What Is Good Academic Writing?: Insights Into Discipline-Specific Student Writing

The field of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) developed to address the needs of students whose mother tongue is not English. However, the linguistic competence required to achieve academic success at any university where English is the medium of instruction is a challenge for all students. While there are linguistic features common to academic literacy as a general genre, closer investigation reveals significant differences from one academic field to another. This volume asks what good writing is within specific disciplines, focussing on student work. Each chapter provides key insights by EAP professionals, based on their research in which they bring together analysis of student writing and interviews with subject specialists and markers who determine what ’good writing’ is in their discipline.
The volume includes chapters on established disciplines which have had less attention in the EAP and academic writing literature to date, including music, formal linguistics, and dentistry, as well as new and growing fields of study such as new media.

Melinda Whong is Associate Professor of Language Education, and Director of the Center for Language Education at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
Jeanne Godfrey is Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK. She has held the positions of Head of Department, Principal Lecturer in Learning and Teaching, and Chair of BALEAP. She is the author of several EAP student books.