Below are a number of reviews of the PhraseBook for Writing Papers and Research in English:

 

Amazon.com

Top 100 Best Seller Kindle book on Amazon.com in Science Education Research (March 2014)

 

Academia.edu

Top 0.5% viewed publication on Academia.edu (Sept. 2014)

 

Photosynthetica

‘this material, prepared by experienced editors, is certainly very useful’

 

***** Indispensable book for non-native English speakers, Amazon

‘There are various books dedicated for writing papers and scientific reports for non-native English speakers. To put thoughts on paper usually is not a trivial task for many students and practitioners even in their mother tongue. This task grows enormously if paper has to be written in English by a non-native English speaker. Therefore any assistance, which can improve writing skills and style and reduce hardship of communicating in English with power and a few words, becomes indispensable. The “PhraseBook for Writing Papers and Research in English” serves this purpose splendidly. It is one of a few books, which really helps me, a non-native English speaker, in my work. Unlike many related books and guides, the Phrasebook allows the users to work on own writing; improve the text structure; expand the text with phrases and words most frequently used in academic English. It also encourages the users to improve their vocabulary by suggesting alternative expressions, helping them to familiarize themselves with scientific terminology, give their writing greater richness and variety.

I enjoy working with this book and believe if you apply the recommendations, it will produce better a written more polished text. Highly recommended.’

 

Academic English Writing Teacher, Czech university

‘your PhraseBook…has proved to be extremely useful for both publication of my articles and teaching English for undergraduate/PhD students’

 

***** 写英 文,研究 告必, Amazon

本英文写作指 可以看做是一本工具 。其中 英文研究 告或者英文 文中一定会 及到的文字格式,注意事 , 写差 , 点符号, 法,常用 及短 做了明了的解 和 明。此外, 本 将在写研究 告或 文 可能用到的表 方式以及短 行了分 ,方便 找和 索。比如 ,研究中需要表 自己的想法 ,可以 找“What you agree with”或者“Arguing against”分 , 上就可以找到数 表 方式。 可以 研究 的文章 脱 的 , 得更加生 。在 本 的最后部分 附 有索引,可以快速 找研究 文章常用的 或者短 。如果 没有 写英文 文,或者 在 自己 一的英文表述感到苦 , 一定看看本 。 物有所 。

 

***** A book with very valuable advice, Amazon

‘This book sets as its aim to help the reader writing English of a very high standard. It is especially developed for academic writing, and, according to the back cover, “specially designed for non-native speakers”. It focuses mainly on the formal side of academic writing, and is intended to be used in a wide range of fields and by both students and researchers. The book contains four main parts: firstly, Writing Help, a section of around 120 pages with information on issues that you might be uncertain about when writing, like spelling and punctuation rules, and confusing issues in grammar and vocabulary. The second part, Phrases (110 pages), gives you a wealth of suitable phrases to use in academic papers in English. The phrases are divided into sections that follow the structure of academic papers, therefore labelled, e.g., “The aim of your study and outlining the topic”, “What you disagree with”, and “Hypotheses and probability”. Thirdly, there is a Thesaurus (25 pages) of typically academic words and expressions, and a Glossary containing university and research terminology, as well as Greek and Latin elements used in academic discourse (altogether 40 pages).

This is certainly a book that can be seen as a resource that you can return to in many different situations. It is written in a concise and lucid way, with no long-winded discussions, and the advice is resolute and clear. The Writing Help part helps you avoid formal mistakes, and there is also very valuable advice on stylistic issues, e.g. how to avoid gender bias, and how to avoid colloquial language, not least the word “get” with its different particles.

The main idea of the Phrases section is to give you opportunities to vary your language, and this is perhaps the most useful section, especially for non-native writers. There are many researchers today that use English everyday as their working language, without having it as their first language, and also without having studied it at university level. Consequently, many might experience a perpetual insecurity concerning, e.g., grammar rules, and stylistic matters. The Phrases section with several thousands of words and phrases might be very helpful since it only catalogues items suitable for academic writing; thereby the non-native researcher does not risk using, e.g., language that is too colloquial.

Central for a book of this kind is of course that it is easy to navigate; i.e., that you quickly find what you are looking for. In the PhraseBook, the layout is sober and open, and there is also plenty of space for your own additions. The table of contents is clearly presented, but since it is absolutely crucial for the use of the book, I think it could be typographically even more exposed than now by using different colours or other means, since you return to it perpetually. Tables of contents could actually also start each chapter, and contain even the smallest subsections, which are not covered in the general table of contents now. There possibly cannot be too many indexes in a book like this.

Concerning non-native researchers, not even the hardest study of this book will make it possible to dispense with language correction by a native speaker completely, but the thorough use of it might lower the costs for correction substantially. And getting better self-confidence yourself when writing in English, as well as letting native language correctors concentrate on the really complicated matters, cannot be a bad thing.’

 

***** 英語論文に便利!Amazon

英語論文を書くときにとても便利です。類義語辞典だと単語レベルですが、この本ではフレーズというレベルで、導入の仕方やデータの記述表現など、場面ごとに使用できる表現がリストアップされています。英語論文は形式が決まっていて、どこでどのようなことを書くか、構成はたいてい同じですが、表現自体は変えないといけないので、こういう本があると、変化がつけられて助かります。
「指導教授へのお礼の表現」のリストもあり、細かなところまで目が行き届いていると思います。

 

Academic English Writing Teacher, Danish university

‘I have both the book and [the digital] version [of the PhraseBook] myself and regularly recommend them’

 

***** Recommandé, Amazon

‘Je recommande ce livre pour tout ceux qui souhaitent progresser dans la rédaction d’articles et de publications scientifiques en anglais.’

 

***** A superb, must-have reference for the aspiring academic writer, Amazon

‘I have been teaching academic writing to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Japanese universities for more than ten years, but this is the first time I’ve been sufficiently impressed by a text to write a review on Amazon. In short, my admiration for Howe & Henriksson’s Phrasebook for Writing Papers and Research in English stems from the hugely beneficial effect it’s had upon the quality of my students’ essays. Prior to the academic year just ended, I was in the habit of prescribing a standard grammar text to accompany my course in academic writing. This type of text undoubtedly made a contribution, but all too many of my students were only referring to it retroactively (i.e. after I had alerted them to a specific flaw in their writing). The great advantage of Howe & Henriksson’s text is that it enables students to quickly locate more precise and more academically appropriate alternatives to the phrases they would otherwise have used while they are still in the process of drafting. The effect has been enormous and reflects the exhaustive nature of the phrases and advice compiled by Howe & Henriksson and, just as importantly, the logical way in which these elements have been organized. It is that rarest of things―a practical, user-friendly and thorough reference as applicable to the non-native undergraduate as it is to the faculty-level researcher. I thoroughly recommend this superb text to anyone interested in improving their students’ or their own ability to write academic papers in English.’

 

Daily Yomiuri, Japan

‘this book has been designed to help nonnative speakers write…in English’