A critique of Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (2nd ed.)

 A critique of Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (2nd ed.)

Writing academic texts may be a challenging task for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, and in most cases some specific training is required so as to improve their literacy skills. Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students (Bailey, 2006) was written for this particular audience, since, according to its author, it is for “international students studying in colleges and universities where courses are taught in English.” (page vii) It is meant to fulfil students' needs in terms of choosing the proper style, providing references, and organising the layout.

This book consists of four main parts, each of which is, in turn, divided into units. These units introduce a topic, a skill, or a grammatical structure to the students, and contain exercises for them to practise. In Part One, Bailey (2006) deals with the writing process, examining the stages involved in he process of writing. In Part Two, he gives students insight into elements of writing, such as cohesion, examples, generalisations, and style. The components of Part Three, which deal with accuracy in writing, “regularly cause difficulty and confusion in students’ writing” (Bailey, 2006, page 119). Part Four provides six different writing models, including academic essays and non-academic texts. After Part Four, there is a section that features writing tests which assess the student's performance in terms of accuracy, cohesion and comparison. At the end of the book, Bailey (2006) includes the answer key to the exercises in each unit, although he admits that “providing answers for a writing course is less clear cut than for other language areas” (page 204) and suggests that teachers “use common sense, and accept any reasonable answer” (page 204).

In my opinion, Academic Writing has many benefits. First of all, it serves as a good introduction for learners who are starting their work on English for Academic Purposes (EAP). It covers the main areas of academic writing and guides students in the process of producing a text, from the early stage of analysing and understanding the task to be done, to the final step of proof-reading the finished text. Furthermore, its organisation is clear and the division of each part into units is very useful for the student or the course teacher to find practice on a particular topic. What is more, in each unit the author provides a considerable number of exercises, which progress gradually from close-ended tasks to more open-ended ones. The final exercises in most of the units give learners the chance of writing a small piece focusing on that aspect of writing, thus providing an opportunity to put this skill in practice in a real writing task.

However, Academic Writing is also considered to have a few shortcomings. To start with, the general language section featured in Part Three could have been more advanced, to comply with the requirements of EAP writings. Moreover, the writing models in Part Four are dealt with in detail, but they do not represent a comprehensive list of the academic texts that students may be asked to write. The author should have included, among others, academic summaries, critiques and annotated bibliographies. Finally, the answer key section at the end is complete and it provides model answers for the writing tasks, but it is not detailed enough for self-study. Had this section been dealt with more effectively, this course would be recommendable for use without teacher guidance. This makes it rather inflexible and, consequently, not appropriate for every student's learning situation.

In conclusion, even though Bailey (2006) has written a well-organised, didactic course about academic writing, he has neglected some writing genres and has not provided enough practice in advanced English. As it is also not appropriate for self-study, I would not recommend it for students seeking to improve their writing skills on their own. Consequently, Academic Writing is most useful as a textbook for an introductory EAP course for EFL students. Nevertheless, it may prove to be a good guide for students who are taking their first steps in producing academic texts.

References

Bailey, Stephen (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/iif_kgpm_t27.pdf.