Academic Writing for Military Personnel

Contents

Contents Figures x Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Why Read This Book? 1 1: Academic Writing: What Is It? And What Makes It Good? 9 I. What Isn’t Academic Writing 10 II. Characteristics of a Good Persuasive Essay 12 1. Argument 13 2. Research 16 3. Writing 18 4. Format 20 III. Summary 28 2: The Academic Research Process 31 I. Topic Selection 34 II. Preliminary Research 35 III. (Optional) Writing a Research Proposal 41 IV. Additional Research 48 V. Summary 50 3. The Academic Writing Process: A Structure 51 I. Organizing Your Notes 56 II. Developing a Comprehensive Outline 58 III. The Introduction 61 IV. The Body 66 V. The Conclusion 67 VI. The Use of Headings 69 VII. Effective Revisions 70 vii viii Contents VIII. Creating an Appropriate and Effective Title 72 IX. The Abstract 73 X. Summary 74 4: Notes and Quotes 77 I. When Do You Footnote? 77 1. Direct Quotations 78 2. Paraphrase of Another’s Ideas 79 3. Obscure or Controversial Statistics 79 4. Tangential/Explanatory/Expository Commentary 81 II. Using Quotations Appropriately 82 III. Integrating Quotations Effectively 84 IV. Academic Professionalism 85 1. Complete Replication without Attribution 86 2. Partial Replication without Attribution 87 3. Lack of Attribution 88 V. Summary 88 5: Common Problems in Academic Writing 91 I. Run-on Sentences 92 II. Tense Shifts 93 III. Faulty Parallelism 94 IV. Dangling Modifiers 95 V. Wordiness/Jargon-Laden Writing 96 VI. Overusing the Passive Voice 97 VII. Overusing Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Initialisms 98 VIII. Contractions, Gendered Language, and Spelling Conventions 99 IX. Summary 100 6: Evaluating an Academic Essay for Credit 101 I. Holistic Grading 102 II. Criterion-based Assessment 103 III. Rubrics 103 IV. The Rubric Explained 110 V. Summary 110 7: Other Academic Writing Assignments 113 I. Book Reviews 113 II. Literature Reviews 117 III. Opinion Editorials/Commentaries 118 IV. Case Studies 119 V. Summary 119 8: Conclusion 121 Glossary 125 Index 129 Contents ix ...