Saturday 12 April 2008

"Introductory" textbooks

University students should be aware of the meaning of "introductory" in their "introductory" textbooks. When they come across "Introductory monetary policy models" it is often not introductory in the sense of assuming no knowledge (advanced undergraduate knowledge can be assumed) or that the information is old (often the information is up-to-date, or just a decade old) or that it is easy (the difficulty is frequently close to professional standards).

What "introductory" often means is "If you read and understand completely this book and another book of similar thickness probably labelled 'further introductory' then you will be able to read much of what is published by academics for academics".

Hope that clears up the meaning of "introductory".

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