Acknowledgments
Explanatory notes for readers
Introduction: Seven pillars of academic writing
1 Creativity and constraints: Planning research texts
1.1 Research genres
1.1.1 Genres, structures and hierarchies
1.1.2 Hierarchical organisation in research texts
1.2 The research story and its parts
1.2.1 The abstract
1.2.2 The beginning: Setting the scene
1.2.3 The middle: Developing the plot
1.2.4 The ending: Rounding it all off
1.3 Text appeal
2 One step at a time: Designing paragraphs
2.1 The essence of English paragraphs
2.2 The components of a paragraph
2.2.1 The topic sentence
2.2.2 The ‘meaty’ middle
2.2.3 The final sentence
2.3 Paragraph appeal
3 Focus and flow: Constructing sentences
3.1 Sentence types
3.1.1 The simple sentence
3.1.2 The complex sentence
3.1.3 Subordinate clauses
3.2 Principles of sentence construction
3.2.1 The ‘given-new’ principle
3.2.2 End focus
3.3 Passive sentences
3.4 Sentence appeal
3.4.1 Getting the verb-noun balance right
3.4.2 Varying sentence structure
4 Breath marks: Punctuation
4.1 Why punctuation matters
4.2 What punctuation marks signal
4.2.1 Suggesting ‘stops’
4.2.2 Suggesting ‘detours’
4.2.3 Suggesting ‘pauses’
4.3 Commas: sometimes a question of style
4.3.1 Where style plays little part
4.3.2 Where style comes in
5 Only connect: Cohesion
5.1 General principles of cohesion and coherence
5.2 Cohesion within paragraphs
5.2.1 Semantic chains
5.2.2 Pronouns
5.2.3 Linkers
5.2.4 Structural devices
5.3 Cohesion beyond the paragraph
6 Your words, not mine: Citations
6.1 What to cite and how much
6.2 Types of citations
6.2.1 Direct versus indirect citations
6.2.2 Integral versus non-integral citations
6.3 Weaving citations into the text
6.4 Inadvertent plagiarism and how to avoid it
7 Follow me: Guiding and persuading the reader
7.1 Showing the reader the way: Metacomments
7.2 Getting the reader on your side
7.2.1 Reasoning
7.2.2 Emphasising
7.2.3 Evaluating
7.2.4 Rapport-building
Appendix 1 Conference presentations
A1.1 The audience, or ‘pity the listener’
A1.2 The purposes
A1.3 Language considerations
A1.4 Text slides
Appendix 2 Grant proposals
Appendix 3 Phrasebank for academic writing
List of references
Index

Dr. Christopher Ross war Senior Lecturer am Institut für Englische Wirtschaftskommunikation der WU Wien und ist seit seiner Pensionierung 2018 als freier Sprachberater tätig.