PhraseBook for Writing Papers and Research in English
Write, present and publish in English
A PhraseBook to Help You Write, Present and Publish in English
The PhraseBook for Writing Papers and Research contains over 5000 words and phrases to help you write, present and publish in English.
Written by PhD authors, the PhraseBook is specially designed for non-native speakers. The layout of the PhraseBook follows the structure of university and research writing, including Introduction, Method, Presenting Data, Reviewing other Work, Arguing For and Against, Analysis, Presenting Results and Conclusions. Additional sections include Writing Academic Emails and Making a Presentation.
Writing Help sections give advice on university and research writing in English, helping you avoid many common errors. Main chapters include Style, Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar and Vocabulary.
The PhraseBook is used in over 30 countries in subjects ranging from Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology to Law, Business and Economics, Political Science, Geography, History, Sociology, Psychology, Language and Education.
Users of the PhraseBook include academic staff, students and researchers at universities such as Oxford University, the University of Geneva, the University of Tokyo, the National University of Singapore, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as at organizations such as the Medical Nobel Institute and companies from pharmaceuticals to space technology.
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Over 5000 Words and Phrases
Phrases are divided into around 30 main sections that follow the structure of university and research writing. For example:
- Introducing a Study
- Defining the Scope of a Study
- Your Method or Approach
- Definitions, Notation and Terminology
- Presenting Data
- Giving Examples
- The Relationship to Other Work
- Referring to Other Work
- Reviewing Other Work
- Arguing For and Against
- Analysis and Discussion
- Explanation
- Qualifying
- Quantifying
- Hypotheses and Probability
- Compare and Contrast
- Tying a Text Together
- Presenting Results
- Interpreting Findings
- Summarizing
- Conclusions
Below are some example phrases.
Arguing for and against
- This point is particularly relevant to…
- This becomes clear when one examines…
- This lends weight to the argument that…
- Support for this interpretation comes from…
- To put it another way,…
- This raises the question whether…
- While it may well be valid that…, this study argues the importance of…
- This begs the question why…
- A serious drawback of this approach is…
- One of the prime failings of this theory or explanation is…
Reviewing other work
- X’s study is a textbook example of…
- X’s work has had a profound influence on…
- The study contains a number of new and important insights:
- X makes a strong case for…
- X takes little or no account of…
- There is little evidence to suggest that…
- It is very much an oversimplification to…
- The study offers only cursory examination of…
- X gives a detailed if not always tenable analysis of…
- The authors’ claim that…is not well founded.
- X’s explanation is not implausible, if not entirely satisfactory.
Analysis and explanation
- One tentative proposal might be that…
- If, for the sake of argument, we assume…
- One of the most obvious consequences of…is…
- This would appear to be supported by…
- There is some evidence to suggest that…
- The importance of…is demonstrated clearly by…
- Although it may well be true that…, it is important not to overlook…
- It is important to distinguish carefully between…
- It is not necessarily the case that…
- The extent to which this reflects…is unclear.
- A more plausible explanation for or of…would…
- The reason for…is unknown, but…has been suggested by X as a possible factor.
Writing Help on Style, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
The PhraseBook includes Writing Help sections on Style, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar. These sections help you avoid many common errors in English.
Style
English, as all languages, has variations of style, from the most colloquial to the most formal. Informally you may have a hunch, but in a paper, thesis or research report you put forward a hypothesis. While colloquial forms can sometimes be used for stylistic effect, in university and research writing more formal style is the norm, and this helps your writing to be taken seriously.
The PhraseBook includes a number of Writing Help sections on university and research style, for example:
- Varieties of English
- Avoiding colloquial language
- Avoiding contracted forms
- Avoiding clichés
- Avoiding tautology
- Referring to yourself
- Referring to the reader
- Referring generally
- he and she
- Other types of bias
Spelling
The PhraseBook has been written very much with international use in mind. It suggests ways to make your writing standard worldwide, avoiding national shibboleths. British and American alternatives are marked throughout the PhraseBook, and a detailed list of British-US spelling differences is given in the Writing Help section. The PhraseBook is also suitable for writing in or for other English-speaking countries, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa.
British and American spellings
- behaviour – behavior
- tumour – tumor
- leukaemia – leukemia
- paediatrics – pediatrics
- oesophagus – esophagus
- fulfilment – fulfillment
- sceptic – skeptic
- defence – defense
- litre – liter etc.
English spelling is notoriously inconsistent, and although computer spelling checkers highlight spelling mistakes, they often do not detect words written correctly but used in the wrong context – principle and principal or causal and casual for example. Misspellings and malapropisms such as Jane Austen‘s heroin, currant research or the human gnome project might amuse your readers but would detract from your credibility. The PhraseBook therefore includes a number of sections on commonly confused words in university and research writing, for example:
- anti – ante
- criterion – criteria
- discrete – discreet
- effect – affect
- hyper – hypo
- inter – intra
- medium – media
- precede – proceed
- principle – principal etc.
Punctuation
Punctuation is governed by rules, but these rules are in some cases arbitrary and inconsistent. A number of Writing Help sections in the PhraseBook give advice on punctuation in university and research writing, including differences between British and American English.
- Full stop or period
- Comma
- Semicolon
- Colon
- Question mark
- Exclamation mark or point
- Hyphen
- Prefixes
- The hyphen in fixed compounds
- Using the hyphen in temporary compounds before a noun
- Dash
- The possessive with ’s
- Quotation marks
- Punctuation at the end of quotations
- Punctuating titles, legends and bullets
- Parenthesis and ellipsis
- References
- Abbreviations
- Capitalization
Grammar
- Noncount nouns
- Singular words ending in -s
- Irregular plurals
- Confusing words: singular and plural
- Confusing words: pronouns
- Irregular verbs
Academic English Thesaurus to Expand your Vocabulary
A thesaurus helps you build a richer vocabulary and avoid using the same expressions over and again. However, a conventional thesaurus has the drawback that it includes synonyms that are unsuitable for university and research writing. Similarly, thesauruses included with word processors are often inadequate: for example, for insight the most common word processor suggests just around the corner.
The PhraseBook thesaurus, on the other hand, is specifically compiled for university and research writing, and contains both synonyms (words with a similar meaning) and antonyms (words with the opposite meaning). It has been designed to make it easy to find related words.
The thesaurus includes key words for academic writing such as ‘study’, ‘question’, ‘theory’, and ‘prove’. By looking up for example ‘prove’, you find alternatives such as substantiate, establish, verify and corroborate. Antonyms, such as disprove or fail to demonstrate, are given in lighter text. Some examples are given below:
Study
work, paper, report, review, survey, thesis, dissertation, book, volume, monograph, collection of papers, research, analysis, inquiry, investigation, examination
Theory
principle, framework, system, model, scheme, idea, notion, concept, reasoning, hypothesis, proposition, assumption
Argue and argument
argue for, argue against, maintain, reason, point to, dispute, question, polemic, the case for or against, the grounds for, reasoning, premise
Find out
discover, determine, establish, learn, realize, identify, detect, locate, pinpoint, verify
Prove
show, demonstrate, confirm, establish, verify, is borne out by, corroborate, testify to, attest, proof of, evidence of or for, demonstration of, confirmation of, corroboration of, verification of, disprove, fail to demonstrate
Glossary of University and Research Terminology
A great deal of English academic vocabulary derives from Latin and Greek. In addition, many of the abbreviations common in university and research writing – such as e.g., i.e. and etc. – and many everyday academic terms – such as campus, school and curriculum – also derive from Latin or Greek. The PhraseBook therefore also includes a glossary of university and research terminology. For example:
- Ad hoc
- Alma mater
- A priori
- Curriculum vitae
- Extracurricular
- Inter alia
- Magna cum laude
- Pace
- Passim
- Prima facie
- Prospectus
- Sic
- Sophomore
Given the large number of foreign elements in English university and research vocabulary, it can be difficult to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word, and Greek and Latin elements – such as tele-vision and corona-virus – are still used to coin new scientific terms today. Knowledge of some Greek and Latin helps to decipher the meaning of many terms, not least for speakers from parts of the world with other classical languages.
Greek, Latin and other word elements
- Astro ‘star’
- Auto ‘self’
- Bio ‘life’
- Cracy ‘government or power’
- Ecto ‘outside’
- Infra ‘below’
- Nomy ‘law’
- Ortho ‘straight’
- Para ‘beside or beyond’
- Syn ‘with or together’
- Tele ‘far’
Suitable for Self-Study and Classroom Teaching
The PhraseBook can be used both for self-study and in the classroom. In the classroom, we recommend that students start with a sample of their own writing. Students then work through the PhraseBook, expanding their text with phrases from each section. This helps students to think about the different parts of a text and how to structure their argument. Each section is followed by writing exercises.
Rather than working on texts that are irrelevant or uninteresting, students work on their own writing, helping them to improve their real work. After working through the PhraseBook, students will have produced a better written, more polished text.
Global English
The PhraseBook is suitable for writing for all English-speaking countries. British and American alternatives are given throughout the PhraseBook, and a detailed list of British–US spelling differences is given in the Writing Help section.
- Over 5000 words and phrases to help you write, present and publish in English
- Writing help on style, spelling, punctuation and grammar
- Academic English thesaurus to help you write with a richer vocabulary
- Exercises for self-study and classroom use
- Global English, including British and American spellings
- Suitable for university and research writing from undergraduate to graduate student, and from researcher to faculty
Buy on Amazon and in bookstores:
- Title: PhraseBook for Writing Papers and Research in English
- Publisher: The Whole World Company Press, EnglishforResearch.com™
- ISBN: 978-1492959793 Paperback
- eBook available on Kindle and other devices