50 Steps to Improving Your Academic Writing 50 Steps to Improving Your Academic Writing addresses the challenges facing every student beginning a program of academic study. This comprehensive guide gives you everything you need to write well-constructed academic essays. It is packed full of information that is critical to attaining better marks, including: * how to apply critical thinking skills * how to strengthen your arguments * how to include paper referencing * how to avoid plagiarism 50 Steps has been developed to mirror best practice in academic essay writing: researching, planning, writing and then proofreading an essay. Multiple entry points allow you either to work through the book in chronological order or to dip in and out depending on your needs. The book contains a detailed answer key, a full glossary of terms, plus comprehensive reference material that provides study templates and useful hyperlinks, as well as additional examples and information about academic writing. Chris Sowton, author of 50 Steps to Improving Your Academic Writing, answers your essay-writing questions here!

This book presents an overview of the wide variety of digital genres used by researchers to produce and communicate knowledge, perform new identities and evaluate research outputs. It explores the role of digital genres in the repertoires of genres used by local communities of researchers to communicate both locally and globally, both with experts and the interested public, and sheds light on the purposes for which researchers engage in digital communication and on the semiotic resources they deploy to achieve these purposes. The authors discuss the affordances of digital genres but also the challenges that they pose to researchers who engage in digital communication. The book explores what researchers can do with these genres, what meanings they can make, who they interact with, what identities they can construct and what new relations they establish, and, finally, what language(s) they deploy in carrying out all these practices.

Exploring research and pedagogy on second language writing, this volume focuses on issues concerning policy decisions affecting foreign students.

This book examines the writing practices of three adult multilingual writers through the prism of their writing in English as an additional language. It illustrates some of the social, cultural and political contexts of the writers' literacy activities and discusses how these impact their literate and intellectual lives. It reflects on the para- and meta-textual dimensions of writing because organic writing practices are almost always performed within sociocultural and power-relational contexts. In our highly compartmentalized educational structures, writing education has been severed from those organic components, focusing mainly on writing stylistics. This book proposes creating space for organic writing practices in our everyday writing pedagogies, and argues for a writing pedagogy that acknowledges the complex interactions of social, emotional and identity-related layers of writing.

Revised and updated throughout, this 10th-anniversary edition of Can Creative Writing Really Be Taught? is a significantly expanded guide to key issues and practices in creative writing teaching today. Challenging the myths of creative writing teaching, experienced and up-and-coming teachers explore what works in the classroom and workshop and what does not. Now brought up-to-date with new issues that have emerged with the explosion of creative writing courses in higher education, the new edition includes: * Guides to and case studies of workshop practice * Discussions on grading and the myth of "the easy A" * Explorations of the relationship between reading and writing * A new chapter on creative writing research * A new chapter on games, fan-fiction and genre writing * New chapters on identity and activism

This book argues for the value of digital literacy in the multilingual writing classroom. Against the background of huge changes in literacy practices prompted by online communication, and a growing acceptance of a broader definition of academic literacy that encompasses multimodality, the book examines the relationship between digital and print literacies and addresses the design of literacy spaces for multilingual classrooms. The author critically evaluates the latest developments in the use of technology in multilingual writing spaces, and focuses on the role of teachers in their design; it also addresses areas that are not often discussed in relation to multilingual students, from blogging to publishing and intellectual property. The book will help teachers meet the challenges created by rapidly shifting technology, as well as making an innovative contribution to research on multilingual writing classrooms.

Critics shudder at mixed metaphors like 'that wet blanket is a loose cannon', but admire 'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player', and all the metaphors packed into Macbeth's 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow' speech. How is it that metaphors are sometimes mixed so badly and other times put together so well? In Mixed Metaphors: Their Use and Abuse, Karen Sullivan employs findings from linguistics and cognitive science to explore how metaphors are combined and why they sometimes mix. Once we understand the ways that metaphoric ideas are put together, we can appreciate why metaphor combinations have such a wide range of effects. Mixed Metaphors: Their Use and Abuse includes analyses of over a hundred metaphors from politicians, sportspeople, writers and other public figures, and identifies the characteristics that make these metaphors annoying, amusing or astounding.

This work discusses the assessment of writing across the curriculum. It is the first volume in a series analyzing perspectives on writing. The series provides a broad-based forum for monographs and collections in a range of topics that employ diverse theoretical research and pedagogical approaches. The editors emphasize inclusion, both conceptually and methodologically, in the series to highlight the strength and vibrancy of work in rhetoric, composition and writing.

This book argues for the value of digital literacy in the multilingual writing classroom. Against the background of huge changes in literacy practices prompted by online communication, and a growing acceptance of a broader definition of academic literacy that encompasses multimodality, the book examines the relationship between digital and print literacies and addresses the design of literacy spaces for multilingual classrooms. The author critically evaluates the latest developments in the use of technology in multilingual writing spaces, and focuses on the role of teachers in their design; it also addresses areas that are not often discussed in relation to multilingual students, from blogging to publishing and intellectual property. The book will help teachers meet the challenges created by rapidly shifting technology, as well as making an innovative contribution to research on multilingual writing classrooms.

This book provides critical perspectives on issues relating to writing norms and assessment, as well as writing proficiency development, and suggests that scholars need to both carefully examine testing regimes and develop research-informed perspectives on tests and testing practices. In this way schools, institutions of adult education and universities can better prepare learners with differing cultural experiences to meet the challenges. The book brings together empirical studies from diverse geographical contexts to address the crossing of literacy borders, with a focus on academic genres and practices. Most of the studies examine writing in countries where the norms and expectations are different, but some focus on writing in a new discourse community set in a new discipline. The chapters shed light on commonalities and differences between these two situations with respect to the expectations and evaluations facing the writers. They also consider the extent to which the norms that the writers bring with them from their educational backgrounds and own cultures are compromised in order to succeed in the new educational settings.

In the context of increasingly multilingual global educational settings, this book provides a timely exploration of the phenomenon of cross-linguistic transfer of writing strategies (in particular, transfer from the foreign language to the first language) and presents a compelling case for a multilingual approach to writing pedagogy. The book presents evidence from a classroom-based intervention study conducted in a secondary school in England on cross-linguistic strategy transfer. It suggests that even beginner or low proficiency foreign language learners can develop effective skills and strategies in the foreign language classroom which can also positively influence writing in other languages, including their first language. This book ultimately encourages more joined-up, cross-curricular, cross-linguistic thinking related to language in schools by exploring the potential for collaboration between languages teachers.

This book explores specific issues related to academic writing provision in the post-communist countries in Eastern, Central and Southern Europe. Although they have different cultures and writing traditions, these countries share common features in what regards the development of higher education and research and encounter challenges different from Western European countries. Since academic writing as a discipline is relatively new in Eastern Europe, but currently plays an essential part in the development of higher education and the process of European integration, the volume aims to open discussion on academic writing in the region by addressing several issues such as the specific challenges in providing academic writing support at tertiary level in post-communist countries, the limitations and possibilities in implementing Western models of academic writing provision, or the complex interactions between writing in national languages and writing in a second language. Additionally, the book presents several recent initiatives and possible models for providing academic writing support in universities in the area. The important role of academic writing in English, a common feature in post-communist countries, is reflected in the sections which focus on writing in English as a foreign language, as well as on the impact of English upon national languages. The volume will be of interest to academic writing researchers and teachers and those involved in teaching academic writing at the tertiary level.

Using experience-driven advice and compelling articles from scores of newspaper, magazine and online writers, Feature Writing shows how award-winning journalists achieve excellence and national recognition. The Seventh Edition helps the reader cultivate vital journalistic skills through detailed coverage on creating and refining article ideas, conducting research and interviews, writing, and navigating legal and ethical questions. World-class writing examples from Pulitzer Prize feature writers, extensive updates, and timely tips from some of America's best feature writers have made this the premier book in its field for more than three decades.

Words and images can harmonize to clarify meaning in a variety of texts. This interdisciplinary work presents practitioners, researchers, creative artists, and teachers discussing how we process and develop meaning from words and images. This study is especially important for writers and designers working in electronic communication environments, where the marriage of words and images challenges traditional training.

Ranging from theory to practice, chapters examine both cognitive issues and aesthetic concerns. This book explores topics such as: DEGREESL DEGREESDBLHuman processing of images and text DEGREESDBLThe roles of written language in project development in the arts DEGREESDBLUses of images and visual thinking by writers DEGREESDBLHow the ways in which words and images convey meaning can be both different and complementary DEGREESLProfessionals, teachers, and students will be understand more effective uses of text and visual displays, and today's writer or designer will learn to clarify complex ideas by controlling the intersections of words and images.