Acknowledgments
Explanatory notes for readers
Introduction: Seven pillars of academic writing
1 Creativity and constraints: Planning research texts
1.1 Research genres
1.1.1 Genres, structures and hierarchies
1.1.2 Hierarchical organisation in research texts
1.2 The research story and its parts
1.2.1 The abstract
1.2.2 The beginning: Setting the scene
1.2.3 The middle: Developing the plot
1.2.4 The ending: Rounding it all off
1.3 Text appeal
2 One step at a time: Designing paragraphs
2.1 The essence of English paragraphs
2.2 The components of a paragraph
2.2.1 The topic sentence
2.2.2 The 'meaty' middle
2.2.3 The final sentence
2.3 Paragraph appeal
3 Focus and flow: Constructing sentences
3.1 Sentence types
3.1.1 The simple sentence
3.1.2 The complex sentence
3.1.3 Subordinate clauses
3.2 Principles of sentence construction
3.2.1 The 'given-new' principle
3.2.2 End focus
3.3 Passive sentences
3.4 Sentence appeal
3.4.1 Getting the verb-noun balance right
3.4.2 Varying sentence structure
4 Breath marks: Punctuation
4.1 Why punctuation matters
4.2 What punctuation marks signal
4.2.1 Suggesting 'stops'
4.2.2 Suggesting 'detours'
4.2.3 Suggesting 'pauses'
4.3 Commas: sometimes a question of style
4.3.1 Where style plays little part
4.3.2 Where style comes in
5 Only connect: Cohesion
5.1 General principles of cohesion and coherence
5.2 Cohesion within paragraphs
5.2.1 Semantic chains
5.2.2 Pronouns
5.2.3 Linkers
5.2.4 Structural devices
5.3 Cohesion beyond the paragraph
6 Your words, not mine: Citations
6.1 What to cite and how much
6.2 Types of citations
6.2.1 Direct versus indirect citations
6.2.2 Integral versus non-integral citations
6.3 Weaving citations into the text
6.4 Inadvertent plagiarism and how to avoid it
7 Follow me: Guiding and persuading the reader
7.1 Showing the reader the way: Metacomments
7.2 Getting the reader on your side
7.2.1 Reasoning
7.2.2 Emphasising
7.2.3 Evaluating
7.2.4 Rapport-building
Appendix 1 Conference presentations
A1.1 The audience, or 'pity the listener'
A1.2 The purposes
A1.3 Language considerations
A1.4 Text slides
Appendix 2 Grant proposals
Appendix 3 Phrasebank for academic writing
List of references
Index
