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| These are the 2003 winners of the Talbot Prize, awarded by the Society of Academic Authors to recognize excellence in visuals in textbooks and other learning materials:
Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere Publisher: Brooks/Cole Editor: Keith Dodson Judges' comments
Human Anatomy Publisher: Prentice Hall Editor: Halee Dinsey, senior acquisition's editor Judges' comments
Chemistry: The Molecular Science Publisher: Booke/Cole (originally Saunders College) Editor: John Holdcroft, chemistry acquisitions editor (originally John Vondeling at Saunders) Judges' comments
Math for Business and Life Publisher: Olympus Publishing Judges' comments JUDGES' COMMENTS Steve Ackerman / John Knox Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere Publisher: Brooks/Cole Editor: Keith Dodson These comments are extracted from the judges' evaluations, which were based on excelence in visuals in these categories: Relevance, creatvity, originality, production, technique and captions. The judges' complete comments have been provided to the authors."Nearly every photo or graphic in this text makes a direct connection to the reader. One could almost learn the essentials through the illustrations, maps and photos." "The authors have done an exceptional job pulling together relevant data to be presented in original graphic formats. Even the rudiments of storm systems are explained very well." "Quite simply, the production quality is superb." "Visuals are integral and are used generously." "The meteorological sources are appropriate for this textbook." "A very nice book" "Virtually every photo and meteorological chart in the book is intergral to understanding the material." "The photos are engaging. Each one makes me want to read the caption " "Great stuff!" "Some enormously spectacular photos" "The meteorological charts and other art is functional and clear. " "This book has some of the most pretty and apt graphics that I have ever seen in a textbook." "Nobody could accuse these authors of using graphics for cosmetic purposes." "The graphics were "The computer-generated material and the cartoons are of excellent quality." "It is perfectly clear what is going on in any given photograph," "The composition of each graphic is of very high quality." "These pages are very well laid out. Some pages really grab the reader by the throat. But these are the introductory page to a chapter, and they make a very nice impression and set a tone for this segment of material." "The captions are crisp and clear and add to the presentation. Very apt." "Overall, I think Meteorology is a winner." "The text is visually sophisticated, truly interesting, and up-to-date, with always apt and sometimes ravishing images, figurative models, and tables used to support its thoughtful pedagogy." "The appealing visual ancillaries are a plus" "Flash "games" with beautiful photos are really clever content review." "This package makes me want to study meteorology." "Throughout, the individual visuals in this text are extremely relevant to instruction, often beautiful and sometimes striking " "Features and photos are thoughtfully chosen, illuminating important concepts." "I would rate as 10 nearly all the photos, figures, maps, tables, and boxed content -- this last showcasing interesting, freestanding material like a portrait of hero meteorologist Bryan Norcross or information on storm chasers." "The figures demonstrating weather patterns and forces were very well done -- clear and visually helpful. " "The vividly colored chapter openers arequite striking and lovely in themselves" "The authors claim that many of these images have never been published before -- that's great. Many are the sort of images one would expect and hope for in a meteorology text; as such they are very well done. -- post card before and real world after Hurricane Andrew -- is original and graphic." "Up-to-the-minute nature of the text's coverage, picked up by images like those from space, brings students into the excitement of the profession now." "Many visuals extend the reach of the material and encourage students to think critically in expansive ways (for instance, visuals depicting conditions the day JFK junior's plane crashed, Saharan cave paintings as evidence of previously wet climate, the ozone hole increasing over years)." "High marks to the authors' Name that Cloud quiz (which I failed because the ground hog ate my homework)." "Production nicely done. Not an Italian art book, but it's lovely for a text." "Technique quite nicely done." "Individual tables, photos, boxes, and so forth are extremely well placed " "Captions are professional, well written and complete. Excellent job." JUDGES' COMMENTS Frederic H. Martini / Michael J. Timmons / Robert B. Tallitsch Human Anatomy Publisher: Prentice Hall Editor: Halee Dinsey, senior acquisitions editor These comments are extracted from the judges' evaluations, which were based on excelence in visuals in these categories: Relevance, creatvity, originality, production, technique and captions. The judges' complete comments have been provided to the authors."This text integrates photographs, sketches, diagrams, and charts in a very thorough, extremely informative way." "I was amazed at the diversity of its presentation." "The web links added motion and another layer of information that I found especially useful." "I have not seen a book that was as visually thorough as this one." "I did not see any mistakes in technique; it is flawless." "The large format assists the reader in moving through the dense material. Excellent job." "The descriptive captions are very clear and thorough. They offer the reader excellent information about specific topics of interest. I find nothing to criticize here." "Overall, the book is excellent and I would highly recommend it to any beginning student of medicine." "Many photos are from stock sources but many are also the work of a single photographer who is given credit for the success of the book even in the marketing materials." "As technical photos they are superb." "Not only well integrated with the text, but the photos are part of the text itself in the sense that they have overlays of labels of anatomical parts." "These kinds of photos in an oversize-format book represent a new kind of anatomy textbook -- very strong." "A perfect in all categories -- relevance, creatvity, originality, production, technique and captions." "This text is very effective in its use of visuals to clarify content; the multiple illustration methods employed are extremely informative." "The visuals in this text are incredible!" "Every visual is of excellent quality." "Again, artistic and technical techniques are of outstanding quality." "The visual program is very well integrated with the text." "Captions provide excellent capsules of relevant information. They are very efficient summarizations of key points." "Not rarely, my recommendation to a publisher has been that a book in development is so poor it should not be published. That said, I found this textbook to be superb, at least as far as their illustration programs are concerned." "An enviable product that will be hard to beat." "A lavishly illustrated book" "There are no merely decorative illustrations." "Every figure is information-rich and essential to an understanding of the subject matter." "Very few of the illustrations in this book are pickups. As far as I can tell, nearly all the lineart is original. Most of these photos seem to have been made specifically for this book. " "The book has a number of creative and very instructive layouts of photography, lineart, or a combination of the two." "No flaws in art reproduction." The large format, glossy low-absorbency paper, and printing sharpness display the photographs and lineart well." "Artistically and photographically superb." "On the whole, this book considerably outclasses the competition in its field." "The combination of lineart and photography in the skeletal anatomy is highly effective, as are the many radiologic images and histological photomicrographs." "The compositor did as good a job as can be expected in placing nearly all figures on the same pages as their callouts. I selected 30 illustrations at random and found the illustration on the same page as the callout or on the facing page 60 percent of cases, and in most other cases within a single page-turn of the callout. In anatomy textbooks, with the necessity for numerous large illustrations, it is impossible to do much better than this." "It is particularly helpful that so many of the figure callouts appear in the B-level heads of the chapter, which should make it very easy to identify and locate the relevant illustration as the student reads. This is also true of table callouts." "All figures seem to be fully explained by their captions. The reader should be able to understand the essential point of any illustration from the caption alone. " JUDGES' COMMENTS John W. Moore / Conrad L. Stanitski / Peter C. Jurs Chemistry: The Molecular Science Publisher: Brookes/Cole (originally Saunders Colleg) Editor: John Holdcroft, chemistry acquisitions editor (originally John Vondeling at Saunders) These comments are extracted from the judges' evaluations, which were based on excelence in visuals in these categories: Relevance, creatvity, originality, production, technique and captions. The judges' complete comments have been provided to the authors."The book does a nice job highlighting the practical everyday uses of chemistry, however some of the artwork used looks dated." "Excellent production." "Photos are from a variety of sources, collected with some care." "Quality of photos is high and printing good/" "Photos are well placed." "Drawings and diagrams are relevant and effective." "The quality of the books is superb!" "Outstanding use of visuals to relate the application of chemistry to everyday life." "Many visuals were not what I would normally expect to see in a chemistry text. These unexpected visuals are very effective in relating the importance of chemistry to one's life." "Excellent use of the wide margin space." "Captions well written." "Nearly all figures are very functional." "As a biologist reviewing concepts of basic chemistry that I havenıt had since college, I found that surveying the figures alone refreshed my memory of many basic principles." "Only a few figures serve little more than a decorative purpose, but what little space they occupy would have been white space anyway, and they enhance the book and donıt distract the reader from the important points." "The illustrations serve a valid point." "Many figures are distinctive, creative presentations of a concept. Several of these draw captivating analogies that I think would create a lasting and image in the studentıs mind, making it easier to understand a chemical concept." "No flaws in art reproduction." "The photographic capture of several quick chemical reactions is admirable." "The compositor did a very good job of placing nearly all figures on the same pages as their callouts. This is a difficult task and has been admirably achieved here." "Even through some illustrations are very small and occupy a minimum of page space, they are graphically simple, clear, and effective" "The captions are excellent. They epitomize the judging criterion of being 'self-contained so the pedagogical point is clear even without reading the relevant section of text./" " Nearly all figure titles are followed by an admirably concise explanation of the essential point." JUDGES' COMMENTS John Webber Math for Business and Life Publisher: Olympus Publishing These comments are extracted from the judges' evaluations, which were based on excelence in visuals in these categories: Relevance, creatvity, originality, production, technique and captions. The judges' complete comments have been provided to the authors."The author does a very good job putting original material -- or at least provide interesting case studies that are well presented. The reproduction quality is good." "The strength of the visuals in the book is in their placement in the text." "The examples and case studies inserted into text to be extremely effective in making the narrative make sense." "Clear and descriptive." "I particularly like the opener visuals." "Use of color in math examples is excellent." "The photographs add more visual interest and appear to be quite original." "The openers are effective as are math examples and the charts, tables, etc., that go along with them." "The graphics are very clear, sharp, and help make explanations clear." "Everything is very simple, but that, I believe, is the point for this level of math textbook." "These visuals are both cosmetic and educational" "This book provides entertaining graphics that also illustrate the point being made. They are well-selected, incisive, and often entertaining." "There is nothing ordinary about these visuals. Many are of the author's own creation (not clip-art or material borrowed from other sources)." "There is a combination of photographs, material created on the computer, and (humorous) cartoons." "The material that comes from the computer is sharp, clear, and well formatted." " One does not need to squint to see what is going on." "The composition of the photographs (in the technical sense of the phrase) is good, and often clever." "Although some of the pages are quite full of material, they are laid out very well; it is therefore quite easy to "get at" the point that is being made." "The captions are very clear, and highly appropriate. Overall, this is a likable book." "This text has its charms -- notably the ease and friendliness trumpeted on its back cover," "This text uses color consistently, sparingly (a plus) and well to accent instruction and adds chapter-end visuals and humor to humanize math." "Math for Business and Life uses visuals in at least three pedagogically sensible ways: chapter-openers with photos; primary-colored bars, boxes, and symbols to highlight features and augment instruction; and a chapter closer, then visuals, humor, high-interest facts, and a "Fun Corner" on the last page." "The conceit of a little Einsteinian math-nerd is used on the cover and throughout -- fine." "This book has real strengths." "Pluses side include the placements of color and visuals. They truly support the pedagogy." "The use of color within chapters -- bars, boxes, and symbols within instruction -- supports learning. These elements are consistently used, point students to material, and help them navigate the text." "I applaud Webber's avoiding a mistake made by many publishers: cluttering instruction with razzle dazzle color that doesn't have a teaching purpose." "Inside colors match the cover and get the job done." "The cover attracts students with the real-world categories." "At chapters' end, Math Guy in a balloon signals Fun Corner, and down-homey cartoons manage to find humor in the subject at hand." "This text is original by the very inclusion of friendliness and humor, both enhanced by visuals." "Textual information, quotes, and data here are often interesting, the images are unexceptional." "Boxing an occasional Dave Barry or Ann Landers column and real-world statistics is a fine idea. " "The quality of print is clear and the book gets its job done." "The overall design -- the conceptualization of where and how to use color, the placement of chapter openers and chapter closers -- is instructionally sound, not overdone." "My score reflects this sane overarching design plan and the good professorial instincts that created it. " "" "On the third edition, keep the friendliness and humor." |
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