DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Listening to the Numbers

Second Language Writers° Text: Linguistic and Rhetorical Features
By Eli Hinkel. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. 392 pp. Cloth, $89.95.

In her discussion of empirical research in the humanities, Mary Sue MacNealy notes that the practice of using empirical methods "is still viewed with a good deal of suspicion" (1999, p. 4) and that writing teachers often "dismiss empirical findings in favor of lore by claiming that the researcher doesn°t know what really goes on in the classroom" (1999, p. 9). Eli Hinkel°s Second Language Writers° Texts: Linguistic and Rhetorical Features is likely to put an end to such suspicions. An impressive examination of 68 linguistic and rhetorical features in second-language (L2) texts written by advanced nonnative speakers of English and substantiated by pages of tables and charts, Hinkel°s study will enable writing teachers to gain important insights into the writing of nonnative speakers from six different cultures and language backgrounds. In addition, it raises important questions about the effect of writing prompts on the quality of student writing in the context of placement exams.