatical errors were found in the text.\n","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  In fact, another of the highlights of About Writing is found in part seven, a section devoted to the common grammar challenges of multilingual writers. \n","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a very good foundational text, which I plan to use in my future writing classes with some additional supplementation of materials to ensure sufficient scope and diversity of course content. \n","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":988,"first_name":"Joshua","last_name":"Watson","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Content areas are brief, but thorough, leaving more time for students to gain greater insight by actually attempting concepts as opposed to just reading about them.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is free of major errors and is also free of bias towards a particular style.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of the textbook is broad enough in its rhetorical approach that it will not become obsolete any time soon. While a change in delivery may be needed (With so many great critical thinking and guiding questions, why not make the textbook more interactive?) the content is strong enough in its current state to make it useful for years to come. The fundamentals never change!","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"While I appreciate the guiding questions to spark critical thinking, it may be handy to have a little more context and explanation for faculty teaching for the first time or students that may have less of a fundamental background in writing. Example: The questions for assessing a writing situation are great, but some students may need some explanation as WHY they should be doing this beyond simply completing an assignment. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Text is consistent with terminology--however stylistically I would build some areas with more explanatory writing to match those that have both explanation and questions to guide writers. (See note for #4)","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Text is logically divided into relevant content areas. I'm the kind of teacher that likes to \"bounce around\" in a textbook to keep students on their toes and to facilitate a less linear and more \"Choose Your Own Adventure\" format. This textbook is ideal for this given its current layout. Some sections must clearly follow each other, but others can be read individually for quick reference. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"See note on #6. The organization works perfectly with my teaching style. It's logical, but not so neat and rigid that there isn't room for creativity.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No navigational problems or viewing issues. That being said, please see note for #3--I think this would make a great interactive textbook that could be so much more than it already is! I see it almost being a candidate for a \"workbook\" where students could answers questions and prompts as they go through the readings as they pertain to a specific writing assignment and collect all of their material at the end as notes for writing their full essay.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors found.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The broad nature of the textbook leaves little room for cultural insensitivity or offensiveness. It's relevancy stems from how broad it is in its framework. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I truly hope consideration will be given (if it hasn't been discussed already) to the idea I've made in two sections regarding turning this into an interactive workbook. There is a great deal of need for such a text for online classes and I think this text would be a great candidate for that type of interface for students!","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1011,"first_name":"Lucia","last_name":"Carminati","position":"PhD Candidate","institution_name":"University of Arizona","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text exhaustively covers a wide range of different materials and strives to, and indeed succeeds, to do so effectively. Unfortunately there are no index or glossary: they would have been extremely useful tools for readers. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I found that the content was accurate and free of errors or biases. However, readers might perceive the lack of an introduction as a missed opportunity for the author to explain his own subjective choices in content selection and organization. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is generally up to date. In some sections, however, a more current overview of the state of the field might have been useful. In chapter 8, for example, \"Visuals help you communicate,\" a more detailed discussion of available tools is lacking. At the same time, however, it is true that including a reference to softwares or else (perhaps free on the Internet to e.g. design maps or graphs) might run the risk of making the text obsolete within a short period of time. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a clear, accessible way, that makes it suitable for undergraduates students. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The books is indeed easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections. Each section corresponds to a different stage in the writing process, hence it can be assigned and covered independently from other sections. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"In terms of organization, the \"researching\" section might have been placed before the \"academic writing\" section. The section \"multilingual writers and Esl challenges\" is a particularly valuable one, highlighting the specific challenges of non-English speakers. However, in this case as well as in the case of other chapters, a brief introduction might have eased in the reader and prepared the context for the more specific contents that are covered.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is mainly free of problematic interface issues. However, the fact that each first page of each chapter misses the page number might be a nuisance. Especially when there are clusters of one-page-long chapters, the readers might have to scroll a lot before actually finding a page number. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors came to my attention. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The section especially devoted to non-English speakers can be once again highlighted here. It is especially cogent and necessary given the significant numbers of non-native English speakers in colleges throughout the Anglophone world. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book works fine in terms of sheer technical content, but the reader might wish, sometimes, to actually hear the author's voice. An introduction, a conclusion, and small introductions to each chapter might help contextualize the work and ease the reading process. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1034,"first_name":"Nancy","last_name":"Easterlin","position":"Research Professor of English and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies","institution_name":"University of New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"In the range of material covered, this text is comprehensive for an introductory-level college composition course, but it is extremely superficial, and thus not truly comprehensive. Many important concepts or aspects of writing are not explained or explained fully. For example, although early sections discuss assessing audience (as both a writer and reader), this crucial concept requires greater attention. Likewise, the section on how to write a summary does not explain what a summary is. In my experience, most undergraduates do not have a grasp of concepts like audience, purpose, and thesis or of techniques like summary. The lack of examples lends further to the sketchiness of the text; the discussions of thesis statement and summary, for instance, would be greatly enhanced by examples. There is also no discussion in the sections on such matters as subordination, signal phrases, and plagiarism.\n\nThe section on revision helpfully points out to students that, after the first draft, they may find a true thesis in the conclusion of that draft. There is much more discussion in this section than elsewhere (for instance, than in those related to purpose and audience), but there is still no sample essay, and this makes the section a bit too abstract. The portion of this section that instructs the students to divide their drafts into sections seems counterproductive to teaching argumentation, which typically emphasizes development of the primary idea (thesis). As with the sections on subordination and integration of quotations, the author does not address the development and prioritization of ideas in a complete argument, so that, on the whole, critical thinking receives no real attention in On Writing.\n\nSections on keyword searches and identification of scholarly sources as well as some of the lists (verbs in signal phrases, subordinating conjunctions, etc.) are helpful and in some cases quite thorough.\n\n\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book is generally accurate, with the caveats that  1) it is too superficial in its  explanations of both rhetorical situation and sentence-level writing, and 2) it does contain some errors (see \"grammar,\" this review). Additionally, the section on citation style includes, in one of the examples, an article title that must have been pasted in from a database, because the capitalized prepositions (a feature of some database citations) have not been corrected.\n","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Since this is a writing text, it is not likely to become out-of-date quickly. However, in some respects, the approach to writing is already somewhat dated, because it is not holistic.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is generally quite clear, although the section on revising, which contains much more discussion than other portions of the text, almost seems a little too sophisticated for underclassmen--especially since it does not relate the ideas to a sample essay.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent, with the exception that the revision section contains detailed discussion, whereas the rest of the text does not.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is highly modularized, and the modules are readily accessible in the online interface.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Some features of the organization are puzzling, although perhaps less glaring in the online version of the text than in the PDF. The first chapter is “Types of Writing Styles,” or what used to be called the four modes of writing. A text that prioritizes the rhetorical situation, then embeds this explanation of narrative, description, and so on into that context, would encourage students to think about audience and purpose and to realize that writing is about something other than an assignment for a teacher. Similarly, placing the revision section at the end of the book while putting discussion of documentation styles in the research section gives priority to the mechanics of style over critical thinking and its expression.\n\n\n\n","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The quality of the interface for the online version of the text is generally high. The text is presented in a user-friendly font size and color, appropriately positioned on the screen, and headings and content font and color contrast in a helpful but not distracting manner. The TOC link is readily visible on the right-hand side of the screen and opens to main headings, then to drop-down menus of subsections. The flow charts for checking for fragments and run-ons are very clear. The one area that needs improvement is (ironically) the presentation of graphs, charts, and the like under “Visuals Can Help You Communicate.” Some of these graphics lack clear definition around the images and include type that is too small to read on a good-size laptop. \n\nUnlike the online text, the PDF version is of relatively poor quality. The charts and other visuals are too small and somewhat blurry. What appears as helpful subsections in the online version print out as numerous “chapters,” some of them about 100 words long. The checklists and other lists are not adequately spaced on the printed page but crammed together in the middle, with a lot of white space at the top and bottom.\n\n","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"Since this is a writing text, the grammar should be perfect. There are not a lot of errors, but there are some: several pronoun-antecedent agreement errors on pages 4 and 5 (“the author . . . they”) as well as errors further on. Although the text gives few examples, some of the rewritten sentences are unfortunately rather repetitive.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text does not include many examples, but to the extent that it does, the book reflects cultural sensitivity.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The inclusion of grammar exercises would enhance the text and likely make it more attractive to those of us who teach freshman composition.","created_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1057,"first_name":"Kathryn","last_name":"Boylan","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Virginia Western Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text basically covers most of the information needed about the writing process.  Part One on Composition is lacking in some areas though.  Brainstorming techniques for those who are struggling to come up with a writing topic should be covered, and the section on Transitions needs a fuller explanation of what transitions are. It would help if more information were given on creating strong thesis statements. There are also some grammar issues that are not addressed in the text.  Although dangling modifiers are covered, misplaced modifiers are not.  Pronoun usage, conjunctions and adverbs are also not mentioned.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall the content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.  However, the section on MLA formatting and documentation needs to be updated with the latest 8th edition MLA Handbook information.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The majority of the content is up-to-date, except for the MLA documentation section, so the textbook would not be obsolete any time soon.  The text is composed and organized so that most entry-level college students could comprehend and use the information accordingly.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text is clear, and the language used is appropriate for the genre.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"Some parts of the text appear to be better explained and more fully developed than others.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The different sections of the text are easy to follow and classified appropriately.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion, but smoother transitions between the different parts would help.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The design of the interface is simple and easy to follow, and the included charts are clear.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way although the section entitled “Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges” really covers common grammar issues and not just ESL challenges.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1062,"first_name":"Kelli","last_name":"Hallsten Erickson","position":"English Faculty","institution_name":"Lake Superior College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"There is a table of contents, but no index or glossary.  It contains brushstrokes covering major concepts and gets more nuanced with some topics-- specifically analyzing texts and revision--a bit inexplicably—why these and not others? Audience is a critical aspect of the writing process yet is not covered in this text.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the concepts are consistent with those covered in other composition textbooks.  The text uses the old version of MLA, however (not the 2016 update).  There are also grammatical errors in the grammar section.  They include:\n•\tFrom the Subject/Verb Agreement chapter: “A parent wants the best for THEIR child” (78, emphasis mine). This is a pronoun/antecedent agreement issue.\n•\tFrom the fragment sentences chapter, an example of a sentence that the author indicates is a fragment without a subject: “For not doing her own homework, Missy was expelled” (80).  This sentence is awkward and should be rephrased, but it’s not a fragment.\n•\tFrom the same chapter, the author claims that the following is a fragment: “Because the band didn’t know the street address, the party was impossible to find” (80).  Again, not a fragment.\n•\tOn page 90, there is a misuse of a word in an example dealing with Verb Tenses: “Josie is meeting the principle.”","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Again, there is the old version of MLA.  It could be easily updated, though.  The rest of the content is as old as the hills: not much changes with the basic concepts of writing, and this book is dealing with basic concepts.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"It’s accessible in terms of the language used and borders on TOO simple, including brief explanations and lists, until we get to the final chapter on revision when the prose suddenly becomes quite academic with longer paragraphs and scholarly examples the likes of which I would only see the top students in my classes being able to easily digest.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"In general, the chapters are quite short (often a single page or two), including some brief explanation followed by examples and/or lists of points for consideration or questions writers can ask themselves.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The only way I could use this text is by assigning specific parts of it, which could be easily done.  I would need to supplement it with plenty of my own information, though.  The “chapter” on creating an outline, for example, is less than a page and merely gives some tips in an outline format.  This is marginally useful.  The chapter on “Test a Thesis” would only work after a full class period’s worth of explanation and practice.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The short chapters create a sense of disorientation.  I would never ask students to read chunks of this on their own; it is much more a supplement to other readings and materials I would need to provide.  The information would useful but only after I’d created context for it.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"With the exception of the grammar issue flowcharts, which are small, it’s easy to read the text.","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"Besides the errors in the grammar sections themselves, I saw at least three typos in the prose.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The examples often made multicultural references and used a variety of names.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"PROS: \nParts of this text would be great supplements to my existing course materials.\nThe section on revision would help push students’ ideas about what it means to take a serious look at their work.\n\nCONS:\nCould only be used as supplemental material.\nGrammar errors are problematic.\nOld MLA renders that section essentially unusable.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1090,"first_name":"Jean","last_name":"Mittelstaedt","position":"Adjunct writing teacher","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is divided into 8 parts, each a broad area within the field of student writing.  Parts range from “Composing” and “Researching” to citation, grammar, and revising.  The first part opens with “types of writing styles,” which works well with classes designed around a genre approach to the college essay, and continues with concepts like close reading, using outlines, and effective thesis statements.  There is a section about the unique qualities of academic writing and another section on the unique challenges of the ESL writer.  And the revision section contains valuable information about the revision process and how to be an effective peer reviewer, something that not all writing texts cover.  A writing teacher could find enough material for the major issues that might come up in a college composition class.  The table of contents provides ready reference to what is present in the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Explanations of writing concepts in each section are succinct and accurate.  MLA style and citation information has been updated for the most recent version from March 2016.  APA and CMS are also updated.  Examples given of concepts like writing prompts and thesis statements are unbiased and broadly applicable to a wide range of students and disciplines.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"First year composition, despite the several schools that have arisen and diminished in the last fifty years, has remained largely the same.  As long as the essay remains the key genre of FYC and most college classes, basic concepts like thesis, argument, evidence, and revision will be taught.  This text includes what is needed for students to understand, evaluate, and create essays.  And these basic ideas can be applied to shorter projects like response papers or journals.  It would be helpful for the text to have sections on report writing (for business and science students) and on information literacy (which is becoming a measured outcome in many college classes).  As long as there is a writing requirement to a college degree, this text will remain relevant and can continue to be updated.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is accessible to students of many different reading levels.  Its content and style are appropriate for the target audiences:  first year composition students who need to learn about the college essay, the composition process, research and citation, revision, and basic grammar.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text uses common terms like “composing” and “revision” that would be understandable to a user.  Each part is divided into several chapters which are easily accessible.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is very modular.   A composition teacher could begin a course with the first several parts sequentially, adding in citation and grammar as needed.  If a teacher has few to no ESL students, that part need not be included, although basic or DE writing students might find it helpful for review.  A teacher could also pair material from the text with supplemental material from a publisher, a Web site, a book, or some other source.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Sequencing is logical in this text, beginning with the composition process so that all students have an understanding of what they will be doing in a writing class.  Next comes reading and approaching a text and how it might be used in a student’s own writing, which is logically followed by research and citation.  The next two parts concern grammar and sentences, followed by the ESL issues.  The text ends with aa helpful section on revision, although it might be more effective to place it earlier in the book.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The “Online” version (Pressbooks) is the easiest to use.  Accessed via Web browser, it can be used by any student with an Internet-enabled device.  The Table of Contents provides easy access to each part.  With the eBook versions, the interface is less elegant and requires a user to download the document.  Once done, it is also readily used.  The PDF version, while containing all the content, is less elegant in appearance and use.  Students should best be directed to the “Online” version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Errors in the standard written English of this textbook are not present.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Instructional material and examples are pretty basic; no incidents of offensiveness or insensitivity are noticed.  A teacher could easily customize with further culturally relevant explanations and examples if desired.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"A great resource for the first year composition classroom such as ENG101 or WR121.  I will definitely pursue using it in my own classroom.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1141,"first_name":"Jennie","last_name":"Englund","position":"Instructor, Composition I \u0026 II","institution_name":"Rogue Community College, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This review examines Open Oregon Educational Resources’ “About Writing: A Guide,” by Robin Jeffrey (2016), of Klamath Community College.\n\nIts nature as a guide stays true to that; it is about 132 pages in length, with 50 chapters arranged into eight sections, ranging from 4-30 pages in each section. The largest section is dedicated to “Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges,” which this reviewer has never before experienced in a writing handbook, and was pleased to see.\n\nThe guide is not a workbook, and does not offer exercises. \n\nIt follows MLA formatting. \n\nThough a clear Table of Contents is included, an Index is omitted.\n\nIn addition to addressing drafting and crafting an essay, sentence structure and grammar are also included. \n\nThe only pre-writing strategy mentioned is “Outlining.”\n\nThe final sections are “Revising” and “Peer Review.”\n\nIn a word, the guide is “efficient,” which this reviewer appreciates. Chapter 18 is partially titled, “Do it Better,” which could apply to each concept!","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The guide targets academic writers, and specifically addresses college-level learning. It employs sophisticated word choice (See “Countering Opposing Arguments”) and critical thinking, including analysis and evaluation. \n\nWhile it could be used as a supplement by any higher education instructor, the best audience is that in beginning Composition courses, and/or classes with a high population of intermediate to advanced ESL students. It could also be used in ESL courses.\n\nIn addition, the section on “Visual Aides” could be used in Speech/Communication courses. \n\nThe tone is formal, but also addresses the writer as “you,” connecting the writer and her composition.\n\nImportantly, the guide does contain a “Thesis” page, which is short and clear, with five direct questions. This reviewer will use this page to supplement the teaching of constructing a thesis. However, the instructor must add the process of doing so, as well developing/supporting thesis.\n\nThe chart on “Transitions” has been broken down to explain the purpose of each word or phrase, which adds to its usefulness. \n\nThe “Rhetorical Concepts” chapter is another that has been streamlined to concise, paragraphical definitions, purpose, and questions.\n\n“Academic Writing: Verb Tense” could include APA formatting of using the past and present perfect tenses. \n\n “How to: Write a Summary” requires the instructor’s additional explanation on citing direct quotes. \n\n“The Most Common Evidence Used by Authors” is a user-friendly list of suggestions for concrete examples, \nbroken down by subject area, and helpful for composition across all disciplines. \n\nAs far as analyzing readings, “About Writing: A Guide” contains only one page of content on “Analyzing a Text,” and could use more.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is progressive, but for recent MLA updates.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The clear, straightforward prose of this guide is commendable!","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms and terminology remain consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Text is sparse, and segments and chapters could be easily used individually, or combined.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Much of the guide lists questions of the writer, asking for self-analysis in a clear, logical manner.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Interface is not distracting.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"While a few typos (such as question marks in lieu of bullet points, and other punctuation errors) are sprinkled throughout the guide, and not all pages are paginated, readability is not impeded.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Cultural relevance is not applicable, but could include diversity through examples.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The final page of “About Writing: A Guide” touches on “coaching the writer,” which this open textbook does. Ultimately, the question is whether this guide could be used as a resource for teaching college-level Composition. I would agree that yes, it definitely can, by instructors versed in teaching composition, and with supplemental readings/essays added as examples.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1145,"first_name":"Kate","last_name":"Maurer","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Anoka-Ramsey Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"_About Writing: A Guide_ appears to be intended as a tool which can take the place of needing a handbook AND a rhetoric or reader in classes such as a basic entry-level college writing class.  The scope of the work is appropriate for novice writers, but the development of concepts and execution of the work leaves me a bit confused.  This work is a great starting point, but the way the text launches in to the subject matter and provides only bare-bones explanations of key writing components may leave students--especially community college students who often come in lacking confidence--a bit uncertain.    \n\nThe main parts of the book (composing; academic writing; research; MLA/APA/CMS; basic grammar; grammatical sentences; multilingual and ESL writers; and revising) are appropriate for a basic college writing text, though some sections provide more helpful information than others.  The ordering of parts isn't necessarily ideal (but that's easy to work around), but a bigger issue to me is the lack of information in each chapter.   Several chapters are only a page long and rarely are examples provided. \n\nIf an instructor decided to use the information in _About Writing_ to help inform class activities and homework, I think they'd find it helpful.  As for students reading it and being able to understand concepts, more careful and systematic development of the key areas are needed  (for instance, right away readers are told how to check a thesis--but haven't really been told what they do or how to make them).","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Due to the 2016 MLA updates the MLA section needs to be updated.  APA seems to reflect current standards.  \nAside from the MLA issue, text is error-free and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Updating _About Writing: A Guide_ should be fairly straightforward, as should expanding it.   The writing principles and the grammar instruction covered in _About Writing: A Guide_  are solid and consistently taught in college writing courses.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The book is written directly, which is nice, but it lacks needed development.  The lack of explaining the how, when, where, and why of writing principles is what diminishes the clarity of the piece.  For instance, if I wanted to use this text with my college writing students I would have to augment each chapter with explanations for HOW and WHY we do certain things plus offer examples for practice.  With the topics only modestly fleshed out my beginning writers would struggle to make meaning (and soon give up).","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Overall _About Writing: A Guide_ is consistent in its terminology and framework.   The final section on revision, however, seems uncharacteristically detailed ( I actually wish the whole text was more like this).","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"It would be easy to assign students specific portions of _About Writing: A Guide_.   The text is broken into key areas and then chapters within each key area.\n\nI find that for my own use, the order of the sections isn't quite what I need, but reorganizing them or directing students to specific parts at specific times is be easily done.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Although the order is fine (as mentioned elsewhere, instructors don't need to assign things in order), it strikes me that a revision of parts might lead to a better overall piece.  The author currently has eight key areas, some concerning principles of writing, some with grammar, and then back again to writing principles.  Based on how the concepts naturally group themselves, three larger groups might be more effective.\n\n1:  BASIC STEPS--Conventions and expectations of academic writing; the when-how-where of research;  revising one's work.\n2:  GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS--Grammar and grammatical sentences.\n3:  APPENDICES--documentation principles and citation forms; basic paper formatting.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The book had a great deal of white space and frequent blank pages (making me wonder if my PDF file had downloaded fully).  A bit of work to improve the design and make the book more visually interesting (colors, less wasted space, etc), certainly wouldn't hurt.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Although the grammatical errors aren't abundant, they do, however, detract from the book.  Frequent shifts in number, along with occasional confusion with less/fewer, faulty parallelism, unneeded \"to be\" verbs, and possessive errors, reduce the book's authority.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book uses a wide frame of reference and uses examples that show inclusion (race, gender, sexual orientation).","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The concept of this book is great.  I'm just sorry that the sections were so underdeveloped.   It's a good text for a beginning instructor to use as a springboard for planning lessons, but I don't think it provides enough depth to be used as a class text.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1148,"first_name":"Lucille","last_name":"Minuto","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Comprehensiveness\nThe text covers a great deal of materials without overwhelming the writing and grammar adverse students.  A student can easily find the section/chapter that they need to work on and start there. Each part is comprehensive enough to stand on its own.  I am recommending this free text to my students from now on.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy\nThe information about citing is what I expected it to be and the examples are excellent and easy for students to understand.  The text keeps it simple, but the grammar is correct.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Relevance/Longevity\nI require 10 written assignments in my course on human sexuality.  It is important that students analysis the information and determine the relevancy to their lives.  While the assignments are one page, they must be professionally written and focus on issues identified in the text; in an assigned newspaper article, class discussion and a blog.  I am frequently editing fragmented and run on sentences; miss use of to, too; verb and pronoun distress and it's and it mix ups.  Text speak and conversational writing is not professional writing and my students struggle with the shift especially when writing about personal experiences and/or opinions.  However it is important that students are challenged to analysis information; defend their point of view; and create an personal opinion from materials discussed in class.  They need multiple practice writing assignments to improve their skills.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity\nEach section is clearly titled in the table of contents and when you go to the content it is what is expected.  For example,  I spend a great deal of time talking to my class about the difference between a primary and secondary source; how to identify a primary source; and why it is important to read the primary source.  This is especially important in the current trend of fake news.  In Part III: Researching it is all there clearly outline: scholarly sources, evaluating sources and web sites, citing and how to avoid plagiarism","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Consistency\nThe author consistently keeps it simple and easy for the student to follow.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Modularity/Easy to use\nThere is lots of white space and easy to read outlines and titles.  The student struggling with writing and the nuance of English will not be overwhelmed when approaching this text.  It is great for students raised in bilingual homes.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Structure/Flow\nThe author starts with the easier topics and leaves the grammar to the end.  The beginning is engaging and not overwhelming so the student might be interested in moving on to other chapters.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Interface/Navigation\nThe table of contents outlines the text using descriptive titles so that a student can easily identify the content","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar\nThe sections on fragmented and run on sentences are beautifully described.  Can I make a copy of the page and attach it to a students paper to demonstrate the correct way to write the sentence?  It would be a time saver for me and the student will have it for his/her guide.  ALSO the section on combining verbs and prepositions was another one pager that I would love to copy and give to my students.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Cultural Relevance\nThe conjugating of verbs in the grammar section makes sense to a student who also speaks another language.  Everything is followed up with simple examples that clarify the grammar rule for the student.  Part VII is specific to multilingual writers and address the issues that I frequently edit in my students' written assignments.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Terrific resource for my students.  I am going to recommended it to them every semester.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1199,"first_name":"Tridha","last_name":"Chatterjee","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Boston University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers a wide range of topics relevant for students who are beginning to learn the conventions of academic writing. But, the engagement with these topics is at a superficial level. There are quite a few chapters in the book where the topics are only listed in bullet points without any thorough discussion of them. For example, in chapter 4, which is about testing a thesis, the author has listed five questions that the students are to use in order to check if their thesis statements are strong. However, the chapter provides no concrete examples that walk the students though the process of testing their theses. Therefore, the book would greatly benefit from the inclusion of relevant examples. The text also lacks an index and a glossary of key terms.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content of the book is fairly accurate.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The topics listed in the book are quite relevant for students of academic writing. However, an inclusion of more up-to-date information would be useful. For example, the chapter on plagiarism does not provide any discussion of the complex world of modern-day plagiarism that writing instructors encounter every day, such as students seeking help from online essay writing services, putting their papers out on the web for others to use, among many others forms of contemporary plagiarism.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and accessible for students. The author has provided explanations for technical terminology that has been used.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book has very effectively divided the topics of academic writing into different modules. The sections on academic writing, researching, grammar etc. make the book more accessible to the students and help them navigate through it very easily .","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book has good organization, clarity, and structure.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are no interface issues in the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text does not contain any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The book is very generic, with barely any relevant examples or illustrations of the topics listed. The book would benefit from the inclusion of a wide range of examples.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"While the text covers a wide range of topics, it would be greatly useful to have more concrete examples and discussions illustrating those topics, which would make it much more relevant for students for academic writing.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1204,"first_name":"Pary","last_name":"Fassihi","position":"Lecturer of Academic Writing","institution_name":"Boston University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"Although the book seems to be touching on the most problematic areas of academic writing for undergraduate students, it could not necessarily be considered a comprehensive text, covering all areas of academic writing. Many of the “chapters” are half a page, and topics that seem to be of the utmost importance for undergraduate students, have only briefly been explained, often without examples. For instance, thesis statements have only briefly been mentioned, in a checklist format. Perhaps focusing on how to construct a thesis statement first, and then checking the criteria would be more beneficial to students. Topics such as writing an outline, summarizing, etc. have only briefly been touched upon, without any examples. There is a Table of Contents (TOC) in the beginning, but there seems to be no connection between the little chapters in the book. Although there is useful information in these chapters, there is a lack of coherence throughout.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book is presented in an unbiased way, but it does have errors. There are some pronoun issues throughout, and since this is an academic writing book, the contents and writing need to be as accurate as possible.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Although the book touches on some of the most important concepts, it lacks some of the most recent pedagogy in teaching academic writing, and therefore, is lacking some very necessary information. Due to its lack of necessary information and important concepts, it is not up-to-date. In addition, the text needs to be updated to follow the 2016 MLA changes.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The book may seem clear enough for writing instructors, but it will come across as confusing for students due to its lack of organization and sufficient explanation of concepts and terminology.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent with the terminology, but the framework lacks consistency. The type of information in each section is not consistent throughout and varies throughout the parts.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is a collection of different sections, not necessarily related to one another and not presented in a logical order, so assigning different points of the book throughout the semester wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, I recommend if you were to use this book, that you assign the sections in a different order, or as a supplement to the material you have covered in class.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"The topics in the text could have been presented in a more organized fashion. The book would work better as a collection of handouts, which could be assigned at various points of the semester, therefore strengthening the text’s modularity. The grammar topics for example, have been inserted at various points of the book, without its logic being clear to the reader. Having a separate grammar section, or an explanation on why a particular grammar point has been mentioned in a particular place would help with the text’s clarity.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The display of information is clear. “Chapters” look pretty short (some being half a page), so at first glance, the short “chapters” come across as unusual. Perhaps re-naming “chapters” to “lessons” would help.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"A few minor grammar issues (pronoun reference) exist throughout, but nothing that interferes with meaning.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book is not culturally insensitive as there is not much about culture. The text would work better with more examples related to culture, race, ethnicity and background. This seems to be a big gap in the book.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"The book would serve better as a supplement to a class textbook, or as an instructor resource, but not as a textbook itself. In general, some of the concepts have only been touched upon, and lack any significant explanation, which would make it confusing for students.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1231,"first_name":"Derrian","last_name":"Goebel","position":"Part-Time Credit Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This online resource covers many of the mainstream writing class needs, such as having writing styles (MLA, APA, and CMS), research writing, academic writing and basic composition writing. However, this resource has no glossary; students taking basic composition will likely be learning the collegiate lingo and a glossary would help with terms, with which basic writers may struggle. I also noticed a lack of reasoning within certain sections, such as within the “Transitions” and “Counter Arguments” sections –why we do these things is important, otherwise students will chalk it up to “busy work” and skimp on that when the assignments come due. Some parts of this resource are longer than others; for example the “Researching” sections is quite long and detailed, while the section that deals with rhetorical concept is very brief. There is no mention of audience throughout, which is imperative to writing –the student writer needs to know who they are addressing, and how to write accordingly. Some sections are missing key details, such as within the “Summary” section having nothing about not using quotes within summaries. I also do not see any mention about second-person use when writing collegiate essays; students seem to want to use “you” statements and imperative language within their writing frequently, which is problematic. The MLA section needs updating to the eighth edition.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"As mentioned above, the MLA section needs updating (not sure about APA/CMS, as those are not my styles). This resource does contain some errors. On page 32, the part that says, “…put as most of the summary…” should say: “…put as much of the summary…” (emphasis mine). Page 49 has the most errors; the “Quotations” section has numbered (what seems like) rules (vague headings there). The first one says, “…enclosed in quotations marks…” (my underlining for emphasis). Page 49’s number two says, “…marks should indicated where…” (tense problem). As well as technical inaccuracy, there are plenty of areas that are vague or just not correct. On page 49 still, number three states, “…tell [readers] why the summary is included in your paper.” I have never allowed my student to use self-reflecting language in their papers; writing about why they are including something directly addresses audience. In chapter 16, page 35, the “three simple questions” on evidence, I felt myself asking, “What writing genres do these belong to?” –especially when I read one question: “Does the evidence reflect the characteristics of all the individuals involved?” I felt that students would take this to mean that they need to be speaking about description of people, and what if they aren’t writing about people? It’s just easy to get a little lost there as a first year comp student. On page 45, the “Relevance” section only speaks to currency, not source content relation to essay topic or significance. Back to page 49, the section heading bothers me; it says, “Summaries (Paraphrasing),” as if summary and paraphrasing both are the same thing –clearly, they are not. That particular section (“Summaries”) has no example/discussion about patchwork plagiarism. I find it most effective, when discussing this area of source use, to have an author’s writing sample, then a patchwork plagiarized sample, and then a properly paraphrased sample; also, all that should be apart from a summary sample of (and including) an author’s writing sample (also missing). One last thing I noticed that might be problematic is within the section on verbs in signal phrases (page 55); one word used there is “thinks” –I am troubled by this, as I teach my students not to assume what the article’s author is “thinking.”","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This book is definitely relevant to the field of teaching basic composition; although, I would use it as supplementary or part of other pieces for teaching comp. The field of composition changes so little, that everything in this book will be relevant for likely ever, save the styles of writing (MLA now being in its 8th edition).","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I would have to say that this resource is very brief and quite simplified. Some sections have very clear examples, but other sections aren’t quite clear; some sections provide a clear reasoning for the writing rules, while others do not (see Accuracy section of this review). Visually, it is clear. The table of contents is clear and accessible on both the pdf and the online versions.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"This online resource is not always consistent, from chapter to chapter. As mentioned above, not all sections have reasoning or examples. All of this resource’s writing style and formatting is consistent. The formatting is different from pdf to the online version, but still similar.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"In reading through this online resource, I am confident that I could rearrange it as needed for my own scheduling without interruption of purpose. There is so little written in post chapters, though, that I will need supplements to this, such as readings that show examples of genre writing, or samples for some of the chapters that are missing writing samples. For example, the “Types of Writing Styles” section contain zero examples of (for specific example) narrative writing vs persuasive writing, for a clear distinction. When students read sample writings of each, they get a much more clear view of the differences. So I could use this book for the lessons learned about writing, but will have to find samples and scholarly writing for students to emulate.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"These very brief chapters give an almost oversimplified structure. When reading chapters, I often found myself going back, thinking, “Did I miss something; was that it?” Its organization is fine, but the missing parts (reasoning and writing samples) make this difficult, as I have to look elsewhere to supplement that. Otherwise, the interface problems (below) interrupt reading flow.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"On the pdf version of this resource, chapter 32’s charts are tiny, along with the font. So, as a reader, I have to stop here, adjust the magnification, then read on, and then readjust the magnification when done (awkward). The online version of this section is just fine, very large print. On the pdf version, the grammar charts (such as in chapter 30) are a bit awkward, in that there are no vertical lines for separation of sections; I needed to stop and see what was going on, and then figure out how they read. Online, that same area uses text boxes that are tiny and crowd the words (still awkward). On the pdf version, the section headings that are longer run right off the page (formatting), while the online version is fine.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"This resource does have typos throughout, although not many. I do find though, that students lose faith in their books and their teacher when teachers use resources that have errors; often, are quick to point them out, which can be a distraction in the classroom. Pages 32 and 49 seemed to be the most problematic areas (see Accuracy section of this review for more details).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This online resource is not culturally insensitive or offensive; it is, rather, quite inclusive. This resource has an entire section dedicated to English language learners, titled “Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges,” containing many common issues, such as article use issues. This resource also contains sections for developmental writers, which go over topics such as nouns and verbs. The samples/examples of writing/lessons often use international examples. For example, the section titled “Geography and ‘The’” (dealing with article use) use locations from around the world, not just places within the US (I often find American-centric writing in anthologies).","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Pros:\nThis online resource is simple and direct. It is easy to use (for the most part) and easy to read (without big complicated language). I like its non-complicated readability, for often first year college writing students (especially developmental writers) struggle with these words, and often skip over them, losing part of the lesson. It is a free online resource (great for students’ pocketbooks). \nCons:\nWithout any genre readings (along with the often-missing writing samples and reasoning), I feel students would struggle; thereby, I would need to find supplemental material for a successful first-year college composition course. The MLA section here will confuse students, as it is not the 8th edition, so it is useless, but updatable. \nOverall, I’m about 50/50 in my opinion of this resource. I do like some, but not other parts, so I would look for something else to use.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1245,"first_name":"Heather","last_name":"Botsford","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Southeastern Louisiana University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"About Writing: A Guide covers all of the basic areas of writing including composing, revising, academic writing, research, citation styles, basic grarmmar, and common challenges for ESL students.  The table of contents is easy to use with links to all of the chapters and different subjects in each chapter.The book does not contain an index or glossary, but the table of contents is a sufficient tool for navigating the content.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and error-free.  The MLA works cited entry examples are not from the most current edition of the MLA handbook.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content on composing, research, and grammar is all up to date and will not be obsolete at any time in the future.  The chapter on citation styles of MLA, APA, and Chicago style can easily be updated without affecting any other content in the book.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writing in the book is clear and easy to understand.  No jargon or technical terminology is used.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology of the book and the chapter framework is consistent and logical.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters in the textbook could be assigned at different points to meet different writing assignments.  Each chapter makes sense on its own and does not rely on or reference information from other chapters.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized around the writing process from composing to research, editing, and revision.  The organization is clear and logical.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no interface issues or problems navigating the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not offensive in any way.  The examples include a variety of races and ethnicities.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1249,"first_name":"Phyllis","last_name":"Nissila","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College, Eugene, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text reflects the title: it is a guide about writing. Used that way, it provides basic information, if a bit brief in several places, for anyone looking for a reference guide or a place to start lesson planning. There are also several useful charts and visuals.That said, teachers in disciplines other than writing will appreciate this as a quick, go-to source for helping students. The guide covers the most common areas of concern, if not every aspect of them, so that as a simple reference tool it will suffice. It also covers several basic areas of challenge for ESL learners, which is a plus. \n\nWriting instructors will find themselves needing to expand most sections, however, with additional explanations, examples, and exercises. Many sections are checklists where some items need further explanation and nearly all need examples or more examples. The style guides section seems the most comprehensive, and the section on revision seems well-covered with sufficient examples. Another notable and good exception is the section on plagiarism which does include specific examples. \n\nRegarding a few smaller details, an instructor would also appreciate adding a section on when and how to avoid \"passive voice\" which is an often-referenced topic in college writing, and the inclusion of deductive reasoning to add to the inductive reasoning, featured.  Also helpful would be the inclusion of an index and a glossary of writing terms (existing terms and those that might be added, for an example, terms to expand the section on descriptive writing: simile, figurative language, personification, etc.). And a page for citation samples for the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) would finish out the Style Guides section.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text does not appear biased. The reviewer notes an edit needed in the section on sentence fragments: example #2 is not a fragment. Missy is the subject. One other concern one would have, but easily addressed, is to revise the Style Guides section for latest editions.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As noted prior, the only concern would be a easy one to address regarding staying current with changes in the Style Guides.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is accessible, if very brief (as noted prior, too brief in places for a comprehensive writing course, but likely appreciated by instructors who use this, as its title indicates, as a guide). In one or two places, the clarity could be enhanced by combining related subject matter, for example, How to \"read\" graphics (pie charts, graphs, etc.) is covered in three different places: The Visuals section, and the following 2 sections on Active Reading and Analyzing Texts.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent as a guide, with inconsistencies noted only in the manner in which each topic is treated. Most topics are formatted as checklists, very brief, and, with a few exceptions noted prior, seem to cover the salient points. Other sections, the Style Guides section and the Revision section are much more comprehensive.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is very modular and it is easy to access the topics desired.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics in this guide are presented logically and clear with the exception, as noted prior, that in several places they are very brief, too brief as noted, specifically, for a writing instructor. Although instructors in other disciplines will appreciate the brevity, they, too, would benefit with the inclusion of more items such as an index, a glossary of terms, and the expansion of certain sections as previously noted.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Pressbooks has this down. Good interface.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is good.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No cultural insensitivity or offense noted in the examples.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"As a quick, go-to guide for instructors in disciplines other than writing, this suffices for most needs with some deficits, noted above. \nWriting instructors might direct students to a few of the charts and checklists, to the revision section, and to the information on plagiarism, but the text as a whole would likely be used as a supplemental resource.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1260,"first_name":"Andrea","last_name":"Wood","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Winona State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text provides a broad overview but does not go into great depth on many of the issues it covers. Consequently, it lacks the level of substantive detail to be deeply comprehensive but could be a nice accompanying text to give students an introduction to writing basics.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content is generally accurate and error-free.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is fairly broad and general in its scope so the information it presents will continue to be relevant for a long time.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The author's prose is generally clear and concise. Some sections of the book require more context to set up topics/issues.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in its use of terminology to engage with writing topics.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The text is handily broken up into short reading sections. However, some sections overuse long, bulleted lists.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"The text is not as effectively organized as it could be. Sections do not flow in a natural order or progression and sometimes seem to be randomly placed. Transitions could be better used between sections as well.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text is relatively free of visual interface problems. Some parts of the text would actually benefit from incorporating more visual images to illustrate ideas and alleviate too much text heavy content on the page.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text does not appear to contain any major grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text makes some effort to be inclusive with its examples but more could be done on this front.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"The visual diagrams for certain grammar issues (i.e. dangling modifiers) are some of the most useful elements in the book.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1270,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Beadling","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Youngstown State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers the relevant aspects of college writing.  The major sections of the book - Composing, Academic Writing, Researching, MLA/APA./CMS, Basic Grammar, Grammatical Sentences, Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges, and Revising - address the important topics.  Most of the chapters are extremely brief, with some consisting only of a paragraph or two of text or just a list of bullet points or questions.  For example, Chapter 14 (\"How To: Write a Summary) is only a paragraph long.  The information in it is solid, but it doesn't include any examples, exercises, strategies, etc.  Likewise, the chapter on rhetorical concepts is less than three pages long.  It is good information, but extremely basic and stripped down.  There is no glossary or index.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate except the MLA section is now out of date.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The MLA section is out of date, which would be easily fixable.  The rest of the information, however, is packaged in such a way that it should remain useful and accurate for quite a while.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written clearly and explains concepts in a basic manner.  The text should be comprehensible to all readers.  The book is easy to read and follow.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is internally well organized and breaks down information into easy to read sections of information.  The terminology is consistent, as is the framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is definitely modular and it would be easy to assign brief sections or chapters to students.  There are no enormous blocks of text.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The chapters are clearly presented and logically ordered, except for the section on revision, which should come before the grammar material.  Students should always revise before they edit, so this section seems a bit out of order.  Otherwise, the book progresses through the ideas logically and clearly.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"In Chapter 8, \"Visuals Help You Communicate,\" some of the images and graphs are a bit hard to read due to their small size.  Otherwise, no navigation or other interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed no grammar errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I noticed no culturally insensitive materials or examples in the book.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The grammatical concepts are clear and comprehensive.  I could see having this textbook as a reference for students who struggle with grammar.  The other chapters are so brief, the instructor would have to supplement with other readings, materials, examples, etc.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1279,"first_name":"Amanda","last_name":"Jacob","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Northshore Technical Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"While the book covers many fantastic topics, some topics would benefit from fuller attention. While the inclusion of questions to guide students is helpful, at times more explanation would make the book more effective. The index is helpful, yet a glossary would be a welcome addition.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"No errors appear in the text, information included is accurate, and the work is unbiased. The material present in the text is accurate, but does seem incomplete at times.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date especially in regards to current MLA, APA, and CMS standards. The text is arranged in such a way that updates would be easy and possible and not hinder implementation in the classroom.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Much of the text is lucid and employs accessible prose. Some sections would benefit from additional direction or clarity especially with the non-traditional student in mind.\n\ni.e. Chapter 7 - consider adding a brief explanation of transitions before simply providing the chart\n      Chapter 25 - consider offering a clearer explanation of what a signal phrase is and what its purpose is","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The consistency of the text is quite solid. The framework is easy to follow and remains fluid throughout the text. Terminology, when possible and necessary, is consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easy to assign in small units. Chapters are short and easy to align with curriculum and course objectives. Chapters are not overly long or dense, making the book easily digestible to the average student.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are well divided into larger sections and short chapters. The information is provided in a logical flow that easily aligns with most freshman composition courses. The large text and bold use of color to highlight important information is helpful. The only item that does interfere with flow is the several \"blank\" pages that seem to appear between sections (not sure if this is an interface issue).","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"While navigation is possible with the page up and page down option in Adobe, this was not the easiest to truly navigate especially since there were a number of blank spaces / blank pages in some areas that were confusing. At times, I was unsure if the textbook had correctly loaded because of the blank spaces. Also, two of the lists appeared with question marks instead of dots, as the other lists (see Chapter 6 and Chapter 49) which were distracting.\n\nImages and charts were of a nice size and easy to read and view.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The textbook contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. The examples used are well thought out and inclusive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a usable freshman composition textbook that could easily be employed in the classroom and allows the instructor the ability to bring in outside material to easily flow with the text. While there were a few areas that I would like to see more developed, this is a well thought out text that I would like to implement in my own classroom. I have been looking for a textbook of this nature for the past nine years, and I am happy to have found this one!","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1282,"first_name":"Tracy","last_name":"Henninger-Willey","position":"Contracted Faculty","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"At first glance I thought the text was not comprehensive because of how short each section was. However, the more time I spent with the text, the more I feel that for the most part it strikes the right balance between conciseness and comprehensiveness, especially in terms of information on composing, academic writing and researching. It covers the gamut of what I cover in my writing classes without overwhelming the reader. The only section where I really would have liked to see more, ironically, was in Ch. 14 \"How To: Write a Summary.\" It is definitely a summary of writing a summary as it is simply 5 sentences with valuable information, but with little guidance as to how to structure a summary beyond the beginning.\n\nI am an ESL instructor and I teach an ESL bridge class for students transitioning into college and are taking a college course along with my course. For this purpose, the book is a perfect companion to the handouts and activities that I have created over the years to practice writing thesis statements, outlining, grammar, etc. It offers a jumping off point to more practice. However, if you are looking for a text that will give students detailed grammar lessons, this book will disappoint. It provides extremely brief explanations and the ESL instructor in particular will need to provide practice exercises and other materials to supplement these explanations. With that said, I think the explanations are a sufficient jumping off point to more detailed instruction. \n\nThe text does not contain an index or glossary; however, the Table of Contents is very complete and the chapters are short so it is easy to find information.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I appreciate that the grammar for multilingual learners that is included in text is based on the high-frequency errors that tend to trip up the multilingual learner. Again, I want to emphasize that there are no exercises for these points, just an extremely brief explanation or list of words. I also appreciated the inclusion of rhetorical styles and the simple, clear, unbiased explanations.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is up-to-date and general enough to withstand the test of time for a number of years. It is not written or arranged in any way that updates would likely even be necessary. I can foresee that there could be additions or easy revisions to the text as there are periodic updates to MLA or APA.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is the strongest part of this text. If I could give a plus rating here, I would. The text offers just enough explanation to be clear without extraneous items that might confuse the student. It is very clearly written in such a way that beginning college students, including multilingual learners transitioning into college will find accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book has a consistent framework and terminology. The most consistent part of each chapter is that everything is concisely stated and just enough information is given to give an overview. I feel that no word is wasted in any part of the text, and this is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text has great modularity. It has easy, bite-sized chapters that can fit into a variety of courses and teaching situations. I feel that this is a great strength to the book. It would be ideal for an online or hybrid course where some material is more deeply explored online depending upon the needs of students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is very clearly organized. It begins with a global look at writing itself, moving from general information about writing into more specific content pertaining to academic reading and writing. From there it logically progresses to information about researching and citing sources. Finally, it focuses on the details of writing at the sentence level with a specific section for multilingual learners. The text concludes with the revision process. The beauty of the organization of this text is that it can be used as a whole or divided into parts as needed.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The links in the Table of contents were easy to navigate in the e-Version of the text (using iBooks). The text on both my computer and iPhone were clear and not distorted. On my iPhone, there were some blank pages occasionally between chapters that could be confusing to readers who might thing that there is missing content. Because I had the PDF version too, I could see that there was nothing missing.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few minor grammatical issues/typos. I did catch one typo in Chapter 14. The sentence incorrectly reads, \"...try to put as most of the summary as you can in your own words\" instead of \"...as much of the summary...\" and in Chapter 21 there is a backward quotation mark at the beginning of \"About This Site.\" The end quote is correctly positioned. If it wasn't a writing text, these wouldn't be so distracting.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text contains more explanations than examples, but the examples and images are somewhat diverse. I didn't find any part of the text offensive. The content is fairly neutral.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think this is an ideal textbook for an experienced writing teacher. I think that a beginning teacher who did not have a strong sense of how to structure a writing class and who did not have writing prompts and other materials to expand the content as needed might struggle with this text. This text does not include sample essays or writing exercises. It is perfect for my teaching situation where I am helping support students in their credit-bearing classes and would be ideal in a writing center or in a tutoring situation where an instructor was supporting a student in their academic coursework.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1325,"first_name":"Rita","last_name":"Dandridge","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Virginia State University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book lacks comprehensiveness. For instance, the author fails to discuss the eight parts of speech in any detail. The pronoun is missing, and the discussion of conjunctions is limited to subordinating conjunctions. The coordinating conjunction is not mentioned.  The omission of pronouns is particularly egregious, especially since most students have difficulty lining up the pronoun with the antecedent\n. \nIt appears that the author, Robin Jeffrey, also has trouble with the pronoun and antecedent  agreement in sentences\nIn Chapter 1, Persuasive Writing, the author consistently uses the incorrect pronoun: Examples, p. 5; \"\"When an author writes in a persuasive style, they are trying to convince the audience of a position or belief.\"\".","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"For the most part, the book is accurate. However, inaccuracies exist in subject-verb agreement  and  pronoun-antecedent agreement. It is not clear what the questions marks are for in Chapter 6.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"The book has little relevance because it is not useful. It is not an adequate text, and it can not be used as a good reference work.\n\nAn index could improve finding the information. There are blank pages throughout the book, and the reason for this is not explained.","clarity_rating":2,"clarity_review":"The book is not clear. More explanation must be given for an adequate understanding of the components of the writing process. For example, In Chapter 23 \"Avoiding Plagiarism, \"the explanation for the MLA citation is different from the example given. The explanation states: \"Put quotation around the excerpt, use a signal phrase, and include a parenthetical citation witth he page number. The example shows the signal phrase first, the excerpt, and then the page number, as in the following example:\n McGruffin and Cross have said, \"No one should ever eat the cake without frosting\" (22).\n\nIn Chapter 39, there should be a definition of modules. Instead, examples are given without the reader knowing what a module is.","consistency_rating":1,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in that it lacks consistency. For example, in Chapter 22, the author uses MLA format. However, she indicates that the city is needed in the MLA citation when the 8th edition of MLA does not require the city.\n\n The author consistently omits examples. Students need to see examples of the thesis statement and the parts that construct the thesis.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"The text's modularity can be improved upon. It is true that the various parts can be moved around. However, so much is missing to the extent that one can be misled. In the discussion of the writing process, the author starts with subordinate conjunctions.  The start should be with a discussion of what constitutes a sentence and then with an explanation of how the subordinate conjunction constructs the complex sentence.","organization_rating":1,"organization_review":"The organization needs work. The flow can be improved on. For example, discussions of grammar and revising should precede the chapter on Researching and Evaluating Web Sources. Moreover, the structure within the chapters is choppy. For example, in chapter 38, more explanation is needed for passive voice. The explanation given tells when the passive voice is used as opposed to what the passive voice is. \n\nIn Part VI, Grammatical Sentences, there is nothing here.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"The words on the charts are difficult to see. In Chapter 6, question marks are placed before each statement. Blank pages exist throughout the book","grammatical_rating":1,"grammatical_review":"Grammar is not perfect. For example, pages 5, 6 and 76, the author consistently fails to have the pronoun agree with the antecedent.. On page 105, and is misused. For example, the sentence reads, \"If the noun represents and unspecified amount and that amount is more than one but not all.","cultural_rating":1,"cultural_review":"Culture relevance or cultural diversity was not exhibited. This is so perhaps because few examples of any kind were included in the text.","overall_rating":4,"overall_review":"I would not require or recommend this book for classroom use for three specific reasons: it lacks relevant examples and definitions, its needs cohesiveness, and it does not exhibit good writing.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1352,"first_name":"Claudia","last_name":"Hutchison","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"About Writing: A Guide introduces the basic concepts that one would expect in a first year college writing class. It delineates four types of writing styles, giving concise explanations of each. The components of academic writing discussed include key competencies: analyzing a text, writing a summary, evaluating sources, researching, composing, and revising. The sections on Researching (Part III) and on MLA, APA, CSA (Part IV) are particularly thorough, offering clear explanations and relevant examples. The text’s sections on grammar serve as a helpful primer or review. The text’s weakness is its underdevelopment of some topics and the overall lack of examples. In fact, for many sections no examples are offered. This might work well for instructors who want to heavily supplement the text by providing sample articles from other sources, or who want to use an additional text such as a collection of readings. The addition of an index would enhance the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found all sections to be accurate and unbiased. I did not notice any errors.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"All the content is up-to-date with the exception of Part IV.  The release of the 8th edition of MLA Style Guide makes that section of the text outdated. \nThe chapters on the various style guides will become outdated with each MLA, APA, or CMS revision, but the relevant sections can be easily updated.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This clear and concise manner in which this text is written will make it readable to entry level college students.","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"The author is consistent in the terminology used. The text adheres to a pattern of organization within the chapters. The text’s inconsistency lies in the amount of detail given to topics. Some topics include detailed explanations while others barely skim the surface. This is especially true of several chapters that consist of only half a page.  For example, Chapter Seven, “Transitions,” offers a chart showing sample transition words and phrases, with no explanation or demonstration of how these terms are used in expository writing. The cursory explanations of the topics in Chapter 4 (Check your thesis) and in Chapters 12, 13, and 14 (Verb tense, Point of view, and Writing a summary) are not adequately developed for the intended audience.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text can be easily be re-organized or divided into smaller reading sections that can be assigned to match an instructor’s syllabus.  Several sections can be used independently of the entire text to assist a student or a group of students in need of more explanation or practice in a particular area. Sections V - VII on grammar and the special considerations of multilingual writers are particularly well suited for this purpose. The latter part focuses on the key challenges of second language students, such as verb tenses, modals, and articles. This text could be useful in a tutoring center.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Overall the topics are presented in a logical order. \nThe last section, “Revising” (Part VIII) would more logically follow the earlier sections on writing. Parts V, VI, and VII, which address grammar, grammatical sentences, and special considerations for multilingual and ESOL writers, interrupt the flow. Ideally those three chapters would appear last.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall the interface is fine. The presentation of nearly identical charts of “signal phrases” three times – once in each style guide section, is confusing.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book is free of grammatical errors if one accepts the less formal usage of the pronoun “they” in reference to “an author.”","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Cultural sensitivity is difficult to evaluate in a textbook that contains no images of people and few writing samples. There is nothing culturally offensive or insensitive in the text.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1361,"first_name":"Susan","last_name":"Iversen","position":"DE instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book asks writers questions for self-reflection but does not explain and delve deeply into explanation or give examples.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"What is there is accurate, but much explanation is missing.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is up-to-date with the exception of the citation section. Since MLA updated to the 8th edition, that section could become obsolete as updates are made. The rest of the book is current and will not become obsolete.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"What is there is very clear and lucid, but there is a lot of information lacking. More explanation on all topics is needed.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"It remains consistent throughout","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text could easily be divisible into small sections.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization makes sense but it is missing a pre-write/brainstorming component. The flow is good but there is not much content.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface issues detected","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No notable errors","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"It is not culturally insensitive or offensive but there are no examples given.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I teach a DE writing course and looked at this as a possible guide for my students. It is easy to read and very clear, but sadly, underdeveloped. It covers questions to ask while writing but does not go into explanation about concepts and give concrete examples which would be very useful to students. The section on thesis statements asks good questions but does not go into detail about thesis construction. There is not much help for how to support a thesis except for answering questions posed. DE students and beginning writers need much more explanation than this. \nThere is a section on grammar, but it too is lacking. It uses grammatical terms which most students, except possibly ESL students, will be unfamiliar with and doesn’t include enough clarification for students unacquainted with grammar. It does do a nice job explaining to ESL students about cases when to use ‘the’ and when not to. Having taught classes with ESL students, article use is very confusing for non-native speakers.\nThe biggest pro for me was the section on understanding the assignment. Since I teach beginning college students, I explain the assignment to them but have unintentionally neglected teaching them how to figure this out for themselves when they move on to higher writing classes.  The guide does a good job showing students what to look for and what questions to ask, but I do wish it was more in-depth. \nFor my classes, I would use such a small amount of this guide because it is not substantive enough. It reminds me of an essay that is skeletal: it has good bones and organization, but not enough development and support.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1408,"first_name":"Laurie","last_name":"Trybom","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"About Writing :A Guide:  is a text that could really be utilized with a group of Adult Basic Skills Students. The book is a basic that can be used accordingly with students who are at different academic levels within the same setting.  The text provides an effective teaching resource which basically includes everything I would cover in any one term.  There are a few things I would add.  It would make a perfect workbook supplement; as well.    I would create more grammar exercises to help the lower performing students.  The check lists were very appropriate in asking questions that will help students in developing research, in composing and revising.  In my class, developing a thesis has been a hard concept.  If using this as a text in class, I would need the section on how to formulate a thesis  to be included rather than just testing a thesis.  If this book is to be truly considered comprehensive more emphasis should be placed on descriptive, expository and narrative writing rather than so much on persuasive.writing. I like how the purpose is included.  I think accompanying writing prompts should be added.  It seems somewhat vague and sketchy.  There  are a lack of examples t A strong point is that it covers writing conventions, strategies for understanding and includes some writing assignments.  I would use this as a supplement.  In my low level skills class I also teach students about misplaced modifiers, pronoun usage, conjunctions and adverbs.  We need grammar exercises as well ;.hrough out the entirety of the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, error free and unbiased.  The MLA section is outdated due to the recent changes in publication.  I feel that \"Types of Writing Styles\" is inclusive of writing purposes rather than styles. Style implies how a message is delivered.   It would be stronger with an introduction.  I think it would resonate more validity if there was a direct voice coming from the author.  The way the modules are placed gives more of priority to mechanics of style rather than critical thinking and expression.  This may be a strength to beginning students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"No references to soft ware or other visuals outdates this book.  \" About Writing does not reflect the changes in MLA in 2016 in citation Conventions.  I do not teach this skill to my lower level students.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I love the simplicity in the Writing Style in this book. It can be easily understood by new or beginning college writers.  It is very clear and straight forward.  Charts and visuals could use more explanations and context.  The modules on Citations, Transitions, and Analyzing a Text are well done.  The framework and terminology are very consistent.  The book promotes questions provoking critical thinking, but maybe more context and explanation for faculty would be helpful.  In order to make the book more understandable to students I would make a distinction between summarizing and paraphrasing to help students more thoroughly understand concepts.  I would also add more examples of inductive reasoning and common forms of evidence.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I find this text not really consistent in the presentation  of the four types of Writing.  Persuasive Writing overshadows Narrative, Descriptive and Expository which I feel are equally important.  However i feel the writer is overall very consistent in the explanation of all terms and concepts throughout the framework.  there is a nice patterned organization which creates a harmonious flow.   To even add to this more one could add stylistically to the writing areas and give it more consistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Looking at my class I find that the author has used perfect modularity.  As an instructor it would be easy to assign brief sections of this book to fit with various topics of discussion.  it is broken down into manageable pieces.  It can be divided into smaller sections.  It allows flexibility in designing units.  It is particularly nice for my Integrated Reading and Writing Class as it incorporates the context of both subjects.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"About Writing has a wonderful structure, transitions and a flow throughout the text.  It would be helpful to move the revising section so it came before editing.  Both chapters should be placed before grammar  it also makes sense to have the research section before academic writing.  I would include more examples for each topic which may change the organization.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I find the formatting of this book might not excite my low level readers and writers if they were reading it online.  My students as a whole would not like so much white space and would require more visuals .  They might have some online navigation problems. Page numbers should be added to every page.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"It seems maybe flawless!  An addition might be to have a module on punctuation and common misuses of words.  These are common errors for students \n.  Also please enlarge grammar flow charts.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"It is very generic and sterile without pictures.  The text is not condescending to any particular group.  It focuses on generalized concepts.  There are few examples.  There are also no readings.  About Writing needs to be supplemented with more student and professional examples.  This book is helped culturally with Chapter 7 which is inclusive of multilingual-non English speakers.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Very good foundation for my lower level students; would be a good basic text which would need supplements.  Would love to see it more contextualized with an introduction, introduction to each chapter and a conclusion which would give the writer more of a voice they could identify with which would","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1421,"first_name":"Amy","last_name":"Flessert","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Northern Virginia Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Comprehensiveness is one of the weaker aspects of this text. While there are sections for much of what I teach in this book, they are not particularly comprehensive. Often they are a bullet list of questions or points for the students to \"check.\" Without further in-class instruction, some of the chapters leave holes in knowledge or would be hard for a student to follow. For example, the chapter on outlining tells students what to do, but not why or how to use it, giving examples. Similarly, the textbook mentions audience and that the writer should write to a chosen audience, but not why or how. Additionally, the section on evaluating sources, while accurate, could be more comprehensive in responding to today's \"fake news\" crisis, steering students towards further ways to evaluate news in the age of social media.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text was unbiased and error-free. It appears to be accurate in all aspects except the now-dated MLA section. Because this uses the old MLA, I would have to bring in other materials to supplement.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Other than the MLA section, this textbook has longevity. I don't see any of the material here \"dating\" quickly. However, this is not necessarily a good thing - sections on social media, blogs, email, internet news, and other aspects of modern written production and consumption would make this a more relevant text for students and help them see how writing is important in their lives outside of college.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"While the book is written in very accessible prose, some concepts need to be better explained, or students may not understand them. For example, while the chapter on academic writing talks about the use of 3rd person, the differences between 1st and 3rd person are not clearly explained. Some students may know these concepts, but others may not. The chapter on avoiding plagiarism was very clearly written - it is a great, quick guide and will help students to understand the necessity of citation.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This textbook is absolutely consistent. All of the chapter seem to have been written by the same person (with the exception of the clearly labeled revision section - one of the book's strongest). The terminology and way the book is structured flows very nicely.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is well organized with good \"sections\" and chapter headings. There are little/no enormous blocks of text. While the length of the chapters is manageable, some should be more complex and go into more detail, including examples, and \"why\" students should work to master certain skills. For example, while the text has a nice section on citation, it doesn't talk much about why we cite, which is important in getting students to take the task seriously.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of this text is one of its strengths. Any student could pick this up and understand how to use it. All of the information is presented clearly.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I used the PDF version, which was a little wonky at times. Sometimes bullet points became question marks and things got dropped onto the next page randomly. The web version appeared much nicer to use, but a bit harder to navigate on the right hand drop down column. However, if students know which section the material is in, the drop down column works nicely and is nicer to navigate than the PDF version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any significant grammatical errors or issues. Any that are there are minor and not invasive or confusing.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in that it does not consider much about the \"outside world.\" As stated earlier, bringing in culturally relevant information would make the text more fun and engaging. Items or examples regarding current events would be a wonderful addition.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, a decent textbook. It is very easy to use and has a nice grounding on basic concepts. I would use this as a supplement only, however, as the topics don't have the depth my students need. I would love to see an updated MLA section to make this a bit more \"plug and play.\"","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1426,"first_name":"Nancy","last_name":"Rowe","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Loyola University New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text feels more like an outline or a powerpoint presentation than a comprehensive guide to writing. This text might work as a general overview, but it lacks specific examples to help guide the writer.  At times, the text provides examples but doesn't explain the concepts beforehand. For example, when the text discusses signal phrases, it never fully explains to the reader what a signal phrase is and why it's important to use one. Some chapters are just a paragraph long, so the \"meat\" of the text isn't there. There's a lot of telling but very little showing.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Because this book acts as a guide to writing, it does not present facts. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether the text is accurate of not. It does present some useful information for the beginning writer.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The book is fairly general, so it will remain relevant to students who wish to write high school and college essays. Updates to the book should be fairly easy to make. However, these updates would require that the author develop a more comprehensive guide to writing. This book needs more specific content to make it more relevant and more interesting to read. Also, when the book uses specific examples, which are not as plentiful as they could be, the examples are a bit dated (ie. No Child Left Behind).","clarity_rating":2,"clarity_review":"The prose in the text is simple and accessible to basic readers. It should provide more explanation, especially in the grammar sections. For example, in the book's explanation of subject-verb agreement, it doesn't give clear examples of problematic sentences. In fact, the examples use two sentences that don't seem to belong together, which is confusing to the reader. It also does not introduce the concept of subject-verb agreement and related problems associated with incorrect subject-verb agreement, so a writer struggling with this problem would not find this chapter helpful.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in the way it presents information. Albeit, that information is VERY general.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"Because the book is presented as an informal outline, it would be difficult to use the short chapters to help guide a class. For example, the chapter on active reading gives the reader a string of questions to consider when reading another text. It does not, however, introduce the idea or explain why active reading is important. Also, it does not provide exercises so that the class could work alone or together on active reading strategies.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"The book's organization is somewhat logical, though it could be rearranged for clarity. Part I and Part II are almost interchangeable. I would think that active reading should come earlier in the text, perhaps closer the the beginning. The section on thesis statements, one of the most important elements of argumentative essay writing (or any high school or college essay writing) is only one paragraph long, so there seems to be a problem with overall balance. The bulk of the chapters are located in the ESL section, which makes me wonder if this is a text meant for ESL writers. If so, this fact needs to be made clearer up front. If not, the text's \"balance\" should be reconsidered.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"In the PDF version of the text, there are significant problems with spacing. Some text begins in the middle of a page. Highlighted areas are sometimes broken up. Some of the headings run off the page, and some of the images are disproportionate.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is fine.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text does not appear to be insensitive or offensive. Because there are very few examples, it is neither inclusive or exclusive.","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"No","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1442,"first_name":"JoAnne","last_name":"Knowles","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"I was attracted to About Writing  at first because the preview said that the book \"covers everything the beginning writing student needs.\"  Unfortunately, About Writing doesn't seem to know what it wants to be.  I teach English Composition and Expository (Basic) Writing at community college.  I think of Expository Writing students as \"beginning,\" although there are two lower, remedial courses offered also.  I teach Expository Writing as a lead-in to Freshman Composition.  But About Writing seems more suited to English Composition class, and in some sections, such as the section on Rhetorical Concepts, more appropriate for the Advanced Writing course.  The section on citation seems too comprehensive--I've never known freshmen or sophomore classes to require Chicago style, but in Jeffrey's defense, some other  handbooks include it.  Certainly the section on MLA (which should be updated now) and APA are relevant to Freshman Comp classes, but despite the detailed explanations, there is no Works Cited sample page.  I did appreciate her discussion of signal phrases; I emphasize the use of the signal phrase,  even in the lower level course. \nAt the other end of the spectrum, however, the section for ESOL students seemed much too basic and simplistic.  Then I looked into the Pocket Style Manual for that author's coverage of grammar and sentence problems for Bilingual writers, and found it very similar.  I haven't found that most English Comp students need this much review of grammar basics.  Finally, I would have to say that some sections are very comprehensive, while others are too skimpy.   I like the first section on Types of Writing Styles, which was brief, clear, and easy to read, but it seemed to jump onto the page from nowhere.  I wished for a little introduction at the very beginning, to introduce the author's background, interests, and purpose.  I also liked Understanding the Assignment and the definition of the thesis, but everywhere I wanted some examples.  Students need real examples to read, and they also need chances to practice writing examples of the thesis.  The book also lacked an index and a glossary, and I really like glossaries!  They are really helpful for students, who think that a dictionary is something online.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I think the content is accurate and correct.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is up to date, except for the easy to fix update of MLA.  I didn't like the grammar flow sheets, which looked to me like the dreaded \"power point,\"  and would be sure to confuse students or put them to sleep immediately. Anything \"power  pointy\" seems destined to become obsolete soon.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Generally I found the prose easy to understand and clear.  Unfortunately, some sections include many details, while other sections, such as How to Write a Summary and How to Write a Document are too thin. Inexperienced writers need more explanation, and, as before, examples.","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"The inconsistency seems to be reflected in how some sections are superficially dealt with, while some are very detailed.  The audience for the book (Basic Writers, Freshman Composition students, Advanced writers?) is also confusing to me.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Certainly the book can be used in pieces, according to the needs of the instructor.  I liked that, but I felt confused by the reading section coming after the writing and the research section.  Generally in class we talk about analyzing materials we have read before we discuss writing about  those materials.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"This is a difficulty that I have already discussed.  I am concerned that reading should come before writing---because generally in class we read materials, then analyze and discuss those materials, then write about them.  I also didn't really like the section on the Outline--I ask students whether they use an outline or other methods to start writing, and few use the outline.  It's fine for those who do use the outline, but I would have liked to see something about other invention methods, such as free writing or clustering.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I thought the section on visual materials for students was fine, but the grammar flow charts were confusing.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"Despite contemporary needs to respond to p.c. issues, I don't feel comfortable with \"the author....they.\"  Grammatically it is incorrect.  I feel better about \"the author...he or she.\"  No  slash, please!  I realize that some grammar texts are now suggesting that we can accept \"the author....they,\" but my brain bumps up against it.  I try to explain to students that, because of the way English is constructed, we are rather stuck with this difficult problem.  I explain the different views about how this can be fixed, with respect to both grammar and gender concerns.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive.  It uses few examples, but examples might help demonstrate this issue to students.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"There are some very good, clear sections about this book.  The writing is clear and accessible to undergraduates.  Some sections just need more development, and some sections (grammar) take up too much space.  Some extra explanation and examples could make this book much better.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1465,"first_name":"Jim","last_name":"Cooper","position":"Adjunct English Instructor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This guide, though not a handbook, covers all of the essentials of college writing and the writing process. It is easy to navigate, with a drop down menu and links to the various sections. However, within the sections, much that I would like to see, such as a more thorough discussion of grammar and syntax, is missing in this edition.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and provides a clear overview of writing essentials. It is not prescriptive, but instead gives students a good understanding of different writing situations, modalities, and conventions.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"While content is relative and up to date, the text lacks examples. Thus, the guide would work better as a companion to in class lectures and activities than as a stand-alone resource.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"While most handbooks can err on the side of too much information, this text is clear and concise. Each section is fairly short and easy to follow, with simple, straightforward language and sentences.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The drop down menu and links make this text easy to uses, and the different sections are written in short, concise sentences and paragraphs. It would be easy for instructors to assign readings and use the text in the classroom.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is clearly and logically organized around the elements of the research/writing process. Topics are easily accessible from the drop down menu.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text looks great. I saw no format issues and had no trouble navigating the menu. I found nothing confusing or inconsistent.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"As one would expect from a writing text, it contains no grammatical or syntactical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text contains no culturally insensitive commentary.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like the simplicity of this text but find its usefulness limited. It would make a great companion to lectures and in-class activities, and it would be most useful to students with a good understanding of writing. It would not make a good stand-alone text. I would like to see a more thorough discussion of syntax and grammar, as well as more illustrative examples.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1474,"first_name":"Timothy","last_name":"Francisco","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Youngstown State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"In important places where students often need practice and further guidance, such as with Point of View, tense, etc., the selections aren't terribly comprehensive. There are some brief explanations of what the terms/concepts are, but I would fine examples and exercises that the students could complete to be more effective. So, it's comprehensive in that it hits everything an entry level text should but not in great detail or with mechanisms for students to practice the  skills. Then there are the sections on types of writing: descriptive, persuasive, etc., in which the entire chapter consists of a paragraph and a list.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy is very good.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is up to date and relevant--especially the section on visual communications, which is actually one of the most comprehensive in the text. Regarding cultural relevance, to a degree, the lack of comprehensiveness mentioned above works in the book's favor in this area-because there are few specific exercises and examples, the content stays \"current\"","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I think the prose is clear and definitely accessible to the grade level.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"Yes, but, although this probably goes under \"modality \"  the \"part\" and \"chapter\" divisions aren't terribly useful. Actually terminology is appropriate but there are so many chapters that consist of a paragraph or two, it doesn't invite comprehensive reading or careful attention from the student.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I would say yes, but, the modules are too small and not comprehensive enough--a lot of lists really. See above.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The actual order is mostly logical and effective.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface is fine--better key word searchable capacities would be great.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar is appropriate.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Yes, the examples are culturally relevant, for example, on issues of police violence and sexual identity. Good job.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"My biggest issue is the lack of comprehensive materials--I understand that the nature of the open- source online resource means less anthologized sources, readings, etc., but I'd like to be able to assign practice examples right from the text, instead of having the students refer to the text for a basic rule and a list then moving into other sources to practice say, verb agreement or point of view. The chapters confuse me--lots of them with little in them and the sections on rhetoric--logos, etc., seem pasted in without sufficient scaffolding.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1490,"first_name":"Sara","last_name":"Atwood","position":"Adjunct instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is an effective primer in grammar for students who are in need of a review, or those who have not had a sound foundation in grammar. It is not comprehensive, in that it is not intended as a course in English grammar; rather, it addresses the grammar problems that tend to be common to many first-year composition students. \n\nIt is also a good basic introduction to the writing process, including sections on drafting, revising, avoiding plagiarism. The book also offers guidance in critical reading, such as analyzing texts, rhetorical concepts, and active reading.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book presents succinct and accurate lessons in basic grammar in an accessible and uncomplicated format.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As the rules of English grammar tend to change very little, this book is likely to remain relevant. Its clear and accessible format will make it appealing to instructors who want a grammar handbook that speaks specifically to the difficulties common to most college composition students.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Prof. Jeffrey's book is very clear and succinct. Grammar is explained and demonstrated by examples. Checklists at the end of each chapter reinforce lessons and provide students with a handy way to test themselves. \n\nLiterary terminology is explained and illustrated by examples.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book follows a consistent format in each chapter, offering clear explanations, examples, and checklists. Prof. Jeffrey walks students through the various necessary steps of the writing process, not just telling them what to do, but showing them how to do it.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book can be easily adapted to classroom teaching. The chapters needn't be taught in strict order, but can be assigned by instructors as needed, depending on the day's lesson and the needs of the class. This flexibility is particularly useful.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The structure of this book is logical and practical, beginning with the more basic concepts (grammar, usage) and progressing to the more complex (writing an essay, revising, and so on). The book clearly addresses the various stages of the writing process without being overwhelming or unnecessarily complicated.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found no interface issues in this book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book's grammar is sound--as it must be in a book about grammar/writing!","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"As this book focuses on the nuts and bolts of writing rather than the substance, it does not have much opportunity to be culturally relevant.' However, where possible, the author uses  inclusive and diverse images or examples.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book is fairly simplistic in language and presentation. However, such an approach is helpful to composition instructors, who are often working with students who have a shaky grasp of English grammar and little experience of composing essays. Mainstream composition textbooks tend to be very long and unnecessarily complex; students often find them intimidating. As an instructor, I find them to be weighed down with extra material that I am unlikely to use. They are also, of course, absurdly expensive. Prof. Jeffrey has written a textbook that demonstrates her knowledge of what first-year compositions students struggle with and how best to address these struggles. Her book reflects the reality of teaching composition and an understanding of what sort of text students will read and learn from.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1526,"first_name":"VINCENT","last_name":"LASNIK","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"A reasonable comprehensiveness for introductory college-level composition courses (WR121) is a strength of About Writing: A Guide.  Many of the basic boilerplate concepts in a Composition I (freshman level) course are included and credibly, coherently explained.  The Table of Contents (TOC) is acceptably (but arbitrarily) organized and delineated.  There are fifty small chapters arrayed in short, easy-to-consume ‘learning chunks’) clustered under eight high-level parts: Composing, Academic Writing, Researching, MLA/APA/CPS, Basic Grammar, Grammatical Sentences, Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges, and Revising.  Easy Call: Part V: Basic Grammar is an unnecessary structure; the only chapter in the unit (i.e., about subordinate clauses) could logically and effectively be included within the core grammar unit—Part VI.\n\nVirtually any text could use some customized reorganization—but that is arguably a subjective/personalized perspective more related to the way each individual teacher approaches writing instruction (in my case across both basic composition (English Composition I—WR121) and intermediate composition (more expository, research-based for English Composition II—WR122) at Rogue Community College.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"See my comments in other sections that impact this issue.  Overall, Jeffrey’s text appears, “accurate, error-free and unbiased.”—but there are, in fact, some glaring errors in the chapters covering APA style.  These errors (some of which are identified elsewhere in my OER review) should be easy to rectify in a subsequent (and needed) revision.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Most of the text describes research-writing strategies that are fairly well-established if not generic to the beginning undergraduate English composition content area; thus, the overall longevity of the existing text is good and will be better once issues like the APA style errors and poor visual display/contrast errors I note have been corrected.  I have made a few suggestions about such an update and offer to assist Robin Jeffrey (gratis and pro bono) in correcting and improving the APA material and example contrast/readability concerns should my collaboration be desired.  For that matter, most OERs might go the more open ‘peer review’ route and assemble a set of active teachers, instructors, and adjunct professors (such as me) who are on the ‘frontlines’ of current praxis for research-based, critical thinking, problem-oriented writing courses across the 11th-12th grade and through the undergraduate and workforce education community.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written is a clear, credible, and cogent prose throughout.  On occasion, the clarity for students might be improved by additional ‘real-world examples’—more ‘showing rather than mere abstract telling/listing of concepts (e.g., in chapters Assessing the Writing Situation, Testing your Thesis, Analyzing a Text, etc.) explicating numerous rules—but a similar constructive criticism could easily be made of nearly all similar OERs.  Example: Merely reminding a student to, “check that your subject is not too broad – narrow it down if necessary” is insufficient to convey the narrowing process (drilling-down to a specific, researchable question).  Try illustrating the ‘topic selection’ task by a series of increasingly granular topics such as: (1) Climate Change —\u0026gt; (2) anthropogenic global warming —\u0026gt; (3) need for preserving biosphere species diversity —\u0026gt; (4) overpopulation, habitat depletion due to human encroachment, agriculture, ranching, and species endangerment/extinction —\u0026gt; the consequences and implications for the destruction of the Great Barrier reef of Australia (as a case study).  ‘Showing’ is often much better instructionally than merely ‘telling.’","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text wording, terminology, framework and process emphasis are generally consistent although there are too many fonts, text highlighting effects that reduce readability, etc. that I have reported elsewhere in my OER review.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The chapters and exercises are highly modular—which supports the customized reorganization of assigned readings, examples, and exercises I apply in my own courses as noted in my other comments.  The text, however, is clearly not, “overly self-referential,” and each chapter can easily be, “reorganized and realigned with various subunits” of an individual teacher’s course design without presenting much ‘disruption to the reader.’","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text does begin at a good foundational overview level; Parts I, II, and III particularly appear in a cogent and coherent sequence/order for beginning/entering students in expository, research-based essay courses.  The fact remains About Writing: A Guide is quite similar to many other OERs (e.g., Krause, 2007) in its idiosyncratic, arbitrary unit, chapter, and overall organizational scheme.  This is not a unique criticism.  One of the principal weaknesses of any textbook’s set of chapters is that the given ‘table of contents’ structure is arbitrarily organized and therefore somewhat conceptually disjointed—at least insofar as my research writing courses are designed.  Therefore, to provide a more coherent, logical sequence congruent to the course organization of my Writing 122 (this is an intermediate/advanced-level English Composition II)—I would freely assign a different/customized) order of high-level chapters/pages for weekly course reading assignments.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text is not fancy; standard black and white (high-contrast) font used throughout.  For emphasis of key points, Jeffrey does use gray background, rounded ‘highlight boxes.’  The text font should either be a larger and/or bolder, easier-to-read against the gray background highlight; the gray level could be lowered (in the next update) for improved contrast.  The other obvious ‘visual perception’ design error is found in the ‘Examples’ boxes and text.  These rounded boxes are duo-tone: the top component contains the high-contrast white-on-violet moniker, ‘Examples’ (fine)—but again, the accompanying prose examples (on the lower component) are a thin, unbolded, too-light, and uneasy to read font on a lowered-violet background.  There are other related contrast problems: the use of maroon text on a light-maroon highlight in example text in Chapters 48-50.  These types of ‘unforced errors’ (the grayed-back and violet-back text boxes, the maroon on light maroon highlights) reduce readability and thus usability and display incorrect visual contrast (particularly difficult for vision-challenged readers) that unfortunately runs counter to sound information visualization research (e.g., See Information Visualization: Perception for Design [2nd ed.] by Colin Ware, 2004, particularly Chapter 3: Lightness, Brightness, Contrast, and Constancy).  in addition, there are a number of truly poor graphics and graphic organizer figures (e.g., the flowcharts in Chapter 32’s ‘Should you use -S (or -es) for a Present-tense Verb?’; Chapter 33’s ‘Is your Sentence a Fragment?’; Chapter 34’s ‘Is your Sentence a Run-on?’; and Chapter 35’s ‘Does your Sentence have a Dangling Modifier’ are simply awful and unacceptable).  The good news is that these visual display errors should be easy to correct in subsequent editions of About Writing.\n\nOtherwise, most of the book’s interface presentation supports an adequate user (student) experience, printability, and accessibility per ADA and general disability (e.g., visually impaired learners) protocols—but requires solid improvement in the update to better exemplify the best practices and research-grounded principles of universal information design.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are no significant grammatical errors in the text.  I am not a ‘grammar snob’ (nor a pure grammar expert) in any case; Jeffrey’s prose seems clear, cogent, thoughtful, well-written; it generally uses solid grammar, mechanics, and punctuation.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I do not see significant, relevant, or glaring faux pas pertaining to any biased disrespect for multiculturalism.  All persons (e.g., races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and different cultural backgrounds) are equally respected and appreciated.  The content area (English composition) is very amenable to a relatively generic, culture-free perspective—and Jeffrey’s examples and prose is well-within any applicable standards of post-modern, scholarly, formal non-fiction in written Standard English.  Part VII is formally titled ‘Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges,’ but again, while these 12 chapters would certainly be appropriate remediation for non-native English (ESL) writers—this same material would also be very helpful remediation to many native English speakers/writers on the college freshman level., so the labeling of the unit seems more ‘politically correct’ than functionally compelling (i.e., only targeting ESL multilingual students) from my perspective.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"[1] About Writing: A Guide (Revised ed.) was published to Creative Commons in 2016.  There are many insightful, practical, and straightforward approaches to the basic academic research writing process; in this regard— About Writing is appropriate for late high-school and beginning college (undergraduate) research essay courses in English composition.  Even though some of the technical components (e.g., APA style, text/visual presentation of highlighted examples) require updating/revision—Jeffrey’s condensed, simplified chapters can effectively augment (and remediate!) the core knowledge and skills of entry-level college writers.  The modular Jeffrey OER (like the Krause and Guptill text) is ‘learner-centered’ (as opposed to ‘content centered’), problem-oriented and performance-oriented as well—providing opportunities for creative, resourceful teachers to adapt/adopt the OER to course assignments.\n\n[2]  Like Guptill (but unlike Krause)—About Writing is a single, convenient standalone PDF.  I would not change that!  The Krause (2007) OER should also be made into a single PDF as I observed in my review of The Process of Research Writing.\n\n[3]  GOOD in About Writing: While there are some very poor visuals in the book (e.g., the flowcharts noted in other parts of my review)—thankfully, Chapter 8: Visuals that help you Communicate (pp. 14-22; the material on the use of visuals and figures, charts, infographics, etc.) is actually quite good!  That is a pleasant observation and makes that specific chapter particularly useful in expository, research-based essay writing on the college level.  Why this chapter’s infographics were decent and the flowcharts in chapters 32-35 so poor I have no idea.\n\n[4] There are obvious organizational foibles such as needlessly separating Chapter 30 on Subordinate Clauses into a standalone unit on ‘Basic Grammar.’  This makes no sense whatsoever; Chapters 30-35 should clearly be subsumed under a general ‘Grammar’ division.  Chapter 29 (CMS Signal Phrases) only contains a basic list of active verbs to use in any/all signal phrasing regardless of manuscript publication style (MLA, APA, or Chicago).  Numerous similar publication discrepancies can be found throughout the book—so a new revision is recommended to eliminate as many of these issues.  Also, there is no important reason to essentially duplicate the list of verbs (with arbitrary grammatical differences like ‘admits’ (for MLA) versus ‘admitted’ (for APA).\n\n[5]  The chapters support good modularity overall.  Nevertheless, integrating any textbooks (printed or digital OERs) always has tradeoffs—plusses and minuses, positives and negatives.  The obvious ‘instructor’s imperative,’ therefore, is taking the liberty of using any source as a supporting scaffold or buttress to the particular course design concepts—rather than the core foundation around which a course can be quickly and effectively designed.\n\n[6]  One minor (perhaps picayune) weakness for research-based prose instruction is Jeffrey’s acceptance of passive, sophomoric signal phrasing (i.e., According to McGuffin and Cross,)—as opposed to always strongly advocating the nonpareil authority of active voice signal phrasing such as ‘’ McGuffin and Cross found…’; and   This is not meant as a harsh criticism—merely an observation that readability could be improved with a newer version that eliminates most quotation marks (Note: In APA style—these punctuation symbols are only used for verbatim quotes.  This makes for a cleaner, clearer manuscript).\n\n[7]  It appears that like many academics—Jeffrey is more familiar and comfortable with the Modern Language Association’s MLA style/formatting.  No problem there—I was simply trained on APA beginning in 1984 so it is native to me; I also use the latest version of APA style in all of my writing (college composition) courses.  Thus—it should come as no surprise there are a number of obvious APA-associated inaccuracies including: ‘In “Fighting Anti-Trans Violence”’ [incorrect use of quotations around any source title] and assigning the MLA  ‘Works Cited’ moniker for the APA end references section instead of the correct ‘References,’ etc.).  This makes that specific APA style chapter virtually useless in my WR122 (English Composition II) course.  A thorough, meticulous updating of this OER source would probably take care of many of these APA-error issues.  I’d be happy to work with Robin on this update at any time.\n\n[8]  I have been using Amy Guptill’s Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence (2016) for my English Composition I course that emphasizes general essay writing and a simple research-supported argumentative essay.  I teach WR121 using the following assigned readings:  Week One:  Chapter 1 (Really? Writing? Again?), pp. 1-7, and Chapter 2 (What Does the Professor Want? Understanding the Assignment), pp. 9-18; Week Two:  Chapter 6 (Back to Basics: The Perfect Paragraph), pp. 48-56; Chapter 7 (Intros and Outros), pp. 57-64; Week Four: Chapter 9 (Getting the Mechanics Right), pp. 75-85; Week Five: Chapter 8 (Clarity and Concision), pp. 65-73; Week Six: Chapter 3 (Constructing the Thesis and Argument—From the Ground Up), pp. 19-27; Week Seven: Chapter 4 (Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats), pp. 28-37; Week Eight: Chapter 5 (Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources), pp. 38-47.  I have also included Creative Common’s The Process of Research Writing by Steve Krause (2007) as a secondary source in WR121.  See my online review of Krause’s OER book for in-depth detail about how I changed the chapter order assignments to improve the logical progression for intermediate/advanced composition students.  It makes sense to keep Krause’s OER as a more advanced, secondary source in WR121—while adding Jeffrey’s About Writing as a supplemental tutorial/remedial source in both WR121 and WR122.\n\n[10]  OER Deployment in English Composition courses.  I contend the three OERs (one each by Jeffrey, Krause, and Guptill, respectively) are best used in conjunction with other freely available online resources such as websites, YouTube videos, tutorial/practice sites from innumerable libraries, blogs (e.g., the APA Blog is particularly helpful)—as well as original/customized sources created by individual instructors for their own courses.  Jeffrey’s Guide will offer an excellent summary of basic grammar, editing/revision, and beginning research essays for first-year college students.  This OER will be particularly helpful for late-returning, non-traditional adult students who need English skill remediation or a simplified, uncluttered, unimposing refresher to more intermediate/advanced courses such as English Composition II (WR122).\n\n[11]  Adopting About Writing: A Guide as my Secondary OER in WR121.  I currently use (and plan to keep) Krause as my primary OER in WR122—along with a myriad of original, customized additional/supplemental mini-OERs I create and produce myself for both WR121/122.  Rogue Community College, Writing 122 emphasizes intermediate essay writing and analytical, more rigorous and original research-based essays involving critical thinking.  For English Composition I (WR121) only, however, I now plan to replace The Process of Research Writing with About Writing: A Guide text (Jeffrey, 2016).  The Jeffrey Guide offers a good, solid baseline for developing expository writing competencies particularly appropriate for the first year of college (WR121), but also helpful as a supplemental/remedial source for WR122.  Freshman-level students will benefit also from the grammar tutorials in About Writing that nicely complement the rich array of information presented Writing in College (Guptill, 2016).  Conversely—the Jeffrey Guide can be a tertiary (third or second supplement) background source in the more advanced WR122 course for any students in need of additional remediation (e.g., late-returning students separated from their past WR115 and/or WR121 course prerequisites; ESL","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1693,"first_name":"F. Daniel","last_name":"Rzicznek","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"Bowling Green State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text seems very comprehensive and I liked how it was organized. This organization was reflected in the table of contents. The fact that various subjects related to writing have been compartmentalized will help students find what they're looking for and avoid what does not apply to them. The book has no glossary, which seems like a drawback.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Yes, the content feels accurate and unbiased. I noticed no errors.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I would say that 85% of the book is up-to-date will remain relevant for a long period of time. The rules of grammar, strategies for writing, and details regarding how to conduct solid research are unlikely to change in the immediate future. Other details, however, change rapidly, such as the rules of MLA documentation. I noticed that the MLA section of this textbook is already out of date. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Most certainly, the text uses diction and syntax that undergraduate students can easily understand. Any jargon that was used was explained fully. I also appreciated that the text's information was commonly presented in the form of bullet points and visuals. I find that students find this type of presentation more accessible and digestible than the classic \"wall of prose\" hat many textbooks commonly utilize. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I may have already answered this above, but the book felt very consistent in terms of tone, diction, and vocabulary. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Yes, this was one of the immediately outstanding positive features of the book: how the various subjects are compartmentalized into succinct and focused chapters. In the past, I've used textbooks that are arranged by type of assignment instead of subject matter. The approach offered by About Writing: A Guide strikes me as much more logical and natural!","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Yes, the organization is very effective. I liked how the book started with composing and research before discussing documentation and grammar, two subjects that are guaranteed to frustrate and overwhelm students as they become acquainted with academic writing process.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The charts and visuals in chapter one are slightly grainy and sometimes hard to read. I did not experience any other interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors, which is a good thing, considering that the grammar is one of the text's chief subjects.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"None of the examples that the book includes read as cultural insensitive or offensive to me. One idea to note is that there is a chapter entitled \"Multilingual Writers and ESL Challenges.\" Much of the info covered in this chapter is relevant also to native speakers.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"None.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1725,"first_name":"James","last_name":"Rajotte","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides a very robust discussion of the main components of writing while not being too detailed and lengthy. Adequate coverage of the concepts listed within the table of contents. A few more examples could be included with the questions and guides throughout the book. Additionally, concepts such as writing for different types of media or an introduction to white papers would be helpful.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The question-based nature of presenting core concepts via student reflections avoids any bias and promotes self discovery. The grammatical flow charts are a good tool and appear accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The organization of and sectioning/sub-sectioning of core concepts makes the ability to update this document quite simple. The question-based format of some of the sections help to ensure the content does not become outdated.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book contains clear definitions and explanations throughout, using bolded font or colored boxes to highlight key points. While I am not sure of the reading level for this book, continuing education students, adult learners, and students with English as a second language may not find all the words easily understood. For example, words like \"segment\" are used instead of simply saying \"part\" to describe the concept. Visuals that sum up each section would also be helpful for those who are visual learners.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"No issues with consistency in formatting, terminology, or level of detail presented were identified.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Overall, the book was well-laid out and provided for easy navigation. The section on revising could be improved to include more sub-headings or colored examples to given the amount of text contained within that component.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The checklists were very helpful and could benefit from having actual check-boxes instead of bullets. Students would then be able to print these down and use them for assignments.  This could particularly be useful for the peer-review section.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Some of the graphs and charts in this text are rather small. While the content doesn't matter entirely to the formatting and the writing associated with the graphs, students may find this frustrating.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were identified.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There were no insensitive cultural references noted in this text. The only cultural issue might be the applicability of this book for those with limited English proficiency.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This was a really great textbook that had an appropriate amount of length associated with it. It is unlikely that students are to be overwhelmed given its relatively small page limit. An accompanying practice workbook for self-reflections and exercises might be a nice addition.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1759,"first_name":"Zdenko","last_name":"Juskuv","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Jeffrey's text is quite comprehensive, covering all the basics of writing, including composing, revising, researching and grammar. However, the text does fall short in a few areas. First, it doesn't offer a lot of information/advice on brainstorming/freewriting. A page on \"generating ideas\" would be a great addition to a future edition. I also didn't see any sample student essays or even very many short passages from texts, so any instructor using this should have his or her own samples ready. Lastly, while his text is quite comprehensive, it sticks to the basics. Some more advanced elements of style or some of the finer elements of argument are not covered/discussed.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Jeffrey's text is highly accurate. However, since this isn't a history or scientific textbook, what I mean by \"accurate\" is that is that the information in this text is very similar to what you'd find in other texts. This is not a criticism, but a compliment. It's nice to know that you can learn from this free text what you'd get from texts that cost $50+","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe that the information in Jeffrey's text will remain relevant for a long time--certainly for as long as students are required to write college essays. As I wrote above, the information in this text is the kind writing instructors have been teaching for years, and what makes for good grammar and writing does not change very much, so I would expect that this text can be used for years to come.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity is this text's greatest strength. My chief criticism of many writing books is that their prose is far too complex or verbose. On the other hand, I can confidently say that any student will find Jeffrey's text easy to read. Additionally, his writing is relatively free of jargon. Any technical terms that are used are clearly defined. Most importantly, the author often uses the second person to address the reader, which I think will help students make a connection with the text. The author also asks the reader to imagine themselves in specific writing situations. As a result, not only is the writing accessible, it's also relatable.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text is quite consistent in its presentation, style and tone. For instance, section and subsection headings look the same throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I would absolutely agree that the text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. First, the text is divided into large chapters/sections that deal with the different parts of the writing process, i.e. composing, researching, MLA Formatting, etc. Second, each page can be assigned/read on it's own. For example, the text's information about planning a document is all on one page, while its advice about using visuals in a text is on its own, separate page. Therefore, it would be incredibly easy for an instructor to pick and choose what he or she wants to use.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I found this text to be extremely well-organized. As I mentioned above, the text is organized around different aspects of and steps in writing. This makes it easy to find what you're looking for. Additionally, the table of contents is easy to navigate and just one click on a section or subsection title takes the reader to the appropriate page. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This text has a great interface. The presentation is simple and clear, and each page is uncluttered. As I said above, navigating through the pages or through the table of contents is quite easy.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any grammar issues/problems in this text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not see anything in this text that I think would be considered culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"All in all, a great little text that provides excellent insights and lessons on the fundamentals of writing, revising and researching.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1953,"first_name":"Sharon","last_name":"Burns","position":"Associate Professor of English","institution_name":"University of Cincinnati Clermont College","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"Basic in both form and format, this book takes a simplistic approach to college-level writing that is relatively straightforward in its attention to the composing process. The book is definitely accessible and user-friendly for students and instructors; however, it lacks detailed guidance to support student learning.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate but incomplete; it presumes that students come to the academy with prior knowledge about writing in general. This is often not the case.  For example, under the “Test Your Thesis” section, Jeffrey takes for granted that students know how to approach writing a thesis statement and provides no instruction.  In the section on “Active Reading” Jeffrey tells students, “Every author has a purpose; find it”, but students are given no direction for how to even begin this discovery process.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is relevant and will likely remain so, since the writing process is a consistent practice.  As research supports it, new methods for teaching this process should be included in future updates of the book.  ","clarity_rating":1,"clarity_review":"While the content included in the book is appropriate, other content is completely missing.  For example, the book assumes students have a working knowledge of grammar.  In the section on verb tense, students are led through a series of question to determine when to use an -s or -es.  One of the questions asks if the subject is a “singular indefinite pronoun”.  This type of grammar review is challenging for many students at this level, yet there is no guidance for understanding these terms or determining answers to questions like these.  The grammar section is written like an equation that can simply be solved.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"While the book is accessible, it presumes students’ familiarity with writing discourse.  Jeffrey defines some of the more challenging rhetorical concepts (e.g., ethos, pathos) but assumes students understand what to do when they are asked to do things like summarize or analyze. ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The book is broken into small sections, which makes it less intimidating; however, some of the sections could be combined for better continuity.  This book needs a companion reader or a broad selection of supplemental readings to provide context for students and to support instruction. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The book is well organized from composing to revising; however, the section on grammar is the largest and most comprehensive section.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is clear and precise in its simplicity with headings, graphics, and bullet points to guide the reader and highlight information.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text has no grammatical errors and is written in clear, concise language. ","cultural_rating":1,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally neutral.  In future updates, Jeffery should provide examples that are culturally diverse to ensure representation and applicability across student populations.","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"The lack of detailed directions throughout the text eliminates the scaffolding needed for students to successfully learn, retain, and transfer knowledge.  ","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2064,"first_name":"Jamie","last_name":"Daugherty","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Fontbonne University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Writing is a large topic and I like how the guide breaks this subject matter down into sections highlighting composition, academic writing, researching and even grammar and editing in general.  This guide focuses on the broadness of different writing styles but allows opportunity for some overlap between styles when discussing grammar and sentence structure.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Based on what reviewed the information appears to be accurate.  The writing in this guide speaks to a general audience and also includes some basic information on grammar as a review for the unseasoned writer.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information seems relevant and could easily be updated in the future to accommodate any changes which need to be made if warranted.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The information provided seems fairly clear and is presented in a clear fashion.  There is text and visuals that helps to explain the material; the information presented in different ways helps to gain understanding on the subject matter of writing. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The information seems consistent throughout, though could be presented in a different order.  Some of the material presented later, may have been more helpful presented earlier.  However, the table of contents helps to guide the reader and the reader can use the information they need at varying times.  ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I like that it is organized to help the reader meet their most pressing needs.  However, I would have liked to have seen a brief introduction on how best to use the book.  This guide does not need to be read in sequential order and though that is implied it would help the reader if introduced that way in the beginning.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Some parts could be adjusted so the guide would flow to assist the reader.  There were parts that felt out of sequence.  There is a discussion about plagiarism and then later different citation methods are presented.  Some information feels disjointed.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It flows well and visuals are easy to read on a tablet or phone. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not note any errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There is a photo that represents a cultural diverse audience and there is a section that focuses on multilingual writers and ESL challenges which provides information that would be helpful for any reader or individual who wants to improve their writing. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like the visuals and easy to read charts.  I appreciate the flow charts in the grammatical sentences section.  This could be a guide to be used across disciplines to continue to enhance writing practices. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2148,"first_name":"Jeffrey","last_name":"Baluch","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is user friendly and offers a cornucopia of quick references whether it be for grammar usage, proper citation rules,  revision strategies or getting started.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book appears accurate and provides easy access to students with questions about areas ranging from brainstorming ideas to revision.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book reflects basic tenets \u0026amp; terminology that fellow colleagues at my institution use in the classroom and professional developments areas.  The text is both relevant and timeless.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The content is clear and aided by visually friendly, uncluttered page layouts.  The student is able to focus on key points without being overwhelmed by dense paragraphs.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"There are no surprises or inconsistencies in this book.  There is a  logical progression of ideas, concepts, and simple instructions\nfrom start to finish.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The text and layout are no frills - perhaps a bit lacking in variety.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Well-organized, user-friendly and informative.  An ideal manual for first year freshmen and ESL students who may have questions that they are too shy to ask their instructors about in class.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This book is well-organized, informative and easy-to-use.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The grammar points are comprehensive and easy to digest for the reader.  It serves as a ready reference point for native and non-native writers alike.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"There is a cultural neutrality to the text.  It is neither biased nor nebulous.  It welcomes the reader with an overview about types of Writing styles and builds sequentially from there.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I feel the layout could be enhanced by adding color variants, images or graphic elements that could serve to highlight\nkey points in grammar usage for ESL students.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2296,"first_name":"Jacinta","last_name":"Galea'i","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"At first glance, the contents do offer instructors a comprehensive list of key writing areas that should be covered in a college writing class. For example, it includes topics like writing styles, active reading, and assessing writing situations to more practical areas like conventions, revision, and checklists. It also includes discussions on common challenges for multilingual and ESL writers from diverse backgrounds. The beginning instructor of writing would find these discussions useful, but the experienced instructor, seeking a more in-depth and detailed coverage of these areas, may find it very basic. Overall, the text is useful as a “guide” for instructors and definitely useful for students looking for basic guidance in college writing.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The guide is fairly accurate but not detailed nor in-depth enough, especially for students. It assumes that students enter college with prior knowledge to understand some of the more abstract concepts. For example, the sections on logical fallacies, rhetorical concepts, and point of view lack detailed discussions and lessons to help students understand these complex concepts.  \n\nThe guide is very basic and practical in style and approach. As a writing instructor, however, I am always looking for strategies to teach writing with a lens of equity and inclusion, and while there is a section on evaluating bias for research materials, the guide definitely does not address these critical areas. The overview in this section is still helpful as an introduction.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The topics are accurate but perhaps incomplete. Updating it is very do-able, as it would require adding more in-depth discussions of what is already in the text and adding more recent pedagogy on issues like inclusion and equity in the teaching of college writing.  \n\nThe section on MLA should be updated.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The information is accessible and clear to instructors but may prove confusing to students who are beginners to college writing and from diverse backgrounds.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent but some areas have more details than others. The sections on rhetorical concepts, logicial fallacies, and point of view need more details.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Although the organization of the text might be useful for reference or in planning writing lessons, it would have been helpful if the guide included a brief introduction on how it should be used. I see using it as a checklist.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization is fine as a reference, but if using it to inform lesson planning,  the current organization - conceptually - might not be so useful.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface is simple; not fancy so it is easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No issues with grammar errors found.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Although there is a section on ESL and multilingual writers, the text could still provide more examples that are relevant for writers from diverse backgrounds and an in-depth and genuine discussion on inclusion and equity, especially since the student demographics continue to change in higher education.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"A worthy “guide” on the basics of teaching writing, especially as a reference on the fundamentals of writing, research, and revising.","created_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2299,"first_name":"Erica","last_name":"Braverman","position":"Part-time English Composition Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text offers a comprehensive range of areas and ideas for writing students and teachers. The table of contents is well organized and easy to navigate.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate. It is a bit prescriptive, though. Some teachers may like this—it seems to read as a kind-of helpful, instructional “how to” for students—and some teachers may not. In a lower level writing class, this could be effective, but it does feel a bit pedantic.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This seems to be one of the text's main strengths. It covers all areas that would likely be taught in a writing class, but its spareness makes it adaptable. Teachers would need to elaborate on many parts of the text with supplements or a specific context, but for that reason I think it would have a broad appeal.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text is mostly clear and accessible, but some parts might be confusing or dense to a new writing student, especially if the teacher did not cover the material in class. This was especially true for the academic or argumentative sections, which pose rhetorical questions to students to get them to analyze writing.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book's consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is adaptable and could easily be reorganized and realigned. Again, this is one of the text's strengths.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are well organized and easy to navigate.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free of interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The prose is free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book does not include any cultural or topical information. Again, it just covers key areas that a writing teacher might use in a Comp class. The text would probably need to be supplemented with outside models/examples.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-08-02T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2368,"first_name":"Jenn","last_name":"Kamrar","position":"English Faculty","institution_name":"Columbia Gorge Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is comprehensive, yes, but where it has breadth, it lacks depth. Indeed, this text could not be used as a stand alone teaching option; it is, primarily, a guide — and rough one at that. The first part of the book, “Composition” is clear, but adequate in introducing the purpose and main components of writing. However, by and large, it only offers definitions, while severely lacking crucial examples. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"What the text lacks in depth, it makes up for in accuracy. In my review, I did not encounter any errors or bias.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is relevant, as it discusses the “bones” of writing, there is not much to change, except for current stylistic guidelines and examples (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text is clear, but again, it should be because it doesn’t offer much beyond concise definitions as related to writing. That said, I do feel that these definitions could be more clearly formatted; indeed, the use of a bold font type to indicate important, separate concepts would be helpful — especially for beginner/first year college students.\r\nAdditionally, I would rearrange listed concepts or examples in some of the charts for relevancy. For instance, when listing examples of descriptive writing, the first example is “poetry” followed by “journal/diary writing,” then “descriptions of nature,” then “fictional novels or plays.” I would rearrange this listing to reflect the relevancy to the student reader. As they are assigned fiction in literature courses, perhaps starting there, to then be followed by poetry, plays, journals, etc.  \r\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in its clarity and tone.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is easily and readily divisible for reorganization or realignment. It is not in the least self-referential. However, if divided into smaller reading sections, the material covered would be scant (again, because of lack of examples), and thus does not lend itself to being read in smaller sections. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is mostly presented in a logical, clear fashion. In editing the text, however, I would introduce “Understanding the Assignment” section through the  “Checklist: Planning a Document” section BEFORE “Types of Writing Styles” are introduced. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text’s interface is clear. For future revision, I would ask that the charts, such as “Transitions” on page 13, be larger; additionally, the graphs on page 15 are both rather small and challenging to read.  The pie chart on page 14 is rather pixelated, and could be reformatted as well. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text’s grammar is nearly without error. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text, happily, is gender neutral. While I’ve stated repeatedly that the text needs more examples, should a revision occur, I would implore the author to include culturally-relevant examples for a diverse student body.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"As a whole, the text functions as a skeleton for understanding writing, and it does just that. It stands up;  it is clear. But it is, ultimately, a skeleton in need of flesh. ","created_at":"2018-11-08T15:35:02.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-08T15:35:02.000-06:00"},{"id":2524,"first_name":"Randi","last_name":"Ploszaj","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Morton College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, the text provides a good introduction to basic academic writing principles and skills. Some sections would benefit from extended examples to model skills for novice writers. For example, \"How to: Write a Summary\" succinctly presents the elements of a summary. An application of these elements to a paragraph summary model would help a student to begin a similar assignment or check existing work. Additional examples in the grammar exercises would also be helpful. For example, many developmental writers will not know if their sentences \"contain more than one independent clause.\" Several examples of the errors in context paired with and possible correct sentences would bring the flow charts to life in terms of application. The examples for \"Multicultural Writers and ESL Challenges\" are much more robust and instructive than the \"Basic Grammar\" section.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The section on the Rhetorical Concepts is key for many new college readers and writers! However, the section links the participants of the rhetorical situation (author, text, and audience) with the modes of persuasion (ethos, logos, and pathos), which are not necessarily linked. A writer may persuade with any of these means, but the text implies that the author only is responsible for ethical concerns, the audience is only persuaded by an emotional plea, etc. This section would be clearer if presented in two distinct parts. Additionally, the \"MLA Citation Examples\" section needs to be updated per MLA 8th Edition standards. The provided Works Cited Entries in this section are incorrect. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The MLA section is currently out of date, but this section could be easily updated and replaced. The remainder of the text is current and relevant. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written in mostly accessible language. The questions for \"Active Reading\" are particularly helpful for readers being taught to annotate for the first time. The list format and simple syntax are easy to use as a reference for students. The majority of the paragraph-based sections are manageable to digest for lower level readers, which is particularly helpful in the developmental writing classroom.  The \"Revision\" section shifts tones, engages lengthier prose, and utilizes substantially more challenging vocabulary. The values expressed in explaining the importance of evidence analysis are thoughtful, but the use of lofty phrases, such as \"a pastiche of strung-together quotations,\" may discourage or confuse introductory students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The framework of the \"Revising\" section is strikingly different from the other list-based and chart-oriented sections. The terminology of the text is generally consistent with that expected of a introductory level composition and rhetoric course. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easily divisible and assignable according to topic and theme. The sections follow the logical flow of the writing process to mimic the natural student progression in a writing course. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics of the text are well organized and easy to located according to the table of contents.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The textual interface is clear and focused. All charts and images are easily visible. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar of the text's writing is correct and appropriate per Standard Edited English guidelines. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is mostly inclusive and not offensive in any way. The text does employ grammatical terms with which students may not be familiar, depending on their academic background. A glossary of terms at the end of the text or definition of key terms on related pages would make this text more inclusive for those students who have never received formal grammar training. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-01-14T16:26:55.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-01-14T16:26:55.000-06:00"},{"id":2621,"first_name":"Colleen","last_name":"Boardman","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Linn-Benton Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The chapters in this book concerned with the values of academic writing, composition, and basic research were reasonably comprehensive while remaining short and to the point. However, I felt as if the chapter on basic grammar was an afterthought, as it only had one section on subordinate clauses (while never explaining what those are, or their functions). Similarly, the chapters on grammatical sentences and multilingual learners were quite robust in terms of information (there were a lot of lists and flow charts for determining proper grammar), yet they would likely work better as individual reference handouts and posters in a classroom than as assigned textbook reading. \r\nI could not locate an index or glossary, although the online textbook was searchable by keyword. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found all the information presented in this textbook to be accurate and reliable to the best of my knowledge. I found the more lengthy chapters to be true to academic today, and not misleading in any way. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"All information in this textbook seemed quite relevant, except for the MLA citation guidelines. It appears this textbook was published before MLA 8 was released. Therefore, the MLA citation examples such as \"WORKS CITED ENTRY FOR AN ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL\" follow the outdated MLA 7 format. As a result, I would not be able to use a few large sections of this textbook in my course, which relies on MLA 8 citation.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The textbook was written in incredibly clear and straightforward language. However, I believe the sections on basic parts of speech and grammar could be supplemented with some descriptive and introductory text - as of now, they act more as reference pages than teaching tools. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent with its terminology and method of explanation and approach to writing. The format is uniform throughout, and easy to navigate. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This textbook is quite easy to break into modules. I found many chapters and sections to be especially helpful as potential in-class worksheet activities. Additionally, the textbook is minimally self-referential and could be easily rearranged to fit the progression of many introductory or intermediate writing classes. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization was straightforward and clear throughout this textbook. However, I suggest that keywords and important disciplinary phrases be somehow distinguished throughout the text in some way (boldfaced, underlined, or italicized). As a visual learner myself, a bit more structure and symbolic guidance in this text would go a long way for my retention of key ideas. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no issues navigating this online textbook. The table of contents is easily accessible at any point while reading in the textbook, and linear navigation is easily accessible at the bottom of the browser window. I found that the text did not overdo self-referential hyperlinks, which was a relief (as those can sometimes become overwhelming in online resources). ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I could not find any grammatical errors or incoherent sentences in this textbook.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This textbook was straightforward about the challenges that multilingual learners may face when in a writing class. It did not attempt to speak for ESL students in any way, and instead provided a set of easy-to-understand grammatical guides for these students to reference when writing and editing their work. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I will be using sections of this textbook to supplement a physical textbook for a research writing course at a community college. Additionally, I will draw upon the basic grammar sections of this book as needed for students who repeatedly struggle with certain grammatical ideas. I plan on using at least 50% of the total material in this book for this research writing class, as supplemental readings, handouts, and adapted as worksheets and activities (with credit given, of course).  ","created_at":"2019-03-05T18:52:11.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-03-05T18:52:11.000-06:00"},{"id":2660,"first_name":"James","last_name":"Gapinski","position":"Instructional Specialist","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"ABOUT WRITING is a handbook, pure and simple. It is concise and pointed. It gives the nuts and bolts of essay writing. If you’re looking for an intertextual reader that includes a lot of fully fleshed out examples, look elsewhere. If you want a handbook that can demystify and deconstruct the process for a beginning writer, this is the ticket. It is relatively comprehensive within its well-defined borders. This book does not chase each thread to the deepest and most satisfying conclusion, but it doesn’t feel like it was ever designed to be a behemoth of endless information. It’s a quick reference that students can pick up when they have a writing question that demands a direct answer. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is accurate and thorough. I do not notice errors in fact. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"ABOUT WRITING is mostly relevant and current. It goes over the basic writing process, and it probes some nuance on how to best incorporate charts, images, and other nontextual features within an essay. In short, students who ready this book will learn how to construct a solid paper for today’s college-level writing courses. Its one downfall is the MLA section. As a previous reviewer mentioned, some of the guidelines provided are already out of date. With some targeted updates, that particular section could be dramatically improved. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This handbook is clear and pointed. The language is free of jargon, and new terms are readily defined for students. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"ABOUT WRITING has consistent formatting throughout, and it is easy to navigate. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"ABOUT WRITING is a highly modular text. Information is chunked and grouped with regular headings and subheadings. I like how many chapters feature bulleted lists of information; this helps break down information into quick, digestible pieces for students. I could easily see this text being divided into units. Moreover, the attention to modular design also serves in-class activities, and it’d be easy to segment chapters for a think-pair-share activity or something similar. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"This book is presented in a logical order. Chapters have clear structures for easy readability. However, there could be more attention to the flow of ideas. Chapters begin abruptly and dive into new information without much preamble or contextualization for students. Moreover, each chapter ends just as abruptly. Recaps and summaries could help students process what they have learned. As aforementioned, this is more of a handbook than a textbook; with that in-mind, the brevity and lack of overt transitions is more understandable. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"ABOUT WRITING is offered in several formats, and students can access the text on a variety of devices. The content is malleable and adaptable to meet student needs. My chosen interface was the print PDF download. It is clean and well-formatted; I was able to navigate the book with ease. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice major grammatical concerns. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"ABOUT WRITING abdicates its cultural responsibility. It avoids discussing ESOL student concerns in the writing process, and it does not directly address writing as a mode of sociocultural expression. While the book tries to project a veneer of neutrality, this lack of intersectional discussion is itself a stance. Erasing the cultural components of writing only serves to alienate and marginalize students who read this book. There is nothing overtly offensive in this book, but its silence is deafening. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This straightforward handbook provides a good reference point for students. I would not adopt it as a course’s exclusive text, but it could work well if paired with supplemental readings to fill in some gaps. ","created_at":"2019-03-13T09:44:31.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-13T09:44:31.000-05:00"},{"id":2900,"first_name":"Jessica","last_name":"Parker","position":"Director of First Year Writing/Associate Professor","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University of Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is a basic handbook.  It has brief coverage of MLA, APA, and CMS citation, but would need to be supplemented with more material on citation style for a class focused on research writing.  The coverage of typical issues with things like sentence structure and issues facing ESOL students is quite good; it doesn't provide every detail, but does provide what a student needs to find and fix sentence boundary issues, issues with preposition use, etc.  The explanation of rhetorical situation and rhetorical appeals are brief and quite different than typical.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"This handook equates logos with text and pathos with audience.  While I see the connections, this is quite different than the ways these are often taught; this is something to be aware of in considering adopting the text.  The MLA citation information has not been updated and would need supplementing in any class that teaches MLA style.  The text also divides all writing into four styles: expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative.  This is not a great fit for a genre-based class or one that looks more modes or one that defines style differently than this.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Because this text covers the basics, it is centered on foundational issues in the teaching and learning of writing.  Because it is strongly focused on the basics, it most relevant to a developmental class or only the 1st semester of a two semester sequence. The citation style information is contained in a single part of the book that would be quite simple to update.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written with a tone and register that make it easily accessible to students without talking down to them.  It is a quick and accessible read which is a key feature in a handbook since students need to be able to either quickly look up particular information or read a complete section for a fuller sense of a topic.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in tone and information.  While the approach to things like the rhetorical situation is unique, it is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is a very easy to use handbook.  The Table of Contents clearly identifies where to find information, and you can easily use the sections of the book in a way that makes the most sense for how your course is organized.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"This is organized in ways similar to most handbooks.  Material is well organized, but could be used in a variety of orders to meet different student and class needs.  I do think the section on revising would be better placed before the information on grammar and mechanics.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This was easy to read in PDF.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any issues with the grammar of the text.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Multilingual and ESL are used interchangeably, which is problematic.  Many mutlilingual students grew up speaking more than one language and really are native English speakers.  They are not the traditional \"ESL\" student, and it would be more sensitive to not lump the groups together.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"While this book would not be a good fit for all classes, for teachers that share this perspective on the four styles or writing and the unique approach to rhetorical situation, this is a concise and cost-effective handbook.","created_at":"2019-05-13T09:29:22.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-13T09:29:22.000-05:00"},{"id":3075,"first_name":"Christine","last_name":"Zabala","position":"Graduate Student","institution_name":"CU Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book definitely introduces a lot of content. In that sense, I think that the book is trying to be comprehensive in terms of what it takes to write a college level paper -- how to read sources critically, how to understand a prompt, how to organize, how to check for grammar errors, and how to revise. It feels like a very entry level overview of a lot of content on the topic. While the breadth of the review is sufficient, the depth into each of these topics is really lacking.\n\nThis text is trying to cover too much ground in far too short of a textbook. It is appealing, and probably less daunting for students, that the textbook can be read quickly -- I read through all 135 pages in one day. The real problem is that, in order to do this, the text vastly oversimplifies things to keep the information condensed. For example, there are about 20 pages on grammar in the text. Those 20 pages do not touch on what I, as someone who has taught college level writing courses for several years, would consider to be some of the most confusing parts of grammar: how to use commas, semicolons, and colons; how to use conjunctions (and what conjunctions are); and how to use adverbs and adjectives. This is just one example, but it’s a problem that persists throughout the book. The book will frequently mention that something is important, but then will not go into any detail about how to address it in your own writing. If the book were about twice as long as it currently is, I think that it could have addressed the points it brings up more effectively. There is no index or glossary in the book, but this could be do to the short length. You can basically use the table of contents for the same thing.\n\nI also think that the oversimplification of some of the topics leaves the reader with a really skewed sense of what good writing can look like. The author talks about their being only four kinds of writing, and then having very rigid definitions of what each type looks like. I think this is a problem because it is trying to oversimplify a complicated and fluid subject like writing. To acknowledge my own viewpoint, I come from a Critical Education tradition. This means that, when I teach writing, I emphasize thinking about why writing rules have been put into place and presenting students with numerous different approaches to writing. I take the view of writing that there are an infinite number of ways to write well. Because of this training, I disagree with how much the book tries to simplify writing. If an instructor comes from a Humanist Education tradition, I could very easily see them disagreeing with this particular assessment of the book. This part really depends on what “good writing” means to you as a teacher. I would not be able to use this book to teach because of my own educational philosophy.\n\nIn sum, the book does a good job of identifying many of the important aspects of college level writing, but it does not go into enough detail on these topics and it does not leave room for any nuance on any topic.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"For the most part, the content is accurate. However, there are some errors that will make it confusing for readers. On page 25, the book talks about rhetorical concepts like ethos, pathos, and logos. However, the way that the author describes these terms is not at all how I understand them, and not how any university I have worked at has wanted them taught. For example, the author describes \"logos\" as \"the text,\" and the book argues that attending to logos means that you should \"ask yourself ... what is gained by having the text composed in this format\" (p. 25). However, all four universities I have taught for have logos to mean an argument that appeals to logic (see the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modes_of_persuasion) on ethos, pathos, and logos.\n\nAnother error comes in the grammar section on page 80. The author lists some example sentence fragments, but the examples given are not actually fragments. For example, the author gives an example of a clause with no subject: “For not doing her own homework, Missy was expelled.” However, there is clearly a subject here, and this is not a sentence fragment. In fact, two of the three examples that the author uses to illustrate sentence fragments are not actually sentence fragments at all.\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This is a difficult question to answer for this text; the only thing I could imagine would need frequent updates would be the citation guides (MLA and APA) since those styles update semi-frequently. This would be pretty straightforward as all of that information is limited to one section.\n\nI think one aspect of the book that adds relevancy to the subject of writing is that it takes into account visuals in writing and web sources. The text does a good job of engaging with and linking to online sources. The author uses multiple images and graphs, and they link to where the images came from on the internet. I think it’s also really nice that the author spends a lot of time on how to use visuals in writing. Taking into account visuals in writing is helpful for more modern writing, and it really points to the book's desire to be multimodal and to support multimodal writing. I thought that this was one of the strengths of the book.","clarity_rating":2,"clarity_review":"The book is accessible to some extent. The book is easy to read because the sections are very short and the writing is clear for the most part. Also, the author has a checklist for basically every section. These lists are helpful in the sense that it provides the reader with potential questions that they can ask themselves and things to look out for in their writing\n\nHowever, I think that in trying to achieve this briefness, the author has really oversimplified some things; this in turn makes the writing somewhat less clear (ironically) as there is a lot of grammatical terminology that is not fully explained. The use of terms is actually one of the biggest problems with the this book, in my opinion. The book uses a lot of jargon with little to no explanation of the meaning (or explaining it much later in the book). I will include some examples here (although this is not an exhaustive list). The author talks about how important the use of inductive reasoning (p. 33) is to an argument, but then only discusses what this means for one short paragraph. The author asks students to check for “logical fallacies” (p. 41) in writing, but then does not explain what a logical fallacy is. The author says that each quote should include a parenthetical citation (p. 47), but then only much later explains what a parenthetical citation is. There are many other instances of this, but these are some of the most prominent. This is a problem because it requires that students have an extensive knowledge of writing terms to be able to understand the information presented.","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"I actually feel confused about who the intended audience of this book is, which to me signals an issue with the internal framework. The author seems to be directing the book at new students of writing or to emergent bilingual students. This would explain the overly simplistic approach to writing. However, the sections about grammar are very confusing. The author uses a lot of jargon and technical terms for parts of speech, but then they don’t fully explain what those terms mean. The text seems to assume that students will already know the names of many parts of speech (for example, modal verbs or subordinating phrases), which does not seem consistent with the elementary level of instruction on writing and organization. \n\nAdditionally, the author sometimes contradicts themselves about what different kinds of writing are intended to do. For example, at the very beginning, the author writes that the purpose of expository writing is to “explain a concept” and that it “does not include the author’s opinions” (p. 3). Later in the book, she writes “Every author has a purpose” (p. 21). It feels somewhat confusing whether the author of the textbook sees all writers as trying to advance at least some kind of argument or not.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"It would be pretty easy to read sections of this book, and I actually think that this might be a much better way to engage with this text. Only asking students to read the sections on revising and organization, for example, could be more effective than engaging with the whole book. \n\nHowever, students would need to read whole sections and not individual subsections. So for example, you could easily read the “Researching” section independent of the other sections, but you could not read the subsections within \"Researching\" individually. This is mainly due to the problems with the organization (see next section). I actually think the book might be more useful when read out of order, since the order is not very intuitive anyway -- for example, the book talks about in text citations and uses a lot of jargon to describe them before it talks about what those terms mean in the grammar section. You could easily use different sections of this book independently of each other.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Some of the organization of the book was really helpful. I thought that the sections about organizing, revising, and composing were organized in a reasonable way. The first section (Composing) started out by talking about understanding what different types of writing exists along with understanding what your instructor is asking you to do. It followed fairly naturally through organizing, citations, grammar, and then revision. So in other words, the organization of each of the broader headings made good sense. \n\nMy major concern was in the individual sections, especially with the grammar section. The grammar section starts with subordinate clauses, which I would argue is not an intuitive place to start a grammar lesson. Subordinate clauses require an understanding of what a complete sentence looks like and how subjects and verbs work. The text does not explain what a clause is, and it has not up until that point discussed what nouns and verbs are. In fact, nouns and verbs do not come until the very end of the section. It is also very common in this section to mention a part of speech that I would not consider to be a very common word, and then not to explain what the part of speech is until a much later section. Similarly, in the citation section, the author talks about what information you need for a citation before talking about what a citation is. In that section, the author also gives instructions about how to create MLA and APA citations, but does not give the same examples of CMS citation, even though it has its own section.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is really nice. The table of contents links to all the different sections in the book, and the images and citations link to external web pages, which I thought was really helpful. All of the images and graphs were produced correctly and were easy to understand/ read. There were no display issues or navigation problems.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical errors -- although, I did see one typo. As mentioned earlier, some of the grammar advice that the author was providing was incorrect; however, I would classify this as a content issue rather than a grammar issue.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is certainly not culturally insensitive or offensive. In fact, the author has clearly been very conscious about choosing pictures, citations, and example sentences that represent diverse people. The authors that she cites for the citation examples are frequently authors of color when you google them. This is refreshing, especially in a genre that very frequently uses pretty clear “white” names in example sentences (e.g. I have seen a lot of resources that use very normative names in grammar examples). I really appreciated the conscious effort on the author’s part to include diverse examples.\n\nOn a more substantive level, I think the author’s definition of what makes for a credible source is really problematic. She writes that a source is credible if the authors “have an academic background (scientist, professor, etc.)” and that the source should be written “with formal language and presented formally” (p. 40). This feels problematic, especially in the field of writing as scholars are trying to point out how the idea of formal writing supports racist notions of what academic writing looks like (see Young's 2007 book on Black vernacular English in college writing, for example). Additionally, this seems like an odd statement from the author of an open access resource, considering open access should be about making knowledge more accessible and valuing knowledge constructed outside the academy as well.","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-06-05T20:06:56.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-01T12:58:58.000-05:00"},{"id":3482,"first_name":"Cheryl","last_name":"McKearin","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Illinois at Chicago","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook covers a lot of the basics of writing, but this is a short handbook meant to be referenced. It is as the title suggests: a guide to writing, not an in-depth how-to of thesis creation, analysis, and the art of persuasion.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author covers a lot of different topics. While each section is very short, I would agree with all of the author's major points.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The book's attention to Composing and Academic Writing is up-to-date. The grammar portion, however, is arranged in such a flow chart yes-no decision-making template. It's visually interesting since that's popular right now, but it's still hard to follow. I think that will likely need to be updated soon.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"If we think about this as a handbook/guide and not as a textbook, the text is very clearly written. It's easily digestible, and students of all levels would be able to understand it.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in its framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I would assign portions of these chapters as a guide. They are great reference points for students who may be studying from another textbook, and just need a quick reference page. The end chapter on Revising is also surprisingly dense, given that the rest of the book is very shallow.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I liked most of the book's flow, but I felt that the citation chapter and grammar chapters should have been placed at the end.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This comment refers to the epub. It obviously depends on the size font that the reader, but on my computer, the charts were sometimes hard to read and would break up across pages. For inexperienced epub users, this may be confusing.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"The grammar examples in the grammar section sometimes are missing periods. Many grammar examples had the text running into each other, especially when the text is italicized. That is me being a stickler, but if this is a writing guide, I think the grammar should be flawless.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I thought the examples were diverse enough - it didn't feel like the author went out of their way to be inclusive of many cultures, but it was inclusive enough that I didn't feel excluded from the conversation.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-01-07T21:26:33.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-07T21:26:33.000-06:00"},{"id":3923,"first_name":"Anna","last_name":"Erwert","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The lack of introductions to the sections is a bit unfortunate, I think. For research, for example, a short blurb on what academic research is for (as in, not to copy ideas, but to study them and make one's own position in conversation with those sources, thereby contributing to, not just parroting, the existing field) would set the tone. Overall, there is good how to info here but not as much setting of purpose/contextualizing the rhetorical \"why am I doing this\" kind of thing. Similarly for using sources: only scholarly sources are discussed. But if my essay is on the experience of single pregnant women, as blog by a single pregnant woman would be a compelling source.  Might also consider some visual instruction, like the citation section could include a visual of a quote sandwich, or an outline could also be a bubble diagram, for visual and nascent English learners.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Again: the issue of not providing more context is inadvertently biased. It assumes all people know X but that cannot be assumed in our community colleges, so we must provide a shared definition of X. I also wish the book had examples of non-essay writing genres, since so many colleges are moving to include those under the title of \"Writing\" these days (blogs, powerpoints, Prezzis, etc.).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Simple additions would make this book forever enduring, such as elements mentioned above, adding readings, adding multi-genre instruction, etc.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I like the tone and language. It is clear, without being too too high nor falsely colloquial in register.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is well organized and follows a clean framework. I also like writing first, grammar later. This top down approach is more in tune with how grammar is mastered- in reaction to a real literacy task demanding its mastery.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is all of these things.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Yes, and from a Comp perspective, very well laid out. I do think a section on WHAT IS and also a summary section would be nice, but those could be added or even created by students.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are no issues technically, but the lack of visuals anywhere does render the interface a little monolithic and could be hard on the eyes eventually","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"perfect as far as I see","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"It does this, but as mentioned above, could include more construction of shared cultural capital and acknowledging the importance of (by including sections on how to write) other genres as artifacts of writing.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like it very much as a jumping off point. With revisions, it could easily be used in almost any level of Comp!","created_at":"2020-06-07T18:52:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-07T18:52:00.000-05:00"},{"id":4335,"first_name":"Karen","last_name":"Pleasant","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers the basics for either WR 121 or WR 122 and uses many illustrations and charts to simplify key concepts.  It addresses both MLA and APA and opposing arguments in an understandable manner.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book appears to be accurate in the discussions of the included concepts, but isn't totally up-to-date with the latest APA changes that were recently modified.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The simplicity of the book is appealing along with the idea of presenting the key concepts in one or two pages.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a succinct fashion and the addition of visuals makes it a quick and easy reference for students and enables them readily grasp the concepts.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, it is written to students and addresses their writing concerns and common weaknesses throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The sections of the book could be utilized in any order depending on the needs of the instructor and students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized from start to finish in the same order that students usually follow when writing a research paper.  It covers the basics without a lot of extra \"fluff\" or fillers.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The information is well presented and easy to read.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"\"You\" is used as the main reference to students throughout the text.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I like seeing a grammatical review section as I feel many students need that when they're writing a research paper.  I would definitely use this textbook as a reference for students in my writing classes.","created_at":"2020-08-23T18:57:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-08-23T18:57:00.000-05:00"},{"id":4652,"first_name":"Marina","last_name":"del Sol","position":"Master Instructor","institution_name":"Howard University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"About Writing:  A Guide by Robin Jeffery includes information related to the major content areas for first year writing at the college level (e.g., composing, researching, citation, grammar, etc.).  The book is organized by themes and is formatted in a way that would pair well with online learning.  It is succinct and covers the basics.\r\n\r\nI feel that this OER textbook would be a good resource for instructors who are starting out.  The book includes short blocks of information that could be used by an instructor during class, or the sections could be paired with asynchronous lessons. There is a frequent inclusion of guiding questions for reflection.  \r\n\r\nThe information is extremely brief and visually formatted in a way that will be accessible for struggling students.  This would also be a good open research textbook for students who are resistant to longer readings.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"In general, the content is currently accurate. It may need to be updated as new citation formats are published","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The textbook is extremely general, and it covers the basics.  However, it could be further developed with examples and elaboration.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language is clear and accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook is consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook has a clear organizational structure, and it would be easy to use sections independently of the book.  The sections could also be used out of order.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics follow a natural progression.  However, each section can also stand alone.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It is easy to navigate the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Overall, the text is clear.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The textbook has a section for “multilingual writers” and “ESL challenges,” which focuses on grammar.  I feel that this section needs to be revamped to align with Students’ Right to Their Own Language.  https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/srtolsummary","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-02-26T11:31:38.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-02-26T12:50:53.000-06:00"},{"id":4707,"first_name":"Rachel","last_name":"Casey","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Southern Maine","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book seems imbalanced in its combination of presenting basic concepts and assuming the reader's previous knowledge of such concepts. For example, the book does not explain what a thesis statement is, but highlights very basic grammar concepts. The book could also benefit tremendously from the inclusion of examples, such as in the section on keywords or thesis statements. Many sections feel too brief to be helpful.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate in its presentation of grammatical concepts and suggestions for reading and writing. There is little discipline-specific or substantive content that would allow for inaccuracies.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"In its presentation of basic writing concepts and English grammar, the book seems poised to remain relevant indefinitely.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is written in very accessible prose, though it could be improved by ensuring that all terms are explained thoroughly when introduced. The sections are brief and easily digestible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology and concepts are presented consistently throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is highly modular insofar as most sections are incredibly brief.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"There does not seem to be much logic around what content was included, and I do not believe the text provides the comprehensive overview of writing basics that would benefit a high school or college-level learner. An introduction could benefit the sense of organization by explaining the logic of the overall organizaiton.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Navigation through the text was very easy; the interface is intuitive to use. The text displayed clearly, including tables and images.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Thankfully, since it is a book about writing, it uses correct grammar and spelling throughout.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book contains substantial content aimed specifically at multilingual writers, which seems culturally appropriate. However, I don't know that the content presented in that section is particularly helpful or specific enough to multilingual writers as such.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would not use or recommend this book.","created_at":"2021-03-24T11:34:35.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-03-24T11:34:35.000-05:00"},{"id":34203,"first_name":"Kayla","last_name":"Rapet","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Southern Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"While the text covers an array of topics within the genre of writing, the information is presented in brief soundbytes. This would be a great text to pair with in-class activities where more scaffolding and more support is provided (such as definitions of key terminology).","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content appears to be accurate and error free.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text covers standard writing conventions and practices that are likely to remain consistent over time. There are a few sections that may need updating, such as the use of keywords in web searches, as technology advances in the future.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Information is presented clearly, concisely, and with brevity. Readers may need support with some of the more technical key terms that aren't defined directly in the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent and easy to follow.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is highly modular and can be paired with various independent writing exercises; the instructor can easily assign sections of the text as standalone assignments.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text begins by exploring prewriting practices, then defines different types of writing before merging into best research practices, a review of grammar, and then a section on revision and final writing reviews. The order is logical and easy to follow.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to read both on screen and on paper.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is well edited.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text includes a section for multilingual writers and English Language Learners (ELLs). The content takes into account the unique needs and challenges that multilingual writers and ELLs face when learning English in particular. The section felt a bit out of place and could use some sort of an introduction around its intended purpose.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a great pocket guide to writing! I will be using select sections of the text in my next writing course.","created_at":"2022-11-28T21:53:01.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-11-28T21:53:01.000-06:00"},{"id":34205,"first_name":"Ignacio","last_name":"Mendez","position":"Director of Library Services","institution_name":"Red Lake Nation College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"It covers the basics, which helps students who might be new to the subject. It could expand on its topics since it's a bit brief in some areas, which could use more expanding upon.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"It was accurate and to the point. grammatical topics and citations are clearly outlined and talked about, with additional examples provided.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"It's relevant in its content and has many chapters addressing lots of topics that come up in its specific subject.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"One of the texts key strengths is its concise and clear language.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Its subjects are consistent in both the terminology used and tone, which is for beginner students.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One of its strengths is how concise and easily modular it is. With everything being easily searchable and divided.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"It's organized and concise in how it's presented.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It's easily readable and works well with the multiple interfaces that I tried on, from epub to PDF.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"ESL and Multilingual are used rather similarly. It would be more sensitive to make a more apparent distinction between the two groups.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"It's a good solid starting book for beginning students who need a short and concise guide to the subject.","created_at":"2022-11-29T10:09:50.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-11-29T10:09:50.000-06:00"},{"id":34882,"first_name":"Darren","last_name":"Pollock","position":"Professor of Biology","institution_name":"Eastern New Mexico University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book seems to cover all of the major aspects of writing, though some were given more emphasis than others (e.g., \"Revising\")","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I think that both \"expert\" writers and non-expert writers will find the points in the book to be accurate and applicable to whatever writing they happen to be doing","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text is very relevant these days, with seemingly decreased emphasis placed on good writing in public schools!  Even seasoned veteran writers (I have authored over 100 scientific papers and I found some of the material new, and all of it relevant!). These concepts are not likely to change over time and therefore the text will have good longevity, also.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The \"bullet point\" style was fairly easy to follow, and the author's own language in the text was easily understood. However, one chapter in particular - \"Revising\" - was written in a different style and was somewhat convoluted ad difficult to follow.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Most of the sections were written in a consistent, \"bullet point\" style. However, I found the organization of the \"Revising\" section somewhat perplexing. Initially it was difficult to discern the actual text from the \"examples\". The bullet point style was exchanged for more complete sentences - this chapter really stood out from the others. It had great information but almost seemed that it was written by somebody else!","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book's division into the major subject areas is logical and therefore could be broken down into \"modules\". For example, there are separate sections on researching the topic, writing the actual paper and then on revising.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Good flow of topics...generally in the same order as one would use to write something.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"no discernable problems with the book's simple and user-friendly interface.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Thankfully, given that the book's subject was \"writing\", I noticed no grammatical or spelling errors!","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not notice any \"culturally insensitive\" sections, passages or phrases in this book.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I think that all students should be \"forced\" (perhaps kicking and screaming!) to take a course on writing!  I've been a biology professor for about 25 years now and it never ceases to amaze me how bad some of my students' writing is. Regardless of whether the student is in the humanities, social sciences or the \"hard\" sciences, this book will offer valuable advice and recommendations that will improve anybody's writing.","created_at":"2024-02-05T11:21:50.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-02-05T11:21:50.000-06:00"},{"id":35458,"first_name":"Norma","last_name":"Aguayo","position":"Instructor Senior/ENG adjunct","institution_name":"Rio Salado College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book offers numerous sections on writing and grammar, serving as points of instruction and review. The graphics sections are followed by or elaborated upon through easy-to-understand graphics.  The book could add the writing process as a module.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The areas that are covered in the book are error-free, easy to follow, and accurate.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The coverage is superficial and could use more depth. The text is 10 years old, making it a great resource, but it leaves the reader to question whether any necessary updates or changes have been made. The year of the text is a concern, especially when using citation formats (e.g., MLA, APA, CMS) that may no longer be accurate.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The language and examples were relevant and easy to understand. The graphics were comprehensible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework and terminology were consistent throughout each section. There is consistency with areas of discussion, examples, and visuals throughout the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text can be sectionalized (such as the grammar area), although there are sections that are best followed in sequence, as some areas can help build upon each other.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"For the most part, the topics are in a clear order.  Revising could be more beneficial if it were placed in the writing section, rather than being the last section.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interfaces were noted during the navigation of the book or when reviewing any visuals.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noted.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Language used refrains from exclusions of any kind; general terms are used throughout the book.  However, language use should be an area that is further developed in the book.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2025-04-30T23:04:30.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-04-30T23:04:30.000-05:00"},{"id":35521,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Tsitso","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Springfield Technical Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Many of the relevant and necessary learning topics are included, but the depth of instruction is a little lacking. For example, the Grammar section at the end of the book. It gives examples of the parts of speech (clauses, adverbs, etc.) but gives no explanation of how and why these parts of speech are used. It seems as though students would struggle with the concepts and how to identify - and properly use - these parts of speech. The semicolon is another example. The book gives you an example of a sentence in which a semicolon is used properly, but does not explain why it is correct. While these basics tenets of grammar might seem like a \"given\" for college students, the reality is that many are coming into class with limited knowledge on the technical aspects of writing and grammar.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no inaccuracies or biased content.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is written in a way where additions/modifications to the material seem easy to implement. The content is relatively up to date.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"While clarity is achieved in some sections (such as Rhetorical Concepts, Analyzing a Text, and Making and Argument), others felt like more information was necessary to really explain the concepts. Again, going back to the Grammar section as an example, there seem to be a lot of holes in the material. Also, in the Transitions section, the material seems to focus on the transition words to use between sentences. It would be even more beneficial for the college-level writer to discuss transitioning between concepts/ideas within a written work.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Each section is consistent in terms of framework. However, there is a lot of \"dead space\" between pages and sections that is a little distracting, making it more difficult to follow than it would be otherwise.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modules are easy to divide and assign based on the intended lesson.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"I was a little confused by the organization of topics. The text starts with an explanation of the types of writing, with examples. This is a pretty good place to start, but the order of the remaining sections seems arbitrary. Again, grammar lands at the end of the text, when it would likely be more effective at the beginning.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The one big issue here is the preponderance of \"dead space\" between pages and sections that is a little distracting, making it more difficult to follow than it would be otherwise.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical issues or errors were noted.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There was nothing culturally insensitive or offensive that stood out. However, the examples used were a little old-fashioned.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"There are several sections that feel complete and helpful for college students, early in their studies, who need guidance when it comes to writing. The sections on \"Planning a Document\" and \"Constructing an Outline\" definitely have merit. Also, the methods shared for helping to understand the question being asked in the assignment offers valuable insight. The use of checklists was a nice suggestion. There are pages, however, dedicated to charts, graphs, maps, diagrams and flowcharts that seem out of place in this kind of text.","created_at":"2025-06-11T13:08:29.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-06-11T13:08:29.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/about-writing-a-guide","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:19:30.000-06:00"},{"id":413,"title":"How to Learn Like A Pro","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"How to Learn Like a Pro! features the “big six” effective learning/study skills topics: learning styles and preferences, time and materials management, critical thinking and reading, note-taking, memory principles, and test-taking techniques. Each of the six units featuring a total of twenty-three lessons and accompanying exercises (with a dash of humor here and there) were developed with the diverse student body of the community college in mind as well as learners in other educational venues.","contributors":[{"id":4028,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Phyllis","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Nissila","location":"Lane Community College","background_text":"Phyllis Nissila is a Professor in the Academic Learning Skills department at Lane Community College (all campuses), Eugene, OR."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":382,"url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","name":"Open Oregon Educational Resources"}],"formats":[{"id":655,"type":"Online","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegereading/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1663,"type":"PDF","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegereading/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1664,"type":"eBook","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegereading/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2089,"type":"XML","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegereading/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2090,"type":"Hardcopy","url":"http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/how-to-learn-like-a-pro/23678139","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":21,"reviews":[{"id":936,"first_name":"Jonathan","last_name":"Tullis","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Arizona","comprehensiveness_rating":1,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers topics superficially, without any depth or reference to theory.  \n\nThe book selectively chooses just a few random strategies to include.\n\nA lot of the content is incorporated just through links to external websites.  I would be very worried that these website resources would change or move and no longer be accessible.\n\nThe author misses many countless and effective strategies for improving learning.","accuracy_rating":1,"accuracy_review":"The author promotes folk theories and ideas that have been proven false through systematic empirical research.  Additional ideas are presented so simplistically that they ultimately end up being inaccurate.  The author further mixes together theoretically different ideas together in a mish-mash of inaccuracies.  In other cases, the author plays fast and loose with facts, even making up her own.  For example, the author states a figure (95% of people) only to later state that this value is just a \"hunch\" rather than empirically true.  \n\nI feel like about half of the author's statements are completely made up from her own specific intuitions, rather than research and theory.\n\nThe author does not cite her sources, so it is impossible to judge the credibility of their statements.  \n\nThe author links to external websites which can have changing levels of accuracy and evolving content (like wikipedia).","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"I don't think this has longevity, as much of the content is just linked to on external websites, which would be very hard to update (or may be moved or changed without the author knowing).","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The author uses complex sentences that I had a hard time parsing.  The author uses acronyms without explicitly defining them.\n\nThe author tries to present material (too) simplistically, so most jargon and technical terminology is explicitly avoided.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I think the text is consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The author presents six different units, which could be studied independently.  Further, the first three units are designed to have an exam after them, so they are complete without the second six units.\n\nThere is some slight overly self-referential aspects to the book.  For example, students are required to \"annotate\" throughout the book, but what that entails is only defined early in the book.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"I was not sure why the book was organized in the way it was.  It seemed haphazard how the text moved from one idea to the next.  ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Terms are defined at the start of each unit, but the definitions run together and are hard to parse.  The book references links which do not exist in this interface.  Other times, I would stumble upon a link to a website, but these links were not marked.  Given the prominence that web links play in this text, I think they need to be marked more clearly (or the external resources could be included in this text too).\n\nOn page 81, it says : \"Click on the thumbnail for a full-size view\" multiple times, but there are no thumbnails.\n\n\n\n","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"The book is written as one might spontaneously talk.  Grammar is not a top priority of this friendly style of writing.  Words are used improperly and punctuation is sometimes used improperly.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text references cell phones and social media addictions.  The text is aimed specifically at community college students and addresses the needs and culture of that specific group.  The text does include a section on older adults' learning, which is one explicit reference to diverse students.","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"This book was clearly designed for a specific course at a specific institution (it references the course and the specific college repeatedly).  Many references are made to resources that are not included within the book and are hard to find on their own.  \n\nThe text seems to be one specific person's ideas about how to best learn, rather than what research suggests are the best ways.  I would never recommend this text to anyone.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":979,"first_name":"Taran","last_name":"Cardone","position":"Director of Strengths-Based Learning","institution_name":"Virginia Tech","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is an effective primer for its intended audience without becoming too overwhelming. It assists learners hoping to develop critical skills for student success (e.g., learning styles, time management, note taking, test taking, reading comprehension, memory). That being said, the book seems to rely on links to a lot of outside sources to truly explore those issues more in-depth. Also, it is worth noting that this book is more well suited to preparing students for a more structured college environment with more teacher-directed rather than learner-directed activities such as reading textbooks, taking multiple choice tests, etc. as opposed to more open-ended learning activities. \n\nEach chapter orients the reader to the topic with an introduction, several examples, and exercises that allow learners to apply what they've learned from the chapter and supplemental resources. Although the book includes a table of contents, it does not provide an index which might be helpful to the learner. Even so, the book does provide definitions of words throughout the text to assist with reading comprehension. ","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and draws from a variety of disciplines including psychology, development, teaching and learning although I cannot find a complete list of sources. There are, for the most part, in-text citations although a few are missing. There was only one time where I perceived bias but it did not negatively impact how I interpreted the information and I don't think it will negatively affect students. There were a handful of spelling errors throughout the book but they did not affect comprehension. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"There are many elements of this book that will continue to be critical skills and be relevant over time such as time management, note taking, reading comprehension, and learning styles. Regardless of the context, forum or manner in which learners are engaged in the learning process, those topics will arguably remain important increasing the longevity of this book. Even so, there are areas that could be included that might enhance the book's relevance such as acknowledging the increasing importance of self-directed learning in less structured learning environments such as flipped or inverted classrooms. Addressing that reality as something that learners might experience could help prime them for that as well as develop skills for such settings. Also, knowing that might provide more of an impetus for mastering some of the skills discussed in this text. For example, comprehending reading is critical to solving more complex problems where learners might not be provided with explicit instructions (e.g., case studies) as opposed to multiple choice/short answer/essay tests where the parameters are more well-defined. \n\nThe book also includes a few references to the campus at which the course is taught. Perhaps referring generally to the college campus and typical resources offered at a variety of campuses might also extend longevity and reach. \n\nAlso, since the book relies on a number of outside links to supplement the learner with additional information, it would be necessary to check the links to ensure they are still relevant. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book was easy to understand and definitions of critical words were largely provided. There were a few words that I thought could be defined for the benefit of the reader especially if choosing this text for a first- generation group of college students, but, for the most part, definitions were present and clear. \n\nThe size of the text as well as the tone of the writing helped make the writing feel more approachable. There was only one section that I needed to read a few times to truly comprehend (ironically, this section was the reading comprehension section). That section describes different methods that teachers have used to help students to comprehend reading. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text follows a consistent format that includes learning outcomes for each chapter, materials needed, pertinent definitions, explanatory text and exercises. There are 3 units followed by a mid-term project and then another 3 units followed by the final project. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Because this book is very consistent in its structure, it would be easy to break into smaller sections to serve a different course. The text follows a consistent format that includes learning outcomes for each chapter, materials needed, pertinent definitions, explanatory text and exercises. There are 3 units followed by a mid-term project and then another 3 units followed by the final project.\n","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book's topics are presented in a logical, clear fashion that begins with helping the learner think about their own learning styles. Beginning with this topic makes sense since learning style will affect how the learner develops and uses the other critical skills mentioned in the book. Time management, then, helps orient the learner to thinking about how to allot their time in performing the skills. Note taking and reading comprehension are skills that are necessary for test-taking and the chapters follow in that order reflecting the academic preparation process. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The book includes learning activities and supplemental information provided through links and referenced within the text. At first, I thought that I was missing additional files for these activities. However, after assistance, I realized that the text was actually hyperlinked to outside websites. It would be much more helpful to have links underlined, colored, or highlighted in some way to differentiate them from the rest of the text especially when they are critical to the text.\n\nThere were a variety of large sidebars that included interactive activities and reflection prompts which aided in application of concepts to personal experiences, which is a great asset overall. The placement of some of these were awkward with some of them being toward the bottom of the page with no text above them. They were also sometimes placed awkwardly in between different sections of text in a way that took away from the message of the words outside of the sidebar. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar in this book did not detract from the message or my understanding of the information. Although the book can be informal in parts, it was approachable and I imagine would be helpful to learners fearful about these topics. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book included a lot of different examples of possible living situations that students might find themselves in across a variety of social identities (e.g., age, race, ethnicity, gender). It is definitely well-suited for a community college with older students who may or may not parent or have work or family obligations. There was one reference to God in the world view section but it was an example of a potential student's situation. \n\nI am not sure if this would be offensive to learners individually or from specific cultural groups, but there was a string of examples around the topic of taxidermy (preparing and mounting dead animals).","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I really appreciate the time the authors took to write and share their work! These are really critical skills for learners to develop to be successful in college and academia overall. The desire to help empower learners and help provide them access to important resources and opportunities is evident in this book. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1084,"first_name":"Terrie","last_name":"Sandlin","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is aptly named and is designed to help readers learn effectively, or like a pro.  It is a useful resource for first-time college students, specifically those at a community college or in developmental education courses. Critical skills such as time management, note taking, test taking, studying techniques, and reading comprehension are covered in an easy to read style. It does not provide an in-depth look at theory, but as the title states, that is not necessarily the purpose.  Each chapter starts with an introduction and provides sample learning exercises.  It clearly outlines what a typical quarter or term would consist of, including curriculum, weekly activities and projects.  However, many of the examples and topics are covered with outside resources and links which could prove problematic.  It would be possible though to use only the chapters or ideas deemed pertinent or to use specific lessons without causing too much confusion for students. An index is included, as well as a helpful glossary of terms.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content seems to largely be based on the author’s own years of experience instead of empirical research.  However, with over 30 years teaching the targeted audience it is apparent she has knowledge and insight to share.  Students who have previously struggled in school or who are apprehensive about college may find the easy-to-read writing encouraging.  However, a lack of in-text citations makes it difficult to verify sources and sets a poor precedent for students.  The text has a few spelling errors, but there are not so many as to distract.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The topics covered are relevant for today. The text wonderfully addresses many challenges students face, but fails to discuss some current practices and theories. I would have liked fixed and growth mindsets, as well as grit to be discussed.  It also would be helpful to have considered additional online learning activities.  The use of outside resources will require regular reviews to ensure the text remains up-to-date.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text uses clear language and for the most part avoids technical words or acronyms without explaining them.  The informal writing style is appropriate for the intended audience.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The terminology, language, and framework were consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is presented in six topics, and includes a mid-term and final project.  The author shares her thought process on the order of the chapters, but it is not necessary to follow the textbooks order.  Especially if other topics were to be introduced separate from the book.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical, organized and clear fashion with a pattern in each chapter that students would find helpful. I might present them in a different order to better fit the needs of the students being served.  It is nice the book is structured in a way so it can be adapted to each instructor’s preferences.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"As mentioned previously the use of hyperlinks can be cumbersome. This has the potential to be a challenge for students.  Marking these more clearly would be helpful.  Some of the images and activities were oddly placed and difficult to follow.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are few grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This book covers diverse populations, especially non-traditional students, and considers many different scenarios found on college campuses.  However, it should be noted this is a quickly changing population.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I would consider using this text for my college success class. I would most likely supplement and/or substitute certain chapters, but this is a terrific place to start.  I appreciate the author’s time and sharing her vast array of experience.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1120,"first_name":"Bettina","last_name":"Bostock","position":"Academic Success Instructor and Advisor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"How to Learn Like a Pro! covers all the topics needed for a first-time college student to be successful. The way each chapter is organized makes it easy to navigate the book and the topics. The book really highlights all the necessary information needed for someone who is just starting their educational journey. I found the topics to be right on point and relevant for the student population it will be serving. To many, this book might seem basic but when you think about the students who will be involved in the text and the assignments, you will see it makes perfect sense in the way it is set up and the topics it covers. For many of the students who will be using this book, the topics will also be discussed in other courses they will be taking, which is a great way to really reinforce these important concepts.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"From my experience in teaching a course much like the one this book is intended for, I found the content to be very accurate and free of biases. I did not notice any errors in the content.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The topics presented are ones that won’t need to be updated as they are timeless and their relevancy will never be outdated. The book covers topics such as Learning Styles, Time Management, Critical Thinking, Listening and Note Taking, Memory, and Test Taking. If there were updates that needed to be made, they would be easy and straightforward to make and would still implement the topics in a relevant way.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"As stated before, when looking at the population that will be using this book, the context in which terminology is presented is very adequate. Terms that are used in each unit are listed at the being of the unit along with definitions in order to help students as they read and apply each lesson. I found each unit to be presented in a clear and concise manner.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The framework is consistent throughout the book. The author follows the same format for each unit, which makes it easy to read. The units each include an overview of the topic, objectives, materials needed, a list of terms and a to-do list. The to-do list includes exercises that are assigned in each lesson. It also has a note at the end of each unit especially for instructors, which includes optional assignments/activities/extra credits opportunities for that unit.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"What is nice about this book is it is broken up into six different units and within those units, it is broken up even more. For example, unit one is about learning styles and the unit is broken down into small topics within learning styles. For example, you will have Lesson 1.1: The Three Learning Styles, Lesson 1.2: Visual Learning, Lesson 1.3: Auditory Learning, Lesson 1.4: Kinesthetic Learning, Lesson 1.5: The Brain Dominance Theory and Lesson 1.6: Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory.  What is nice is each lesson has a small reading and then an exercise that follows. It is easy to pull different lessons out of this book and use them in other classes.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization of this text book is very clear and it flows perfectly. I taught a course in Effective Learning last year and all the topics that are presented in this book are what I touched on and in the same order. The structure is set up so it starts by talking about how we learn and our learning styles in chapter one and ends by talking about test taking. All the units flow into each other and none of them seem out of place.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"As part of the lessons you have to link to another website. It took me a long time to figure out how to do this as the link is part of the text, but it is not highlighted or underlined. Other than this, I found the images and charts to be very colorful and visually pleasing to look at. I really didn’t see anything that distracted me from the reading.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors in the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I didn’t find the book to have anything that I would say is culturally insensitive. You can tell it is aimed at community college students who come from all kinds of backgrounds. I think she does a good job of trying to capture as much diversity as possible in the text.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I really appreciate the time the authors put into this book. I wish I would have known about it last year when I was teaching an Effective Learning course as it would have been really helpful. I have found that I am able to use a lot of this material in my college reading course and I have found that students really enjoy the lessons and the activities that accompany them.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1390,"first_name":"Dawn","last_name":"Knight","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Virginia Tech","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"While it would be impossible to cover ALL the learning theories available, the book does a decent job of summarizing some of those most commonly referenced by the average person.  The author covers different perspectives of learning, addresses things that get in the way of learning, and offers suggestions about organizing information to aid in learning.  There is a great deal of information included.  The information is surface-level but can help build a good foundation for students who are transitioning into college and developing critical skills for learning.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"There really isn't much research available (if any) to support the learning modalities, or similar categorizations, of being indicators of certain students being better able to learn in certain ways in all contexts.   The 'types' are, however, good for encouraging students to practice more meta-cognitive behaviors as they think about the ways in which they learn and inspiring teachers to create more dynamic lessons that engage all the ‘styles’.  I think too much credence is given to the learning modalities early in the book.  Also, some links go to Wikipedia as opposed to a more research-based source.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some of the links are more than 10 years old, but the book could be easily updated as new information becomes available.  The images are very dated and/or uninteresting.  I have heard students comment before about other texts, that the material must be outdated because the pictures are so old and then they don’t consider it valuable information.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Vocabulary words are defined and examples are given.  Based on the language and complexity, it was written for the intended audience of high school or first-year college student.  Links and suggestions for more information are included, however, some links are broken.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"I struggled a little with the consistency, although some sections are labeled \"to the instructor\" I wasn't always sure to whom the author was speaking; me, as the instructor, or the student.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is divided into easily digestible sections that could be taught together or independently.   There is a Table of Contents with well-labeled sections, making information in the book easy to find.   However, most information requires linking to another resource, many of which could not be found.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical path beginning with understanding of self.  The rest of the text covers a range of behaviors that support capacity for learning, ranging from broadly applicable time-management techniques to more specific test taking strategies.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"I had several problems with the interface and I know that would be a huge turn-off for my students.  Depending on the format I chose, the appearance was completely different.  The downloaded PDF was really hard to read, there were formatting problems, multiple blank pages, and the images were oversized and blurry.  When I switched to a different browser, I was able to read a much cleaner version in the browser itself (necessitating that the student is connected to the internet while completing assignments).  There are multiple references to the author’s college and the pre-packaged assignments that could be confusing out of context.  Finally, there are references to links that I couldn’t find and links that do not go where they should have.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are minimal errors with punctuation and numbers in text.  The informal language is appropriate for the audience and content.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally respectful, including\na) a list of meanings that is available for ESL/International learners who may not be familiar with American idioms\nb) case studies representing multiple cultures and situations\nc) acknowledgement of non-tradition (older) students","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I knew that the book was not going to be an exact match for my needs, but I had hoped to use it as an additional resource.  I am worried that it would be hard for me to separate out the parts that I want my students to focus on, because of the assignments included in text, references to another campus, and number of links involved.\n\nThat being said, I think is a nice, uncomplicated overview that would work well for a first year experience course.  It is modular and the activities offer students opportunities to practice skills that they can later apply to their learning.  Many of the problems I have with the text can be addressed and remedied by the instructor during class.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1518,"first_name":"Angie","last_name":"Cole","position":"Assistant Professor of Education/ECE","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book gives an introduction to many topics related to study skills and effective learning strategies.  There is a balance between text, outside links and activities to engage students in each topic.  Although this source does not cover each topic in depth, it does provide an accessible amount of information for students to start with and instructors could add to the coverage of topics as they desire.  Glossary of terms included throughout the resource.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The source refers to a variety of learning strategies, theories and content that is relevant, but is not thorough in citing sources.  The instructor is clearly experienced, however, and provides many examples, discussion prompts and activities that I believe students would find interesting and applicable to the learning environments they encounter.  I did not find any errors that were distracting to my engagement with the content.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is very organized and students know what to expect in each module.  Objectives are outlined and terms defined.  All of this will make updates easy to maintain.  However, all of the outside links that are incorporated may make upkeep of the resource a challenge.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I enjoyed the conversational tone of the resource.  The instructor knows how to speak to students in a manner that is interesting and engaging.  Because of this the text is accessible and I believe students would enjoy reading it.  The text is not full of jargon or technical terms that are undefined.  Examples are included and relevance is explained.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent and clearly organized.  There is specific instructions given to both instructors and students which is helpful.  Each section includes an outline of the objectives and students are directed to focus on the learning goals of each section through the activities and links provided.  There is a balance between text, graphics, links and examples that allows students to connect with the information in a variety of ways.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The resource is divided into 6 clear sections so it is easy to follow.  Students will not be overwhelmed by each section as the text, activities and examples are divided up into manageable chunks.  Visually students will see beginning and ending points to the activities or reading sections.  The resource allows for stopping points so students don't get lost in the content.  There are many points at which an instructor could pull in the activity responses, etc. to class to launch a good discussion in a classroom setting or online discussion board.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization is clear and easy to follow.  The glossary of terms would be helpful for second language learners to review before launching into each new topic.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The interface is accessible and I did not have problems navigating the material.  However, there are many outside links that may prove challenging for students to access over time or with limited internet access.  You do have to do a lot of scrolling through the material.  The graphics and photos all seemed intentional.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were a few minor errors, but none that took away from the meaning of the content or overall presentation of the resource.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I found the resource to be relevant and inclusive of a variety of situations and potential viewpoints.  I did not notice any glaring bias or insensitivity.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I believe many students who would benefit from the content of this resource.  It encourages students to reflect on how they learn and how they can improve many skills related to learning effectively in a college environment.  It asks students to be proactive and to take responsibility for their learning goals.  This is information that would help to create a good foundation for students to work from - especially if they struggle with things like organizational skills, test anxiety, reading comprehension, etc.  There are extra credit opportunities provided within the resource which some instructors may appreciate, but others who don't use extra credit may want to turn into actual required activities or not use at all.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1787,"first_name":"Susan","last_name":"Fletcher","position":"Assistant Director, Academic Skills Instruction","institution_name":"Ohio University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"For all that must be accomplished in the first year success type of course, this book fits the requirements I have of relatively short, adaptable to variety of formats - online courses, full or half semester and provides coverage of all the major areas to equip students will the awareness and exposure to college level expectations. Sure, it could have more depth, but to be honest, in this type of course, I prefer to work in practicing and reflection, and this text does that. \n\nI though the CH 3 on Reading was a little thin and could have been developed a bit more either with additional practice exercises or discussion of specific types of reading. Only barely a few sentences on reading for science? The is so much to visual rhetoric in science texts! Ch. 4 - did not mention or show different note taking examples - or pros/cons of different approaches. I liked the listening section - that was well done. Ch. 5 was very light in my opinion, from what i could be.  \nThe activities provided throughout made this a very practical book which is very important for this type of course. \n\nCH. 1, 2  and 6 were appropriately developed for this type of text. I think more development was needed for CH. 3, Reading and 4 on Notetaking and much more on Memory.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The major challenge I has was in the first unit on learning styles and multiple intelligences-  relative to accuracy.  There has been more recent scholarship and review of these perspective that are not included. There may be preferences or patterns but students should be cautious about fixed understanding of their learning. While valuable, I question the author's devoting the time to these theories without fully vetting them or providing more that cursory mention of come controversy around learning styles. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I would be concerned that the embedded links stay consistently checked for availability. The text is certainly adaptable to expansion. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I really appreciated the objectives and student outcomes. The text is written clearly, accessible for the first year student without jargon or terms that could be a turn-off to reading. This type of course students can sometime not take all that seriously, so a more relaxed tone and simpler prose is welcome. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Nothing noted in terms of lack of consistency. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text does the modules particularly well, both in terms of length and visually. It was easy to navigate to all parts of the text - something I have noted is not always to easy with online texts. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Logical ordering of topics. Well-structured within each chapter, including activities and assignments. The order makes sense for a traditional first year course. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Just a work on accessibility with regards to colors, for students who might be colorblind, some of the headings in different colors might not work so well. \nI think most files open to a new window. however the thumbnails do not and then it is easy to close the window and lose the book. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Nothing noted as problematic. This was geared to be relatable to student audiences and not written for depth and academic levels demanding more specified vocabulary. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"World view discussion was a not well explained in this context of cultural relevance.  What about encountering ideas different than your own?  I found nothing insensitive. However, just a concern about assumptions, \n\"Most students entering college have not yet dealt with the level of difficulty involved in reading–and comprehending–scholarly textbooks and articles.\" This type of statement focuses on the negative assumption. What about just stating that college level reading can be  nuanced, complex and difficult, requiring high level of effort to comprehend. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"What I liked most about this text was how helpful it would be for a graduate student or first time teacher for this course to have the basic information for a success skills course so well organized and including sufficient support with activities and assignments to have a complete course. There is plenty of opportunity to springboard from this text to supplement for deeper level work on some concepts as needed. \n I appreciated the inclusion of handouts such as the  graphic organizers in 2.4\n","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1894,"first_name":"David","last_name":"Stott","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"City University of New York - LaGuardia","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"How to Learn like A Pro! was written for students enrolled in Lane Community College’s EL115 course.  It's an introductory text appropriate for high school students or new-to-college students who are encountering academically rigorous training and coursework for the first time.  A partial glossary of terms appears at the beginning of each unit, however, I could find no comprehensive glossary or index in the PDF version of the book.  The Table of Contents is relatively detailed.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy of content is difficult to gauge.  The author's approach to the subject matter is conversational and anecdotal rather than empirical.  For example, in Unit Two's discussion of procrastination,  she claims \"[s]ome people just seem to be born organized. The remaining 95% of the population* need help, especially when it come to organizing time! \n\n*This is not a scientific percentage, just a hunch.\"  \n\nThe text is written to reassure new college students that they are not alone, that learning difficulties may arise from variations in learning styles rather than character flaws, that help is on the way.  The author's optimistic opinions pepper the tome.  Editorializing is common.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"The book links to articles and sources typically written more than ten years ago.  Dead links proliferate.  Errors and omissions could be remedied by the author.  An update may be in order.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book's tone is conversational and easy to read.  Glossary terms are defined explicitly at the beginning of each unit.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The text is relatively consistent, though certain segments of this student handbook are written explicitly for instructors.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is easily parsed and its segments divisible.  Sample lesson plans are available and different sections can be taught independently.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The topics flow logically from one to the next, beginning with self-understanding, continuing with expanding learning capacities and ending with specific studying and test-taking tips. ","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"I reviewed the PDF version of the book, and some of my objections may be limited to the PDF version alone.  The book's interface was problematic for me.  Glossary terms were not set in bold.  Links were not set off with underlining or hypertext.  Many of the hyperlinks do not connect properly.  Grammar, punctuation, graphic design and page layouts are disorganized.  Graphics, pictures, and photos are little more than clip art.  (I spent ten years in page design and so for me, layout deficiencies were distracting.  Other readers may feel differently.)","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"The text contains occasional grammatical errors.  Prepositions dangle.  Once in a while an awkward turn of phrase ruins a perfectly lucid sentence.  Punctuation is distracting, especially when sources are cited or linked.  (Often the links don't work.)","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. It takes pains to be inclusive and to make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":"The tone of the book was perpetually upbeat.  I have no doubt that the author is an effective teacher of the subject matter.\n\nThe book is not academically rigorous, but the author obviously wants the best for her students.  Parts of the book (particularly the test-taking strategies in Unit 6) will likely find a place in the New to College course that I teach.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1956,"first_name":"Barbara","last_name":"Allison","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Texas Tech University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book was organized extremely well with each chapter builidng on the next. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content was accurate, current, and accomodated all types of learners and ages of learners. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"There were many links to additional information that could easily be updated if needed. Much of the information was foundational and information that will not become obsolete (such as Gardner's Multiple Intelligences) ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is presented in an easy to read manner. With each chapter presented in the same format, it was not overwhelming or difficult to go through each chapter. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent as far as how each chapter presents information starting with focus points, objctives, materials needed, terms and even a to-do list. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is easy for the reader to go back to previous chapters or forward to new chapters and because the chapter information is presented in a consistent manner, it is easy to follow. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The structure, organization and flow of the text is excellent making it easy for the reader to follow and use. I appreciated the shading (or use of color) to designate the exercises. Spacing between sections was done nicely. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The links that I chose to open led directly and easily to the designated information. Charts, pictures, and \"clip art\" choices added interest and enhanced the book for the reader. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were observed. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There were some comments for \"international students\" which would assist students out of the U.S. Examples were culturally appropriate. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I was pleasantly surprised with this textbook. I found it exceptually easy to read and follow from chapter to chapter. One of the best features of this text is the exercises which are creative and accommodate all kinds of learners (visual, auditory and kinesthetic). From watching TED talks, to creating a YouTube video, to creating cartoons, the text presented a variety of ways for students to demonstrate what they learned. I also appreciated the section for Instructors with \"optional assignments and activities and extra credit.\" Including the rubric for the portfolio was excellent. I would say that the text is user friendly for both students and instructors","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1969,"first_name":"Jacki","last_name":"Fitzpatrick","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Texas Tech University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book addresses a range of topics which might be particularly relevant to undergraduate students.  More specifically, it addresses learning styles, time management/organization, reading skills, listening/note-taking skills, memory, and test-taking skills.  These topics reflect some of the core skills that will be required of many learners.  If the book is designed for new/inexperienced students, then it is wise that the book was limited to approximately 200 pages.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the book describes the terms and concepts accurately.  In reference to some concepts (e.g., Gardner’s intelligences), the author makes good use of visual tools such as diagrams, lists and photos.  These tools are economical (in providing a lot of information in a small space).  In addition, the author provides many suggestions for how readers can make applied use of the concepts (e.g., listening skills).","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The major topics (e.g., learning styles, time management, listening skills) are relevant to many types of students in a variety of settings (e.g., community colleges, traditional universities, online programs).  If students did not receive sufficient training in learner skills prior to entering college, then it can be difficult to know the operationalization of such skills (e.g., how to take notes efficiently).  Thus, such a textbook overcomes the problem of generic advice (e.g., “just study harder”; “don’t waste time”) which does not give students a reasonable degree of guidance.  However, the book is somewhat outdated in its examples.  It appears to place too much emphasis on paper-based tools/activities (e.g., using paper notecards or 3-ring binders).  The book would benefit by an integration of technology-based tools (e.g., online calendars, memory enhancement apps).","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Within specific portions such as paragraphs or subsections, the writing is clear.  Overall, the text is written in a conversational tone, often referring to the student as “you” (e.g., “You have already gleaned much information on how to adapt a learning environment for this kind of learner from the previous readings and exercises in this unit.  Now, take a look at one special environment designed primarily for hands-on learning, and complete the exercise below”).  This tone might support a mentoring dynamic in entry-level courses for new learners (e.g., freshman, first generation, nontraditional).   ","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The book introduces multiple frameworks and many terms to the readers.  Definitions are provided frequently for the terms.  The use of terminology is generally consistent within a subsection, but there is little extension/carry-over into other sections.  Given the format of the book (in addressing multiple learning skills), the lack of extension might not be inherently problematic.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Given that the book focuses on discrete learning topics/skills (e.g., listening, note-taking, test-taking), the material could be (a) re-ordered or (b) subdivided in a variety of ways.  The book does not appear to be based in a tiered/scaffolding approach (e.g., students have to achieve competence in one skill before proceeding to the next unit).  Thus, instructors would have a good degree of flexibility in how they sequence or utilize the material.","organization_rating":1,"organization_review":"The book appears to be grounded in a specific course at one college/university (Effective Learning [EL115] at Lane Community College).  This is not inherently problematic, but the book relies upon information which is not available in the book.  For example, the author identifies that a material which the readers will need for some units is the course syllabus.  However, it is not evident that the entire syllabus is listed in the book.  Rather, the author wrote “Course Syllabus:  NOTE:  this will be linked on the course MOODLE site.  Consult instructor”.  It is true that the author listed the “Course Objectives and Outcomes” in the book, but other syllabus elements are not evident.  Thus, it is unclear whether the readers are missing essential information.  In addition, the book is poorly constructed in identifying the content intended for instructors [e.g., teaching tips, activity resources] and students.  In this context, it is quite concerning that students/inexperienced instructors will not know how to delineate the book’s content into a meaningful and coherent structure for them.","interface_rating":1,"interface_review":"This reviewer did experience an interface problem.  On Page 75, the book listed a series of clickable tools for graphic organizers for various paper formats (e.g., persuasive paper, definition paper).  When the reviewer clicked on each of the icons, he/ze/she was taken to the exact same website.  The website listed 14 tools on the homepage.  However, none of the tools clearly matched the paper format topic.  In addition, several tools addressed unrelated topics (e.g., “Beginning Excel”, “Hydraulics and Electrical Control of Hydraulic Systems”, “Forest Management”).  The website does not offer any explanation as to (a) how these tools are relevant to the paper formats and/or (b) where the actual paper information can be located.  The reviewer made multiple attempts to use the clickable tools and was always redirected to the same website.  This interface issue could be very distracting or confusing for the readers. ","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"Within a paragraph or section, the grammar is adequately accurate.  Across paragraphs or sections, there are multiple grammatical inconsistencies.  For example, the author frequently switches among third person plural (e.g., “students”), third person singular (e.g., “the student”), first person plural (e.g., “we”) and second person singular (e.g., “you”) nouns/pronouns.  If the author is focused on some degree of professional skills (e.g., her book title, “Learn Like a Pro!”), then she should demonstrate appropriate grammatical use for the readers. ","cultural_rating":1,"cultural_review":"This book demonstrates a very low level of cultural relevance.  This book has an illustration of racially/ethnically diverse individuals on Page 7, however there is no substantive text about cultural factors.  For example, the authors don’t address how collectivistic or individualistic cultural orientations might influence learning styles/techniques.  In addition, the majority of case studies/examples within the book lack a clear cultural identification.  When it is identified (e.g., Tran from Vietnam), there are questions about the degree to which culture/ethnicity is described in a stereotypical manner. ","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"No.","created_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-03-27T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2185,"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Larson","position":"College Success Coach","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"From the table of contents to the last word, this covers everything I cover in my college success courses and more.  From Learning Styles analysis to Test Taking techniques, this covers needed information for new college students and those returning to an academic environment.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"All chapters and activities appear accurate and familiar.  Memory, for example, includes not only lecture on Mnemonics but also has detailed activities based on the information.  No bias is detected in this text.  It is clear of glaring errors.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Considering that i have been in this business of college success for well over 20 years now at 3 institutions I would say that this information remains relevant to student success in college.  The presentation and activities in this particular book refresh these ideas and make them relevant to students in college now.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Definitions are used throughout the book- like a running glossary, that gives students immediate clarification.  I think its effective to answer these types of questions immediately so that the student can move on in the text.  Allowing them to do this alleviates the need for them to stop everything and move to the back of the book for clarification.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology remains consistent throughout and more notable, the framework of this text remains the same.  After a rhythm in established for the student it becomes something they can depend on from chapter to chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As mentioned before, the framework of the book is conducive to breaking up blocks and reassigning in different areas.  Although he flow of this book makes sense , it is possible to break things up dependent of an individual instructors plan.  In addition, the page layouts are pleasing to the eye and to the senses.  This makes it much more likely that the reader will continue to be interested through the assigned reading and on to the activity.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The structure has a nice flow to it and each chapter lends itself to the next.  It makes sense that this text opens with learning styles and moves into the art of study skills.  We first must learn about ourselves in order to have a place to start with all the tools we will receive in the rest of the textbook.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No distortion or issues with navigation or display features.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors that I can see.  It is well written with academics and new students in mind.  This is important when we are talking about students new to college.  Academic speak can be overwhelming and easing them in will likely leave them wanting to know more as opposed to sending them running away because they dont feel they belong based on the language and culture of college.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Equity and inclusion is evident in this text.  No overt, offensive examples are offered and it makes use of a wide variety of examples representative of multicultural backgrounds of student readers.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I was surprised at the fresh perspective on these tried and true college study skills strategies.  This is exactly what instructors need to stay fresh and keep their classes relevant.  New perspectives and activities that reflect the students as they are now and not as they were 15-20 years ago.  I learned a lot and will use it all.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2218,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Huisman","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Fontbonne University, St. Louis","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"There are many theories that are touched upon but not elaborated or properly referenced.  I understand that for a Freshman class that perhaps this is not important to fully explain each theory, however in several places the book falls short.  In many places it would be beneficial to the student or other instructors that use this text to expand on the theory or give a link to allow further exploration of the theory.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"At times the book simplifies various perspectives and theories that the information is almost inaccurate.  Statements are made through out the book that are hunches by the author rather than true findings from evidence based research.  There are so many studies on learning that are based in science and evidence based that it would be important to include this information or limit the generalizations/hunches to ensure that students are understanding the content.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The information is organized in a way that would make it easy to be updated and relevant.  There are a few areas in the textbook that does not feel up-to-date.  For example, learning styles.  There is much debate on learning styles and if they are really a style or a learning preference.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is written clearly with an accessible prose that would be welcomed by students just starting their schooling.  Humor is used in several places, which can be good to be accessible.  There is limited technical jargon or terminology used.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The modularity of the book makes the book accessible to student learning.  The subunits would allow for instructors to access various teaching and learning elements.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization and flow of the book is presented in a logical and clear fashion.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are limited interface issues with the text.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"There are a few grammar errors.  There are run on sentences, but the way the book is written is to sound conversational rather than academic.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The book is not culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"This book would be good for a Welcome to College or class that helps to prepare students for learning.  The book is tailored to a particular school but could be a good guide for other schools to use.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2443,"first_name":"Geralyn","last_name":"Stephens","position":"Associate Professor - Clinical","institution_name":"Wayne State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found the textbook an excellent resource for students returning to formal education. Even those who may be interested in graduate studies will find the textbook a refresher. It is an easy read and somewhat entertaining.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found NO discrepancies in the textbook.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As a refresher, the textbook will be easily updated with evolving hyperlinks. However, it should be noted that the authors implemented suggestions from previous reviews to embed hyperlinks for easier access.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the textbook to be easy to read and somewhat entertaining!","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I found that the terminology, language, and framework were consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This reviewer found that it is not necessary to follow the textbooks order, especially if other topics or resources are used to supplement instruction.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This reviewer found that the topics were in a logical order. Students will be able to move through the textbook sequentially or randomly, if used as a reference source.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were NO interface issues. The reviewer used Chrome on an older desktop Mac without an issue. There were no distortions of images and the text was easy to read. Also, the related links were easily accessed.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no glaring grammatical issues with the textbook that would impede a reader engaging with the content.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Given the various scenarios presented, students may ‘find themselves’ in some or similar scenarios presented in illustrations within the textbook.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-12-05T11:29:36.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-12-05T11:29:36.000-06:00"},{"id":2477,"first_name":"Gretchen","last_name":"Starks-Martin","position":"Professor Emerita","institution_name":"St. Cloud State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers most of the topics that would be appropriate for the subject area.  It would be good to have a referenced bibliography after each chapter with Internet links if appropriate.  An index in the back of the book would be easy to include.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I could discern no bias in the content of the book.  \r\n\r\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"There are some updates on the topic of learning styles that the author may want to explore further.  Basically, the student should adjust the learning style to favor the learning style of each instructor he/she has for each course.  To do this, it would be helpful for students to analyze professors learning style as well as their own.  This comparison/analysis would be a good critical thinking exercise.\r\n\r\nDisciplinary literacy is the most current term for reading strategies.  It assumes that each content course has a specific process and framework which leads to various ways to process the material.\r\n\r\nOne of the topics I would not use would be Locus of Control but most are relevant for this type of class.\r\n","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The “running” glossary is helpful.  See #8 “Interface.”","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapters have a consistent framework, which makes this text clear to students and gives organization to instructors who may want to incorporate it into their classes or workshops.  See #7.  This also gives the topics in the text a good organizational flow.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The modular approach makes it easier for instructors to incorporate the text into their lesson plans or syllabus.  I do plan on using this text instead of having students purchase a textbook or e-book.  I will specifically have them use certain sections.  I will edit the assignments to fit my course; many of them are relevant.  I will also do readabilities on all of the articles referenced to make sure they are at an appropriate level for my developmental students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization seems to follow the topical sequence of most study strategies textbooks.\r\nThe topic is \"disciplinary literacy\" could be explored further.\r\n\r\n","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Some of the links lead to sites that are cluttered with other images and advertisements.  The author may want to search for different sites to use. \r\n\r\nThe links need to be checked after each semester and each chapter needs to have links checked prior to assignments.  The link for the Ted Talk on “Listening” does not work.  https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better?language=en#t-440931 \r\nThis is an ongoing dynamic endemic to all online platforms.\r\nThere is an excellent website out there called www.howtostudy.org that I often use because it suggests study strategies for many subjects.  As an ongoing discussion assignment I have students search the web for good articles, tips, YouTubes, and other Internet resources for each topic in the discussion.  That way students can add fresh material to their inventory of resources.\r\n","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"There are some grammar/spelling errors.  I noted some run-on sentences.  Check that voice is consistent (first, second, third person). For example in exercise 1 in Chapter 1.1, \"underlining\" is spelled incorrectly.  The author might want a friend to edit before downloading/uploading into the book.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not offensive or culturally insensitive.  However, don’t forget the perspectives and skills of your current students.  To strengthen cultural relevance, you could have your international students create some case studies from their point of view.  If you get their permission, you could include them in your course too.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"•\tStrengths include the humor, inclusion of Ted Talks, YouTubes, charts, pictures, and clip art.  \r\n•\tMany of the assignments are creative.  Optional assignments and extra credit is helpful. The case studies that are included give the students practice in analysis. (Exercise 4.2 Part B for instance)\r\n•\tThe inclusion of objectives and outcomes for each chapter is excellent.  \r\n•\t The portfolio projects are appropriate and rubrics for Units 1-2 and 4-6 give credibility to the objectives.\r\n•\tThe licenses for this book give a lot of flexibility for instructors to incorporate some of the material into their existing classes.\r\n•\tI would like to suggest a “scaffolding” approach to the assignments.  The assignments could progress from easier to more difficult in each chapter.  Doing a readability level on the readings would facilitate this.  My concern is that some of the readings assigned were of a more difficult level.\r\n•\tThe instructor refers to “Moodle.”  Since there are other software platforms out there (CANVAS, D2L) it may be better call Moodle “software platform you are using.”\r\n•\tAdding a “discussion” assignment on the software platform builds a community of learners.  It would not take much to re-configure the assignments to include this for each chapter.\r\n","created_at":"2018-12-18T16:41:07.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-12-18T16:41:07.000-06:00"},{"id":2592,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Dowell","position":"Program Manager","institution_name":"Emory and Henry College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, the book was easy to follow with great exercises included. In my opinion, the intro to each chapter was too short and did not contain enough information. There were a lot of reference to other articles and materials, but they were not made available in the library so it made it confusing at points. Other material should have references so they are easily accessible.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book was accurate with great information. Sometimes the author referred to themselves a lot, which could be a useful resource, but without knowing much about the author it was hard to put some of the information into context. There were not many errors throughout the book.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe the content in the book can be used for many years to come. Some information may go out-of-date in a few years and needs to be updated, but overall it would be relatively easy to implement these updates.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book had an easy flow and even included a glossary of terms. This is a great asset in the book. All material was explained clearly and written adequately.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book was consistent with terminology and framework. The chapters are consistent with headings and subheading which helps avoid confusion and permit flow of the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided easily into chapters that are all consistent. Every chapter has the same type of structure and organized headings and subheadings.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized well by each chapter and section. It is easy to find what you are looking for within the book based on the table of contents.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface of the book has a few errors including stating there are articles or clickable links in the text that do not work. There is a lot of \"white space\" in the book that makes it distracting to read.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I could not find any grammatical errors. It flowed well and was easy to follow and understand.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It is not specific to races, eternities, and backgrounds leaving the lessons open to address any type of classroom.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I do not like the more specific lesson plans being included into the book, such as \"check MOODLE for more details.\" These should be in a separate document so others using it can avoid confusion or having to clarify. Overall, I really like the exercise and lesson plan examples as there are many useful ones that can be used in any classroom.","created_at":"2019-02-28T14:23:15.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-02-28T14:23:15.000-06:00"},{"id":2873,"first_name":"Della","last_name":"Netter-Perkins","position":"Counselor/Instructor","institution_name":"Southern University and A \u0026 M College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book was easy to follow and helped by providing exercises to follow.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content was accurate and accommodated all types of learners.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Information given is presented in an organized and up-to-date fashion.  Anything that may reach the out-of-date market can easily be updated. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is written in a style that is easy to follow for students and teacher.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each unit gives the topic, objective, materials needed, glossary, and a to-do list.  I find that the book is very consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is accessible to student learning and each unit is congruent to allow for teachers to access various teaching and learning elements.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical and clear fashion.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Could not navigate to the links provided, but may be because I downloaded the book into a print.pdf file.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were a few grammatical errors, but not to the point where there is a major distraction.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I found this book to be a good used book for First-time Freshmen to help them prepare for \"College Life\".  Well used exercises and use of words.","created_at":"2019-04-30T14:56:36.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-30T14:56:36.000-05:00"},{"id":2951,"first_name":"Tony","last_name":"Kline","position":"Dean, School of Education","institution_name":"Trine University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"While all areas in the table of contents are addressed, the comprehensive accuracy of most topics is minimal.  There are few attempts to tie any content to empirical research.  Most of the areas are covered in an anecdotal and limited fashion. ","accuracy_rating":1,"accuracy_review":"This book's content consistently lacks any form of reputable citations.  For example, the author states, \"Studies show...\" or provides statistics on types of learners though omits any sources.  Of the hyperlinked articles, many are wikiHow-type citations that lack substance.  There are only a few outside sources linked to reputable and unbiased information.  Gardner's Multiple Intelligence is oversold without sharing the the accurate limitations.  The author suggests that students choose \"Letter C\" in multiple choice questions if they are unsure, as the author states that the letter \"is more often than not the correct answer.\" Again, no citation or evidence is provided.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"While many of the topics addressed are relevant to today's learner, most of the advice seems to be dated or disputed by empirical research.  The text includes terms like \"crabby\" and \"hunker down,\" which seem outdated.  Some of the hyperlinks take the reader to sources 10+ years old.  Minimal online resources/apps are identified.","clarity_rating":2,"clarity_review":"Much of the content suffers from the overuse of commas and a non-fluid writing style.  Some items are abbreviated without an explanation of the abbreviation.  While some sample assignments are identified, no rubrics were provided.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Most of the content addressed in each lesson is accurately aligned to the lesson per unit.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The majority of the book's modularity were accurately divisible into readable chunks of information.  There were minor and major spacing issues in some pages, which made reading difficult at times.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The majority of the text was organized into developmentally appropriate topics and sequencing.  The author chose to start with big picture items (learning styles and preferences) first, then focused on more narrow topics such as note-taking and memory as the book progressed. ","interface_rating":1,"interface_review":"The majority of the book was confusing to navigate.  Many links were not found at all.  If the hyperlinks were underlined, in bold, or in a different color, much searching and potential frustration would be eliminated.  There were consistent spacing issues, which were distracting to the reviewer.","grammatical_rating":1,"grammatical_review":"There was an overuse of commas, inconsistent use of space and punctuation, and some misspellings throughout the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book's cultural relevance lacked any major insensitivity and tried to include learners from different cultures, ages, and life experiences.","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"Unfortunately, I would not suggest this text to be the primary source for a course. The lack of empirical data, use of out-dated theories, and reliance on anecdotal information diminish its value.  This text may serve as a source for someone looking to design a similar course, as the table of contents provides a generally solid variety of topics to discuss and some checklists could be helpful.  However, for the actual content, I would suggest exploring current research rather than this book's information. ","created_at":"2019-05-24T12:26:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-24T12:26:38.000-05:00"},{"id":3585,"first_name":"Sarah","last_name":"Snider","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Minnesota State University System","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book touches on a wide range of topics that my students, most of whom are in their first semester at community college, need to adjust to post-secondary study life. Students can determine how they learn and examine their self-efficacy, then use that knowledge as they explore and apply study techniques. Study techniques for math and sciences are much less robust than the ones for the humanities and social sciences. For instance, Unit 3, Exercise 5.1 is just a link to a WikiHow article (what happens if that gets taken down or the link changes?). It’s a good article and a fine start, but I will need to supplement it with additional activities.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"All the information is up-to-date and accurate. A lot of information on how to be an effective student is subjective based on students’ lives and educational history, and this book does a great job offering multiple perspectives to make the book useful for as many students as possible. I appreciate that many of the examples used include non-traditional college students, such as older adults or first-generation immigrants.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The majority of this information is evergreen and won’t become irrelevant in a traditional learning setting. In a few instances, the author flags information that could be updated soon. For example, in lesson 1.6 she lists nine intelligences and notes that more may be added soon, leaving open the possibility to stimulate discussion among students about which intelligences they might add. Other updates will be easy to implement.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing is clear and easily understandable for the most part. Sometimes the author switches to the first person (for example, stating “I am a kinesthetic learner”). This may be more effective in a text that uses more personal anecdotes to illustrate its points, or in a class where the author is also the instructor. Here, it feels a bit like a non-sequitur, although one that can be easily skipped.\r\n\r\nHowever, some sections are in a style that, in my experience, can be challenging for ELL students. An example is Lesson 3.3, which uses humorous names like Stedman Nimblebody and taxidermy-related examples. This may lighten the mood and make examples more memorable for a native speaker, but ELLs tend to get hung up on the words they don’t understand. When using this book, I sometimes rewrite the exercises to avoid distracting elements and focus on meaning.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology and framework is consistent throughout. The voice of the author is consistently encouraging and written at the level of an average native English speaker. The structure of the units is consistent as well. Short readings introduce more in-depth exercises and/or longer readings, which can be cherrypicked based on the needs and focus on the class.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The units and exercises can be used individually or in sequence. There are few large blocks of text without headings, so the parts are easy to pull out and rearrange as needed. The author clearly understands the particular needs of OER texts. The supplemental PDFs by Dan Hodges are not as modular and feature longer text blocks, but I have excerpted portions of them for use in class successfully. They do use headings to good effect and, in any case, are optional materials.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The chapters of the book are organized in a logical way. Students begin by learning about themselves and their learning styles. They can then apply this knowledge to learning strategies found in future chapters, or they can base it on whatever introductory material the instructor chooses if the class is organized in a more modular fashion.\r\n\r\nThe pattern used in numbering the exercises is not clear to me. Unit 3, Lesson 3.2 contains exercises 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. These exercises are not directly connected. Perhaps a system like 3.2.1, 3.2.2, etc. would make more sense and help the user to locate exercises that become isolated from their chapters.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Broken links in Units 1 \u0026 3. It’s a recently published book, so I’m surprised that it needs updating already. \r\n\r\nGraphic organizers included in the back are functional but not attractive. I may be a snob, but I like materials to be appealing. I don’t want to give my students materials with Comic Sans font, and the colored-in shapes make the organizers harder to photocopy. I will probably recreate these in Canva, but even a little Microsoft Word know-how could make these nicer.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The author includes exercises that take the diverse needs of non-traditional students into account, like older students or first-generation immigrants. Some of the exercises do use quirky names and professions (like Stedman Nimblebody the taxidermist) that are unnecessarily distracting for English language learners, but that is something that can be adapted.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I'm using this book in a class for ELL students, most of whom are in their first semester at community college. Study skills are not the primary focus of the class. Therefore, I am not using as many of the longer activities and writing exercises as are offered.","created_at":"2020-02-17T13:13:30.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-02-17T13:13:30.000-06:00"},{"id":3663,"first_name":"Lewis","last_name":"Deneen","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"SUNO","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Comprehensiveness-The book covers all of the topics that are to be taught in a Freshmen Seminar course but the book does not cover the topics in detail.  The author tells the reader to click on several/certain sources for further information about topics, but does not include and expand upon the information from the article in her narrative. Thus, she seems to infer that the reader should decide what is important/essential information on the topic from the article.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy-The presentation was accurate and up to date.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Relevance-The material in this text is relevant. It is presented in a concise and organized matter. The information does have longevity. The book covers all of the topics currently taught in a Freshmen Seminar class and in my opinion will continue to be taught in college freshmen classes in order to help students excel as they adjust to their new institutions of higher learning. The discussed topics have been proven to bring about past success, current academic success, and will result in future academic successes involving personal growth and development. The presented topics have stood the test of time and will continue to stand the test of time in helping students to combat future fear and failure.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity: A glossary of terms is provided for students to review. Key terms are defined in the text and are set off in red. This visual impact is essential and does its job. Every student knows that they will see the words printed in red again either in a test, a quiz, an in-class activity, a homework assignment, or as part of an extra credit assignment.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Consistency-The information presented is consistent. Dr. Phyllis Nissila takes us from the beginning to the end, building her prose in a logical manner that will lead to academic success and not academic suicide.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Modularity- Dr. Phyllis Nissila, the author, does an excellent job of dividing the information into smaller reading sections that can be used/assigned at different points. She also does a stellar job of dividing the midterm exam, the final exam, and extra credit assignments within her work.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Organization-There is an excellent building block format that has been incorporated in the book as it starts with introducing the student to learning styles (the basics). Once a student has identified their learning styles, the text directs the student to learning how to effectively study and manage time. When the task of effectively managing time has been mastered, students are directed to the next building block which focuses on reading to get the most out of textbooks. A student that reads to get effective information out of a textbook must learn to take excellent notes. Thus, the building block that follows next is effective note-taking. It is not enough for a student to take effective notes if they cannot commit the information in the notes to memory. Our writer then quickly follows with a unit on memory. The last block that is put in place addresses test anxiety.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Interface-The link in Unit 3, Exercise 2.3 entitled the Thematic Maps of the U.S. Census Bureau, Natural disaster Hurricane Katrina, Resource Maps represents pages that are no longer available.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical: There were no noticeable grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Cultural-The textbook is culturally sensitive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Are they any other comments you would like to make about this book?\r\n\r\nI.\tThis book presents relevant information and topics that are vital to a Freshmen Seminar class. However, the book does not give enough detailed information about the topics. Important information from links that the reader is instructed to click would serve a better purpose if included in the text initially.\r\nII.\tSome of the activity directions are not clear enough for readers/students to understand.\r\nIII.\tOverall, this is an excellent resource for incoming college freshmen to use in order to achieve academic success.","created_at":"2020-03-19T11:48:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-03-19T14:52:44.000-05:00"},{"id":4178,"first_name":"Sofia","last_name":"Bilgrami","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Holyoke Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers many areas of learning and memory and gives a clear index and a handy glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content contains no bias of any kind and I found it to be accurate when compared to other readings of similar topics.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and relevant, with some exceptions being of older studies cited.  I believe it would be easy to insert newer studies/findings to supplement the current information.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"With easy to follow text, simple yet complete explanations and a good definitions of technical terms, this book can be useful to a broad age group.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent throughout the book and across referenced articles.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is arranged in the form of lessons and each lesson has sub-topics that are internally consistent and complete in themselves.  There would be no problem reorganizing the subtopics.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Please see above for organization.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no navigation problems and the reader can easily go to referenced articles.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical or spelling errors in the book.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally offensive in any way, but it may be useful in future to add more studies/articles on cultural aspects of learning and inherent biases in traditional IQ tests.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book is very useful as a practical guide to improving learning at any stage of life.  It provides not only a scientific background to learning and memory, but great tips to make school and college experience better.  A succinct but comprehensive discussion of types of intelligence, how our world view shapes our learning, reasons we procrastinate, how memories form and how they are lost are just some of the interesting topics in this book.  Exercises and extra-credit activities at the end of each topic reinforce the information, often in a fun and imaginative way.  Practical tips put together by Lane Community College is an excellent handbook for better classroom comprehension, note-taking, understanding and recall of material.  I plan to have my students in all classes make use of this guide.","created_at":"2020-06-30T12:57:05.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-30T12:57:05.000-05:00"},{"id":33974,"first_name":"Heather","last_name":"Hollandsworth","position":"Associate Director, First-Year Experience","institution_name":"Radford University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I appreciate that there is a glossary provided at the beginning of each section.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"A major limitation of this text is the section on learning styles.  Many cognitive scientists agree there is no evidence that learning styles exist.  Additionally, it lacks any in text citations and a works cited.  Because of this, I have trouble believing information is accurate.  For example, page 13 begins with “Studies indicate that up to 80%...”  I would like to know what studies or what the source is for that information so that I can trust it as accurate.  The same problem is repeated on page 15.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"In order to make the quotes feel more relevant and credible, it might be helpful to include who the person is who is credited with the quote.  For example, I am much more likely to take seriously a quote about learning being an important life skill if I know the person who said it was an educational consultant credited with mind mapping.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"It's great that there is a glossary at the beginning of each unit, but sometimes abbreviations are used without defining the abbreviation.  Additionally syntax is sometimes confusing.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Material seems consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Units are easily digestible.  If anything, they are too short at times.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Not sure why “To the Student” is divided into 2 parts.  Seems like it could be structured in a different way.  The way the glossary of terms is presented is not reader friendly because of the first line indenting and lack of spacing between terms.  It would be helpful if the terms were underlined, italicized, or some other way marked to stand out.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The exercises are useless to people outside the institution who do not have access to download the materials the unit exercises require.  Examples of how to do assignments do not always provide clarity for how to do the assignment.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"There are errors throughout.  At times, the text uses the Oxford comma, which I appreciate; however, the use is inconsistent throughout the text.  Other common errors include:\r\n•\tPage iv: the parentheses around Bloom’s Taxonomy should go inside the period.\r\n•\tUnit 1 “Terms” sections should include the period on the inside of the quotation marks (“do-ers.”).  Same error repeated on page 12.\r\n•\tPage 11: First sentence should be separated with a semicolon, not a comma because it separates two main clauses.\r\n•\tPage 12: Article title should go in quotes.\r\n•\tPage 12: Underlining is misspelled.\r\n•\tPage 12: No comma needed after “device.”  A better way to do that would have been to put the information in parentheses.\r\n•\tPage 17: PowerPoint is misspelled. \r\n•\tPage 18: Comma before a conjunction, even though it is not joining main clauses.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Welcome image is diverse.  “To the Student, Part 2” references lots of different kinds of learners, specifically non-traditional students.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Some sections have a ton of open space on the pages, making those sections feel like they lack thoroughness.\tSome images feel very “clipart-y.”","created_at":"2022-08-05T16:00:13.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-08-05T16:00:13.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/how-to-learn-like-a-pro","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:23:24.000-06:00"},{"id":450,"title":"A Different Road To College: A Guide For Transitioning Non-Traditional Students","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"A Different Road To College: A Guide For Transitioning Non-Traditional Students is designed to introduce students to the contextual issues of college. Non-traditional students have an ever-growing presence on college campuses, especially community colleges. This open educational resource is designed to engage students in seeing themselves as college students and understanding the complexity of what that means to their lives. Non-traditional students face critical issues surrounding participation and success in college. These critical issues include, but are not limited to, the following Strategies for managing competing needs on their time Difficulty navigating institutional environments Understanding the culture of college Transitional services not in place to the same degree as for “traditional” students Knowledgeable support systems Personal barriers Unpredictable influences on their schedules Work first, study second priorities Paying for college Underprepared foundation skills (Reading, Writing, Math, Computer Literacy, Human Relations, Oral Communication).Most textbooks available on the topic of college transition/success today focus on the traditional 18-year old student and the needs of someone living away from home for the first time.The goal of the book is to help students understand how to select the right college for them and then become acquainted with the inner workings and language of college. The book is designed to be a practical guide for first-generation college students as they navigate potentially unfamiliar topics such as understanding the costs of college beyond tuition, navigating college websites, and defining critical language needed to understand communication regarding the context and culture of the college.","contributors":[{"id":4162,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Alise","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Lamoreaux","location":"Lane Community College","background_text":"Alise Lamoreaux has a long history of teaching non-traditional students who are preparing for the GED and transitioning to college. She teaches a class called, “Everything You Want to Know About College, Before You Start” along with Hybrid GED courses at Lane Community College. Alise is known for her willingness to learn and use new technologies in the classroom, such as digital storytelling, learning management systems, and other online resources. She is an advocate of student success. Throughout the years, she has demonstrated her willingness to teach other professionals how they might also implement innovative technologies in the classroom. This year, she took on the challenge of writing an open source textbook, through a grant she received from openoregon.org, titled, A Different Road To College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-traditional Students. This free resource is designed to engage students in seeing themselves as college students and understanding the complexity of what that means to their lives, as well as helping to unlock the contextual complexities of the culture of college."}],"subjects":[{"id":10,"name":"Student Success","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"LB1062.6","visible_textbooks_count":65,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success"}],"publishers":[{"id":379,"url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","name":"Open Oregon Educational Resources"}],"formats":[{"id":626,"type":"Online","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegetransition/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":1597,"type":"eBook","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegetransition/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":"978-1-63635-069-1"},{"id":1598,"type":"PDF","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegetransition/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2086,"type":"XML","url":"https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/collegetransition/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2087,"type":"Hardcopy","url":"https://www.lulu.com/shop/alise-lamoreaux/a-different-road-to-college-a-guide-for-transitioning-to-college-for-non-traditional-students/paperback/product-23853982.html?page=1\u0026pageSize=4","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":"978-1-63635-073-8"}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":32,"reviews":[{"id":1238,"first_name":"Shannon","last_name":"Calderone","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Washington State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"On the whole, I think this book offers an excellent overview on college preparation for non-traditional students. What I particularly like about this text is that the author offers a birds eye view of the systems and structures that would help students unfamiliar with the practices of postsecondary institutions.  At the same time, this book is also about doing the internal work of outlining motivations, goals, and mastering the language and terminology - affective skills and traits of successful college students.  By attending to the externalities of college going simultaneous with this internal work, I think the book demonstrates clear understanding of audience needs.\n\nOne of my critiques of the book, however, is that it tries to offer a two- and four-year institutional focus on the information provided. In truth, the information provided is particularly oriented to the two-year college experience.  While I certainly think a two-year focus for this text is warranted, the book tries too hard to be all things to all types of students (see \"financial aid basics\" chapter as an example).  In doing so, I think it dilutes the purpose of the text.\n\nFinally, there are a couple of key topics that don't seem to be attended to in any way here.  These are things like specific steps to transferring between two and four-year institutions, known student success strategies (campus engagement, learning communities, peer/cohort effects) that also would have been immensely useful to the readers.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The author is a community college professor who has taught this course previously.  The content provided appears to be accurate and error-free.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"While there are certainly aspects of college practice that will always remain constant - i.e. key terminology, institutional process and practices - there are also aspects of the college experience that are time specific.  Certainly, admissions is ever-changing dimension of the college-going process.  Also, importantly, is financial aid.  The \"financial aid basics\" chapter uses DOE video to convey specific financial aid information (perhaps with an eye to avoiding unending content updates).  However, other explanatory information might require updates in fairly short order.\n\nThere are also a number of references to various media that could require some form of updating as well.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is very accessible.  The language chosen is clear, but concise.  I also very much appreciated the illustrations, data visualizations, and media.  All of these features lend to the overall clarity of the text.  In this regard, it is very well done and nicely tailored to the intended audience.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"As I mentioned in a previous comment, I think this book at times tries to be all things to two and four-year students.  I think it would have been strategically appropriate for the author to limit the discussion to the two-year experience.  There are certainly differences in the  two and four-year college experience (commuting, peer engagements, access to faculty, etc.).  It would have been far more valuable from a \"quality of information\" perspective, to have had the author focus on one institutional type over the other.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"his guidebook excels in its modularity; each chapter is short enough that even multiples could be assigned together without too much concern about overloading students. And because each chapter contains clusters of questions for students to answer in varying degrees of specificity, an instructor can rest assured knowing that the chapters can expand to provide enough content for whatever amount of time can be dedicated to it.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"When it comes to the organization of chapters and content, this guide excels in limiting chapters to the actual information they cover and covering respective topics comprehensively; that is, a student wouldn’t have much trouble discerning which chapter to mine for their particular question or concern. The first two chapters, “What’s College For?” and “Choosing a College to Attend” function as a microcosm of the entire text, thusly giving the reader a taste for the breadth of the issues presented. My only concern was what felt like the haphazard inclusion of the “Supplemental Fun” and “Random Autobiographies” sections after chapters two and nine, respectively.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"First, I have to say that this textbook handles interface as well as I’ve ever seen; nevertheless, I’ve oftentimes got a bone to pick with online textbooks and the limitations of the medium. I’m a firm believer in the idea of open texts—but at the same time, I would always personally choose to have paper versions in front of me! This guidebook meets my needs in that it provides a number of innovative visual aids/information delivery systems that would be impossible to deploy in a tangible text. That seems like just the thing an open text should be doing. Once more, this guide frequently employs some of the best and most-viewed TED Talks  \nin order to convey information to readers. My only critique regarding interface is that a table of contents wasn’t visible on each page; I would have liked a way to quickly reach a targeted chapter.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Although the guidebook contained some errors in grammar and mechanics, the errors were not particularly glaring, such that I only noticed them when I was reading to find them. A large number of the errors involved compound words that would be separated in subsequent uses; examples include “website” becoming “web site” or “homepage” “home page.” These, as I’ve suggested, are not grave errors. Stylistically, the text is easily comprehended without being overtly repetitive or unnecessarily simplistic in terms of sentence structure.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"One area in which this text could really excel in terms of inclusion is the quote at the beginning of each chapter. So often this person was completely unknown to me. When I did recognize the speaker of the quote, he was generally a white male. Why choose anonymous quotes (which you do multiple times), when you could use that opportunity to provide a far greater diversity of voices?","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"On occasion the tone of the text felt a bit forced in its optimism. I say this in part, however, as a self-aware cynic. While I understand the need to help prospective college students achieve a hopeful, can-do attitude, things like the quote from Christopher Reeves (“Once you choose hope, anything is possible.”) felt a little bit forced to me. Further, is Christopher Reeves still a household name? I also noticed that the last chapter was particularly short. I’d like to see more information added here and almost expected an overview of material from the entire text.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1257,"first_name":"Brenda","last_name":"Williams","position":"Academic Advisor/RTEC Faculty","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book was very well done.  It covers topics that are aimed for the non-traditional student as well as as interesting videos and assignments to reinforce the topic. I thought the terms employees who study rather than students who work was fitting for this book.\nI would have liked to see more talk about financial aid besides just scholarships.  I would have liked to have seen:\n how financial aid awards are different independent vs dependent\nhow financial aid looks at enrollment levels\nthe importance of talking to a financial aid advisor if you only want to attend 1-2 classes","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The key topics were very on-point and I didn't disagree with anything. From an advising standpoint, some things needed side notes such as the \"Academic Year\"  This terminology only addressed Lane but I think it would have been important to mention that the academic year is different at every institution. Some colleges start a new year in the summer where another summer may be the end of a year. In another instance, it said to take 1-2 classes as the student learns to manage time; great advice, but 1 class can impact a students financial aid and that fact wasn't addressed.  I thought there was a little too much emphasis on how Lane CC does things; some contrasting would have helped the student realized the important of asking for help.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I thought the book was very relevant and  any updating wouldn't be an issue.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text was clear and any jargon was explained promptly.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Since I know Lane's system, I noticed that sometimes mylane was mentioned, then it was expresslane, and then mylane/expresslane. I didn't think it was necessary to mention expresslane since most students know it as myLane.  I also wished that directed electives were explained in the glossary.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This was such as easy read.  The chapters weren't too long, the title of each chapter was straightfoward, and I loved that there were some bullet lists. I enjoyed the variety of articles vs videos mixed with worksheets/discussion prompts.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I thought the flow would be better if it went\nnavigating the college website, placement testing, and then planning  a schedule. \nNon-traditional students do need to think about how they are going to fit college into their life, but it may be easier for them to do that once they feel comfortable with the college website and knowing their tests are done.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I didn't like that the suggested readings didn't open in a new window. \nSome of the activities/worksheets didn't have lines so it was a bunch of empty space or looked too crowded for the page. \nThe Discounted Dreams link didn't play all the videos consecutively. I had to click on the side menu to watch the other videos.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I noticed two spelling errors but it wasn't distracting and didn't take away from the meaning of the sentence. It was well written.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn't see anything that could be taken offensively.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think it was very well done and was easy to get through.  I would recommend it to other instructors.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1259,"first_name":"Melissa","last_name":"Stark","position":"College Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers many topics generally and specifically, but the detail feels disjointed. I believe for me, it is due to many links to external websites should the reader want more depth in the topics covered. A concern that came up when reading through this book was what if those links no longer were accessible to the reader? I believe a better\napproach would be to forget the links and go into more depth within each topic so the reader does not need to look at additional references. Another option is at the end of a chapter, include links for further reading outside of this book.","accuracy_rating":1,"accuracy_review":"The author does not cite her where the information is specifically gathered from. No footnotes or end notes. The only citing done in the book is through topic headers and external links. So the accuracy of the material would take time to check, not to mention, the links to external websites can lead to information on those external sites changing or becoming inaccurate over time. The author makes reference to TED Talks, Lane Community College and occasionally general educational information from the State of Oregon. While I do not have an issue with using information gathered from institutions, I think it would have shown a bit more diversity to include several different colleges and\nthen referenced them. It would have shown the author did a bit more research and offered a well rounded read. It almost feels like this book is for students interested in one particular college institution within a specified state.","relevance_rating":1,"relevance_review":"While the information at this time might be somewhat accurate, I do not think it will have much in the way of longevity. I believe this is due in part to the external websites whose information can be changed at anytime without the author knowing about it.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The author uses a simplistic presentation without complexity for a good portion of the book. This in turn can be thought of as an “easy read” to many. I think that was probably the intent. Another point to make is that due to the lack of depth in terminology it is hard to go into detail about anything specific unless it is within a table or chart provided by the author.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I think the text is consistent in terms of the framework.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The author presents eleven different chapters that can be referenced independently or as continued reading from one chapter to the next. There are exercises and end of chapter questions that the student can use to help retain the information within the textbook.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"I think the way it was organized made sense but how it flowed from one section to the next felt a bit disjointed.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Web links play a huge role in this book. There are also many links to YouTube videos or the suggestion that I could ‘click here’ to watch something, but there is nothing to view. Therefore I would have to copy a link and put in my browser. I think the flow of the book could be improved.","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"As mentioned earlier, this book is written as if I’m having a conversation with the author herself. It is almost a friendly chat. Therefore, I think grammar and punctuation is sometimes used improperly.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"One of the things that did catch my eye about this book is the attention it makes towards the “non-traditional” older student being a “student” of today. Our thinking of a college student being 18 and fresh out of high school is not necessarily the norm any more. The\nauthor specifically relates to that in the introduction and I find that to have more cultural relevance. The text also includes social media and technology used in the classroom. The text is aimed specifically at community college students and addresses the needs\nand culture of that specific group.","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":"I would have a hard time recommending this textbook as it is now. It is not diverse enough. I think that if the author revised this book to be more inclusive and added more depth within the book itself without so many external references, than this book could be\nviable for any “non-traditional” student looking to take a leap of faith and go to college at an older age.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1353,"first_name":"Cailyn","last_name":"Green","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers the information regarding stats and basic information for student looking into transitioning into college. It does not cover information/activities to help students learn how to adjust. I would suggest this text be used more in a sense of freshmen orientation seminar prior to college starting.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information that I found seemed to be accurate and make sense for the desired population.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is very relevant in the field in which is focuses in. I would not see much of these data change in the near years.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to understand and clear.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The frame work is a bus jumpy. I would have liked it to have gone  into a bit more depth with activities and such.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The way it is organised makes sense.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I would have organized the information differently, but the way they did it is clear enough to follow.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"There were pages where, I am assuming, charts of pictures belonged but they did not load in the downloaded PDF.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No issues noted","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text touched on different cultures but it could have gone more into depth regarding unique difficulties in different cultural populations.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I was looking to use this book for my college survival and success course but I would not feel comfortable using it as it only covers very surface information.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1375,"first_name":"Kenneth","last_name":"McGhee","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Northern Virginia Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"A transition takes place when someone becomes a college student. Research has shown that students that complete an Introduction to College course perform better in college.  For students in the 18 - 24 year old age group I have found three traditional textbooks which I regularly utilize. \n \nThe Open Textbook Network, entitled A Different Road To College: A Guide For Transitioning Non-Traditional Students, fulfills the need to assist students 25 years of age and older obtain a solid foundation to be successful in college. The book is a good recourse for a community college or university Introduction to College courses. \n \nAlso community based organizations that offer college preparation workshops and classes  for adult learners would  find it helpful. Some of the topics covered are  10 factors to consider when selecting a college or university, college terms, placement examinations, course scheduling, scholarships,  and online college resources.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The layout and accuracy of the book are good.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is written in a way to allow for ongoing updates as needed.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written to the correct age group which is adult learners.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapters are divided in a way to allow for ongoing student assignments.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Students could do group work to review the various sections of the book as they are designed for this to take place.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are in a logical manner in the book.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"A college instructor would not need to skip around but follow the chapters in the order they come in the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar used in the book is correct.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Adult learner will be able to relate to this book regardless of their cultural background.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a an ideal option for adult learners.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1377,"first_name":"Jean","last_name":"Mittelstaedt","position":"Adjunct writing teacher","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The introduction contains a good definition of the non-traditional student that such students would identify with.  Much of the introduction contains graphics and other information that they would probably skip and is of more interest to the instructor.\n\nChapter 1 has good material about why students go to college but could do more with focusing on the students themselves.  There is a set of questions; suggestions for use could be provided.  \n\nThe material in Chapter 2 is useful in selecting a college, but if the intended audience is students who have already enrolled in college, it would not be applicable to them.  It also seems very broad-based for such an essential area.\n\nThe discussion of “college vocabulary” in Chapter 4 is extremely useful for the target audience:  a nontraditional student unfamiliar with navigating “college.” \n\nChapter 5’s discussion of college schedules contains a general overview of issues students will face but would benefit from more specific advice and resources other than the ones mentioned, or at least advice on how to locate resources that would help with this issue.\n\nThe discussion of college Web sites in Chapter 6 is woefully inadequate.  It simply addresses the difficulties with navigating colleges’ public sites without including a discussion of tools like the student portal like Banweb or Learning Management Systems like Blackboard or D2L.  Most students likely don’t even look at the public Web site after they are enrolled.\n\nChapter 7’s discussion of placement testing seems more appropriate for students who have not yet enrolled, not who are already enrolled.  \n\n“Understanding College Expenses” is vital information for students both before and after enrollment, so students would definitely benefit from reading this chapter.  There are entire books and Web sites devoted to about this topic, but this chapter is a good introduction.  The following chapter on scholarships is equally useful.\n\nChapter 11 on “Pulling It All Together” provides a nice ending to the book and gives students an opportunity for self-reflection about their own college experiences.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Since the author is a community college instructor whose students are the “nontraditional” kind that she intends this book for, the information she provides is from first-hand experience.  There were a few places that could have benefited from more development, but the book is generally accurate.  It is also reasonably unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is relevant and can be easily updated.  Some references to Lane Community College specifically would not be applicable to students from other institutions.  There are also links throughout the text to additional material; some thought might be given to making these fixed or checking them regularly to make sure they remain relevant.\n\nThe author also seems to assume that the target audience is community college students.  There are some references to the practices of universities and four-year colleges, but a good deal of the content discusses “college” from the point of view of a two-year college student.  This is particularly evident in Chapter 10","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The author assumes a conversational but academically appropriate tone, addressing the reader as “you.”  However, there are frequent shifts from this second-person, more informal style to third-person, which make the flow sometimes jarring.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text achieves a good balance of consistency between discussing general and specific matters.  Terminology is defined and used consistently.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"While the individual chapters each have a discrete topic that could be used in any order, some seem more apropos to students prior to their enrollment in college and therefore less useful in a college success class.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book refers to a number of TED Talks and other Web resources, which adds a multimedia element, but the PDF versions do not provide descriptions, instructions, links, or printed URLs.  The “Online” version does.\n\nSeveral tables within the book seem to suffer from formatting issues in the PDF versions that are not present in the “Online” version.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are 5 downloadable file formats and an “Online” version.  This makes for easy offline usage, but the online option is a good alternative.  Also, some guidance about which app(s) would be best used with a particular format would be useful for the less experienced user.  \n\nChapter titles are listed in the Table of Contents, but the formatting seems to have left them out of the individual chapters in the PDF versions.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text contains a number of colon, quotation mark/punctuation,  capitalization, and sentence fragment errors.  The following word errors were also noted.\n\nIntroduction, p. 4:  I have witnessing the struggle and confusion [should be “witnessed”]\n\nChapter 1, p. 12:  How you define success in relationship to your college experience [“in relationship to” should be “in relation to”]\n\nChapter 7, p. 65:  The placement test can be referred to as CPT or CTP exam. [this seems to be a typo—similar mistakes are made throughout the chapter—if they refer to different things, the text needs to be clearer]","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is careful to use gender-inclusive language (he/she, usage of third-person point of view).  There are no references to culture other than first-year college students.  Ethnicity and other culture identifications are certainly relevant to non-traditional students, but the author does not address them specifically.  Perhaps this could be done in future updates; it might be helpful.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The overall strength of this book is that it was written by someone with a lot of insider knowledge about this topic.  The drawback is its intent.  Is it aimed at students prior to enrollment in college or after?  While it contains good, general information about navigating “college,” it seems more appropriate as a guidebook for prospective students rather than a textbook for students in a college success class.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1384,"first_name":"Grecia","last_name":"Garcia Perez","position":"Student Service Specialist","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers in logical order topics or student’s concerns that non-traditional students might have. Given that, this text helps to demystify the college experience or introduce college systems to non-traditional students, it contains, as it should be a glossary in between the chapters of terms used at colleges and universities. The text caters to students going to community colleges as well as 4-year universities and uses two higher education institutions as examples throughout the book, which is helpful for any students, traditional, or non-traditional.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate as much as it could be. It uses examples of tuition at community college and a public university, and with tuition always changing it always difficult to be completely accurate. However, this is understandable and gets to the point of comparing prices of colleges and choosing the right one for the student, for each specific student’s situation.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is up-to-date as much as it could be. It uses examples of two colleges, compares the tuition of the two, but with tuition always, fluctuation, and is difficult to change the tuition constantly for the sake of complete accuracy. However if an instructor would want to use other universities or colleges as examples, it would be easily to modify. As the number of “non-traditional” students grow and become the new traditional student, the relevance of the book will continue to grow.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and concise. The book is an easy read and it flows incredibly well. When college jargon is used, it explains the jargon beforehand and has exercises for students to research the jargon more in detail at the college or universities that they are thinking of going or currently attending.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Whenever the book uses jargon or terminology it explains it beforehand and uses the same term with the same meaning consistently.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters of the book allows instructors to assign readings at different points of the class. The book can be read for the most part without a specific order.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics presented are organized in a very organic fashion. It is structured as if a student was talking to you and asking you college related questions in that same order. The order of the chapters and the topics are organized in a clear fashion.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This book is best read online since it contains TED Talks embedded in the text. When the book is downloaded into a pdf, for example, it is confusing to see big chucks of white space. When I first started reading the book, I downloaded the book as a pdf, not realizing until well into chapter two that the online version had the videos embedded. I think it would be helpful to place a disclaimer somehow that there are videos, and the best way to read this book is online, rather than downloading the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar errors that I could notice.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not cultural insensitive, and the TED talks chosen present speakers of different backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"A Different Toad to College is a great book for non-traditional students, traditional students and even college staff. It helps to demystify the college experience and helps students navigate college systems to their advantage. This book is best read online, since it has TED talks and YouTube videos embedded that help with the content of each chapter. The book also contains instructional materials that help students understand the material presented or help instructors create discussion questions for class.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1388,"first_name":"Jocelin","last_name":"Higgins","position":"Pre-college instructor and academic advisor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This student guide book for incoming, non-traditional college students provides a wide range of common topics that new students need to know about with a thorough table of contents with easy to understand chapter headings. It contains eleven chapters ranging from answering the philosophical and practical question of what college is for to how to understand the \"language\" of college as well as how to register, how to navigate the school's website and where to seek out resources and scholarships for success in school. I found this information to be current with what types of questions students ask me to guide them through or ones that they need to know to become acquainted with a college right for them or to become acclimated to the particular environment as they are getting started as a non-traditional student. I also liked the educational TedX talks interspersed within the eBook format. However, some were not entirely matched to the points being addressed in the sections and so it was hard to link the ideas together and it could use more focus on \"successful learning and study habits for students\".","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the content to be mostly accurate, error-free and unbiased. I don't expect a text to be completely unbiased when it comes to sharing personal opinion as I believe that students take what they need and ignore what doesn't apply to them as long as the information is not offensive or discriminatory.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is fairly up-to-date and relevant to incoming non-traditional students and includes links to websites and Tedx talks on YouTube. Some of these are a few years old and could be updated. It would be relatively easy to update these links and find more recent videos as time passes. The digital eBook structure also allows the content to be updated easier than a traditional paper textbook would allow, which gives it a longer shelf life.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the text easy to follow and understand. Most of the information wasn't new to me, but it is practical and valuable information for new students who have many questions and concerns. This books clearly clarifies and demystifies many aspects of college life and is a great guidebook for new, non-traditional students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is consistent in its terminology and is accessible to the average student. It contains reflection and discussion questions in most chapters to help students internalize what they are reading and personally guide them on what will work for them throughout the process.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity is well designed. There are relevant quotes at the beginning of chapters to set up the focus of each chapter. There are bold titles, subheadings and numbered lists that assist in organizing the information clearly which makes it easy to follow.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is well laid out in an easy to follow manner. I had no problem with the flow and transitions from chapter to chapter. Each one build on the next and stayed consistent to its topic, yet connected nicely to the one before it.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Everything with the interface appears to be working adequately. All the links are updated and go immediately to the necessary websites. I did have some issues with the downloading of the eBook. I couldn't get the files to open up with my Kindle or other reading programs. I ended up reading the pdf version, which wasn't as user friendly as I would have liked it to be. This could have been a technical glitch on my part though.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar and punctuation is mostly legible and accurate. I did see a few typos, but for the most part it doesn't distract from the message or content of the book.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"It could have used more multi-cultural references in it that showed more of a social justice perspective of oppression and how systematic racism, sexism, homophobia or xenophobia play out within a culture that attempts to address these issues, but often falls short and how to do more to prevent this from happening. There are many examples and references to Lane Community College which is a smaller school than PCC, where I teach and advise.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, it's a excellent guide and work book to have students read, study and discuss in either a beginning reading and writing class or a college guidance and survival course.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1395,"first_name":"Sharon","last_name":"Williams","position":"Instructor, First Year Experience Class; Academic Advisor in Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education","institution_name":"Virginia Tech (Blacksburg VA)","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers a wide range of topics and issues related to the success of “non-traditional” students, but it also contains extremely helpful resources and reminders that are useful to “traditional” students and ones who are past the transition-to-college phase. The text begins by addressing such philosophical issues as “what is college for?” and directs students to be self-reflective and purposeful vs. just doing what society “expects” or what their counterparts do. The author explains and analyzes a variety of resources. Although some are specific to Lane Community College or the state of Oregon, others are fairly applicable or at least provide a starting point for what students should inquire about/seek at their own institution. The author also provides glossary information, charts, explanations, references, and examples that are clear, thorough, and widely applicable.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found this text to be accurate and consistent with the information that I learned as a college student (albeit the hard way!) and what I now use in advising students. The author didn’t appear to be biased, except for possibly a positive bias toward students who are typically considered “non-traditional.” They are simply called “students” in her work. I specifically appreciated the fact that students’ competing interests/barriers/responsibilities/classifications (e.g., full-time employee, single-parent/family duties, first-generation status, ELL, disabilities, international student, GED vs. standard diploma, older students, etc.) are discussed in objective ways. These labels are merely descriptors…neither used as an excuse for subpar performance nor a rationale for requesting special treatment.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book’s content is up-to-date and should remain relevant for a long time. Although some particulars may change over time (technology, admissions processes) or could be somewhat more applicable to certain geographic regions or different U.S. institution sizes, I believe the overall advice is timeless, prudent, and general enough to remain applicable to multiple situations. Even if there are updates or additional concepts to add at a later date, the way it is written and organized lends itself nicely to changing certain sections without causing great impact to other areas. I particularly liked the reflective questions, exercises and agree/disagree activities sprinkled throughout. That would likely help create personalization and ‘buy-in’ of students who might be tempted to think they don’t need assistance to succeed in order to succeed in college.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is clearly written, with plenty of white space to make it eye-appealing and not heavily laden with jargon (however, in cases where there is unfamiliar or potentially-confusing terminology, acronyms, etc., the author offers easy-to-understand explanations and/or applications). This is a very easy read…both in vocabulary and conversational style. The author is straightforward and realistic (explaining that some aspects of college success demand a considerable amount of time, effort, and investigation by the student…in most situations, there is simply no shortcut to hard work). She breaks down step-by-step processes into manageable parts…but she’s simultaneously encouraging. She is clear that many things about being a student aren’t easy (regardless of whether they’re ‘traditional’ or ‘non-traditional’), but she also relays a very positive, you-can-do-it attitude. Furthermore, she includes suggestions for “how to use this book” and left a “Notes for Instructor” space and wide margins, allowing for the addition of personal notes, ideas, additional resources, assignments, etc.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is fairly consistent overall, especially regarding philosophical tenets, terminology, structure and framework. There are overarching threads that are consistently interwoven through the text [i.e. What frames your value of education? What kind of ‘return on investment’ do you expect from college? What are you willing to trade (opportunity cost) for going to college?] However, I found quite a few grammatical and spelling inconsistencies throughout. Some examples include: 1) p. 15, line 8: “At that time, California was known for excellent higher educational system;” 2) p. 49, line 5: “Tim Ferris” and p. 50 (heading) “Tim Ferriss.” However, the document wasn’t so fraught with errors that it cast a dim light on the author’s topical expertise. I suspect it was likely more an ‘attention-to-detail’ issue or careless editing than lack of knowledge re: grammar or writing style.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This work is easy to break into “chunks” so the reader can process them individually, then assimilate the information back into a larger construct (i.e. they can find and learn about individual topics, then assemble it all into ‘big picture’ concepts). Sections can be read independently without risk of missing something or feeling lost in lingo. Headings/subheadings, overall organization and use of ‘white space’ all add to the readability of the work.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Readers will appreciate the logical, orderly flow of this piece, including the fact that supporting points are well-organized, appropriate to the topic at hand, and examples are provided to reinforce the author’s points. The book’s content is objective, and not related to subjects that are prone to argument, personal interpretation, or debate. The author does include several categories of students that could be misunderstood by people who haven’t personally experienced that situation (i.e. being a single parent, homelessness, U.S. military service/veteran status), but those are explained in a tactful, unbiased manner. Furthermore, the structure of the text lends itself to having a long, useful ‘shelf life’…possibly even being the type resource a college student would keep to reference during their entire undergraduate career.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This text is free of significant interface problems, however, I wasn’t able to navigate to any of the several links referenced therein (i.e. TED \u0026amp; TEDx Talks or Internet links). I am unsure whether this is because of true interface issues, or maybe a factor of the document being in PDF format, where links may not be “live.” Yes, I could look up the referenced TED Talks on my own, but having links would be more use-friendly. Several charts, diagrams, images, graphs, etc. were included throughout the document, and all displayed well, both in visual and conceptual representation. Some could possibly have benefited from a bit more explanation/clarity, but it certainly didn’t excessively confuse or distract the reader.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"My main concern with this text (and the only point of considerable improvement I can suggest) is related to spelling, subject-verb agreement, and grammatical errors. At times, these were plentiful enough to cause confusion or distraction, and addressing them would drastically increase the quality and merit of this work. Examples: 1) p. 6, line 3 (incomplete sentence): “All things the young adults need to know before striking out on their own for the first time.” 2) p. 6, line 34 to p. 7, line 1: “The content of this textbook will not focus on the needs young adults living away from home for the first time.” 3) p. 8, line 2: “First Generation in the US” should use “U.S.” although this could be argued as a style issue. 4) p. 9, line 1-3: “Current data from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) supports the information highlighted in their 2003 report titled Work First Study Second.” (This is a very common error, but it should say “data support” since the term “data” is plural.) 5) p. 14, line 16: the term “preform” should be spelled “perform.” 6) p. 19, line 1: “Before you enroll a college” should be “enroll in college” or “enroll at college.” 7) pg. 22, item #10 (capitalization is inconsistent with other headings in that section).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I found this text to be culturally relevant, sensitive and inclusive. It addresses several cultural issues that may be faced by students entering college (i.e. ELL, cultural norms/protocols, and the amount of priority a student or his/her family places on work vs. education). It’s good for students who are not in those categories to become more aware and open-minded. I appreciated that the author went beyond race and ethnicity (which we sometimes consider as the single aspects of “culture”) and she included such cultural descriptors as homelessness, dislocated workers, military veterans, students with disabilities, single parents, full-time employees who are attending college part-time, first-generation students, and ones who attainted a GED instead of a standard high school diploma. In this way, the author was inclusive of categories that extend past our sometimes-typical ones of race, ethnicity, and cultural background.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I highly recommend this text! It is easy to read, and I found the content to be applicable, “hands-on,” thorough and not overly simplistic. The author has considerable experience helping students ascertain and realize their educational and career-related dreams. It is evident that she is passionate about empowering students to have a great introductory experience with post-secondary education and to be successful throughout their entire college career. I intentionally chose this text because of its relevance to my college’s “first year experience” course, which I’ll teach this fall. I see this text as useful and user-friendly, so I plan to utilize it with my students as soon as two months from now.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1400,"first_name":"Daniel","last_name":"Ayala","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Alise Lamoreaux presents the first-year student with the outlook and breadth necessary to plant one’s feet firmly on the ground on the first day of college, acquainting the student with the academic terminology increasingly used by student services offices so that students can communicate effectively with their counselors. Although the text only intended to familiarize the student with the language and processes of the contemporary college, many texts on this subject have at least one chapter dedicated to effective learning and the overall studying process. Finally, while terms are defined within the individual chapters, a comprehensive glossary or index would be a valuable addition to the text.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is accurate and current, providing the student with the most current uses of academic terminology that faculty, student service professionals, and administrators use when communicating with one another. This is no small feat when considering the rapid changes within higher education over the last several years.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text addresses topics of great relevance to the contemporary college student. Now more than ever, students must assess their purpose in attending college, establish a roadmap for degree completion, and constantly evaluate the labor market value of their degree. Lamoreaux immediately presents the student with the notion of “opportunity cost” and continually revisits this idea throughout the text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"In a departure from many textbooks focusing on the returning or first-year student, Lamoreaux strikes a rare balance between accessible writing and maintaining college-level rigor.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in its use of terminology throughout the chapters. Reading level, tone, and accessibility are consistent as well.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text assumes that the reader has proceeded through the chapters and regularly references material from previous chapters. Sections are self-contained and convey the topics discussed. This allows the student to build a deeper understanding of college processes than other texts which are more modular.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"While the text presents information in a manner that is consistent with a, I believe that students would derive greater benefit from a more strictly chronological presentation of information that mirrors their encounter with college and its unique processes.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There are minor inconsistencies between the many of the tables presented throughout the text. At points, lines that should otherwise extend to the right margin cut off in the middle of the page. Furthermore, a non-standard approach to indentation is used within tables.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book has a syntactic level of complexity that is appropriate for the first-year college student. The book presents no grammatical or spelling issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Lamoreaux is sensitive to the the needs of returning and non-traditional college students. The examples used throughout the text frequently address topics of interest to women, individuals with part-time jobs, and those who consider themselves academically underprepared.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1425,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Hennessy","position":"Part time Faculty","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text does an excellent job covering all the areas that are important to any student transitioning to college including areas of study and reason for higher education, finances, time management, technology, placement testing, resources etc. It really is a comprehensive handbook that is written clearly. The table of contents describes the chapters well.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book includes accurate information and no errors were noted. Some of the statistics and information on technology may need to be updated over time but are current enough for 2017. There did not appear to be any bias by the author in approaching the subject matter.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content of the book is up to date, however some of the statistics presented in early chapters may need to eventually be updated as the demographics of the college population continue to change. Those updates should be easy to implement.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book was very clear and was written at a level that should be accessible for those with a high school education; the intended audience for this book.  Embedded videos and TED talks are also clear and accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text provides consistency in it's terminology and framework.  Language is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into 11 chapters, each with a separate topic.  Each chapter has videos and activities and flows well from one topic to the next. Most chapters include reflections and self assessments that are appropriate to the content.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics for each chapter are logical and flow well, while providing a comprehensive overview of important considerations for those choosing higher education later in life.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text was easy to navigate and the embedded videos worked well. Graphics and images were appropriate and not distracting.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text was not culturally insensitive or offensive. Videos included those of a variety of races, ethnicities and backgrounds. Student examples were anonymous.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a great text for any student new to college but would be of particular use for those looking at returning to college as Non-traditional students.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1440,"first_name":"Dr. Sabrina","last_name":"Ricks","position":"Assistant Professor \u0026 First Year Advisor","institution_name":"Northern Virginia Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"There is no index or glossary available in this book, however the book is organized easily enough to read using the table of contents as a guide or directory for topic selection or vocabulary review.  The content of the book provides an elaborate presentation of all areas to consider when becoming a non-traditional college student.  It is informative as well as inspirational","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this book is relevant to non-traditional students and is unbiased to this audience.  The book considers all types on non-traditional students such as the working student, the student with family, the student who lives off campus, and more.  Although the book is not marketed for a traditional student, the content would still apply and serve as useful and practical.  There are also multiple videos embedded in the book that support the information presented and adds credibility to what the author shares.  Overall, there were few, noticeable, grammatical errors or other errors what would create a distraction when reading the text.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This textbook is relevant and up-to-date.  The content associated with the non-traditional student is long-lasting and will not require frequent updates.  The videos embedded may need to be refreshed or updated every three to five years to remain engaging and timely.  Otherwise, statistics presented may seem dated and not relevant.  Finally, the tips are straightforward, easy to implement, and will remain relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is easy to follow and understand.  There are two chapters that focus on college lingo or vocabulary, specifically, student services and financial aid.  These chapters serve as a type of glossary that is not presented in the typical fashion of placement in the back of the book.  The information is useful and presented in a clear manner.  There are also hyperlinks embedded and opportunities for further suggested readings presented at the end of many chapters.  There are also several embedded videos that elaborate on points presented, especially the more complex points such as becoming a college student and financial aid.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent and focuses on the use of language and material common to Lane Community College based in Oregon and is the college where the author teaches.  Lamorcaux does an excellent job of explaining that there may be changes in the lingo and other areas depending on which college a student attends.  She suggests independent research that requires the reader to examine two or more websites to make comparisons and note differences.  Lamorcaux also initiated each chapter with a quote from well-known individuals which was relevant and provided an overall understanding of what to expect in the chapter.  Overall, the terminology and framework is consistent and representative on Lane Community College.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book chapters are divided into reasonable sections that would allow a professor to assign one or more chapters at any given time.  It is not self-referential and makes reference to many other schools and offers different perspectives that allow readers to realize that the information presented is not the only way.  The chapters could be paired with additional topics not covered in the book to offer alignment with topics such as diversity, studying, completing college courses, and more.  These connections would not create a disruption for the reader.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization, structure, and flow of this book are presented in a logical and clear fashion.  The chapters are short and relate directly to the chapter title.  The structure includes some vocabulary, embedded videos, and areas of suggested readings (articles and books).  This structure creates an easier read and allows the reader to break from reading in order to watch a video or spend some time browsing a suggested website such as how to search for scholarships.  Finally, the flow is simple and clear with smooth transitions.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no interface issues encountered throughout the review of this book.  The charts and tables were clear and without interference.  Every article or suggested reading that was hyperlinked was clicked on and worked appropriately.  There were no issues with the embedded videos either.  Most of the videos were TED talks, but there were videos by the Department of Education and additional sources that all worked appropriately.  There was captioning provided and although there were some errors in the transcriptions, they were useful overall.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Overall, the book did not contain grammatical errors.  I can only recall spotting one grammatical error in the content – a misspelled word.  As aforementioned, the captioning for some of the videos contained errors, but this would be beyond the scope of what the author could control.  This is simply a risk of using borrowed material.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is culturally relevant and there are no insensitivities to any group of individuals.  The pictures that are provided, links to articles and books, and video clips all include different types of people representing multiple backgrounds, experiences, and ethnicities.  No group of people should feel targeted or disrespected in any fashion.  Hopefully readers feel comfortable and as though they can identify with those presenting the material in the videos and articles as well as with the author.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading this book, reading the additional articles, watching the videos, and examining websites.  It was interactive and made for a quick read.  I definitely learned some things regarding how my students might feel stepping foot on our campus for the first time and entering my classroom.  This added perspective will help me become a better professor and more cognizant of those feelings.  If I were a non-traditional student reading this book, I would feel more comfortable and prepared.  I would realize that I am not alone and that there are many people and resources available to me and happy to help.  I hope this book does the same for its readers.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2048,"first_name":"Keri ","last_name":"Rakes","position":"Reading Faculty","institution_name":"Lake Superior College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, this is a comprehensive guide for non-traditional students in both mulling over starting college and providing guidance in making critical decisions about their college experience. This book provides the reader with a clear index of chapters at the beginning. The term “non-traditional” is introduced early in the book’s introduction and goes on to provide the reader with common behaviors, needs, and expectations of this college demographic. \n\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content appears accurate, error-free, and unbiased in nature. Many research studies and scholarly articles are cited to back up the author’s assertions. However, some of data is a bit dated and one wonders what today's portrait of non-traditional students is like. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some references and links are dated. For example, there are quite a few TEDTalk videos from 2012 and 2013. One link to the documentary “Discounted Dreams” takes the reader to a very brief YouTube clip instead of to the documentary. It’s unclear why the entire documentary is not available to watch. Also, data about the make-up of today's college students is not represented, as it appears to be about five years old. \n\nIt appears it would be straightforward to update the trends and find more contemporary videos to share. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"For the most part, the book’s topics are relatable. Examples of real word scenarios that non-traditional college students face ring true. Furthermore, the author does a stellar job of creating many useful lists, such as the “10 Factors to Consider in Finding the Right College” or “Personal Inventory” questions that provide helpful starting points for students considering adding college to their lives. The lists are one of the best assets this book presents to adults in terms of their practical applications.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author is consistent in terminology and provides several glossaries of key college vocabulary that readers should be acquainted with. Words are introduced with clarity and then examples provided to deepen readers’ understandings of what they mean as well as their context. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Overall, the book is chunked up into manageable reading sections. The quote at the beginning of each chapter is a useful segue into the topic. The video links provided in each chapter provide consistency from module to module. The length of chapters is varied, ranging from 5 – 20 pages, so there are some larger, more text-rich sections compared to shorter ones. However, the tone and language is uniform chapter to chapter.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Topics are presented in a logical sequence. For example, at the beginning of the book, a broad discussion about deciding to go to college segues further into the book to much more specific topics like how to building a course schedule and understanding key financial aid terms. There are a few paragraphs or sections that don’t appear to fit the audience; for example, the history of how Ronald Reagan’s administration changed the purpose of college seems unnecessary. Also, while the math equations about figuring out loan repayment is interesting, it could be off-putting to potential students. A general overview seems more appropriate, with simplified examples that are more approachable.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"For the most part, no navigation problems were detected, with the exception of the aforementioned documentary “Discounted Dreams.” It was odd that there were no chapter numbers visible as one worked through the book, so it was sometimes tough to tell when a new chapter began. The index in the beginning of the book is clearly marked, but that doesn’t extend to the rest of the book. Additional photos of college students would have been welcome, especially to make this book more appealing to adult learners who may look to find college students who look like themselves. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book was free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Videos were chosen to represent a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds. The one photo in the book featured people of different color, and many examples of students were inclusive. The book contains examples of Oregon’s community college system, and though the author mentions the many choices of college environments, it was difficult at times to visualize or understand what they are.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"As an instructor who works with developmental education students at a community college, I found parts of this book very useful, especially the questions designed to increase students’ awareness of their preparedness and plans for being a college student. However, the language sometimes seemed overly formal and the general vocabulary could be a bit out-of-reach for some returning students who have been out of school for several years. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2223,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Phillips","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Lehman College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"A Different Road to College is an a critical textbook written for non-traditional college students. This book is loaded with insightful data and compelling stories. It serves as an introductory text on college life.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and engaging. For further reading a suggested reading list is included.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is timeless and includes up-to-date research on non-traditional students. The heart of the book is the success tips offered.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and easy to read for novice readers interesting in attending college. It includes concrete definitions, bolded key terms, and terminology as well as colorful graphs.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent with terminology and framing.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is divided in 11 chapters on various aspects of the college experiences including institutional culture, navigating webpages, and funding resources. The subheadings are useful as they serve as guideposts for the reader.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The information in the book is presented in a clear and logical fashion. Web links are included as well as supplementary material.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free and easy to navigate on the website. There are no navigation concerns and the information is void of confusion.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book does not include any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":1,"cultural_review":"The book does not include include data on non-traditional students of color.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2319,"first_name":"Aaron","last_name":"Peterson","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"MnSCU-Minnesota State University Moorhead","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is laid out in a manner that gives students all aspects that should be considered in determining where and how to successfully return to college.  It appropriately points out multiple pitfalls that many students may not require.  ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book illustrates areas like student advising, a typical college day, and even the financial aid process in a very straight-forward manner.  Having been in the financial aid arena as a professional for about 8 years, I was able to appreciate the way topics surrounding concepts like the FAFSA were talked about.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text has overall good relevance.  Based on when it was written, most of the concepts still hold true today for students who are considering a return to college.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is very inviting to read.  It provides students with a guide that they can utilize at every step of the process.  When a potential student is at the step of planning their course schedule, he/she can easily find that section for a refresher.  When they can't quite remember what their financial award letter is telling them, they can quickly navigate to that section.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text follows the same pattern and approach in each chapter (i.e. typically begins with a quote to set the tone, plainly lays out the main points, then ends with an activity (Typically a TED Talk) to bring the main point full-circle).","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is broken into 11 chapters that, at the very most, never exceeds 15 pages.  Even at that, the chapters that have a longer page count is usually filled with sections for students to reflect and make notes on what they pulled from that chapter.  These lengths of chapters encourage students to want to continue the process of reading.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is laid out in a manner that makes sense.  It begins with a historical concept of what many consider to be a \"typical\" college student.  It then focuses on how this demographic has been continually shifting.  From there, it acts as a great map to guide the non-traditional student on a path towards success.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"All of the additional content/ images appeared correctly and enhanced the experience.  ","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"There were noticeable errors, both grammatically and occasionally in syntax throughout the text.  Occasionally, there were omitted words.  An example of this can be viewed in the very last sentence on page 127.  The message of the book is important and necessary, but items like this example can be distracting to readers.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text does a good job to include consideration of gender, international, and other demographical areas of students.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I spent a few years teaching first-year experience courses in the community college arena, and I wish I would have known about a text like this to guide my students.  Many of the students I had would be considered non-traditional, and a text like this would help in giving them confidence to continue their educational journey.  I now teach primarily graduate students, and I was still able to extract helpful ideas to consider even with this demographic.  Quite often, most graduate students exhibit many of the \"non-traditional\" demographical characteristics.  They often are employed full-time, have families, have other external responsibilities that require their time, and most importantly, it has been some time since they have been in college.  Everything from financial aid topics to how an institutional website is organized are all things I am now considering as we continue to reach further to attract our graduate demographic population in order to ensure their success.","created_at":"2018-09-26T11:02:23.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-26T11:02:23.000-05:00"},{"id":2869,"first_name":"Richard","last_name":"Peters","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Xavier University of Louisiana","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is difficult to truly answer. There is definitely breadth here, with the author considering multiple issues that are important to both traditional and non-traditional students,. However, in my opinion, this breadth to some regard sacrifices depth and richness. These chapters and most of the content reads very 'generic' and ironically, other than the first chapter, the book doesn't seem to be nuanced enough for non-traditional students","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The generality of this book significantly lends itself to accuracy. Not much new is said so the lack of controversy almost mandates accuracy.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"This is where I feel the book suffers the most. It initially makes a great case for the need for this type of information but then does little to provide it. Also it treats universities and even non-traditional students as relatively universal concepts. This is of course not true. I teach at a HBCU and a PWI and the students, even the non-traditional are different across and within. This goes back to an issue of depth. Perhaps examples or subsections that deal with institutional and student diversity would help","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"I would say it is clearly and concisely written but as noted before there is too much of the same old. I chose this book because it promised much honestly different deliver as much as I anticipated","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"There was relative consistency","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is one of the best features of the book. I see it possibly be using used in a student orientation class where certain areas can be highlighted and instructors can supplement it with other resources","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Good but not great. These are important but they dont seem to build on each in any coherent fashion","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There was no significant issues although it was a bit bland and the videos at the end seemed more like afterthoughts","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No serious issues","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"As noted above, I think the book may have purposely or inadvertently omitted race and culture as a variable to ensure it wasn't offensive. But in doing so it may have hurt its relevance and usefulness","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-04-30T09:18:50.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-30T09:18:50.000-05:00"},{"id":3677,"first_name":"Jonathan","last_name":"Lent","position":"Professor of Counseling","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers a wide range of subjects relevant to those working with students considering postsecondary education. The book provides an effective index.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content does appear accurate. Additional information about alternative pathways for students would show less bias toward four-year college degrees specifically.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content appears up-to-date overall. The text is written in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy to include to update references.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is well-written overall. The language is accessible and not overly academic. The language used seems appropriate for this type of textbook.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The format of the text is consistent from chapter to chapter. Chapters include headings and relevant content.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Although the text has numerous chapters, the text could easily be divided into smaller reading sections for assignments in students in a first-year seminar course. The text can easily be reorganized for use for this type of course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical and clear fashion. This organization structure is similar to other texts of this nature.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text appears to be free of significant issues when accessing the links and videos. Depending on how the text is viewed, accessibility to the resources may be limited. For example, if the PDF is downloaded, links to videos are not \"active.\" This is the same for any text. For those accessing via a computer or other connected device, the interface shines.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No major grammatical errors identified.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"For the population this book intends to serve, the information is presented in a culturally sensitive manner.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall this book will be useful for those teaching first year seminar courses or those working with high school college preparation. Coming from the perspective of a school counselor, additional information about what specifics may relate to different types of postsecondary options would be valuable if using with high school students.","created_at":"2020-03-25T08:02:19.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-03-25T08:02:19.000-05:00"},{"id":3979,"first_name":"Helen","last_name":"Williams","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Bunker Hill Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Did a good job of engaging the different types of learning styles. She has lists for linear thinkers. She has graphs for visual learners. The youtube videos were all close captioned. Made good points on things like \"opportunity lost vs ROI\", etc. Made important distinctions about the different types of college-for profit, non-profit, etc. Had statistics and studies to validate concepts.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I come from the world of college athletics and have spent over 30 years on college campuses. The author was spot on in terms of the \"how to\" in the various areas of what it takes to decide where to go to college, potential issues of students (traditional and nontraditional), college expenses/funding, types of degrees, types of institutions, student services, etc. She also provided great resources to explore/tackle the issues (websites, articles, etc)","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This book is relevant really for any college student demographic. However, college degrees are seen as necessary for advancement in the world but now are not the only way to make a decent living. She does mention the different types of colleges. Maybe could have explored a little more in depth vocational schools (like culinary, etc) and how they differ from traditional higher education institutions","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very helpful with the \"language of college\"\r\nDid a great job of introducing, then defining terms\r\nDid a great job of providing \"to do\" lists \r\nHelped the reader understand specific things they need to think about in terms of picking a university with the right \"fit\"","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent with introducing a concept, explaining the concept, providing facts to validate the concepts, then providing resources and opportunities to further explore the concepts.\r\nMany opportunities to get the reader involved\r\n-videos, case studies, making of lists, answering relevant questions, activities to practice the concepts, practical/hands on experience","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter definitely could stand on it's own and be used for a class lesson. There were many different types of exercises that could be used as follow up to reinforce the concepts learned. What I liked about the chapters is that they could actually could be used in any order you like, depending on the types of students in your class and their varied experiences with/knowledge of higher education environments","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Every topic is explored in detail. She explains why she is exploring the topic as well. You're able to understand the relevance and importance of each area. Also helps reader understand how/why each area fits into the broader context of a collegiate experience from the beginning concept when someone is considering college.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Didn't really see any major issues. Just small things:\r\n-numbers on the bars should probably be darker. white numbers hard to see\r\n-formatting issues. see p. 28 for example\r\nHyperlinks were a good touch. I'm assuming OER will all be online so not to worry about that in terms of paper books???","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"p.12- perform, not \"preform\"  p. 71-are the numbers.., not \"is the numbers\" p. 74-#8=state, not State?  p. 75-your learning, not \"you learning\" p. 77, 79, 80-is it CPT or CTP? she wasn't consistent  p.96-should be \"if you can afford\"  p. 102-FWS, not FSW  \r\np.105-should start with \"My second year...\", should be \"figuring out, deciding\"  p. 108-\"in your scholarship...\"  p.121-\"friend's hands..\", \"I will tell you\", starting.. not \"staring\"  p. 126-MultiCultural??  p. 133-colleges, not \"college's\"","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is really relevant to the nontraditional student. More and more people are attending community colleges for a variety of reasons. I felt like the book was important for that demographic. Community colleges hold a very important place in society socially, personal development, financially, and athletically. It didn't negatively portray any particular group.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Not really sure how the gaming video translated/related to the material. I guess she was trying to explain the different type of student in college now, or talk about the skill sets learned in gaming that would help students be successful in college? Should have made it clear in the writing why she included that video. \r\nAlso, if she is going to have \"books to read\" at the end of one chapter, might be a good idea to do that for all chapters in case someone wants to go more in depth","created_at":"2020-06-13T18:31:12.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-13T18:31:12.000-05:00"},{"id":4038,"first_name":"Yvette","last_name":"Williams","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Roxbury Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book adequately covers several of the most important matters about college for non-traditional students.  The core academic vocabulary, as well as the vocabulary definitions of common financial aid term, greatly enhance the readers’ ability to understand the language associated with college matters.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurately written with appropriate references to credible information sources. A minor edit is needed to add a year and source information to the graph, “College Attendance Demographics” on page 5.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Most of the references are timely, evergreen, and relevant to readers of this book. The five to seven-year period within the current year (i.e., 2020) is appropriate to capture trends in college-related matters such as cost, financial aid, and enrollment.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author uses a third-person writing style which offers an objective, unbiased point of view about college matters as they pertain to non-traditional students. The suggested activity sections are appropriately written in the second person which facilitates engagement with readers.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book does a thorough job of defining the term, “non-traditional” students and consistently relates the experiences of students who meet the criteria throughout the book.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The chapters and their subsections do not appear to align throughout this book. For example, in the Table of Contents, Chapter 1, entitled, “What’s College for?,”  starts on page 11. However, on page 11, the title for this chapter is missing. Additionally, none of the subsections, such as, “How do you view college?” (page 11) and “What frames your value of education?”(page 14) are listed in the Table of Contents. A similar situation occurs in Chapter 2. These misalignments make it difficult for the reader to determine the beginning and end of each chapter as well as navigating the subsections within each chapter. \r\nThe Suggested Activity sections (pages 27, 32, 35, and 36) offer simple, straightforward reflective exercises for readers. These sections would be better presented in a workbook style format which includes lines in which readers could write down their responses.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"One area in which the book’s modularity affects the organization and flow of the book is the discussion about non-traditional students. This discussion, which starts on page 5, appears to be under Chapter 1, “What’s College for?” It would be helpful to have this discussion listed as a subsection of Chapter 1 in the Table of Contents so that readers can make an immediate connection with the topics and purpose of the book.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"There are some formatting inconsistencies in which paragraphs are not indented (see pages 1-4 and 7-8).  These inconsistencies create blocks of text that impedes flow and readability within the chapters. There are also placement inconsistencies for the page numbers (see pages 43-48).","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book shows high levels of command with grammatical rules.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally appropriate for American, English speaking audience. However, to enhance the relatability to readers, pictures and/or quotes from interviews with non-traditional students in college students (e.g., veterans, single parents, English Language learners) are suggested.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The YouTube videos provide a timeless and engaging type of content to the book.  \r\nAn expanded discussion about topics such as developing study skills, time management, and test-taking strategies, and grade point average (GPA) would further improve the book’s comprehensiveness.  \r\nIt is unclear what citation style the author is using in formatting the sources of information in the Suggested Reading section on page 17. It would be helpful to format in an appropriate citation style so that readers can more easily locate these readings.","created_at":"2020-06-23T08:22:28.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-23T08:22:28.000-05:00"},{"id":4055,"first_name":"Patricia","last_name":"Sullivan","position":"Patricia Sullivan LMHC   Professor","institution_name":"Bristol Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is a very comprehensive look at the importance of transitioning non traditional students.  They must be made to feel welcome, know there are services for writing, reading and personal counseling. Instructors should know all about acculturation, its effects on the students and there families as they take on higher education in a new country.  Acculturation stress is very real and a little more detail on its effects on the student in all contexts of development.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I give the the book a high grade for accuracy. This text should be read by all who Professors to provide more understanding of the challenges, and more so the needs of students from various countries around the world.  Each success story of a non traditional student represents tiny grains of sand upon which with time and dedication we can build an entire beach of academic success... Patricia Sullivan, LMHC","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe the text can hang  on to its relevancy for a long period of time. There is also room to add to all new cultures who enter the halls of academia in search of higher education, and a journey to success.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text makes many clear points throughout and Ifind it an essential read as our students need to helped in their quests for higher education in a new country. The recommendations are clear and to the point.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"High grade for terminology, clarity throughout, one can read this text with ease and learn a great deal about teaching non-traditional students to help them on them on this very healthy journey to success via academia.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text flows with each section giving the reader ease of mind.  It also promotes critical thinking and an understanding to the student that those around them care about their transition.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text flow like a river over calming seas! .It can be read with ease and knowledge gained all essentials when talking about and working with non traditional students who need to know there choice of University or college was the right one for them","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I find no interface issues or navigation problems throughout the book. Excellent work.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"grammatical excellent and a good flowing read that transitions like the reader they are meant for.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is very culturally relevant. If one is not culturally competent in their field of work they could start by reading this text book.  These days all school and instructors must be culturally competent.  This should be throughout the campus for all employees.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I love it and with today events going on around the world this text can help promote unity in learning and living.","created_at":"2020-06-23T15:46:59.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-23T15:46:59.000-05:00"},{"id":4184,"first_name":"Carrie","last_name":"Irujo","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Bristol Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers most areas and ideas of a College Success course and provides a useful index, although there is no glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of this book is accurate and has been well edited to eliminate errors. No bias was detected.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is highly relevant to the intended audience and should be easy to update as new information becomes available.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is very clearly written and defines any specialized vocabulary as it is presented.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology, framework and organization are consistent among chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are all short and self-contained enough to be assigned as a unit and do not need to be subdivided in any way.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized in a logical, easily accessible way.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"One video in the Supplemental Fun chapter between Chapters 2 and 3 contains no link. Students will need to find a way to locate the movie, Accepted, and buy it in order to watch it. All other areas of the textbook appear to be glitch-free.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were detected.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally sensitive and does not include any material that could be considered culturally offensive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a very good book for non-traditional College Success students.","created_at":"2020-06-30T14:03:44.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-30T14:03:44.000-05:00"},{"id":4330,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Crane","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book does a great job with covering every aspect of college, including describing how the general student population at colleges is changing and why and what it is to be a non-traditional student.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book does seem to be accurate but is since the author is based in Oregon is perhaps a little too focused on Oregon statistics.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is very up-to-date and speaks to very modern and important changes taking place among colleges of all types.  What I found especially successful in the book was the use of videos, songs, and TED talks to emphasize important points.  This was the best aspect of the book.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author did a great job with giving definitions for vocabulary that is unique to the college environment and explaining acronyms.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book has good flow and it is easy to understand the consistencies between one chapter and the next.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter or section of the book would make for an excellent one-week discussion in a college/careeer pathways class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Again, it was easy to understand the book's transitions between chapters and ideas, with logical \"lead-ins\" and quotes provided at the beginning of each chapter and a clear end for each chapter.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no interface issues and I was able to view each embedded video or table clearly.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"While the grammar was generally fine there were typos and grammatical errors that were distracting, as though a second set of eyes viewing the text would have been helpful.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I can see how this book could be presented to any person considering college and it would help them with getting an understanding of the bigger picture while also helping them avoid pitfalls.  I also very much appreciated that it was aimed at non-traditional students, who make up a larger proportion of the student body every year that I teach.  It also put a very positive (and correct) spin on non-traditional students, emphasizing that the life experience they bring to the classroom is a benefit, not a detraction.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-08-17T17:38:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-08-17T17:38:58.000-05:00"},{"id":4446,"first_name":"Kelsey","last_name":"Freeman","position":"Native American College Prep Program Coordinator","institution_name":"Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is very comprehensive in covering a wide range of topics, while also staying concise so that each chapter is manageable for a week or even a class period. It also hits on key themes that are easy to miss in college preparation courses—like paying attention to enrollment deadlines, navigating college websites, and college vocabulary—but often trip students up when they begin college.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Everything seemed very accurate. Many examples and statistics are geared towards Oregon, but I think that's necessary in this case.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is extremely relevant, since many college preparation texts are so geared towards younger students that they dismiss the challenges of non-traditional students and forget key information that first-generation students need. This text even seems relevant for high school students if they are first-generation or have more to balance in life than just school. The content is certainly up-to-date, but sections (like placement testing) may shift over time.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book does a great job of breaking down concepts that are very confusing for many students. It explains everything from FAFSA to student support services in a very accessible manner.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text in very consistent in terminology and framework, but also does a good job of adding variety in the text through videos, reflective questions and activities.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity is extremely clear, and it would be easy to assign just a chapter or two, or to follow the whole text as written.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is clearly organized, with links for further reading, etc. The only thing that seemed a little odd was including \"Random Autobiographies\" as it's own chapter, instead of consolidating it under scholarships. In reading the table of contents before going through each chapter, I had no what Random Autobiographies was, although every other topic was very clear.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is clear and accessible. More images could be helpful, but aren't necessary.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I noticed a few grammatical errors. They weren't glaring but were present nevertheless.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant and accessible in the way it's written, but I wish the TedTalks and videos included speakers from a wider array of races/ethnicities. Many non-traditional students of color face unique issues in navigating college life that should be spotlighted in a text like this, without being patronizing or its own separate section. Including videos with more students of color sharing their stories would accomplish this in a natural and inclusive way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a necessary and relevant text that explains so many aspects of college life that can make or break students' experiences. It does a great job of being honest about the opportunity costs of college and encouraging students to think through all the challenges, while still encouraging them to stay motivated and pursue their goals.","created_at":"2020-12-10T16:33:38.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-10T16:33:38.000-06:00"},{"id":4519,"first_name":"M.","last_name":"Barrey","position":"Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"A Different Road to College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-Traditional Students is a great introductory text for first-term students and its content is especially appropriate for community college students. Some of the college success texts available in the market target more traditional college-age populations. This is a great resource for institutions that have a large number of non-traditional students attending.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content appears to be accurate. Some of the information is specific to students at Lane Community College. Other institutions can modify parts to make it work for their students.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content appears to be up-to-date and should not become obsolete for a while. As with any other texts, some of the resource links could get outdated and become inaccessible in the future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written with brand new students in mind. The author does a great job explaining college processes, terminology and expectations.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Some chapters are in depth and contain great multimedia resources and additional suggested reading materials. Learning objectives and exercises in each chapter would be nice additions to this book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easily and readily divisible to smaller reading sections. The topics are covered at different times of the quarter or semester in order to accommodate each institution’s academic calendar and length of the class. Many students have obligations outside school so being able read in small chunks is helpful.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Chapter 7: Placement Testing could be introduced earlier in the book based on most colleges’ admission or enrollment processes. It could be included in some of the other chapters and may not necessarily be a chapter on its own. However, it can easily be realigned based on its high modularity.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No significant interface issues are detected. The text is very easy to navigate. It also offers many format options to accommodate different devices.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammar issues that distract from the content.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Very little diversity, equity and inclusion information was covered in this text. It’s possible that other courses are to address these topics or supplemental materials are used in the course.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-01-05T14:15:31.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-01-05T14:15:31.000-06:00"},{"id":4540,"first_name":"Ruth","last_name":"Chadd","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Linn-Benton Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"A Different Road To College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-Traditional Students is a comprehensive and highly valuable resource for both academic advising as well as teaching in classrooms where the non-traditional student at the first-time college and/or community college level makes up a greater part of the learning population than ever before. This book presents all areas and subjects that would be relevant to the non-traditional student experience, and provides an easy to navigate table of contents. It also broadly addresses the diversity of age, life experiences, ethnicities and socio-economic realities that today's non-traditional student faces while offering a pragmatic and organized way forward for the non-traditional student's college prep/planning. In this way, it is a highly versatile text for multiplicities of non-traditional learners hoping to pursue a college education.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content of the book appears to be accurate, though it would be helpful to see more works cited for referencing.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This guide appeals to diverse populations of non-traditional students who make up a greater majority of the college student population than ever before. In this way, the content is highly relevant (and will remain so) so long as classrooms continue to be diversified by age, ethnicities and life experiences. Content is overall very up-to-date, and could be relatively easily modified as necessary to include website link updates or statistical data.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is pragmatically written, with usefulness and purpose of action in mind. In this way, the text is very accessible to the non-traditional student reading population since, instead of abstract knowledge, it provides useful and essential first steps toward moving in the clear direction of the non-traditional student's college direction of choice.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Each chapter section is clearly laid out in such a way that the terms are consistently referenced throughout. At some points, it seems the terminology and referencing to coursework is specifically geared toward community college students instead of 4-year college students, but this could be easily adapted depending on the use within a course.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is a text that could be easily used within a course since sections are clearly laid out and well organized. Proper headings and subheadings are used throughout each chapter making it easy to navigate from section to section, or to use sections as standalone material within a course teaching module.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I love the way that the author has organized the content of the book, and the text is presented in a highly logical and practical way. The only thing I would love to see more of at the closing of the book is a Works Cited and or References section.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text interface is very easy to navigate, and was overall very easy to read through. However, I would love to see a subheading section added to the Table of Content interface to make navigating between subsections within a chapter more accessible. Overall, the navigation makes for clear reading that is significantly free of any kinds of noticeable or confusing interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors within the text that took away from the presentation of the content and materials.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"One of the strengths of this text is its inclusivity of the diverse populations that make up the non-traditional student experience. The author did a fantastic job of including the varieties of ways in which race, ethnic background, socio-economic status, and many other factors affect the non-traditional student's journey into college education.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-01-08T00:00:17.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-01-08T00:00:17.000-06:00"},{"id":4775,"first_name":"Catherine","last_name":"Swick","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Trine University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The ebook was easy to access and I liked that pdf options were also available.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I plan to teach this course in the fall. It was accurate, however, in college skills I will still need to link my universities services as another level of resources for this class.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I think the content is very relevant and I only think additional university supplements are needed. The OER is very up to date for this course.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Since this course is to help the non traditional student, I found it is written in a clear and easy to follow format. The terminology is simple and easy to follow.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"I think the language used is consistent for providing a framework. As I compared the text to current texts for my class, it was very similar and I plan to use this for my fall course.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"I am not as familiar with modularity but the concept makes sense as I reviewed this text. The OER is easily divided and will help me ensure the subunits are similar in size for each reading section.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Again, as I looked at my current syllabus for this course the content and topic fit very well for me. I do not see many changes to the organization of the text.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I did not encounter any distortion or navigation issues with this text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I did not find an grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I agree this text is culturally sensitive for the content and examples used.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reviewing the text and was happy how fitting and appropriate is matched to the course I teach. Thank you for the opportunity to review.","created_at":"2021-04-15T14:30:52.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-04-15T14:30:52.000-05:00"},{"id":5072,"first_name":"Katrina","last_name":"Floyd","position":"Director of Student Services","institution_name":"Howard University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text completely discusses all areas pertaining to attending college as a non-traditional student. The authors begin with a discussion focused on making the choice to attend college and covers everything from course selection to exploring career opportunities based on interest of study and degree. The authors include chapters related to the importance of self-care, managing stress, nutrition, and exercise. The text stresses the importance of balancing activities and priorities to increase chances for academic success. The text includes discussions related to students who are the first ever to attend college in their families, students returning to college after a long absence, international students, and the traditional student. These discussions outline the unique characteristics and needs of these students. The text uses videos, relatable vignettes, and scenarios to describe those issues and challenges related to being college student.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is accurate, error-free and presents an unbiased perspective of college life, challenges, and identifies various useful strategies for success. The information in the text is practical and realistic. Readers will find the book is accurate in the discussion regarding the process for applying to college, criteria for attending college and the day-to-day issues related to attending college.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text presents a broad perspective of the non-traditional student and the characteristics that describe that population and barriers that they may encounter. The content describes the variety of students and confirms the need to continue to recruit and support these students. It offers an inclusive perspective of non-traditional students. The text also discusses remote learning and provides strategies to increase academic success.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is structured in a simple and easy format. Because of this format, students know what to expect when reading and can look forward to information being presented in a manner that is easily understood. The use of various modes of communication, such videos, and vignettes, allows for students with different learning styles to grasp and understand information. The text uses an easy to read prose. The text even offers suggested readings to further clarify information presented in contents.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text begins each section with a written overview of the discussion and follows up with a video offering a personal perspective of the written information to further emphasize points, finally the chapters pose questions for the readers to consider and reflect.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Given its format the text is quite adaptable and is easily modified. The various sections of the text are outlined in the contents. This allows the reader to decide which sections they would like to review based on their college status and interest. The text thoroughly covers various topics allowing the reader to focus on areas of interest and gain an understanding of the discussion.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Then content section of the book presents a well-organized layout of the information included in the text. This text provides a step-by-step road map outlining all things a prospective or current college student needs to know about college life. The text in general is organized well. There are discussions in the text that the reader might find more useful if presented earlier in the text. For example, discussing how college can be paid for and the finances needed to attend, could be presented earlier so that a potential student can explore college affordability and use that information to help determine what finances are needed to attend college.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Moving through the text is quite easy. The sections are predictable, and all follow the same format.\r\nThe written text and exercises communicate information in a manner that considers both auditory and visual learners.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is grammatically sound. The text is well written and easy to read. There are no punctuation and mechanics errors. The tone of the text is consistent and flows well.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text presents a realistic overview of those factors that are relevant to the various types of non-traditional students discussed in the content. The text discusses various racial, socioeconomics status and other demographics that may influence college admissions and enrollment for this population of students. In addition, the text provides an inclusive discussion of the various types of college students and their unique factors and challenges.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-06-10T12:56:56.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-10T12:56:56.000-05:00"},{"id":5150,"first_name":"Xiaocan Lucy","last_name":"Wang","position":"Digital Services Librarian","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book discusses many aspects of attending a college, from the basic introduction of college, course selection, to expenses. It can be very useful for college applications as well. I was an international student. I wish I had a chance to read this book before, which could be helpful in understanding what USA colleges entail and helping me settle down as an international student. The author’s attempt to introduce college as much as possible is impressive. However, the challenges non-traditional students encounter are not discussed in detail. As a matter of the fact, these challenges are the big difference between traditional and non-traditional students. How to overcome the challenges could be one of the focuses of the book. Many chapters’ content seems applicable to all types of students, not specific enough to non-traditional students. Overall, this open textbook does a good job covering essential areas for guiding students acquaint with colleges. I would also suggest adding writing center/assistance to the list of “15 KEY COLLEGE RESOURCES TO KNOW ABOUT” in chapter 10.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text is accurate and consistent with my observation of college life. The content is objective, practical, and no bias detected. Some Youtube videos and suggested readings could become unavailable and would affect the access to these course content. It is understandable that web content is dynamically changing. For these external sources, one suggestion is to add the “access on XXX date.”","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant to incoming college students. Most information is classic and general.  Many linked resources are relevant to the topic as well. Many suggested reading and activities can reinforce the comprehension of the text. However, some information and terminology are specific to the author’s institution. Perhaps using general terms can be applicable to more audiences.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In general, the audience will find this book easy to read without jargon. The writing style and word choices are appropriate for non-traditional students. Sentences are not complicated, up to the point, and easy to understand. The whole book does not require high-level reading ability.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text presents the content in a consistent manner and chapters are structured in a consistent pattern. This consistency helps the audience expect what comes next and distinguish from section to section.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The modularity of the textbook is clear and easy to follow. Each chapter fits well with the other. Each chapter is divided into smaller reading sections and cohesively connects with other parts. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 could be moved to the first few chapters or be referred to by the first few chapters as they can help students make decisions on college application and acceptance.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The chapters in the text are presented in a logical fashion. The organization and structure are clear and easy to follow through. The topics covered in the textbook are well organized and the overall structure is good. However, as noted earlier, if chapters can be linked back and forth with each other, this can help the audience jump from topic to topic depending upon interest and needs.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The layout of the text is clean and easy to navigate. The whole book is responsive to the screens of different devices. It is very nice that this book provides several formats and also allows for hardcopy print. However, some information can be presented using a table, such as “COMMON FINANCIAL AID VOCABULARY DEFINITIONS” in Chapter 8.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No significant grammatical issues were identified. Most of the sentences are short and do not have nested clauses. Few errors are present, for example, “Associate degrees may be used as a stepping stone and transferred meet some of the general required classes for bachelor’s degrees” in chapter two. With the digital and open textbook, this type of error can be easily fixed.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The author attempts to bring different cultural elements into the content, for example, the Chinese and Italian proverbs at the top of the chapter. The overall content covers general topics and targets broad non-traditional and traditional students. The author’s intent of inclusiveness is clear. However, the title of the book indicates that the focus is to transition non-traditional students. It is hoped that the content can be shifted more on specific topics, issues, and challenges towards non-traditional students.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall it is an excellent guidebook and illustrates the road map of transitioning to colleges. The content of the text is concise and easy to understand. It covers a wide variety of subjects regarding college planning and learning. The embedded videos add the dynamic feature and keep audiences actively following through the book.","created_at":"2021-06-26T21:18:41.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-26T21:18:41.000-05:00"},{"id":5164,"first_name":"Kathleen","last_name":"Castro","position":"Adjunct Instructor, Writing","institution_name":"Bristol Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"A Different Road to College: A Guide for Transitioning Non-Traditional Students is a GOOD overall guide, but it could be more thorough in the information it provides.  At times, it was difficult to differentiate the help and advice given to traditional vs. non-traditional students. Non-traditional students are an important group in our colleges today, and we need to do all that we can to insure their success. Some editing in the book with possible services listed that are geared specifically toward non-traditional students would provide much-needed guidance and information, making the educational journey easier and more fruitful.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Other than the notes above on Comprehensiveness, the book does reflect present-day college life.  It would be important to update sources, particularly electronic links, keeping them relevant.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant and, with updates, should have longevity.  It would be good, however, to eliminate references to any particular university/college to keep the flavor of a general nature.  That, and becoming more specific with resources, as noted in comprehensiveness, would increase the book's value.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is straight-forward and easy to read.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"There is good consistency throughout, making the book easy to read.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The Modularity is concise.  Chapters flow nicely, and the reader can easily refer to information that might have been missed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The overall structure and flow of the book are VERY good.  As noted above, it is easy to refer back to information previously read.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book is easy to read, with a clean typeface and well-chosen graphics.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book contains very few grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The Alice Lamoreaux has done a good job of making the text culturally relevant.  Her sensitivity to the issues confronting non-traditional students is always front and center in the writing.  But it would be good if she zeroed in more on the specific challenges as well as opportunities the transitioning non-traditional student population faces.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this is a good guidebook for transitioning non-traditional college students, whose problems are often not addressed. With some editing geared toward these students (as noted above), it could be even better!","created_at":"2021-06-29T12:54:26.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-29T12:54:26.000-05:00"},{"id":5167,"first_name":"Claire","last_name":"McGrail","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Northern Essex Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I did not realize we had to choose from the textbook list above.  I was under the impression we could choose from the list of books on the opening page.  I reviewed the book, \"English Composition,\" a  comprehensive guide to teach the skills needed for students to succeed in college English 100 courses.  The content of the book is aimed at helping students meet specific learning objectives that are stated at the beginning of each chapter.  The authors left no stones unturned as they introduced college success skills (time management, notetaking, the syllabus, tardiness and absences, asking for recommendations); tips for writing (freewriting, drafting strategies, writing in academic conventions, a persuasive essay \"map\" a model outline, a guide for introductions, conclusions, and paragraph structure); thesis statements and research.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"As an English 101 instructor, I would say the book is extremely accurate and carefully crafted.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Aside from challenges students face with changing technology, the information presented in this book will never become obsolete. The wording of learning objectives might vary across school curricula, but  the basics remain unchanged over time.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The authors comment on the use of colloquial language and the importance of adhering to academic writing style.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I was pleased with the informative tone of the book.  The structure in chapters was clear and easy to navigate. Terms were clearly explained to the reader, with plenty of examples throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is set up in chapter format, which makes reading in small sections easy.  I would use sections of this book as assigned reading for my class, especially the chapter on introductions and supporting paragraphs.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the book, from success skills in the beginning, to research skills and appendix at the end, were clear and concise delineations to content.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no navigation problems.  Each page was followed by an arrow to move on to the next.  The images were clear and appropriate for the chapter.  I did not feel distracted or confused, but I would recommend a revision of the dense text that appeared in the beginning of the outline model.  Some bullets could be used in various places to replace text where appropriate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The use of the pronoun \"they\" is accepted for singular pronoun agreement, and it is used in the book.  I found no errors in grammar or punctuation.  As stated earlier, the book was carefully crafted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Diplomacy and respect are mentioned - qualities that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.  The college success section posed a situation with a non-traditional student who had personal and time management issues.  That example was inclusive of a student who had challenges because of age and background.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The book's purpose was stated as \"designed for students to learn the foundational concepts for first year college writing.\"  With learning objectives for each chapter and a comprehensive guide - from college success tips to writing skills - the authors did a fine job fulfilling their purpose to effectively prepare a college student for the challenges ahead.","created_at":"2021-06-29T15:00:05.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-29T15:00:05.000-05:00"},{"id":35359,"first_name":"Sofia","last_name":"Montero","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers a comprehensive range of topics relevant to non-traditional college students, including the purpose of attending college, selecting the right institution, time management, understanding college culture, managing finances, and accessing available resources. Each chapter is enriched with thoughtful questions and embedded videos that align with the topics and activities, providing additional guidance and support for readers.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book presents information that is both reliable and impartial.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is highly relevant to the experiences of non-traditional students. However, the book relies heavily on YouTube videos, which readers must watch to answer questions or reflect on key concepts. This reliance poses a potential issue, as the videos may become outdated or discontinued over time, potentially diminishing the book's long-term usefulness.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is straightforward and accessible, ensuring readers can easily comprehend its content.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The topics are well-suited to the target audience; however, additional information on learning strategies could enhance the content. College learning differs significantly from high school education, and many non-traditional students may not have been in a formal academic setting for some time. Including more guidance on effective learning strategies could better support these students.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book contains 11 chapters and a few additional topics. Each chapter is about one page in length.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is structured to guide students through a process of self-reflection, leading to practical and actionable steps.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"There were no issues with the interface; however, navigation was limited to the top of the page, requiring the reader to scroll back up to access it.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No instances of insensitive or offensive material were observed.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2024-12-17T14:25:52.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-12-17T14:25:52.000-06:00"},{"id":35704,"first_name":"Karen Marie","last_name":"Sullivan","position":"Adjunct Faculty(teacher)","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is comprehensive for such a short book, offering a focused examination of the non-traditional student. Lamoureux uses an abundance of succinct lists that clearly outline who non-traditional students are, the unique situations they encounter when attending college, the opportunity costs they face, and specific guidelines for selecting a college. I would use this book in my class because many of our students are earning their GED diplomas with the intention of transferring to another college, and they often choose schools without having enough information.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Reliability\r\nChapter 2 includes a substantial number of statistics and tables illustrating patterns of college attendance among non-traditional students. Although the book was published in 2016, the patterns it describes—particularly regarding the types of programs non-traditional students select—remain consistent. The statistical data strengthens the author’s credibility and supports the validity of the text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text remains highly relevant for today’s students, particularly working adults who are balancing employment, family responsibilities, and educational goals. Many of the challenges Lamoureux identifies—such as opportunity costs, delayed entry into college, and navigating unfamiliar academic systems—remain central concerns for adult learners. While some of the statistical information is likely dated due to the 2016 publication year, the trends she draws from the data remain accurate and relevant. In staff trainings, I have heard directors express the same conclusions, which reinforces the continued applicability of her insights.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Lamoureux relies heavily on lists to convey information about non‑traditional students. These lists cover topics such as reasons for delayed entry into college, the unique challenges non‑traditional students face, and detailed explanations of opportunity costs. While this format provides clarity for many readers, others may find themselves wanting more narrative explanation, which could affect the overall clarity depending on the reader’s preference.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book consists of three chapters and includes four videos, all of which I was able to access without difficulty.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"An instructor could easily develop units based on each small and larger unit in the text. One video or one list could be introduced to provide support for teaching or extrinsic motivation.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book consists of three chapters and includes four videos, all of which I was able to access without difficulty. The videos are meaningful additions that provide motivation and inspiration related to the topics discussed. They are well structured and align with the surrounding text, offering consistent visual examples and activities. In the second and third chapters, the author also includes a helpful list of questions designed to help students evaluate whether they would fit within the culture of a particular college.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Videos are relevant and accessible, whereas statistical data includes visual graphs or charts. The interface is clear and pleasant to work with.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text had no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text's cultural awareness is demonstrated both in language and specific examples or stories that support cultural awareness. She uses the term to give an example of the changes in former students' priorities regarding this important topic.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Although the vocabulary does not feel dated, the statistical analysis of job markets and college attendance rates would benefit from an update, given that nearly ten years have passed since publication. Despite this, I would gladly adopt this as a supplemental text in my classroom.","created_at":"2025-12-30T18:42:47.000-06:00","updated_at":"2025-12-30T18:42:47.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/a-different-road-to-college-a-guide-for-transitioning-non-traditional-students","updated_at":"2025-12-30T18:42:48.000-06:00"}],"links":{"self":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success.json?page=1","total_pages":7,"total_count":68,"next":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/student-success.json?page=2"}}