: Adrian Wallwork, Anna Southern
: 100 Tips to Avoid Mistakes in Academic Writing and Presenting
: Springer-Verlag
: 9783030442149
: 1
: CHF 28.50
:
: "Deutsche Sprachwissenschaft; Deutschsprachige Literaturwissen- schaft"
: English
: 156
: Wasserzeichen/DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF

This book contains one hundred typical mistakes relating to papers, proposals, oral presentations, and correspondence with editors (e.g. journal submissions), reviewers (rebuttal letters), and editing agencies.

The book is primarily intended for non-native English speaking researchers. However, it is also useful for editing agencies in order to help new or inexperienced editors spot the kinds of mistakes they need to correct in order to ensure their clients successfully have their papers published. Each section of a paper is covered separately: titles and abstracts; introduction and literature review; methods, results and tables; discussion and conclusions.

Teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) will learn which areas of writing and grammar to focus on including readability, word order, sentence length, paragraphing, ambiguity and punctuation. The last section in the book highlights the key areas where presenters make the most mistakes in terms of the use of English.

Other books in this series:

English for Writing Research Papers

English for Presentations at International Conferences

English for Academic Research: Grammar, Usage and Style

English for Academic Correspondence

English for Academic CVs, Resumes, and Online Profiles

English for Academic Research: Writing Exercises

English for Academic Research: Grammar Exercises

English for Academic Research: Vocabulary Exercises

English for Academic Research: A Guide for Teachers
Introduction to the Book6
Who is this book for?6
What kinds of written mistakes does the book focus on?7
How is the book structured?8
Free downloadable materials9
Contents10
Chapter 1: Research Papers: Titles and Abstracts16
1 Whole paper: Concentrate above all on readability grammar is generally less important.
2 Titles: Ensure your title as specific as possible. Delete unnecessary words.18
3 Titles: Avoid ‘clever’ titles.20
4 Abstracts: Be concise - especially in the first sentence.21
5 Abstracts: Don’t begin the abstract with non key words.22
6 Abstracts: Make it clear why the purpose of your investigation is important.23
7 Abstracts: Clearly differentiate between the state-of-the-art and what you did in your research.24
8 Structured Abstracts - Background: Be careful of tense usage.26
9 Abstracts: When writing a single paragraph, write it like a'structured abstract'.27
10 Abstract and Introduction: Avoid the word'attempt' and avoid making bold statements beginning with 'this is the first …27
2927
Chapter 2: Research Papers: Introduction and Literature Review30
11 Introduction: Avoid information that readers will already be very familiar with.30
12 Introduction: Describe the structure of your paper in a way that enables readers to navigate the paper easily.32
13 Review of the literature: prioritize clarity over consistency when deciding what tense to use.33
14 Review of the Literature and Discussion: Think about whether the first few words of a sentence add value for the reader or not. Be as concise as possible.34
15 Review of the literature and Discussion: Delete all unnecessary verbs.35
Chapter 3 Research Papers: Methods, Results, Tables36
16 Methods: Use the past to describe what you did, but use the present to describe any protocols / regulations / typical steps.36
17 Methods: Be careful to use the right tense in a which clause when a series of steps are being described.37
18 Methods: Indicate the sequence of steps by putting firstly, secondly, finally etc at the beginning of the sentences.38
19 Methods: Put the steps in chronological order. Put dates at the beginning.39
20 Results: Ensure the reader understands whether you are talking about your results or what has already been established by others. Generally speaking, use the past tense to report your results.40
21 Results: Do not write long descriptions of your results if these could easily be put in a table. And do not repeat information that is clearly shown in a table, instead interpret it.42
22 Tables: Use the simple present to describe what the table does, and the past to discuss what the table shows.43
23 Tables: In captions, and when referring to figures and tables, use the least words possible.44
24 Tables: Avoid redundancy by avoiding repetitions.45
Chapter 4 Research Papers: Discussion, Conclusions, Review Papers46
THE DISCUSSION46
25 Limitations: Don't finish your paper by talking about your limitations. Consider relocating the limitations to earlier in the Conclusions, or to the Discussion.47
26 Limitations: Don't just list your limitations, justify them.48
27 Conclusions: Don't write your Conclusions in a hurry.49
28 Conclusions: End with something memorable and comprehensible.50
29 Conclusions: Highlight the importance of your work by putting key findings at the beginning of the sentence, not at the end. Be as detailed as possible.51
30 Review papers: Think about what readers really want to learn, and present this info in an-easy-to-navigate way.52
Chapter 5: Readability and Avoiding Redundancy54
31 Readability: Just because your paper or chapter is published doesn't mean that anyone will actually read it.54
32 Readability: Confused or vague writing tends to lead to a confused reader. Write clearly and logically.56
33 Readability: The first words of a paragraph or sentence should immediately tell the reader what the subject is.57
34 Readability: Do not be vague - use specific rather than generic terms58
35 Readability: Avoid vague adjectives and adjectives that add no extra information.60
36 Readability: Ensure readers can understand whose research you arereferring to.61
37 Readability: Avoid a colloquial style and idiomatic expressions.62
38 Readability: Do not use synonyms to avoid repeating a key word.63
39 Readability: Don't use a pronoun before the noun it refers to has been mentioned, or when there is more than one noun that the pronoun could refer to.65
40 Readability: Ensure it is clear what'this' refers to in phrases such as 'this study'.67
41 Readability: Avoid the former and the latter.68
42 Readability: Do not use the when talking in general. Use the when talking about your specific cases.70
43 Readability: Avoid unclear references to other papers and other parts of your paper.71
44 Readability: When referring to your own geographical area and administrative units, don't assume your readers have the same level of knowledge as you do.72
45 Readability: With certain exceptions (etc., e.g., i.e. in vivo, in vitro), avoid Latin expressions.73
46 Readability: When highlighting important information, consider beginning a new sentence or paragraph.74
47 Readability: When highlighting important information, be as concise and precise as possible.76
48 Readability: Avoid unnecessary adjectives. Don't say This is innovative / important / interesting etc. Instead explain how or why it is innovative.77
49 Readability: If the verb does not give key information, choose the most common / shortest verb possible in order not to distract the reader.79
50 Readability: Prefer verbs to nouns in sentences that already contain a high proportion of nouns.80
51 Redundancy: The more you write/say, the more mistakes you will make.82
52 Redundancy: Reduce generic words to a minimum.83
53 Redundancy: Remove unnecessary synonyms or repeated constructions.85
54 Redundancy: Delete generic phrases. Just be specific. If words in parentheses are important, remove the parentheses.87
55 Redundancy: Consider using an adjective rather than a noun.88
56 Redundancy: Consider (shorter) alternativ