Academic WritingA practical guide for studentsStephen BaileyPart 1: The Writing Process1Student introduction11. Background to writingWriting Foundations3 2. Developing plans from titles63. Evaluating a textReading and Note-Making9 4. Understanding purpose and register12 5. Selecting key points15 6. Note-making18 7. Paraphrasing21 8. Summary writing23 9. Combining sources2610. Planning a textWriting Stages29 11. Organising paragraphs32 12. Organising the main body36 13. Introductions39 14. Conclusions42 15. Re-reading and re-writing45 16. Proof-reading48Part 2: Elements of Writing51Student introduction511. Cause and effectFlooding results from heavy rain53 2. CohesionThe former/the latter55 3. ComparisonsHis work is more interesting than hers574. DefinitionsAn assignment is a task given to students 60 5. DiscussionBenefits and drawbacks62 6. ExamplesMany departments, for instance medicine,65 7. GeneralisationsComputers are useful machines67 8. NumbersThe figures in the report 70 9. References and quotationsAs Donner (1997) pointed out73 10. StyleIt is generally agreed that 76 11. SynonymsInterpretation/explanation79 12. Visual informationGraphs, charts and tables81ContentsIntroductionviPart 3: Accuracy in Writing85Student introduction851. Abbreviationsi.e./WTO87 2. Adverbscurrently/eventually89 3. Articlesa/an/the91 4. CautionPoor education tends to lead to crime93 5. Conjunctionsfurthermore/however95 6. Formality in verbsspeed up/accelerate98 7. Modal verbsmay/could/should100 8. Nationality languageSpain/Spanish102 9. Nouns and adjectivesefficiency/efficient104 10. Nouns: countable and uncountablebusiness/businesses106 11. PassivesThe gases were discovered10812. Prefixes and suffixesundergraduate/graduate110 13. PrepositionsThe purpose of this paper 113 14. Prepositions after verbsconcentrate on115 15. Punctuation ? :117 16. Referring verbsMartins (1975) claimed that 119 17. Relative pronounsthat/which121 18. Singular/ pluralThe team is/are123 19. TensesFew scientists dispute/have disputed125 20. Time words and phrasessince the nineteenth century128Part 4: Writing Models131Student introduction1311.Formal lettersLetter layout and letters of application133 2.CVsLayout and phrasing of a curriculum vitae135 3.Designing and reporting surveysSurvey reports and questionnaire design137 4.Comparison essayA comparison of classroom learning with internet-based teaching139 5.Discursive essay Education is the most important factor in national development Discuss141Writing Tests143Answers146Sources191viContentsAcademic Writing is designed for anybody who is studying (or planning to study) at English-medium colleges and universities and has to write essays and other assignments for exams or coursework. International studentsespecially find the written demands of their courses extremely challenging. On top of the complexity of the vocabulary of academic English they have to learn a series of conventions in style, referencing and organisation.Academic Writing is a flexible course that allows students to work either with a teacher or by themselves, to practise those areas which are most important fortheir studies. Many students find that they have very limited time to prepare for their courses, and that writing is only one of several skills they need to master. The structure of the book has been made as simple as possible to allowusers to find what they want quickly. The course is organised to provide maximum hands-on practice for students. Skills are developed from writing at the paragraph level, through organising the various sections of an essay, to discussing statistics and describing charts. This book is divided into four parts: 1) The Writing Process guides students from the initial stage of understanding an essay title, through reading and note-making, to theorganisation of an essay and the final stage of proof-reading. 2) Elements of Writing deals with the key skills that are needed for all typesof assignments, such as making definitions and giving references, and is organised alphabetically. 3) Accuracy in Writing gives remedial practice in those areas that studentstend to find most confusing, such as definite articles and relative pronouns, again in alphabetical order. 4) Writing Models gives examples of the types of writing that students commonly need, including letters and survey reports. All units are cross-referenced and a comprehensive key is provided at the end. There is also a Writing Tests section for assessing level and progress. Although every effort has been made to make Academic Writing as useful and accurate as possible, if students or teachers have any comments, criticisms or suggestions I would be very pleased to hear from them.Stephen Bailey academicwritingbeeb.netIntroductionInstructions to students are printed like this: Complete the sentences with suitable words from the box below.Cross-references in margins look like this:2.11 SynonymsThis means: refer to the unit on synonyms in Part 2