Murdick's text was purely instructional, and could effectively be boiled down to a list of do's and don'ts -- examples were provided for clarity's sake, but true experiential learning is conspicuously lacking from his approach. The Longman text, on the other hand, not only provides an abundance of long-form examples form published literary works to supplement the instructional passages in the text, but these passages are themselves written in a more literary and formal style that at times directly and purposefully emulates the compositional lessons being discussed. This approach is both more inclusive and more demanding of the reader, and explicitly tries to make the reading experience mirror that of writing inasmuch as possible. Both texts adequately cover the pure knowledge and skills that are...

Both the examples and the tone of the text's writing reinforce the instruction, rather than simply repeating it, as Murdick often does. The brief "...in College Writing" sections that accompanied each major subheading of compositional styles (Description..., Narrative..., etc.) in the Longman text were unnecessary, but this is a minor quibble. All in all, the book was highly effective and far more engaging than the Murdick text.
References

Murdick, William. A Student's Guide to College Composition. New York: Jain Publishing, 2003.

Dawe, Charles and Edward Dornan, eds. The Longwood reader, 4th Edition. New York: Longman, 1999.