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 ten chapters on:
- punctuation and spelling
- word order
- writing short sentences and paragraphs
- link words - connecting phrases and sentences together
- being concise and removing redundancy
- ambiguity and political correctness
- paraphrasing and avoiding plagiarism
- defining, comparing, evaluating and highlighting
- anticipating possible objections, indicating level of certainty,
discussion limitations, hedging, future work
Some exercises require no actual writing but simply choosing between
various options, thus facilitating self-study, e-reading and rapid
progress. In those exercises where extended writing is required, model
answers are given. Exercise types are repeated for different contexts,
for example the importance of being concise is tested for use in papers,
referees' reports, and emails of various types. Such repetition of
similar types of exercises is design
ed to facilitate revision.
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 and is cross-referenced to:
English for Research: Usage, Style, and Grammar
English for Writing Research Papers
