Academic Writing for Graduate Students

This text is specifically designed to help nonnative graduate students improve their academic writing in English. It consists of eight linked units plus three apendixes. The units start with writing at the paragraph level and conclude with the construction of a research paper. The genre-based approach allows detailed attention to the purposes, structures, and styles of particular kinds of texts. In addition, the approach is strategic; it assumes that graduate students need to write in ways that enhance their credibility in the eyes of their instructors. Academic Writing for Graduate Students does not neglect areas of academic grammar and vocabulary found to be troublesome for nonnative speakers of English. These are handled through "Language Focus" sections so placed in the text that they tie in with the rhetorical objectives.
In addition, Academic Writing for Graduate Students has several other special features:
- It is based on the growing body of research literature dealing with the features of academic and research English.
- It builds on the high-level analytic skills typical of its target audience. In particular, it helps students to learn to scrutinize tects from their own chosen fields so that they can come to recognize the discourse conventions operating in that field.
- The activities are strongly and imaginetively task based.
- It gives attention to certain writing situations not covered by previous textbooks; these include using electronic mail and producing critiques and conference abstracts.

Academic Writing for Graduate Students has been extensively piloted at the University of Michigan and other universities throughout the United States.