The Students Only Survival Guide to Essay Writing

Provides information on generating ideas and topics, working with rhetorical approaches, shaping body units, and writing research papers, as well as providing solutions for common errors

Gr 12 Up--No doubt many students interested in improving their writing skills or making the task less arduous will pick up this brightly colored, well-designed book. And it delivers what it says. Chapters such as ``Defining Your Audience,'' ``The Need for Narrowing,'' and ``How to Work with the Rhetorical Approaches'' correctly indicate that this manual is an exhaustive how-to guide. Unfortunately, that strength is also its weakness. The problem is two-fold. First, the amount of information packed into the chapters is daunting. For example, in ``Defining Your Audience,'' there are three separate figures to illustrate the differences in writing for vertical and horizontal audiences. In other chapters, figures representing the multiple-unit model are confusing and intimidating. The result is over 200 pages of instructions, exercises, advice, and models. Although such thoroughness is commendable, this book aspires to be a student handbook, which is the second aspect of its deficiency. Many young people who need all the help this book has to offer will not be able or willing to read it, chapter by chapter, completing the exercises as they go. Therefore, it will be most useful to those who are already fairly proficient as writers but need a reference to help with specific weaknesses.

Marilyn Makowski, Greenwood High School, SC

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.