1st Edition
Writing for Engineering and Science Students Staking Your Claim
Writing for Engineering and Science Students is a clear and practical guide for anyone undertaking either academic or technical writing. Drawing on the author’s extensive experience of teaching students from different fields and cultures, and designed to be accessible to both international students and native speakers of English, this book:
- Employs analyses of hundreds of articles from engineering and science journals to explore all the distinctive characteristics of a research paper, including organization, length and naming of sections, and location and purpose of citations and graphics;
- Guides the student through university-level writing and beyond, covering lab reports, research proposals, dissertations, poster presentations, industry reports, emails, and job applications;
- Explains what to consider before and after undertaking academic or technical writing, including focusing on differences between genres in goal, audience, and criteria for acceptance and rewriting;
- Features tasks, hints, and tips for teachers and students at the end of each chapter, as well as accompanying eResources offering additional exercises and answer keys.
With metaphors and anecdotes from the author’s personal experience, as well as quotes from famous writers to make the text engaging and accessible, this book is essential reading for all students of science and engineering who are taking a course in writing or seeking a resource to aid their writing assignments.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
To the student
To the teacher
Acknowledgements
Part 1: Getting the big picture
Chapter 1: General principles of writing
Chapter 2: Overall format of research articles
Chapter 3: Argument structure of research articles
Part 2: Argument structure in exemplar articles
Chapter 4: Establishing the importance of and need for the research
Chapter 5: Demonstrating the continuity and novelty of your research
Chapter 6: Verifying the contribution of your research
Chapter 7: Evidence from past research
Chapter 8: Evidence from current research
Chapter 9: Clear reasoning
Part 3: Exploring different genres
Chapter 10: Argument structure in different types of writing
Chapter 11: Undergraduate writing
Chapter 12: Graduate writing
Chapter 13: Academic writing
Chapter 14: Technical writing
Chapter 15: Writing about yourself and others
Chapter 16: Academic and technical presentations
Chapter 17: Principles for successful email
Part 4: Creating your masterpiece
Chapter 18: Writing in stages
Chapter 19: Prewriting
Chapter 20: Writing
Chapter 21: Rewriting for organization
Chapter 22: Rewriting for clarification
Chapter 23: Revision and finalization
Part 5: Adding the final touches
Chapter 24: Illustrating your manuscript
Chapter 25: References and citations
Chapter 26: The first shall be last
Chapter 27: Submission and Review
Appendix 1: Generalized component list
Appendix 2: Concordance, Academic Word List, and related tools
Appendix 3: List of Supplemental Material (Online)
Glossary
Index
Biography
Gerald Rau is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.
"A useful work to help students develop awareness of structures and forms typically used in key genres in engineering and science. The book provides many examples and descriptions to help students understand expectations for academic writing."
Helen Basturkmen, University of Auckland, New Zealand
