Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: half-star

Some of these essays are familiar, and are no fresher in their reprinted form in this volume. Crowley's polemics are tiresome and her remarks about the role of first-year writing courses in the college curriculum are neither radical nor particularly useful. I can imagine educators cheering at certain portions of this volume, but the after-effect is that it was merely another exercise in reading, an occasion for an author/educator to "vent" spleen on the profession. It's hard to admire this work.