Customer Reviews

Writing in the Disciplines: A Reader for Writers, Fourth Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book for a college composition class, and read the assigned essays. Now I go back every once in a while to read the other essays in it, and even re-read the essays I've already read.

The editors did an excellent job selecting well-written, interesting essays on a wide selection of topics from a variety of perspectives. There are essays from professionals, amatures, and students. A few are written by liberals and there are a few from more moderate and conservative sources, including Pat Robertson.

This is the kind of book you can keep handy (like in the bathroom) for times when you want to read something in bite size pieces that is interesting and edifying.

I had to purchase it for a college course. I wish I did not have to buy it, but found it helpful to get an A in the class.

I feel sorry for the student assigned this book. If you have insomnia...read this book...all of your problems will be solved!

I received the product in good condition and also it was on time.
I would like to thank the sender for despatching it on time.

The content in the book is very good. The condition of the book was not the best. There was water log pages through out the book, also the border had to be taped to secure the book. I was not very satisfied with the condition of the book.

The book includes very juvenile essays by people, not very good writers, working out of their specialty. the essays feature a lot of metadiscourse. There is a lot of pretense in the writing, like " i am twelve and my dad is gay. one day we went for a walk and i did not know what gay meant." etc.
often each writer gets his own write up, always congratulatory, example: Bill X Rob, Skakerpearl Professor Everything at Harvard University, Harry P Tubman Professor of Studies involving People and THeir thoughts at Stanford, Executive director of John H Johnson School of Development and Implementation; was appointed Director of the Council of Economic Experts during the Kennedy Administration, where he directed the Inquiry into Morals of the Disenfranchised, has written a thousand books including 'I am just like everyone else' 'Moralizing made normal' 'American is everything' 'thinking about thinking about thinking', etc. Then after all of that there is a dumb article about prereading, example, 'Don't you think being healthy is great? Can you think of Why? Freewrite for seven minutes' only then you get to read the article.
The authors or editors did a great job trying to get to the reader, but the questios a silly, irrelevant or dumb, or biased. "do women and men cohabit for the same reasons? (pg477) to me this is akin to asking 'are boys and girls different?' but all the questions are like that. Imagine a thousand questions you have to ignore in order to get to the article.
Some of the questions reveal bias, for example, an essay from carl sagan's essay may be, HOw is his strategy particulary effective, (essay is pro technology)but another question that applies to a different essay(anti technology) might be " do you find this style elegant or irritating? explain."
Do you see what I mean?
another question might be, "why should everyone wait to finish college before starting a family?" or "why do you think poor people have children before adulthood?"
You know?
the book is 600 pages and it could really be 300 if they cut all the nonsense.

I got the book and the handbook that is suggested. Both were in excellent condition and I received them within 2 weeks of my order. Well before my classes started. I am very satisfied with the products and services the distributor provided me.