Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Notes

  • CEA Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes is a series that focuses on academic writing for graduate students.

  • Third Edition of "Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks and Skills" by John M. Swales & Christine B. Feak.

Contents Overview

  • Unit One: An Approach to Academic Writing

    • Audience, purpose, and strategy in academic writing.
    • Organization, style, flow, and presentation techniques.
    • Vocabulary shifts (verbs, nouns, and other parts of speech).
    • Linking words and phrases for improved flow.
    • Positioning as a writer.

  • Unit Two: General-Specific and Specific-General Texts

    • Opening with general statements, statistics, and definitions.
    • Writing and varying definitions.
    • Discussions of schools of thought.
    • Specific-to-general organization.

  • Unit Three: Problem, Process, and Solution

    • The structure of problem-solution texts.
    • Mid-position adverbs.
    • Procedures and processes, indicating cause and effect.
    • Passive voice usage.
    • Flow of ideas in a process description.
    • Indirect questions.
    • Introducing the solution.

  • Unit Four: Data Commentary

    • Strength of claim definitions.
    • Structure of data commentary.
    • Location elements and summaries.
    • Verbs in indicative and informative location statements.
    • Linking as clauses.
    • Highlighting statements.
    • Qualifications and strength of claim.
    • Comparisons.
    • Dealing with unexpected outcomes or “problems”.
    • Dealing with graphs and chronological data.
    • Prepositions of time.

  • Unit Five: Writing Summaries

    • Considerations before writing a summary.
    • Notes on plagiarism.
    • Paraphrasing, including careful use of synonyms.
    • Identifying the source.
    • Summary reminder phrases.
    • Syntheses of more than one source.
    • Showing similarities and differences.

  • Unit Six: Writing Critiques

    • Book reviews covering stating opinions, evaluative language, and analysis of published articles.
    • Unreal conditionals.
    • Revisiting evaluative language.
    • Critical reading, beginning the critique, and inversions.
    • Reaction papers including non-standard quotation marks (scare quotes).
    • Thoughts on manuscript reviews for a journal.

  • Unit Seven: Constructing a Research Paper I

    • Types of journal publication: Short Communications (SCs) in disciplines that report fieldwork and longer Research Papers.
    • Methods Sections including focus on linking phrases.
    • Results Sections covering location statements, special verb agreements, and making comparisons.

  • Unit Eight: Constructing a Research Paper II

    • Introductions: Creating a Research Space.
    • Citation and tense.
    • Negative Openings in Move 2.
    • Purpose Statements and Tense.
    • Discussion Sections covering levels of generalization and expressions of limitation.
    • Unfinished Business.

  • Changing Trends in Academic Writing:

    • Email and internet use.
    • Online graduate degrees.
    • International adoption of doctoral coursework.
    • Increased co-authorship between students and professors.
    • Earlier conference presentations by doctoral students.
    • Networking and collaboration advantages.
    • Workshops for graduate students focusing on communication skills.
    • Erosion of native/non-native speaker distinction, rise of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).
    • Spread of English-medium instruction in non-Anglophone countries.

  • Course Evolution:

    • Increased number and range of academic writing courses for graduate students.
    • Advancement in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) research.

  • Personal Updates:

    • John Swales's retirement and continued involvement in EAP.
    • Christine Feak's development of dissertation writing courses and international presentations.

  • Basic Approach:

    • Based on research and teaching experience.
    • Concerned with developing academic writers and improving texts.
    • Assistance with part-genres and genres.
    • Targeted at graduate students (international, proficient users, and native speakers).
    • Analytical and rhetorical approach: rhetorical consciousness raising (Analysis -> Awareness -> Acquisition -> Achievement).
    • Varied tasks and activities: language points and positioning.
    • Fast-paced course: starts with orientation, ends with article writing.
    • Standalone with commentary or useful in a classroom settings.

  • Organization of the Book:

    • First four units: preparatory.
    • Unit One: overview of academic writing, emphasizes positioning.
    • Units Two and Three: general-specific and problem-solution patterns.
    • Unit Four: interpretation and discussion of data.
    • Units Five and Six: writing summaries and critiques.
    • Units Seven and Eight: constructing a research paper.

  • Changes in the Text:

    • Updated data and texts.
    • Inclusion of material from hard sciences and Engineering.
    • Reduced focus on grammar of definitions (now an appendix).
    • New section on specific-general texts in the humanities.
    • Incorporation of findings from discourse analysis and use of the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP).

  • Teaching Context:

    • Designed for students from various disciplines.
    • Multidisciplinary classes turn attention to rhetoric and language.
    • Encourages group discussion and community.
    • Instructors should use the text selectively and substitute activities.
    • Supported by a carefully entitled Commentary.

  • Writing letters

  • Task One: writing strategies