English in Today's Research World: A Writing Guide (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes) [Paperback]

John M. Swales (Author), Christine Feak (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0472087134 | ISBN-13: 978-0472087136 | Publication Date: December 20, 2000

The authors of Academic Writing for Graduate Students have written a book for the next level of second language writing. English in Today's Research World offers students a very high level of writing instruction, with a specific focus on the projects students undertake--such as dissertations and conference abstracts--at the end of their university work or as they begin careers in research or academia.
In addition to instruction on writing for publication, English in Today's Research World provides needed advice on applications, recommendations, and requests--types of communications that are particularly vulnerable to influences from national cultural expectations and conventions and that, therefore, place the NNS writer at increased disadvantage.
The text is both a reference manual and a course book, so that researchers can continue to use the book after they have completed their formal education. New ESL/EFL teachers can use English in Today's Research World as a reference book for themselves or as a teaching aid in the classroom.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press/ESL (December 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472087134
• ISBN-13: 978-0472087136
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am John Swales, now officially retired as a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I was also Director of the English Language Institute for many years. I have written quite a lot of books, the first being "Writing Scientific English" in 1971 and the last "Incidents in an Educational Life" in 2009. Although retired, I keep professionally active and go to my office in the university several times a week. I am currently working on two new small advanced EAP textbooks with my regular co-author, Christine Feak. I still travel quite often to give talks and workshops about my main fields such as genre analysis and English academic discourse; for example, in 2009, I went to Brazil, China and Argentina on such ventures. My main hobbies are bird-watching and butterfly-watching; indeed, along with three others, I am currently working on a second edition of "The Birds of Washtenaw County, Michigan." My main publishers are the University of Michigan Press and Cambridge University Press.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars raising our sights, May 24, 2001

By 

Liz H-L "Liz H-L" (Nottinghamshire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: English in Today's Research World: A Writing Guide (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes) (Paperback)

This new book by John Swales and Christine Feak is a strong follow-on from their Academic Writing for Graduate Students (U of Michigan Press). Swales has a long and distinguished career as a researcher into English for Academic Purposes, and this book is the first I know of that focuses on the highest level of EAP: writing up/writing about academic research in ways appropriate to get it published in scholarly journals. Occupying its niche market alone, it is a sure-fire winner.

While the book covers the genre areas I would expect, I also found it surprising that it includes the treatment of a few areas of grammar. Indeed, even university professors can use some grammatical brush-up, but it is difficult to do some of this without giving full coverage. And while Swales and Feak are among the best-qualified to know what the key problem areas of grammar in scholarly writing are, the book seems not to give them the space to cover enough areas, or even to cover these few areas sufficiently.

The book's other problem is unavoidable: scholarly research articles are LONG texts, and the authors are unable to include many examples. Consequently they have to make the same texts do service as examples for a number of topics: this works as well as could be expected, but leaves me somewhat dissatisfied.

Despite these problems, this is a book that many academics, whether non-native or native speakers of English, will want to buy for its valuable insights into how "English in today's research world" works, and how a new scholar can break into the academic marketplace. It is well-written, interesting and surprisingly varied. It's probably a good gift for any new PhD beginning a university career.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book for improving writing skill, August 29, 2008

By 

Shaoliang Zheng - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: English in Today's Research World: A Writing Guide (Michigan Series in English for Academic & Professional Purposes) (Paperback)

This is a very good book for improving writing skill in academic system. Easy to follow.