Dear Professor Rathbone:
This is just a short note to follow-up on our recent communication regarding your proposal for a text “A Primer on Complex Instruction”. I have received your material and now had an opportunity to review it. Quite frankly I am impressed with what you have to say and the passion with which you say it. The material you have presented is quite interesting and I found it enjoyable and instructive to read.
That said, however, this will be a difficult text to write and present the ideas for CI in a way that will want faculty to adopt it as a supplement to their courses. The title will have to be more compelling and the prose such that an undergraduate will be able to understand and feel competent to apply the principles. The chapter one you sent is interesting but not really useful as a first chapter of a book where you lay out what CI is and why it would be valuable for a student to learn.
At this point, I would encourage you to continue your work and develop enough sufficient content to allow us to evaluate it in the market with possible user reviews. Since you’re planning a short book I suggest you develop at least half the text for our consideration. I also encourage you to develop a heading structure for each chapter that will allow the reader to better follow the progression of your ideas within the chapter.
Again, I want to thank you for bringing your ideas to Allyn & Bacon. I will look forward to hearing from you regarding your future plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact either Laura Lee or myself if we can be of further help.
Cordially, Steve
Stephen D. Dragin
Executive Editor & Publisher
Allyn & Bacon
Pearson Education
75 Arlington Street
Boston, MA 02116
Ph: 617-848-7216
email: steve.dragin@ablongman.com
website: http://www.ablongman.com