for academic writers – Jeannette Regan

Selected resources

For academic writers

The selected links and information about online and print resources that follow are intended to help researchers who write in English. If you find other links and information helpful and would like to share them with other academic researcher-writers, please send them to me and I will be pleased to add them here.

Sample online resources Sample print resources Full list of resources

Sample online resources

Dictionary.com (monolingual)	https://dictionary.reference.com	An easy-to-use and practical dictionary
DeepL (multilingual)	https://www.deepl.com/translator	Developed by Linguee, this is one of the best sites for machine translation in that it provides alternatives, grammar information, etc. about items being investigated. Several scholars have recommended the paid premium version because it deletes texts once they have been translated to assure confidentiality.
WordReference (multilingual)	https://www.wordreference.com	This site encompasses dictionaries for eighteen languages and their various combinations. It offers direct links to dictionaries and allows users to work with various tools. The site also offers language forums and claims to be the world’s largest repository of knowledge and advice about English and several other languages.
Thesaurus	https://thesaurus.com	This easy-to-use part of a package of online language reference services, including a dictionary and encyclopedia, is Roget’s New Millenium ™ Thesaurus.
Grammarly.com	https://www.grammarly.com	Contains 250 grammar points, a grammar checker made by professional linguists and, in the paid version, a very good plagiarism checker. A few writers have found it questionable whether the paid version provides substantially better language feedback than the free version.
EASE guidelines for authors and translators of scientific articles	https://ease.org.uk/	The European Association of Science Editors updates these guidelines when necessary. They are free, available in a number of languages, and downloadable as a pdf.
Collocations Dictionary online	www.ozdic.com	This website recommended by former participants offers straightforward access to words usually used together (collocations) and is especially helpful when choosing prepositions.
Academic Phrasebank	www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/	An extensive, practical, and easy to use language resource with typical phrases for the different parts of scientific texts. A treasure trove!

Sample print resources

BOOTH, WAYNE C., GREGORY G. COLOMB, & JOSEPH M. WILLIAMS (2008, 3RD EDITION). The Craft of Research. University of Chicago Press. ISBN (paper) 978-0-226-06566-3	This highly recommended classic provides a practical guide to mastering the art of research and contains a wealth of compassionate, competent advice for researchers.
FEAK, CHRISTINE B. & JOHN M. SWALES (2009). Telling a Research Story: Writing a Literature Review. (Volume 2 of the English in Today’s Research World Series.) Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472033362.	Progressing from general to specific issues in the writing of literature reviews, this book covers issues of structure and language use, style, rhetoric, citation, paraphrasing and summarizing.
GLASMAN-DEAL, HILARY (2ND EDITION 2021). Science Research Writing for Native and Non-Native Speakers of English. London: World Scientific Publishing Europe. ISBN 9781786347848 (paperback) ISBN 9781786348333 (e-book)	This is an excellent, practical, and self-study guide to how science research writing is rapidly changing and developing. It presents a wealth of conventionalized vocabulary and frequently used phrases for each section of a scientific publication.
JOHNSON, SÖREN (2011, 2014 REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION). Getting It Across: A Guide to Effective Academic Writing. Amsterdam: Techne Press. ISBN 978-90-8594-038-8.	The author aims at helping non-native writers how to ‘fix’ writing that does not really ‘work.’ The book is full of useful insights and examples of real texts that have been improved. Excellent sections on article use and connecting words.
PYNE, STEPHEN J. (2009). Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction. Cambridge, USA and London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03330-6	An approach to enliven academic writing and make it more elegant.
SKERN, TIM (2009). Writing Scientific English. Wien: facultas wuv (UTB series 3112). ISBN 9783825231125.	This concise workbook is designed to give researchers confidence in writing scientific English. Examples and exercises show how to avoid common errors and how to rephrase and improve (edit) scientific texts.
THOMSON, PAT & BARBARA KAMLER (2013). Writing for Peer Reviewed Journals: Strategies for getting published. London & New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN (paperback) 978-0-415-80931-3.	Excellent resource for understanding how a scholar’s identity is shaped through the process of writing.

Full list of resources

Jeannette Regan

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