Author:
Erick Piller
Subject:
Composition and Rhetoric
Material Type:
Reading
Level:
Community College / Lower Division, College / Upper Division, Graduate / Professional, Career / Technical, Adult Education
Tags:
  • Evaluation
  • LOUIS Peer Review
  • louis-peer-review
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution
    Language:
    English

    Review: Tips and Tools from the Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    Overview

    This is a review of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center’s “Tips and Tools,” a Creative Commons-licensed collection of resources on writing (https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/). It was completed by Erick Piller, Nicholls State University. 

    Comprehensiveness

    The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary.

    The handouts and videos offered by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Writing Center address a range a writing-related matters, with resources for not only first-year composition courses but also scientific, technical, and professional communication as well as writing in other disciplines. Topics run the gamut, from higher-order concerns such as “Writing Anxiety” and “Flow” to lower-order, surface-level concerns—for example, “Commas,” “Style,” and “Verb Tenses.”

    Content Accuracy

    Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.

    Unfortunately, the handouts’ relatively restrictive Creative Commons licensing does not allow for remixes or derivatives. Fortunately, the content seems concise, relevant, and accurate throughout. As a result, editing and excerpting are less necessary than they might be for some other resources.

    Relevance and Longevity

    Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.

    Although a couple of resources—namely, “Working with Your International TA” and “Honors Theses”—refer directly to the University of North Carolina setting, the overwhelming majority can be dropped seamlessly into other contexts. Furthermore, as a loosely organized collection of handouts and videos, the Tips and Tools can be easily updated and expanded by the Writing Center should the need arise.

    Clarity

    The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used.

    Examples abound in these resources, illustrating concepts and increasing their accessibility to students, and lucid, straightforward writing and a liberal use of headings, subheadings, and lists likewise ensure clarity.

    Consistency

    The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

    This concern matters less than it usually would, since instructors will almost certainly use individual resources rather than the Tips and Tools as a whole. However, even as a collection of handouts and videos, the Tips and Tools exhibit great consistency in terms of design, style, and terminology.

    Modularity

    The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (i.e., enormous blocks of text without subheadings should be avoided). The text should not be overly self-referential, and should be easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.

    The resources were obviously created with modularity in mind. Not only could one or a few resources be dropped into a course with no issues whatsoever, but an instructor could even provide links to handouts and videos to individual students as needed—if a student shows difficulties with specific concepts, for example.

    Organization, Structure, and Flow

    The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion.

    Resources are divided into four categories: 

    • Writing the Paper
    • Citation, Style, and Sentence Level Concerns
    • Specific Writing Assignments or Contexts
    • Writing for Specific Fields

    Under each of these headings, links to resources are listed alphabetically. Thanks to the modularity of the Tips and Tools, this minimalist organizational scheme works just fine.

    Interface

    The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader.

    The largely text-, graphic-, and hyperlink-based interface should present students with no issues. However, instructors hoping for a high level of interactivity should look elsewhere or consider supplementing these resources with others.

    Grammatical Errors

    The text contains no grammatical errors.

    I encountered no grammatical or stylistic errors in my review of these resources.

    Cultural Relevance

    The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It should make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

    This diverse and comprehensive collection of resources should be relevant to a wide variety of students: first-year students, graduate students, speakers of English as a second language, English majors, non-English majors, etc. In addition, I came across no offensive or culturally insensitive language in these carefully written texts.