A critique of Bailey’s (2006) book: Academic Writing:
A handbook for international students
This book is a practical tool for international university or college
students who need to improve their academic writing skills. The book provides
explanations and exercises of the new style conventions, references and layouts
to take into account when writing academically. Bailey (2006) states that the
book “is a flexible course that allows
students of all subjects and levels …to practice those aspects of writing which
are most important for their studies” (p. I).
Academic Writing: A handbook for international
students is divided into
four parts under the names of: the writing process, elements of writing,
accuracy in writing and writing models. In each section Bailey (2006) introduces
valuable information and some practice to make students become aware of the
elements, such as paraphrasing, text organization and source citing, that are
necessary to consider when organizing, writing and editing an academic piece of
writing.
The volume also makes a valuable contribution to train students in the
various skills that are needed for most types of academic writing. In the
second section the students are trained at defining terms, making
generalizations about subjects, giving examples, comparing and quoting, among
other topics. As regards accuracy Bailey (2006) states that students “should
aim to steadily improve their accuracy in order to make their work as clear and
readable as possible” (p.119). Therefore, he devotes part three on focusing on
basic grammar knowledge which may concern to an academic texts writer.
The author has devoted a section of the book to present several writing
models to make students feel confident with various possible formats for
different types of texts. Each model is briefly introduced, followed by an
example and some related exercises to solve. Even though Bailey (2006) suggests
that the book provides maximum hands-on practice and can be used for
self-study, more explanations would have been necessary for the level of the
international learners it was claimed to be for.
The book is complemented with a writing tests section that can be
implemented to assess different aspects of learners writing performance.
Especially noteworthy is the inclusion of tests keys, as students can use them
in the classroom or for self-assessment. However, tests are placed at the end
of the book and they are not lengthy enough to cover all the topics proposed by
the author. Had Bailey (2006) placed a more complete test after each section,
the assessing phase would have been more fruitful.
On the whole, Bailey (2006) has accomplished in designing a book to
provide further practice for non- native students in courses which are taught
in English. He has recognized the students’ variety of needs in academic
writing and intends to provide a useful resource book to help them foster the
challenging written demands of their courses. However, Bailey’s (2006) book
would have been more convenient for self- study if he had included more
explanations and self-assessment tests in each section to allow students gain
the utmost benefit from it.
References
Bailey, S. (2006). Academic Writing: A handbook for international
students. (2nd. ed.) Taylor
& Francis e-library.
Retrieved October 2012, from
http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/ii_kgpm_27.pdf
