The Writing Scholar Studies in Academic Discourse

There is a popular image of academic writing as obscure, convoluted and replete with jargon. Some academic writers conform to this image, while others transform it. Academic discourse is clearly influenced by many factors, conventions and motives. These essays, by internationally-noted researchers and theorists in the field, bring varied insights to bear on the question of what happens, linguistically and psychologically, when academics set out to report facts, explain phenomena, propound hypotheses, argue, persuade and rebut. The contributors look critically at the assumptions and principles underlying academic writing.