Securing the grammatical, lexical, and rhetorical skills required in
academic writing is a monumental challenge for even the most
seasoned ESL/EFL learner. In Grammar and Beyond 4, Bunting, Diniz,
and Reppen provide advanced learners of North American English
with a research-informed, content-based text that presents the skills
essential for mastering academic writing at the college level. What
makes this text stand out among the ocean of available grammar and
writing texts is that the authors have used the Cambridge International
Corpus to present examples of the English language in use as they
naturally occur in academic discourse.
The authors of the text have included content that is both interesting
and relevant to their intended college-level audience. The contentbased
nature of the text allows students to sample a variety of academic
subjects. Each of the six major parts is organized thematically
by academic field. Psychology, business, and sociology are just a few of
the disciplines that underlie each section. The units that comprise each
section provide learners with more specific topics that fall within each
discipline. For example, in Part 2 of the text, which focuses on human
behavior, learners read texts titled “Men, Women, and Equality” and
“Family Values in Different Cultures,” while in the final section of the
text, which centers primarily on technology, students read “Privacy in
the Digital Age” and “Living in an Age of Information Overload.” The
topics are not only thought provoking but also highly relevant to the
lives of the college-bound ESL/EFL learner.
The authors have systematically organized Grammar and Beyond
4 to ensure that grammar, vocabulary, and writing skills are effectively
integrated throughout. The text is divided into six major sections
based on common academic writing genres, which include cause/
effect, comparison/contrast, narrative, classification/definition, prob