Stylish Academic Writing
出版时间
2012-04-02
ISBN
9780674064485
评分
★★★★★
书籍介绍
Elegant data and ideas deserve elegant expression, argues Helen Sword in this lively guide to academic writing. For scholars frustrated with disciplinary conventions, and for specialists who want to write for a larger audience but are unsure where to begin, here are imaginative, practical, witty pointers that show how to make articles and books a pleasure to read―and to write.
Dispelling the myth that you cannot get published without writing wordy, impersonal prose, Sword shows how much journal editors and readers welcome work that avoids excessive jargon and abstraction. Sword’s analysis of more than a thousand peer-reviewed articles across a wide range of fields documents a startling gap between how academics typically describe good writing and the turgid prose they regularly produce.
Stylish Academic Writing showcases a range of scholars from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences who write with vividness and panache. Individual chapters take up specific elements of style, such as titles and headings, chapter openings, and structure, and close with examples of transferable techniques that any writer can master.
AI导读
核心看点
- 基于千篇论文实证，破除学术写作必须晦涩的迷思
- 提出具体、选择、勇气三大原则，重塑写作风格
- 每章附实用练习，指导如何写出清晰有力的文本
适合谁读
- 受困于学科陈规，希望提升文章可读性的学者
- 渴望向更广泛受众传播研究成果的专业人士
- 寻求英文学术写作进阶技巧的研究生与教师
读前提醒
- 建议重点阅读每章末尾的实操建议与练习部分
- 书中案例偏文科，理科读者需结合领域灵活调整
- 初学者若基础薄弱，可借鉴其清晰表达的核心原则
读者共识
- 文风生动幽默，是沉闷学术写作中的一缕清风
- 部分建议可能牺牲严谨性，需读者自行权衡取舍
- 适合进阶者锦上添花，初学者可能面临实践困难
本导读基于书籍简介、目录、原文摘录、短评和书评生成，不等同于全文精读。
精彩摘录
- "Lengthy parenthetical citations violate, or at least risk violating, two key principles of stylish writing. First, they slow the text’s momentum: how can you possibly tell a compelling research story if you have to stop and cough every few seconds?Second, much in the same way that discursive footnot"
- "Concrete language is arguably the single most valuable tool in the stylish writer's toolbox. When readers encounter a sentence composed largely of concrete nouns, they can immediately visualize its objects, actions, and relationships, ... but takes care to balance them with appeals to sensory experi"
- "● Clarity, Coherence, Concision: Strive to produce sentences that are clear, coherent, and concise. ● Short or Mixed- Length Sentences: Keep sentences short and simple, or vary your rhythm by alternating longer sentences with shorter ones. ● Plain En glish: Avoid ornate, pompous, Latinate, or waffly"
- "An effective fi rst paragraph need not be fl ashy, gimmicky, or even provocative. It must, however, make the reader want to keep reading."
- "• Use this only when accompanied by a modifying noun (“This argument shows” rather than merely “This shows”). Writers often slip this into their sentences to avoid stating their ideas clearly (“Some have seen this as conclusive evidence that . . .”). • Use it only when its referent— that is, the nou"
- "The Abstract Noun of Abstract Noun in Plural Collective Noun: An Adjective and Adjective Abstract Noun."
- "• Move 1: Establish that your par tic u lar area of research has some significance. • Move 2: Selectively summarize the relevant previous research. • Move 3: Show that the reported research is not complete. • Move 4: Turn the gap into the research space for the present article."
- "I would like to add three further Cs: concreteness, choice, and courage. Concreteness is a verbal technique; choice, an intellectual right; courage, a frame of mind. Together, these principles offer a flexible framework on which writers from different disciplines can drape a rich variety of words an"
作者简介
Helen Sword is Professor and Director of the Centre for Learning and Research in Higher Education at the University of Auckland.
用户评论
和本书中所推崇的写法一样，整本书非常well-crafted并且花了很大力气play around with language，对于本硕阶段的中国学生写作没啥太大帮助，因为其中提到的很多毛病是词汇量本不丰富的中国学生所不会有，或者因为语言能力而力所不能及的，不是写作风格的问题而是语言能力的问题。但书中不乏有启发之处，即便很花里胡哨但仍旧让我学到不少。
读完之后最大感悟：少写抽象话，尽量让语言变得生动有趣。
很实用的一本书，特别是每章最末都附有建议尝试的方法，都是切实可用的。
Only when you practise a lot~
语料分析详尽，不过选材多是文科。所谓的理科期刊选文也是科普向的commentary而非学术文章，一些建议是建立在牺牲严谨性的前提下的。一些叙述违背作者自己提倡的原则，全书页数不多仍感冗长。略读，扫一眼每章最后的things to try就足够了。
作者拿了很多文科样本做学科论文语句分析，我个人会好奇分析建筑学论文(沼泽级别术语和行话含量)的结果会怎么样...。曾经EAP老师说学术写作中应该多用被动句也不应该出现第一第二人称，并且认为这些是学术写作的基础。本书作者认为这些教条连同满天飞的jargon和蛇形一样乱绕的句式，都是让学生写出低传达力文本的原因。按书里讲的，测量主语和动词之间的距离有多远、看一段中用了多少个that就知道写得有多绕，很多写作的毛病需要改正。
粗粗看了看这个stylish writing不是我的style。可能是赶时间看得不是很认真，我实在没有抓住本书的重点，每章都有具体的方向但是一到内容上就开始铺开了写搞得人摸不清头脑。
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