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.

Eric Hayot teaches graduate students and faculty in literary and cultural studies how to think and write like a professional scholar. From granular concerns, such as sentence structure and grammar, to big-picture issues, such as adhering to genre patterns for successful research and publishing and developing productive and rewarding writing habits, Hayot helps ambitious students, newly minted Ph.D.'s, and established professors shape their work and develop their voices. Hayot does more than explain the techniques of academic writing. He aims to adjust the writer’s perspective, encouraging scholars to think of themselves as makers and doers of important work. Scholarly writing can be frustrating and exhausting, yet also satisfying and crucial, and Hayot weaves these experiences, including his own trials and tribulations, into an ethos for scholars to draw on as they write. Combining psychological support with practical suggestions for composing introductions and conclusions, developing a schedule for writing, using notes and citations, and structuring paragraphs and essays, this guide to the elements of academic style does its part to rejuvenate scholarship and writing in the humanities.

Responding to the growing popularity of the thesis by publication within doctoral education, this book offers practical advice and critical discussion of some of the central choices and challenges that PhD students considering dissertation options face. Drawing on current research and informed by extensive experience of working with and running workshops for PhD candidates who write article-based dissertations, this book gives readers an idea of what writing a thesis by publication entails – what its purpose is, what the various expectations might be for this emerging genre, and what the challenges might be in writing one. Particular emphasis is put on how to put the individual articles together to create a coherent thesis that clarifies the student’s individual original contribution. Written primarily for students, Strategies for Writing a Thesis by Publication in the Social Sciences and Humanities covers key topics such as: how the genre has developed, with an emphasis on the role of the narrative (introductory text) that accompanies the articles typical rhetorical challenges that writers of such dissertations face strategies for handling the writing process specific challenges of demonstrating doctorateness in the thesis by publication and strategies for addressing them institutional variations that the thesis writer should seek clarification on as early as possible structural elements of the narrative and their main functions the range of choices that can be made throughout the doctoral journey and thesis writing. This book is a must-read for PhD candidates and supervisors new to the genre, as well as those involved in directing PhD programmes who are interested in the pedagogical implications of the move towards article-based dissertations. The 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' offers support and practical advice to doctoral students and early-career researchers. Covering the topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked, this indispensable series provides practical and realistic guidance to address many of the needs and challenges of trying to operate, and remain, in academia. These neat pocket guides fill specific and significant gaps in current literature. Each book offers insider perspectives on the often implicit rules of the game -- the things you need to know but usually aren't told by institutional postgraduate support, researcher development units, or supervisors -- and will address a practical topic that is key to career progression. They are essential reading for doctoral students, early-career researchers, supervisors, mentors, or anyone looking to launch or maintain their career in academia.

This book provides a wealth of help for anyone involved in research writing. The clear, lively text is supported by authentic examples, language ‘Makeovers’, ‘Toolboxes’ with language tips and ‘In brief’ mini-summaries. Each chapter ends with key ‘Takeaways’, and the book with a phrase bank.

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.

This volume focuses on practical and empirical accounts of organizational change in the social sciences and impacts upon the professional skills, collections, and services within social science libraries. Section one focuses upon the question of interdisciplinary within social science libraries and the role of libraries to both react to and facilitate paradigm shifts in research and science. Section two focuses on the rise of data as a resource to be collected and shared within social science libraries. The third section focuses on the role of librarians to facilitate the development of social organizations that develop around new technologies and research communities. Changed role of librarians within social science libraries Describes new developments of social organizations Essential for librarians

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.