Requirements for Arabic writing skills text books based on McDonough and Shaw’s model: A case study of The Book of Al-Raid in Teaching Arabic Language: The Book of Composition

A textbook is a useful educational tool. Analyzing this tool improves the quality of education. The Book of “Al-Raid in Teaching Arabic Language: The Book of Composition”, by Masoud Fekri (2019) is one of the educational resources for Arabic writing skills in Iran. This book is designed in three volumes that teach writing skills in three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The aim of this study is to promote the methodical critique in the preparation and compilation of textbooks and eliminate possible errors in them. The study uses a descriptive-analytical approach with standardized questionnaire as a tool and evaluation criteria of McDonough and Shaw’s model to evaluate this textbook. Two groups of students and teachers make up the statistical population of this study. Twenty-five students of the University of Islamic Religions, Tehran Branch, who have read three volumes of Raid’s book in three semesters of the academic years 2020-2022 in online classes due to corona virus restrictions, and five instructors of the Arabic writing skills course have also analyzed the book. Findings show that according to the students, this book has a positive effect on improving the learner’s writing skills and teachers have also given positive reviews about the role of this book in writing skills. Of course, there are some shortcomings that can be pointed out: the unavailability of the book’s audio files, the lack of use of diagrams and images to help better understand the concepts, and the not specifying the target audience of the book.