Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Four describes ways to structure Appendix Three lists Latin phrases, their
commentary on data (e.g., qualification, literal meanings and modern usages. Like
strength and comparison of claims, how to the main sections of the book, the
present graphs and chronological data, appendices also contain useful tasks for
etc.). Units Five and Six are dedicated to students.
the writing of summaries and critiques,
respectively. The final two chapters pull it In addition to containing many more
all together under the titles “Constructing student activities than earlier editions,
a Research Paper I” and “Constructing a older sample texts have been replaced with
Research Paper II.’ more current ones. This edition also
contains more materials on science and the
Each unit opens with a brief description of hard sciences than previous ones. It
the specified topic, followed by sections includes more up-to-date research findings
on the content and rhetorical structure and makes use of the Michigan Corpus of
(e.g., “The Structure of Data Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP).
Commentary,” “Evaluating a Published On the other hand, this edition does not
Article," "Creating a Research Space,” deal in depth with abstracts nor with “free-
etc.), and sections focusing on the language standing literature reviews, writing
used in those rhetorical structures. (e.g., introductions to term papers and other
“Linking as Clauses,” “Unreal Conditionals,” course work or writing applications” (p.
“Purpose Statements and Tense,” etc.). All of xi).
this, more in the Third edition than I
remember from previous ones, is Despite these omissions, Academic
interspersed with “Tasks” based on Writing for Graduate Students is a must
authentic data from academic writing read for both non-native and native
drawn from a number of fields, requiring English speaking graduates. And it should
students to take stock of (and in many be emphasized that it is appropriate not
cases compare and contrast) the rhetorical just for students of applied linguistics.
structure, syntax and vocabulary of the RP Anyone having to write a thesis or
across a range of disciplines. dissertation in English, regardless of major
field, would benefit from this book. It
Each of the three appendixes contains would be most useful and appropriate for
clear and detailed explanations of aspects first year graduate students just embarking
of academic writing that tend to be on their graduate studies, and could be
problematic for graduate students. used in a stand-alone course on academic
Appendix One deals with the grammar of writing or used selectively in another
definitions, including relative clauses and graduate level course to teach / reinforce
common ways to reduce them. Appendix the various formal feature of an academic
Two presents an explanation of the use of research paper while also focusing on the
articles in a research paper, including content of the papers students read and
countability, generics and generalizations, write. I am currently selectively using
and abstract vs. concrete generics. sections of the book in just this latter way:
114
Book Review
References
Kachru, Braj. 2006. World Englishes:
critical concepts in linguistics, Volume
4. Oxford: Taylor & Francis.
Reviewed by
Thom Huebner
Professor Emeritus
Department of Linguistics and Language
Development
San José State University
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
115