This entertaining and highly readable book gives anyone writing in the sciences a clear and easy-to-follow guide to the English language. English is often regarded as one of the most difficult languages to master. Yet while the English language has a vocabulary of upwards of 500,000 words, it only uses nine parts of speech, and all of these words fall into one (or more) of those nine categories. Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals, Third Edition contains many simple revelations like this that make effective scientific writing in English easy, even for those whose fluency is in another language. The book is organized around a basic guide to English grammar that is specifically tailored to the needs of scientists, science writers, science educators, and science students. The authors explain the goals of scientific writing, the role of style, and the various kinds of writing in the sciences, then provide a basic guide to the fundamentals of English and address problem areas such as redundancies, abbreviations and acronyms, jargon, and foreign terms. Email, online publishing, blogs, and writing for the Web are covered as well. This book is designed to be an enlightening and entertaining read that can then be retained as a practical scientific writing reference guide. Includes cartoons and humorous illustrations that help reinforce important concepts Provides a glossary that allows readers to easily reference the meanings of grammatical terms used in the book Incorporates a wide variety of quotations to provide humor, make points, or reinforce key concepts Includes an entire chapter on electronic media as well as new material on self-editing

How to Write Serious Nonfiction—and Get it Published

Distilled wisdom from two publishing pros for every serious nonfiction author in search of big commercial success.

You may be an acknowledged expert in your area and have vital information and a great story to tell. But how can you ensure that your project will be accepted for publication and—more important—that your book will be read by more than a handful of like-minded experts in your field?

This book reveals the trade secrets of an editor/literary agent team with a long track record of success in helping hundreds of authors write serious nonfiction. Many of these books have become best sellers, garnered great reviews, earned their authors prizes, and in some cases altered the course of public debate.

This book will teach you how to craft a serious nonfiction proposal that will interest the right publisher; when to use a literary agent and how to choose the right one; how to shape your argument and present it in good narrative form; and how to work with your publisher to successfully market your book.

Whether your subject is history or science, biography or business, the law, politics, or economics; whether you're a journalist or an independent writer, a newly minted Ph.D. or a seasoned scholar hoping to write your most important book, here's the inside information you need to ensure that your book gets the attention it deserves.

Filled with trade secrets, Thinking Like Your Editor explains:

• How to tailor academic writing to a general reader, without losing ideas or dumbing down your work
• How to write a proposal that editors cannot ignore
• Why the most important chapter is your introduction
• Why "simple structure, complex ideas" is the mantra for creating serious nonfiction
• Why smart nonfiction editors regularly reject great writing but find new arguments irresistible

This comprehensive guide to writing journal articles addresses all the stages and recurring challenges, from targeting a journal to dealing with reviewer feedback. Drawing on many years of running 'Writing for Publication' workshops, Murray explores not only style and structure but also behaviours and emotions. As a key component of both research courses and careers, this timely text also addresses the struggle to make time for high quality academic writing and how to ensure a writing-life balance. Examining a variety of approaches, relevant to many different academic disciplines, this core text demystifies and defines writing practices and makes this form of high-stakes academic writing seem manageable. Writing for journals has never been more competitive, and writers, researchers, practitioners and students need expert guidance on productive practices and ways of maintaining focus and motivation, which Murray provides. This latest edition is completely updated and more relevant than ever for clinicians, practitioners and students. "This book was already a classic, but the update makes it even more useful. From finding time to write, doing a short literature review and identifying scam journals, Rowena Murray provides an excellent, concise and accessible companion for writing academic journal papers, which is appropriate for both students and working academics." Associate Professor Inger Mewburn, Director of Research Training, The Australian National University, Australia "Rowena Murray has approached publishing in a journal with scientific rigour. Following this book's recommendations will make it impossible to find a convincing excuse for failure to publish. She herself writes with a high level of artisanal skill; this book is fast paced, stylish and highly readable. Her own extensive experience in supporting journal article writers tempers this book with the credibility of a seasoned veteran. Best of all, there is a wealth of wisdom here-in advising on how to publish, Murray is also advising on how to live a satisfying life as a writer." Associate Professor Susan Carter, University of Auckland, New Zealand "In Writing for Academic Journals (4th edition), Rowena Murray's voice is direct, down-to-earth and wise. Drawing on a depth of practical experience as both published author and writing teacher, she conveys the message that, yes, publishing in academic journals is demanding, but it's also very possible. And that once you are successful, there is still much to be learned from reading books like this one and hanging out with others in writing groups and workshops. To that end, the book is a trove of tips and techniques helpful to all who pursue the challenging craft of (good) academic writing." Barbara Grant, Associate Professor in the School of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and author of Academic writing retreats: A facilitator's uide

As colleges and universities have responded to the demand of businesses and industries for graduates who can write effectively, Composition Studies has gained significance. However, while new theories and approaches to the teaching of writing have been proposed and implemented, many composition courses do not satisfactorily educate their students. This volume includes essays by writing specialists who are concerned with their own failure to improve their students' writing skills.

These contributors examine why entering college students still write poorly and why our various attempts to improve such poor writing skills have largely failed. They compare the promise of previously touted new methods, paradigm shifts, and curricular innovations with the reality of little change or improvement; they describe what their students can and cannot do in the writing classroom, even after 12 years of primary and secondary education; and they address what they see as needed reforms in the whole idea of college composition, especially for the first-year college student.

Students will write more effective term papers with this guide to 500 term paper ideas--as well as a listing of appropriate print and nonprint sources-- on twentieth-century U.S. history. This guide presents entries on 100 of the most important events and developments in twentieth-century U.S. history organized in chronological order. Each entry consists of a short description of the event, followed by five specific suggestions for term papers about the event, and a wide-ranging annotated bibliography of 15-35 books, articles, videos, and a web site appropriate for student research. In every case the emphasis is on recent and up-to-date material, as well as landmark works and primary sources. Every entry contains a video and concludes with a recommended web site, producing a multimedia approach designed to appeal to the current information-gathering habits and preferences of young people.

From the Spanish-American War to the creation of NAFTA, the 100 events and developments cover political, social, economic, and cultural issues. The work has been designed to meet the needs of the U.S. history curriculum. Term paper topic ideas offer students thought-provoking suggestions that are challenging and develop critical thinking skills. The annotated bibliography is organized into reference sources, general sources, specialized sources, biographical sources, periodical articles, recommended videos and World Wide Web sites. All items are readily available in school, public, and academic library collections. This unique guide is valuable not only to students, but to teachers and librarians who guide students in research, and is an excellent purchasing guide for librarians who serve student needs.

McPherson captures the best and worst aspects of American journalism since 1965. The press has evolved into a conglomeration of entities, that today can be described as pervasive, entertaining, and justifiably mistrusted. In some ways, today's press offers the best journalism Americans have ever seen. In other ways, the modern news media fall short of the ideals held by most of those who care about journalism, and far short of the promise they once seemed to offer in terms of helping create an enlightened democracy. Neither a paean to the press nor an exercise in media bashing, this book finds much to criticize and to praise about recent American journalism, while illustrating that traditional journalistic values have diminished in importance -- not just for many of those who control the media, but also for the media consumers who most need good journalism.

Chapters are devoted to various themes that include social unrest, the influence of entertainment values, technological shifts, media consolidation and corporatization, issues of content versus context, new kinds of news media, and why the 1970s may have been the high point of American journalism. Events and issues given extra attention include the rise of television news (and later CNN), the Civil Rights Movement and other race-related issues, the Women's Movement, various forms of alternative journalism, wars in Vietnam and Iraq, investigative journalism, the World Trade Center attacks, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and elections, civic journalism, and journalism scandals.