English 101 - Rigoberto Acosta (rigo)

Rigoberto Acosta (RIGO) English 101

Books are essential tools to understand and learn what is happening, had happened, or could happen in the human history. A good book can show things to people that they have not been exposed to, analyze things, and provide guidance to the readers. However a book should be well designed therefore is easier to read and absorb the material. Especially textbooks, the authors must make sure the idea will get easily to the students by using features, or things to make the reading pleasant to the student. Classical Myth textbook, by Barry B Powell, is an example of this. Even though this topic is very complex, the author made use of several features such as pictures, graphs, pronunciation and spelling session, additional and further reading information, and cultural context that shows how mythology has influenced the world and it influences society today.

How does influence a book's organization in the reader's learning? One of the main features in this book is the way is organized. It has very clear explanation about all what you may read in the chapter, an example of this is when in chapter one shows you all the type of myths mentioned in the book. The author divides the book in parts to talk about the several myths, for example in part one he explains the nature of myth, the cultural context of classical myth, and the development of classical myth. By this the reader gets a full and very wide explanation of what the book's subject is. As u read the book, you can see some others features like when a new word is introduced into the text is bolded, that way the student can get familiar with the word. At the end of the book, it has an index with the meaning and pronunciation of the main important characters. It comes also with a pronunciation and spelling session that helps the reader to pronounce them in the proper way, especially because they come from Greece and it is totally unknown their pronunciation, spelling and meaning for us. The book comes with a companion website (www.pearsonhigherd.com/powell6e.) that includes quizzes, studies guide, background information in Greek culture and society. In addition, the companion website has a section where you can hear the names being pronounced. At the end of every chapter, there is additional and further reading information which helps; because sometimes the reader may want to know where these sources come from ,or maybe use this information to understand better what it has been read.

How to get the reader's attention and his/her understanding? Each person has a particular mode to take in information. Some people pick up facts and information just by listening to it. Others can read and acquire something without needing more supportive details. There are people that learn by looking and observing at things. This book is full of pictures, reproductions of vase paintings, sculptural works, architectural monuments, graphs, and charts that make it approachable and enjoyable to read. The reader can associate the text to the pictures and use the imagination for a broad understanding. Along the figures there is an explanation about what is in the figure and what the display means. When Powell is narrating a story and there is an event, or character the author guides to where in the book are those pictures. For example on page 437 in the last paragraph states " Most of the scholars that Creatan worshiped a mother-goddess represented as a bare-breasted woman with snakes twining up her arms (Figure 16.6)" and then in the following page you find the figure with a detailed explanation. To make a stronger emphasis in the reading Powell uses perspectives about the most meaningful passages in the book, which it can be used as source information. He meets the reader's needs by providing several sources that make the text catches the reader's attention and make the reading pleasant and interesting.

There is something that makes this book not difficult to read. At the beginning of each chapter it appears a quote that introduces the chapter. As you read it makes you think what the chapter is about, also it makes the reader question itself. These quotations are from famous writers in the past and that is definitely interesting because it can make the reader wiser. For example in chapter one, the author introduces the introductory chapter with a very good quote "The longer I occupy myself with questions of ancient mythology, the more diffident I become of success in dealing with them, and I am apt to think that we who spend our years in searching for solutions to these insoluble problems are like the Sisyphus perpetually rolling his stone uphill only to see it revolve again into the valley". This quote says how complicated and interesting at the same time the study of mythology can be. However through the chapter the author will explain quite clear what it is a myth, the types of myth and the study of myth.