Presents results of large-scale study of university-level text produced by writers who are not native speakers of English, to determine the specific syntactic, lexical, & rhetorical features that differ from those in texts written by native speakers.

Contents: R.B. Kaplan, Foreword. Preface. Part I: Background: Research in Text and Written Discourse. Writing as Text. Research in Academic and ESL Written Discourse and Text. Written Discourse and Text in Different Rhetorical Traditions. The Goals and Politics of Teaching ESL Writing. The Study of Features of Second Language Text: Essays, the Data, and Methods of Analysis. Part II: Common Linguistic and Rhetorical Features of Academic ESL Text. Nouns, Pronouns, and Nominals and Their Functions and Uses in Text. The Verb Phrase and Deverbals and Their Functions and Uses in Text. Adjectives and Adverbs and Their Functions and Uses in Text. Subordinate Clauses and Their Functions and Uses. Text-Rhetorical Features and Their Functions and Uses. Part III: The Effect of Prompts on ESL Text. The First Three Prompts. The Second Three Prompts. The Differences That the Prompts Make. Part IV: Conclusion. Determining Priorities in Teaching and Curriculum. Epilogue. Appendices: Rank-Order of Median Frequency Rates of Linguistic Features in NS and NNS Texts. Comparisons of Common Linguistic and Rhetorical Features in Academic Essays Across Prompts, by L1 Groups.