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Title: Be Warned--A Terrible Composition Textbook
Review: No one has commented on this book but I feel obligated to warn college instructors and professors who might consider the use of this textbook. Quite simply, don't. This is the fourth introduction to composition text I've used and by far the worst. Although sleek looking and extremely usable, the readings are terrible; shallow, short, and redundant. The book aims to incorporate multiple literacies into the composition classroom, an idea I like and still think potentially fruitful. But "Seeing and Writing" never goes beyond putting a photo next to and essay and saying "compare." If the essays had any rhetorical or intellectual richness this might not be such a bad idea. But my students rarely find much to say about these essays, usually astute enough to note the obviousness of most of the writing.Some of my colleagues have claimed the book panders to contemporary students, which I find unfair. However, it most certainly underestimates them.
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