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. (2^nd. ed.) Taylor  & Francis e-library.  Retrieved October 2012, from

  http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/ii_kgpm_27.pdf