Writing for Academic Purposes
A Handbook for Learners of English as a Second Language
María Rosa Alonso Alonso
Universidad de Vigo
This book has been written to fill in a gap in the literature: an exercise book for academic purposes. Students of English as a Second Language, researchers and teachers often have problems to write in an academic context. For five years, the author has been collecting data from the written production of students, researchers and teachers who studied English as a Second Language in academic contexts. The most frequent errors, common to all of them, were analysed. The data collected have been the source to create this book. It contains theoretical explanations and practical exercises covering the following topics: spelling and punctuation, pronoun agreement, verbal agreement, sequence of tenses, dangling modifiers, infinitives and -ing form, hedging and frequently misused words. All the activities are based on real examples produced by students in different fields when writing in English for academic purposes.
The material has been tested in the classroom to check it applicability. The author offered the University of Vigo a training course in academic writing in the scientific-technological field for students, researchers and teachers. As the course was a success, five more courses were done. For two years, the author tested the material, added issues that the students demanded and included several appendices.
Contents
1 Punctuation
1.1 Full stop
1.2 Comma
1.3 Semicolon
1.4 Colon
1.5 Dash
1.6 Brackets
2 Spelling
2.1 Doubling of consonants
2.2 Adding a suffix to a word
2.3 Adding suffixes to words ending in -y
2.4 Making plurals
3 Pronoun agreement
3.1 Pronoun number
3.2 Pronoun gender
3.3 Ambiguity
4 Verbal agreement
4.1 Singular Subjects
4.2 Plural subject
4.3 Singular or plural subject
5 Dangling modifiers
5.1 Placement
5.2 Correcting dangling modifiers
6 Sequence of tenses
6.1 How are tenses divided in the different sections of a paper?
6.2 What is the sequence of tenses?
6.2.1 Perfect and progressive tenses
7 Infinitive and -ing form
7.1 Uses of the infinitive
7.2 Uses of -ing form
7.3 Verbs which can be used both with infinitive or -ing
7.4 Verbs which can be used with infinitive or -ing but there is a change in meaning
8 Hedging
8.1 How can this be done?
9 Frequently misused words
E Key to the activities
E.1 UNIT 1: PUNCTUATION
E.2 UNIT 2: SPELLING
E.3 UNIT 3: PRONOUN AGREEMENT
E.4 UNIT 4: VERBAL AGREEMENT
E.5 UNIT 5: DANGLING MODIFIERS
E.6 UNIT 6: SEQUENCE OF TENSES
ISBN 9783895864391. LINCOM Academic Reference Books 02. 110pp. 2009.
