This book is based on a study of referees' reports and letters from
journal editors on reasons why papers written by non-native researchers
are rejected due to problems with English (long sentences, redundancy,
poor structure etc). It draws on English-related errors from around 5000
papers written by non-native authors, around 3000 emails, 500 abstracts
by PhD students, and over 1000 hours of teaching researchers how to
write and present research papers.
The exercises are organized into nine chapters on: adjectives and
adverbs (e.g. actual vs current, different vs several, continually
vs continuously), link words (e.g. on the contrary vs on the other
hand, despite vs nevertheless), nouns (e.g. danger vs hazard,
measure vs measurement), prepositions (e.g. among vs between, in
vs into, with vs within), verbs (e.g. check vs control, compose
vs comprise, arise vs raise, exclude vs rule out), false friends
and synonyms, spelling, useful phrases, emails
Nearly all exercises require no actual writing but simply choosing
between various options, thus facilitating self-study, e-reading and
rapid progress.
The exercises can also be integrated into English for Academic Purposes
(EAP) and English for Special Purposes (ESP) courses at universities and
research institutes.
The book can be used in conjunction with the other exercise books in the
series:
English for Academic Research: Writing Exercises
English for Academic Research: Grammar Exercises