Academic Writer's Handbook - 2nd edition

I. THE WRITING PROCESS.

1. What Is Academic Writing? What is the proper subject of academic writing? Characteristics of academic writing. The Academic Writerrsquo;s Handbook.

2. Preparing to Write in an Academic Setting. Understanding your assignment. Generating ideas and information. Selecting, organizing, expanding information.

3. Writing a Working Thesis and a First Draft. Writing a working thesis. Writing a first draft. Sample student paper: first draft.

4. Revising the Paper. Global revision: bringing your main ideas into focus. Section-level revision: developing your main idea. Sentence-level revision. Responding to editorial advice from peers and instructors. Sample student paper: final draft "keep the laptops, change the teaching"

5. Paragraphs: Building Blocks of Academic Writing. Unity: giving each paragraph a controlling idea and sticking to it. Coherence: moving from sentence to sentence with a plan. Developing the content of paragraphs. Writing and revising introductions and conclusions.

6. Document Design. Text and document design. Images and document design. The importance of document design.

II. WORKING WITH INDIVIDUAL SOURCES.

7. Understanding and Evaluating Print Sources. Understanding print sources. Evaluating print sources. Example evaluation. Reading sources carefully.

8. Understanding and Evaluating Web Sites and Images. Understanding web sites. Evaluating web sites. Understanding images. Evaluating images.

9. Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Sources. Referring to sources. Summarizing and paraphrasing sources. Quoting sources. Altering quotations. Weaving summaries, paraphrases, and quotations into your paragraphs.

10. Avoiding Plagiarism. Citing sources. Causes of plagiarism. Rules for avoiding plagiarism. Determining common knowledge. Plagiarism and the internet. Collaborating and plagiarism.

III. RESEARCH: LOCATING AND SYNTHESIZING MULTIPLE SOURCES.

11. The Research Process. Defining the task: topic, purpose, and audience. Identifying your research question. Generating a plan for research. Devising a working thesis and writing a draft. Record-keeping: creating a working bibliography.

12. Locating Electronic and Print Sources.