Academic Writing for International Students of Business and Economics

Stephen Bailey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000765328
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Comunicación empresarial

The third edition of Academic Writing for International Students of Business and Economics is written to help international students succeed in writing essays, reports and other papers for their English-language academic courses. Thoroughly revised and updated to reflect issues such as diversity and sustainability, this book is designed to let students and teachers easily find the help they need, both in the classroom and for self-study.

The book is divided into five parts, comprising a total of 42 units:

• 
  
  

• The Writing Process

• 
  
  

• Elements of Writing

• 
  
  

• Language Issues

• 
  
  

• Vocabulary for Writing

• 
  
  

• Writing Models

New topics in this edition include Writing in Groups, Written British and American English and Reflective Writing. In addition, the new interactive website has a full set of teaching notes as well as more challenging exercises, revision material and links to other sources. Additional features of the book include:

• 
  
  

• Models provided for writing tasks such as case studies and literature reviews

• 
  
  

• Use of authentic academic texts from a range of sources

• 
  
  

• Designed for self-study as well as classroom use

• 
  
  

• Useful at both undergraduate and postgraduate level

• 
  
  

• A complete set of answers to the practice exercises

• 
  
  

• Cross-references across all units

Providing a glossary to explain technical terms and written to deal with the specific language issues faced by international students of Business and Economics, this practical, user-friendly book is an invaluable guide to academic writing in English.

PART

1

The Writing Process

This section explains and practises all the stages of producing a piece of academic writing, from analysing the title, reading the sources, note-making and referencing through to rewriting and then proofreading the final draft.

1. The writing process

Study the flowchart below, which illustrates the process of academic writing.

Each stage is fully explained in the relevant units.

1.1 Basics of Writing

Most business schools assess students through written assignments of various kinds. These tasks include coursework, which may take weeks to write, and exam answers, which often have to be written in an hour. This unit deals with:

• the main features of academic writing
• the names of different writing tasks
• the format of short and long writing tasks
• the structure of sentences and paragraphs.

1. The purpose of academic writing

Students should be clear why they are writing. The most common reasons include:

• to report on a piece of research the writer has conducted
• to answer a question the writer has been given or chosen
• to discuss a subject of common interest and give the writer’s view
• to synthesise research done by others on a topic

Can you suggest any other reasons?

• ____________________________________________________
• ____________________________________________________

2. Features of academic writing

Although there is no fixed standard of academic writing, and style may vary from subject to subject, academic writing is clearly different from the written style of newspapers or novels. For example, it is generally agreed that academic writing attempts to be accurate, so that instead of ‘sales fell sharply’ it is better to write ‘sales fell by 35%’. What are some of the other features of academic writing?

Working alone or in a group, list your ideas below.

3. Common types of academic writing

Below are the most common types of written work produced by business students.

Match the terms on the left to the definitions on the right.

4. The format of written assignments

Essays and reports (1,000–5,000 words) generally include the following items.

Discuss the meanings of these elements with a partner.

Introduction

Main body

Literature review

Case study

Discussion

Conclusion

References

Appendices

See Unit 5.3 Writing Longer Papers

Dissertations and journal articles may have:

Abstract List of contents List of tables Introduction Main body Literature review Case study Findings Discussion Conclusion Acknowledgements References Appendices

Business reports and proposals often have a short section at the beginning called:

Executive summary

In addition, books may also include:

Foreword

Preface

Bibliography/Further reading

Match the following definitions to terms in the lists above:

1. A short summary which explains the paper’s purpose and main findings.
   ………………………………………………………………………
2. A list of all the sources the writer has mentioned in the text.
   ………………………………………………………………………
3. A section, after the conclusion, where additional information is included.
   ………………………………………………………………………
4. A short section where people who have helped the writer are thanked.
   ………………………………………………………………………
5. Part of the main body in which the views of other writers on the topic are discussed.
   ………………………………………………………………………
6. A section where one particular example is described in detail.
   ………………………………………………………………………
7. A preliminary part of a book in which the author often explains her reasons for writing.
   ………………………………………………………………………

Academic journals

There are thousands of academic journals published in English and other languages around the world. The purpose of these journals is to provide a forum for academics within a specific discipline (e.g. accounting or marketing) to share cutting-edge research. Most journals publish several issues a year and are often available either online or in a hard copy.

One important feature of journals is that the articles they publish are generally peer-reviewed. This means that when an article is submitted the editors ask other specialists in that field to read the article and decide if it is worth publishing. Reviewers may make comments that lead to the article being modified.

Students need to get to know the leading journals in their subject, which are generally available via the university library.

See Unit 1.2.5 Using library websites to search journals and electronic resources

5. The components of academic writing

There is considerable variation in the format of academic writing required by different business schools and departments. Your teachers may give you guidelines, or you should ask them what they want. But some general features apply to most formats.

Read the text below and identify the features underlined, using the words in the box.

1. The Effectiveness of Microcredit
2. An evaluation of programmes in India and the Philippines
3. Introduction
4. In the last ten years considerable claims have been made about the value of microcredit (also known as microfinance); the provision of unsecured small loans to the poor in developing countries. But it has proved surprisingly difficult to accurately measure the effectiveness of these loans, without interference from other non-commercial factors.
   Two recent studies have attempted to compare the effects on randomly-chosen groups of people with access to microcredit, compared to those without. The first (Bannerjee et al., 2009), based at Massachusetts...