Academic Writing

by Giltrow, Janet

• ISBN13: 9781551113951
• ISBN10: 1551113953
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Broadview Pr

Summary

Academic Writing is a unique introduction to the subject. As the author puts it in her preface, "this book develops from a strong claim: namely, that style is meaningful." In developing that theme, the author draws meaningfully on theory, especially genre theory, while remaining grounded in the particular. Giltrow presents and discusses examples of actual academic writing of the sort that students must learn to deal with daily, and to write themselves. As newcomers to the scholarly community, students can find that community's ways of reading and writing mysterious, unpredictable and intimidating. Academic Writing demystifies the scholarly genres, shedding light on their discursive conventions and on academic readers' expectations and values. Throughout, Academic Writing respects the student writer; it engages the reader's interest without ever condescending, and it avoids the arbitrary and the dogmatic.The book also offers abundant exercises to help the student develop techniques for working productively at each stage of the scholarly writing process; mastering and summarizing difficult scholarly sources; planning; and revising to create good working conditions for the reader.The third edition of Giltrow's extremely successful book incorporates extensive revisions that integrate the theoretical perspectives of genre theory into the whole of the book in a more organic fashion; the changes are designed to make the book both more attuned to scholarly practice and more accessible to the undergraduate student.Giltrow's Academic Reading is designed as an accompanying reader for Academic Writing.

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(12)
Introducing genre	21	(8)
Hearing voices	21	(2)
Hearing genres	23	(3)
What is an essay, Alex?	26	(3)
Citation, summary, and authority	29	(74)
Citation	29	(14)
``Citation is peculiar to scholarly writing''	33	(5)
``Scholarly writers repeat others to sound impressive and authoritative''	38	(5)
Summary	43	(24)
Noting for gist	46	(2)
Recording levels	48	(8)
Coordinates of the summarizer's position	56	(11)
Reporting reporting	67	(10)
Extreme landscapes	77	(8)
High country	77	(2)
Low country	79	(6)
Narrative: a special case for summary	85	(18)
Arrangements for readers, arrangements for speakers	103	(52)
Definitions and appositions	103	(24)
Sustained definitions	110	(9)
The social profile of abstractions and their different roles in different disciplines	119	(6)
Definitions and dictionaries	125	(2)
Orchestrating voices, making arrangements for speakers	127	(28)
When the guests already know each other	128	(4)
When the guests live in the same district but may not know each other	132	(3)
When some guests know one another but others do not	135	(4)
When some guests are rather difficult to entertain	139	(8)
When the guest has all the answers	147	(4)
When the guest is a popular guy	151	(2)
When the speaker is on-line	153	(2)
Readers reading	155	(54)
Who do you think you're talking to?	155	(8)
Attitudes toward language	157	(6)
Traditions of commentary on student writing	163	(3)
Alternatives to traditional commentary	166	(15)
Catching the reader in the act: the think-aloud protocol	167	(2)
The sounds of think-aloud	169	(7)
Reading on behalf of others	176	(1)
Thinking ``grammar'' aloud	177	(1)
The ambiguity of questions	177	(1)
Think-aloud and genre theory	178	(2)
Reliability of readers	180	(1)
Structures of reading	181	(6)
Abstraction, details, and readers' efforts after meaning	182	(1)
Relevance	183	(2)
The mental desktop	185	(2)
Readers read	187	(22)
Scholarly styles and the limits of knowledge	209	(112)
Scholarly wordings	209	(15)
Is scholarly writing unnecessarily complicated?	211	(2)
Is scholarly style exclusionary and elitist?	213	(1)
Is scholarly style hard to read?	213	(11)
Sentence style and textual coherence	224	(6)
Messages about the argument	230	(12)
The argument refers to itself	231	(2)
The discursive I	233	(3)
Forecasts and emphasis	236	(6)
The state of knowledge: limits, conditions, positions	242	(17)
Introductions: generalization and citation	242	(5)
Introductions: reported speech	247	(1)
Reported speech: direct and indirect	247	(2)
Reported speech: identifying the speaker	249	(1)
Reported speech: naming the speech action	250	(9)
Documentation	259	(3)
Introductions: the knowledge deficit	262	(8)
Making and maintaining knowledge	270	(27)
Methods	272	(7)
Modality and other limiting expressions	279	(18)
Time and Space	297	(8)
Tense and citation	298	(7)
Presupposing vs. asserting	305	(4)
Conclusions	309	(12)
The politics of knowledge and the case of ethnography	321	(70)
``Readability'' and ``objectivity''	322	(1)
Embracing the subject	323	(7)
Unanimity and dissent, unity and division	328	(2)
Knowledge and power	330	(4)
Qualitative research	334	(2)
Ethnography	336	(15)
Post-colonial views of ethnography	337	(6)
Talking back, taking power	343	(8)
Constructing ethnographic topics	351	(20)
Representing ethnographic method and background	355	(10)
Interpreting ethnographic data	365	(6)
Assignment: ethnography	371	(10)
Research questions	375	(2)
Suggested areas of inquiry	377	(4)
Preparing a proposal	381	(3)
Making an oral presentation	384	(7)
Making your material fit the time available	385	(1)
Keep in mind that written and spoken English differ	386	(5)
Appendix A: Techniques for definition	391	(4)
Appendix B: Arranging for speakers to enter into conversation	395	(16)
Primary Documents	411	(8)
Index	419