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Using rich examples and engaging pedagogical tools, this book equips students to master the challenges of academic writing in graduate school and beyond. The authors delve into nitty-gritty aspects of structure, style, and language, and offer a window onto the thought processes and strategies that strong writers rely on. Essential topics include how to: identify the audience for a particular piece of writing; craft a voice appropriate for a discipline-specific community of practice; compose the sections of a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research article; select the right peer-reviewed journal for submitting an article; and navigate the publication process. Readers are also guided to build vital self-coaching skills in order to stay motivated and complete projects successfully. User-Friendly Features *Exercises (with answers) analyzing a variety of texts. *Annotated excerpts from peer-reviewed journal articles. *Practice opportunities that help readers apply the ideas to their own writing projects. *Personal reflections and advice on common writing hurdles. *End-of-chapter Awareness and Action Reminders with clear steps to take.
Elegant data and ideas deserve elegant expression, argues Helen Sword in this lively guide to academic writing. For scholars frustrated with disciplinary conventions, and for specialists who want to write for a larger audience but are unsure where to begin, here are imaginative, practical, witty pointers that show how to make articles and books a pleasure to read—and to write. Dispelling the myth that you cannot get published without writing wordy, impersonal prose, Sword shows how much journal editors and readers welcome work that avoids excessive jargon and abstraction. Sword’s analysis of more than a thousand peer-reviewed articles across a wide range of fields documents a startling gap between how academics typically describe good writing and the turgid prose they regularly produce. Stylish Academic Writing showcases a range of scholars from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences who write with vividness and panache. Individual chapters take up specific elements of style, such as titles and headings, chapter openings, and structure, and close with examples of transferable techniques that any writer can master.
Writing for Academic Success is a vital practical guide for any ambitious student. If you seek to manage your writing effectively, reduce stress, and improve your confidence and efficiency, this book is for you. The authors show you how to acquire communicative rigor in research essays, reports, book and article reviews, exam papers, research proposals, and literature reviews, through to thesis writing, posters and papers for presentation and publication. This second edition has been fully revised to reflect the online learning explosion. The authors provide insightful new material about how to work productively in different online contexts such as with blogs and wikis, setting up an e-portfolio, and raising an online profile. They also set out a focused guide to issues unique to digital communication, and working with and across different media and technologies. The book includes advice on common writing concerns, cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary practices, a list of helpful words and phrases, and subject-specific examples of writing ranging from economics to philosophy to medicine. Writing for Academic Success is essential for undergraduate and postgraduate students both in taught courses and conducting research. Student Success is a series of essential guides for students of all levels. From how to think critically and write great essays to boosting your employability and managing your wellbeing, the Student Success series helps you study smarter and get the best from your time at university.
A step-by-step guide to crafting a compelling scholarly book proposal—and seeing your book through to successful publication The scholarly book proposal may be academia’s most mysterious genre. You have to write one to get published, but most scholars receive no training on how to do so—and you may have never even seen a proposal before you’re expected to produce your own. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides prospective authors step by step through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university presses and other academic publishers. Laura Portwood-Stacer, an experienced developmental editor and publishing consultant for academic authors, shows how to select the right presses to target, identify audiences and competing titles, and write a project description that will grab the attention of editors—breaking the entire process into discrete, manageable tasks. The book features over fifty time-tested tips to make your proposal stand out; sample prospectuses, a letter of inquiry, and a response to reader reports from real authors; optional worksheets and checklists; answers to dozens of the most common questions about the scholarly publishing process; and much, much more. Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest, empathetic, and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why, far from being merely a hurdle to clear, a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book.
Successful Academic Writing guides students through the whole process of academic writing, developing their ability to communicate ideas and research fluently and successfully. From understanding the task and planning essays or assignments, right through to utilising feedback, it will ensure students are able to get much more out of the writing process.
From the author of Stylish Academic Writing comes an essential new guide for writers aspiring to become more productive and take greater pleasure in their craft. Helen Sword interviewed one hundred academics worldwide about their writing background and practices. Relatively few were trained as writers, she found, and yet all have developed strategies to thrive in their publish-or-perish environment. So how do these successful academics write, and where do they find the “air and light and time and space,” in the words of poet Charles Bukowski, to get their writing done? What are their formative experiences, their daily routines, their habits of mind? How do they summon up the courage to take intellectual risks and the resilience to deal with rejection? Sword identifies four cornerstones that anchor any successful writing practice: Behavioral habits of discipline and persistence; Artisanal habits of craftsmanship and care; Social habits of collegiality and collaboration; and Emotional habits of positivity and pleasure. Building on this “BASE,” she illuminates the emotional complexity of the writing process and exposes the lack of writing support typically available to early-career academics. She also lays to rest the myth that academics must produce safe, conventional prose or risk professional failure. The successful writers profiled here tell stories of intellectual passions indulged, disciplinary conventions subverted, and risk-taking rewarded. Grounded in empirical research and focused on sustainable change, Air & Light & Time & Space offers a customizable blueprint for refreshing personal habits and creating a collegial environment where all writers can flourish.
Reading & Writing for Academic Success was designed to present high-level academic content-based instruction to students who are preparing to participate in the academic community. The material is appropriate for classes where critiquing and integrating authentic text to reflect, react, write, and revise is stressed. This text reinforces some study skills -- annotation as a bridge to summary writing, an understanding of various genres, presentation skills, and techniques for reading for fluency. Reading & Writing for Academic Success teaches reading and writing as inter-related for academic purposes the need for quality supporting information and credibility of evidence, both in reading and writing critical-thinking skills the need for a relevant coherent theme to develop interest and expertise.
"If you follow only a third of Jean's advice, you'll have a successful book." --Jeremy Tarcher, Publisher Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. "After Jean reworked my first draft, paperback rights sold for $137,000." --Timmen Cermak, M.D., author of A Time to Heal: The Road to Recovery for Adult Children of Alcoholics Mastering the craft and understanding the mechanics of writing self-help and how-to books is the key to getting publishers to take notice of your work. Now, in the first guide to writing self-help and how-to books, Jean Stine offers an insider's view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-step through the complete writing process. You'll learn the importance of: * Structure and Style * Clear, easy-to-understand exercises * Creating catchy and compelling titles, subtitles, and chapter headings * Using lists, charts, and graphs to maximum effect * Checklists and other interactive elements * Writing a proposal that sells * Negotiating permissions for quotations, photos, and illustrations * Preparing your manuscript for presentation to a publisher
