The Role of Standard Language and Text Linguistics in Compiling University Textbooks

Compiling textbooks has always been a significant subject, but at the present time itgains more importance due to the increasing development of science and technologyas well as the expansion of higher education in the country. In fact, in order to meetthe growing needs for educational materials, authors swiftly put together textbooksby translating foreign sources. This process causes many problems such ascomplexity, ambiguity, redundancy and uncommon structures. We have frequentlyexperienced the frustration of students in reading such books because of theirincapability of grasping the message. In fact, this confusion deals with writing andlinguistic shortcomings rather than scientific complexity. In a nutshell, this paperdiscusses the principles of written standard Persian, the appropriate style and registerof scientific texts, and the proper usage of general and technical vocabularies inthese textbooks. It also explores the principles of text linguistics including cohesion,coherence, acceptability, informativeness, intentionality, contextuality andintertextuality and their applications in compiling university textbooks.