Academic Writing: Writing and Reading Across the Disciplines

by Janet Giltrow

Academic Writing is a unique introduction to the subject. As the author puts it in her preface, “this book develops from a strong 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 .

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

421 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Keyli Irving · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giltrow's book is such a huge help for me since I am taking the course Communication Skills II or COMM 2. Its specialization is Academic Writing. We are expected to complete various writing tasks ranging from simple essays to hardcore research papers. I like how clear her concepts and techniques made writing so much fun in the academe area which is a clear indication of tedious work. This book is also where Dr. Arinto based on our book in COMM 2.

[Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

UBC, Engl 112 - Strategies for University Writing. Didn't learn much from using the book, but it did introduced me to different scholarly writing formats