Aquascript provides a range of resources that assist in the production of persuasive academic writing. Academic English, as a skillset, however, necessarily includes online research skills, critical reading skills, note taking and referencing capabilities and knowledge of document formatting conventions.
Background knowledge
Online research skills
Dictionary skills
Reading skills
Presentation skills
Study materials
Descriptive reports
Opinion-based essays
Creative writing
Email communication
Images & Infographics
A well structured text will set out the research problem, the ratioanle and scope, the methods, findings and follow-on analysis in a concise and logical format. To be effective, it needs to be correctly and clearly articulated:
Authentic sources
The study materials used by Aquascript are based upon “authentic” source texts, including ones from the following publications:
The Independent is a British newspaper that is now only published online. It was established in 1986 to be a politically independent newspaper. The paper took a strong editorial position against the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the Iraq War, and aspects of US and UK foreign policy related to the War on Terrorism following the 11 September attacks. It has also taken strong positions on environmental issues, campaigned against the introduction of compulsorary ID cards, and campaigned against the restriction of mass immigration to the UK.
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. The paper’s readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion and, coupled with the paper’s reputation as a platform for liberal and left-wing opinion, the term “Guardian reader” is sometimes used in an often (but not always) pejorative way to descrobe such left-leaning political sentiments.
The Financial Times is an daily newspaper based in London famed for the pink paper that it is printed on. It was founded in 1888 and focuses on business and economic news.
The Economist is an English-language weekly magazine based in London which has been in print since 1843. The magazine advocates economic liberalism (e.g., supporting globalisation and free immigration) and cultural liberalism (e.g., supporting legal recognition for same-sex marriage and drug liberalisation).
New Scientist is a British weekly magazine that covers all aspects of science and technology. It has been in print since 1956.
Vox.com is an American news and opinion website that began publishing in 2014. It focuses on “explanatory journalism,” and mostly appeals to a liberal-leaning audiance.
Nature is a British multidisciplinary scientific journal that began publishing in 1869. It is currently said to be the world’s most cited scientific journal.
The New Statesman is a British political and cultural magazine which started operations in 1913. Politically, it is left-leaning and considers itself to be a liberal, sceptical political weekly.
Scientific American is a long-running popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein, have contributed articles to it. Indeed, more than 150 Nobel laureates have published their findings in this magazine.
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire &c. It is has been in print since 1925. It is well known for its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric Americana, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews as well as its journalism on politics and social issues.
The Intercept is an online news publication dedicated to what it describes as “adversarial journalism”. The Intercept also publishes two podcasts: Intercepted and Deconstructed.
The New York Times is an American newspaper that has been in print since 1851> As of 2018, it had won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, and ranked 2nd in the USA and 17th globally in terms of circulation.
Fast Company is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It has been publishing eight print issues per year since 1995.
Gulf News was first published in 1978. It is one of several United Arab Emirates based English-language daily newspapers. Currently, it is published in Berliner format.1
Khaleej Times is a daily English language newspaper published in United Arab Emirates.
The Times, which began publishing in 1785, is a British daily based in London. For much of that time it is considered to have been an integral and important part of Great Britain’s political structure.
The Herald is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783 and, as such, is the longest running ‘national’ newspaper in the world.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered in London and it is the world’s oldest national broadcasting organisation.
Wikipedia is, despite its detractors, a vital source of knowledge that is provided for free without commercial interests at heart. It is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation which provides the essential infrastructure for free knowledge. The vision is to create a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
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Selected Bibliography
The following bibliography is divided into just over a dozen sub-sections and covers the range of disciplines that comment upon and inform Academic English.
1. Reading skills
Carrell, P., Devine, J. and Eskey, D. (Eds.) (1988). Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Day, R. (Ed.). (1993). New ways in teaching reading. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Fountas, I. and Pinnell, G. (2001). Guiding readers and writers: Teaching comprehension, genre & content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heineman.
Grabe, W. and Stoller, F. (2002). Teaching and Researching Reading. Harlow: Longman.
Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann.
Wallace, C. (1992). Reading. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Vocabulary
Carter, R. (2001). Vocabulary. In Carter, R. and Nunan, D. (Eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Coady, J. and Huckin, T. (Eds.). (1997) Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hunt, A. and Beglar, D. (2002). Current research and practice in teaching vocabulary. In Richards, J. and Renandya, W. (Eds.). Methodology in Language Teaching: an anthology of current practice (pp. 258-66). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, M. (1993). The Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the Lexical Approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
McCarthy, M. (1990). Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nation, P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nation, P. and Meara, P. (2002). Vocabulary. In Schmitt, N. (Ed.). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (pp. 35-54). London: Arnold.
Schmitt, N. and McCarthy, M. (Eds.) 1997. Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Writing skills
Hirvela, A. (2004). Connecting reading & writing in second language writing instruction. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Raimes, A. (1983). Techniques in teaching writing. New York: NY: Oxford University Press.
Connor, U. (1999). Writing in a second language. In Spolsky, B. Concise encyclopedia of educational linguistics (pp. 306-310). Oxford: Elsevier.
Cook, Guy. (2003). Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Chapters 4 and 5)
Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (Eds.). (1993). The Powers of Literacy: a Genre Approach to Teaching Writing. London: Falmer.
Grabe, W. and Kaplan, R. (1996). Theory and Practice of Writing. London: Longman.
Green, C., Christopher, E. and Lam, J. (2002). Developing discussion skills in the ESL classroom. In Richards, J. and Renandya, W. (Eds.).Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practices (pp. 225-233). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hedge, T. (1988). Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hyland, K. (2002). Teaching and Researching Writing. Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
Kroll, B. (Ed.) (1990). Second Language Writing: Research Insights for the Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kroll, B. (2001). Considerations for teaching an ESL/EFL writing course. In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Reid, J. (2001). Writing. In Carter, R. and Nunan, D. (Eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (pp. 28-33). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reppen, R. 2002. A genre-based approach to content writing instruction. In J. C. Richards and W. A. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practices (pp. 321-327). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Seow, A. 2002. The writing process and process writing. In Richards, J. and Renandya, W. (eds.) Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 315-320
Silva, T. and Matsuda, P. (2001). Writing. In Schmitt, N. (Ed.). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (pp. 251-266). London: Arnold.
4. English for Academic/Specific Purposes
Hyland, K. (2006) English for academic purposes : an advanced resource book. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge
Swales, J. & Feak, C. (1994) Academic Writing for Graduate Students. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan University Press.
Argent, S. & Alexander, O. (2010) Access EAP. Foundations. Garnet Education.
Bailey, S. (2006) Academic writing : a handbook for international students. London: Routledge.
Cox, K. & Hill, D. (2011) EAP now! : English for academic purposes. Student’s book Longman.
McCarthy, M. & O’Dell, F. (2008) Academic vocabulary in use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2005) Writing academic English (4th edition). Pearson Longman.
Adams, P., Heaton, B. & Howarth, P. (Eds.). (1991). Socio-cultural issues in English for academic purposes. London: Macmillan.
Alderson, J. C. (2001). Assessing reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Belcher, D. & Braine, G. (Eds.). (1995). Academic writing in a second language : essays on research and pedagogy. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Belcher, D. & Hirvela, A. (Eds.). (2001). Linking literacies : perspectives on L2 reading-writing connections. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Benesch, S. (2001). Critical English for academic purposes : theory, politics, and practice. Malwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre : language use in professional settings. London: Longman.
Blue, G. M., Milton, J. & Saville, J. (Eds.). (2000). Assessing English for academic purposes Oxford: Peter Lang.
Bool, H. & Luford, P. (Eds.). (1999). Academic standards and expectations : the role of EAP. Nottingham: Nottingham University Press.
Brinton, D. M. & Masters, P. (Eds.). (1997). New ways in content-based instruction. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
Brinton, D. M., Snow, M. A., & Wesche, M. B. (1989). Content-based second language instruction. New York: Newbury House.
Canagarajah, S. (2002) Critical academic writing and multilingual students. University of Michigan Press.
Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive rhetoric : cross-cultural aspects of second-language writing Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Connor, U. & Kaplan, R. B. (Eds.). (1987). Writing across languages : analysis of Lb2s text. Reading MA: Addison-Wesley.
Cutting, J. (Ed.). (2000). The grammar of spoken English and EAP teaching. Sunderland: University of Sunderland Press.
Douglas, D. (2000). Assessing language for specific purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flowerdew, J. (Ed.). (1994). Academic listening : research perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flowerdew, J. (Ed.). (2002). Academic discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Flowerdew, J. & Peacock, M. (Eds.). (2001). Research perspectives on English for academic purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hamp-Lyons, L. (Ed.). (1991). Assessing second language writing in academic contexts. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Hinkel, E. (2002). Second language writers’ text : linguistic and rhetorical features. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Howarth, P. & Herington, R. (Eds.). EAP learning technologies. Leeds: Leeds University Press.
Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourses : social interactions in academic writing. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Ivanic, R. (1998). Writing and identity : the discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Johns, A. M. (1997). Text, role, and context : developing academic literacies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jordan, R. R. (1997). English for academic purposes : a guide and resource book for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leki, I. (Ed.). (2001). Academic writing programs. Alexandria, VA: TESOL.
McNamara, D. & Harris, R. (1997).Overseas students in higher education : issues in teaching and learning. London: Routledge.
Mendelsohn, D., & Rubin, J. (1995). A guide for the teaching of second language listening. San Diego CA: Dominie Press.
Nattinger, J. R. & DeCarrico, J. S. (1992). Lexical phrases and language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robinson, P. (Ed.). (1988). Academic writing : process and product. London: Modern English Publications.
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis : English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. M. (2004). Research genres : explorations and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, P. (Ed.). (1999). Issues in EAP writing research and instruction. Reading: Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Reading.
Robinson, P. (Ed.). (2000). Patterns and perspectives : insights for EAP writing practice. Reading: Centre for Applied Language Studies, University of Reading.
Zamel, V & Spack, R. (Eds.). (2001). Negotiating academic literacies : teaching and learning across languages and cultures. Mahwa, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Basturkmen, H. (2007) Ideas and Options in English for Specific Purposes. Mahwah, N.J., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Benesch, S. (2001) Critical English for Academic Purposes. Mahwah, N.J., Lawrence Erlbaum
Brieger, N. (1997) Teaching Business English Handbook. York Associates Publications
Coffin, C. et al (2002) Teaching Academic Writing; A Toolkit for Higher Education. London: Routledge.
Dudley-Evans, T. & St John, M. (1998) Developments in English for Specific Purposes, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Harding, K. (2007) English for Specific Purposes. Oxford, Oxford University Press
Hutchinson, T. & Waters, A. (1987) English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Hyland, K. (2006) English for Academic Purposes. London, Routledge
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Swales, J. M. (2004) Research Genres. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Widdowson, H.G. (1983) Learning Purpose and Language Use. Oxford, Oxford University Press
This is a very interesting and thought-provoking read. The strapline: ‘Why global English may mean the end of EFL,’ gives a clear indication of the content.
5. English Language / Language Structure
Bragg, Melvyn. (2003). The adventure of English: 500AD to 2000: the biography of a language. Hodder & Stoughton.
Brown, S., Attardo, S. (2005). Understanding language structure, interaction, and variation (2nd ed). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Crystal, D. (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Finegan, E. (2004). Language—Its structure and use (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth Publishing.
Hadley, J. (1880). A brief history of the English language. London: Bibliolife.
Notes
1 Berliner, or “midi”, is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about 315 by 470 millimetres (12.4 in × 18.5 in). The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; and is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format.