Textbook Reviews

The World is a Text: Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and Its Contexts (2^nd Edition)

--Jonathan Silverman and Dean Rader

Cost: New -- $58, Used --from $13

I have to say up front: I love this book. It does nearly everything that I would want a rhetoric to do and does it well. The authors state their approach fairly clearly near the beginning: “All reading we do, perhaps anything we do, is backed up by various ideas or theories – from the simple idea that the acts we undertake have consequences both good and bad to the more complex theories about relativity and gravity. In this book, we rely on a theory that the world itself is open to interpretation, that we can make meaning out of just about anything” (3) And the book aspires to cover nearly everything – which is great. It begins with a brief (but informative) introduction to semiotics, then moves onto the particulars of writing the academic essay and reading creatively. The balance between reading and writing strategies remains stable throughout: each of the subsequent chapters focuses on one particular area (poetry, television, race and ethnicity, etc.), but focuses on both reading and writing about that subject area. The chapter subjects include all of the following:

1.) Poetry
2.) Television
3.) Public and Private Space
4.) Race and Ethnicity
5.) Movies
6.) Images
7.) Gender
8.) Art
9.) Advertising, Journalism, and the Media
10.) Relationships
11.) Music
12.) Technology

Each chapter includes readings (with some particularly good essays and poems), worksheets with reading prompts, model student essays (which should come in handy), as well as ideas for classroom activities and possible essays based on the readings. I am fairly certain that this is going to be the textbook I use next year because it fits perfectly the approach that I plan on taking. The text is self-aware, diverse, informative and, for the most part, visually interesting. The visual aspect, I think could have been tweaked a bit more, but all the images that have been chosen serve a specific purpose and break up the linear boredom of sheer text (oh, and there’s an amazing visual history of the development of hotel signage). Though I will only use sections of the book due to time constraints (and my obsession with White Noise), I think that this is easily the kind of book that you can design an entire class around.

Perspectives on Argument (5^th Edition)

--Nancy V. Wood

Cost: New --$67, Used --from $22

It is safe to say that this book dedicates a good bit more time to the formal aspects of logic and argument than The World is a Text, but I find the prose to be rather pompous, lacking the engaging, almost conversational quality of the Silverman and Rader book. Further, instead of analyzing culture (which can actually be fun), this book focuses primarily on hot-button social issues, such as the treatment of criminals, stem cell research, the inevitability of war, etc. I’m not the type who would avoid these types of debates if they were to arise naturally, but I don’t think I want to base my class around them – too much sound and fury, if you know what I mean. On top of this, the book is visually a giant block of text with blue borders (except a single, small chapter on Visual and Oral Argument near the center of the book, which contains some interesting, full color images). Honestly, I think it’s the kind of layout design that turns a book into a doorstop fairly early in the semester.

However, on the positive side, the book could – in a certain kind of course – be used to spark some interesting ethical discussions (but it seems almost to have been designed for an introductory Logic or Ethics class rather than English 1000). Another plus (from a certain perspective) is that there are long sections dedicated to Toulmin and Rogers. I think this information will be valuable for me (as one concerned with the nature of argument), but maybe a bit “high-jargon” for an introductory English course. The one area where this book definitely trumps The World is a Text is in its MLA and APA style chapter. The coverage is just much more thorough here. But this information is all available online for free, anyway, so its inclusion is not particularly significant by my lights. All in all, this seems like a book for someone else. I could definitely see it being useful in a course more focused on formal argumentation, logic, and social debates than mine. If your course moves in this direction, definitely give it a look. But I’m afraid the conservative design and high jargon content may rule it out for my purposes.

Here are the primary chapter subjects for the “Reader” section of the book:

1.) Traditional American Family
2.) Personal Relationships
3.) Computers and the Internet
4.) Stem Cell Research
5.) Genetic Engineering and Law
6.) Treatment of Criminals
7.) Race and Culture
8.) Cultural Assimilation
9.) Responsibility for the Disadvantaged
10.) Social Responsibility
11.) Poverty
12.) War and Peace