Professional Academic Writing In The Humanities And Social Sciences

In Professional Academic Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Susan Peck MacDonald tackles important and often controversial contemporary questions regarding the rhetoric of inquiry, the social construction of knowledge, and the professionalization of the academy. MacDonald argues that the academy has devoted more effort to analyzing theory and method than to analyzing its own texts. Professional texts need further attention because they not only create but are also shaped by the knowledge that is special to each discipline. Her assumption is that knowledge-making is the distinctive activity of the academy at the professional level; for that reason, it is important to examine differences in the ways the professional texts of subdisciplinary communities focus on and consolidate knowledge within their fields. Throughout the book, MacDonald stresses her conviction that academics need to do a better job of explaining their text-making axioms, clarifying their expectations of students at all levels, and monitoring their own professional practices. MacDonald’s proposals for both textual and sentence-level analysis will help academic professionals better understand how they might improve communication within their professional communities and with their students.

Increasingly, researchers are expected to write in English to reach an international audience. Many feel at a disadvantage to native speakers in getting their work published, even if their command of English is adequate for discussions and informal conversations. This book, specifically designed for the Humanities and Social Sciences, assists new and established scholars in the process of writing and editing English texts. Its objectives are threefold: - to give guidelines for using academic style and language and for writing specific academic genres, such as abstracts, research proposals and especially research articles; - to provide a wide range of vocabulary and grammar resources for practice and consultation; - to teach learners strategies for improving and editing their own writing. Examples and exercises are based on a corpus of academic texts, ensuring relevance and authenticity. The book can be used for self-study as well as in the context of an academic writing course. It can also serve as a reference work to be consulted when writing and editing texts.

Academic Writing in a Global Context addresses the issue of the pressure on academics worldwide to produce their work in English in scholarly publishing, and why the growth of the use of academic English matters. Drawing on an eight year ‘text-ethnographic’ study of the experiences of fifty scholars working in Europe, this book discusses these questions at both a macro and micro level – through discussions of knowledge evaluation systems on all levels, and analysis of the progress of a text towards publication. In addition to this, case studies of individual scholars in their local institutions and countries are used to illustrate experiences of using English in the academic world. Academic Writing in a Global Context examines the impact of the growing dominance of English on academic writing for publication globally. The authors explore the ways in which the global status attributed to English is impacting on the lives and practices of multilingual scholars working in contexts where English is not the official language of communication and throws into relief the politics surrounding academic publishing. This book will be of interest to postgraduates and professionals in the fields of World Englishes, language and globalization and English Language Teaching.

A common refrain heard from instructors in offices across the world is that students have a hard time producing quality written discourse. This is no different in the world of film studies, where many undergraduate students struggle to cogently discuss the films they watch in class. How can film instructors help students become better writers? This book answers this question by, first, uncovering the disciplinary expectations we have for students, and then offering strategies to explicitly teach those expectations in the classroom. This book examines and identifies the disciplinary conventions of professional film studies discourse along with the expectations we have for student writing in undergraduate film courses. What becomes clear from this analysis is that the pedagogical expectations we have for students are aligned with, and shaped by, professional writing in the discipline. It helps to uncover the argument types instructors take for granted and helps those teaching undergraduate students not only to know what those expectations are, but also how to use that knowledge to foster better student writing.

Academic Writing is a unique introduction to the subject. As the author puts it in her preface, “this book develops from a strong claim: namely, that style is meaningful.” In developing that theme, the author draws meaningfully on theory, especially genre theory, while remaining grounded in the particular. Giltrow presents and discusses examples of actual academic writing of the sort that students must learn to deal with daily, and to write themselves. As newcomers to the scholarly community, students can find that community’s ways of reading and writing mysterious, unpredictable and intimidating. Academic Writing demystifies the scholarly genres, shedding light on their discursive conventions and on academic readers’ expectations and values. Throughout, Academic Writing respects the student writer; it engages the reader’s interest without ever condescending, and it avoids the arbitrary and the dogmatic. The book also offers abundant exercises to help the student develop techniques for working productively at each stage of the scholarly writing process; mastering and summarizing difficult scholarly sources; planning; and revising to create good working conditions for the reader. The third edition of Giltrow’s extremely successful book incorporates extensive revisions that integrate the theoretical perspectives of genre theory into the whole of the book in a more organic fashion; the changes are designed to make the book both more attuned to scholarly practice and more accessible to the undergraduate student. Giltrow’s Academic Reading is designed as an accompanying reader for Academic Writing.

This volume covers the writing not only of native speakers of the language in which they are being taught, but also that of those to whom the language of pedagogy is secondary. Australian editors.

With researchers around the world are under increasing pressure to publish in high-profile international journals, this book explores some of the issues affecting authors on the semiperiphery, who often find themselves torn between conflicting academic cultures and discourses.

There is an urgent need to provide academic professionals with individual, institutional, and contextual accounts of their careers and career-making endeavors. An individual account makes academicians think about what they do and how they might do it better. An institutional account makes academicians reflect upon the organizational environment in which they function and ponder what they might do to improve it. A contextual account connects academicians and their work to knowledge, the knowledge enterprise, and the larger social structure so that they know and understand the impact they and their career-making efforts have on themselves, academia, and general social processes. This book examines academic careers and career-making activities with respect to their main aspects, milestones, and general pathways. In content, it divides into four identifiable parts. Part I focuses on professional preparation. It examines education, degree, reeducation, job search, and job change. Part II centers on organizational employment. It investigates position, research, teaching, service, and tenure. Part III revolves around professional networking. It looks into publication, conference presentation, application for grants and awards, and membership in academic associations. Part IV rises above specific issues. It explores general career pathways and overall scholarly identity.