Academic Skills

Preface: How to be Curious 9
Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole: Managing Your Studies 15
Exercises 20
Chapter 2: Finding a Topic 23
2.1 Phrasing Your Topic 24
2.2 Topic Development 25
2.3 Alternative Methods of Topic Development 28
Exercises 31
Chapter 3: Research 33
3.1 "Secondary Literature" 33
3.2 Library Catalogues 34
3.3 Bibliographies and Databases 35
3.4 Local Libraries 38
3.5 Using Search Engines and Websites in Academia 39
3.6 Checklist: Academic Internet Sources 42
3.7 Are Online Sources 'Less Acceptable' Than Others? 44
3.8 What You Know - What You Should Know 46
Exercises 52
Chapter 4: Presentation 55
4.1 Your Audience: Example, "A Presentation Gone Wrong" 56
4.2 You 61
4.3 Your Material 65
Exercises 68
6 Table of Contents Chapter 5: Writing Abstracts 71
5.1 Structure of an Abstract 71
5.2 Example 74
Exercises 76
Chapter 6: Academic Texts 79
6.1 Types of Academic Texts 79
6.2 Evaluating Academic Texts 83
6.3 Text Types in Student Writing 85
Exercises 98
Chapter 7: The Little Scriptorium 101
7.1 Table of Contents - the Skeleton of Your Paper 102
7.2 Introductions: "Interesting" Topic, but Why? 107
7.3 Convincing Arguments 115
7.4 Conclusions in Which Something Is Concluded 120
7.5 Language and Style 122
7.6 Research Papers in Linguistics 123
7.7 Twelve Common Errors in Research Papers: How to Dig Your Own Grave 125
Exercises 136
Chapter 8: Single White Quotation Seeks Same 139
8.1 Formally Correct Citation 139
8.2 Documenting Sources in Literary and Cultural Studies 144
8.3 Documenting Sources in Linguistics 146
8.4 Using Quotations Efficiently 147
Exercises 150
Chapter 9: Preparing the Manuscript 153
9.1 Why Bother With Style Sheets? 153
9.2 MLA Style 157
9.3 Checklist: Formatting Guidelines at a Glance 162
Exercises 167
Chapter 10: Inventing Meatballs: Plagiarism 169
10.1 How to Invent Meatballs: Giving Credit 172
10.2 Strategies to Avoid Unintentional Plagiarism 176
Exercises 179
Chapter 11: Strategies for Exams 181
11.1 Types of Questions in Written Exams 183
11.2 Exams: DOs and DON'Ts 186
11.3 Strategies for Essay Questions 189
11.4 Sample Analysis 191
11.5 Oral Exams 198
Exercises 202
Chapter 12: Out of Sight, Out of Mind? The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback 205
Appendix 209
Solutions 209
Glossary 230
Reference Works 243