Making Sense: A Student's Guide to Research and Writing. 4th ed.

Kathleen James-Cavan is the Graduate Chair of the English Department at
the University of Saskatchewan. She is the editor of Sense and
Sensibility.

Aimed at undergraduate and graduate university students in the
humanities, sciences, and social sciences, these three texts present
sound advice in plain English on writing several kinds of academic
papers as well as giving oral presentations.

A more general work than the other two books, Making Sense would be
useful to an undergraduate taking courses in both arts and sciences as
it covers all four standard documentation styles—MLA, APA, CMS (14th),
and CBE—as well as chapters on writing book reports and reviews, lab
reports, business reports, and essays. The two more specialized texts
give detailed information about designing, carrying out, and evaluating
research in their respective disciplines. All three books include
information on résumé writing. These are reference books rather than
writing texts, as they contain no paper and pencil exercises to help the
student practise the principles that are laid out.

Although all three texts discuss problems of style, grammar, and usage
common to all writers, none offers a sample essay to exemplify, in a
sustained way, what is meant by effective organization, paragraphing, or
transitions between paragraphs. Such sample essays are essential to the
beginning student, the audience for Making Sense. In addition, students
may find the organization of the chapter “Writing with Style” in all
three books confusing where such larger concerns as the order of
paragraphs and coherence within paragraphs appear sandwiched between the
finer points of diction and transitional words and phrases.

In spite of these similarities, the sections discussing inclusive
language are strangely uneven. The book by Margot Northey with Joan
McKibbin is the most offensive. In discussing the issue of “political
correctness,” the authors state that the need to avoid bias requires
writers to use “neutral” language, a problematic goal at best.
Nowhere does the more positive phrase “inclusive language” appear,
nor does an explanation for the preferred terms in such pairs as
“Indian” and “Aboriginal” or “being handicapped” and
“having special needs.” This section should be replaced with that in
Making Sense in Psychology and the Life Sciences, which offers greater
detail, nuance, and context. Making Sense in the Social Sciences limits
discussion of this matter to subsections on gender, race, and culture
only. The advice on note-taking during lectures found in Making Sense in
Psychology and the Life Sciences would also be helpful in the book for
beginning students.

Together, these three books would be good resources in writing centres
and university libraries. The two specialized texts should be useful to
senior students. Making Sense is an adequate introductory writing text;
although it resembles such competitors as The Broadview Guide to Writing
and A Canadian Writer’s Handbook in content, it lacks tabbed sections
that enable quick reference.