Consoli Claudia
Book Critique
EAP
November 2012
Academic Writing
a Handbook for
International Students
by Stephen Bailey
Routledge 2006 (2nd
edition)
ISBN13 :
9-78-0-415-38420-9 (ppb)
A Review of : Academic Writing a
Handbook for International Students
College and university
writing has always posed a challenge for students. Non native speakers of
English present a twofold problem when faced with academic assignments or
tests. They have to meet the standards of the subject under study in the
established academic style and they have to do it in a foreign language. Bailey
(2006) offers a variety of suggestions to help beginner writers enter the world
of academia.
His book is exactly what
the title and subtitle suggest: A handbook for overseas students delving into
the waters of academic writing. The book presents a clear four-part
organization. The author has attempted a holistic vision to the world of
academic writing. Each of the parts, subdivided in smaller chapters take the
novice writer from the background of writing, through the complete process of writing(planning,
organizing, editing and proofreading) to actual model pieces to help
comprehension on what is expected of them in
the academic world.
Part 1 and Part 2 of the
book explain and exemplify the relevant standards regarding the writing process
and the elements of writing. While Part
3 contains excellent practical grammatical
exercises, this is not a grammar book per se. Part 4 contains models
including formal letters, Curriculum Vitae (CVs) and comparison and discussion
essays.
By the end of the book,
the reader will have a clear understanding of how to structure a variety of
writing pieces and which criteria the pieces need to conform to. As Bailey(2006)
states in the introduction ‘this practical book thoroughly explains the writing
process and covers all the key writing skills.’(p. ii)
The book’s drawbacks stem
from its advantages. The fact that such a wide range of issues is covered
inevitably leads to reduced depth. More experienced writers would find the book
lacking in more specific items such as text variety. These more advanced
students would need more models including for instance research papers. It
would also have been better if the author had contemplated different academic
styles such as American Psychological Association(
APA), Modern Language Association (
Overall, academic writing involves an understanding of writing genres,
styles and layout. This book examines all of these aspects and, as such, may be
interesting to freshmen students, native and non native alike. For these
reasons, it is ideal as an addition to beginner writing courses.
References
Bailey,
S. (2006). Academic Writing: A handbook for International Students (2nd ed.).Retrieved October 2012 ,from
Taylor & Francis elibrary:http://npu.edu.ua/!ebook/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_t27.pdf.
