English Academic Writing

Are you involved in writing theses, journal articles, book chapters or monographs? Then this is the book for you. It analyses seven ‘pillars’ of English academic writing: well-planned texts; well-designed paragraphs; well-constructed sentences; reader-friendly punctuation; cohesive devices that make the text ‘hang together’; well-chosen and well-used citations; and the means by which readers are guided through a text and persuaded by it.
Written in an accessible style, English Academic Writing offers
• Over 200 best-practice examples from real research texts
• Hands-on language tips in ‘Toolboxes’
• ‘Makeovers’ showing how texts can be improved
• ‘In brief’ mini-summaries at key junctures in the text
• ‘Takeaways’ for each chapter
• A bank of phrases realising key functions of academic English


Inhalt:
Acknowledgments
Explanatory notes for readers
Introduction: Seven pillars of academic writing

1 Creativity and constraints: Planning research texts
1.1 Research genres
1.1.1 Genres, structures and hierarchies
1.1.2 Hierarchical organisation in research texts
1.2 The research story and its parts
1.2.1 The abstract
1.2.2 The beginning: Setting the scene
1.2.3 The middle: Developing the plot
1.2.4 The ending: Rounding it all off
1.3 Text appeal

2 One step at a time: Designing paragraphs
2.1 The essence of English paragraphs
2.2 The components of a paragraph
2.2.1 The topic sentence
2.2.2 The ‘meaty’ middle
2.2.3 The final sentence
2.3 Paragraph appeal

3 Focus and flow: Constructing sentences
3.1 Sentence types
3.1.1 The simple sentence
3.1.2 The complex sentence
3.1.3 Subordinate clauses
3.2 Principles of sentence construction
3.2.1 The ‘given-new’ principle
3.2.2 End focus
3.3 Passive sentences
3.4 Sentence appeal
3.4.1 Getting the verb-noun balance right
3.4.2 Varying sentence structure

4 Breath marks: Punctuation
4.1 Why punctuation matters
4.2 What punctuation marks signal
4.2.1 Suggesting ‘stops’
4.2.2 Suggesting ‘detours’
4.2.3 Suggesting ‘pauses’
4.3 Commas: sometimes a question of style
4.3.1 Where style plays little part
4.3.2 Where style comes in

5 Only connect: Cohesion
5.1 General principles of cohesion and coherence
5.2 Cohesion within paragraphs
5.2.1 Semantic chains
5.2.2 Pronouns
5.2.3 Linkers
5.2.4 Structural devices
5.3 Cohesion beyond the paragraph

6 Your words, not mine: Citations
6.1 What to cite and how much
6.2 Types of citations
6.2.1 Direct versus indirect citations
6.2.2 Integral versus non-integral citations
6.3 Weaving citations into the text
6.4 Inadvertent plagiarism and how to avoid it

7 Follow me: Guiding and persuading the reader
7.1 Showing the reader the way: Metacomments
7.2 Getting the reader on your side
7.2.1 Reasoning
7.2.2 Emphasising
7.2.3 Evaluating
7.2.4 Rapport-building

Appendix 1 Conference presentations
A1.1 The audience, or ‘pity the listener’
A1.2 The purposes
A1.3 Language considerations
A1.4 Text slides
Appendix 2 Grant proposals
Appendix 3 Phrasebank for academic writing

List of references
Index

Autoreninformation:
Gerlinde Mautner is Full Professor of English Business Communication at WU, the Vienna University of Economics and Business. She has many years of experience in teaching advanced linguistic skills and English academic writing, both to faculty and to students from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. The focus of her research is on the relationship between language and society, as well as on questions of methodology. She has published widely in high-impact outlets and acts as a reviewer for several international journals.

Christopher J. Ross is an experienced writer, translator, and text editor specialising in research articles and books. He was a Senior Lecturer at WU for nearly 20 years, having previously held the same post at the Department of Interpreting and Translating, Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh).


Univ.-Prof. Dr Gerlinde Mautner lehrt am Institut für Englische Wirtschaftskommunikation der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (WU).
Dr. Christopher Ross war Senior Lecturer am Institut für Englische Wirtschaftskommunikation der WU Wien.