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academic writing

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academic writing a guide for management students and researchers mathukutty m monippally and badrinarayan shankar pawar

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copyright © mathukutty m monippally and badrinarayan shankar pawar 2010 all rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher first published in 2010 by response books business books from sage b1/i-1 mohan cooperative industrial area mathura road new delhi 110 044 india sage publications inc 2455 teller road thousand oaks california 91320 usa sage publications ltd 1 oliver s yard 55 city road london ec1y 1sp united kingdom sage publications asia-pacific pte ltd 33 pekin street #02-01 far east square singapore 048763 published by vivek mehra for response books typeset in 10/12 pt palatino linotype by innovative processes delhi and printed at chaman enterprises new delhi library of congress cataloging-in-publication data available isbn 978-81-321-0441-4 pb the sage team eemasinghal,vikasjain,amritasahaandtrinankur r banerjee

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dedication i dedicate this book to my students past and present at indian institute of management ahmedabad i have learned from them a great deal more than they will ever suspect i dedicate muthukutty m monippally this work with apologies and withprayersforforgiveness,toallthosewhosufferedbecauseof me and with gratitude to all those who nourished taught and helped me in particular i dedicate this book to among others whocannotbeidentified,myteachers,thefamiliesofmybrothers and sister my late father and my mother and my gurudevji spiritual mentor sant shri asaramji bapu badrinarayan shankar pawar

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contents list of tables and figuresxi prefacexiii acknowledgementsxvii introductionxix part i the research process and the role of academic writing 1 1 academic writing and research process3 chapteroverview3 academicwritingasapartofresearchandscience4 science7 research10 a brief description of various terms used in academic research14 featuresofscienceandresearchinacademicwriting24 typesofacademicwriting26 importance of good academic writing in various academicworks29 chaptersummary30 2 structure and contents of a research paper32 chapteroverview32 conceptualpaper33

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viii academic writing an exercise to study the structure and contents of a conceptualpaper42 empiricalpaper42 an exercise to study the structure and contents of an empiricalpaper56 thesisanddissertations56 academicpapersofstudentsforcourserequirements57 chaptersummary60 part ii the anatomy of academic writing 3 good academic writing65 chapteroverview65 thechallengeofwriting65 differentkindsofwriting72 journalisticwriting74 creativewriting76 academicwriting77 theroleofgrammarandusage98 chaptersummary105 63 4 mastering the paragraph106 chapteroverview106 thestructureofaparagraph107 thegoodparagraph:essentialqualities113 thegoodparagraph:desirablequalities120 howtodevelopparagraphs133 chaptersummary138 5 the writing process139 chapteroverview139 theacademicdocumentasastory140 creatinganoutlineofthestory141 fleshingouttheoutline146 polishingthestory147

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contents ix tidyingupthedocument164 chaptersummary169 part iii acknowledging academic debts 6 using and citing sources of ideas173 chapteroverview173 theworldofcitations174 rewardsofintellectualhonesty176 plagiarism:ideatheft177 threekindsofborrowing180 theanatomyofacitation188 commoncitationstyles194 illustrationsofcitationandreferences202 chaptersummary217 171 appendix 1 riefdescriptionsofsomeoftheresearch b termsusedinchapter2218 appendix 2resourcesforhoningacademicwriting222 references227 index230 about the authors234

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list of tables table3.1mistakesthatannoybutdonotblock comprehension table3.2annoyingsentencesthataredifficult to understand 99 101 list of figures figure1.1anoverviewofresearchprocess figure6.1in-text citation examples figure6.2 eference to a paper in a print journal and r to a book figure6.3reference to a chapter in an edited book figure6.4in-textcitationsindifferentstyles figure6.5 isting of bibliographic details a paper in a l print journal comparison between styles 12 191 193 193 201 201

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preface academic writing is aimed at mba students mphil and phd scholars and young faculty in management and behavioural sciences the nudge for writing this book came from our graduate anddoctoralstudentsinthefieldofmanagementandparticipants in faculty development programmes their research papers and otherwrittenassignments,tobeprecise.someofthesestudents are among the best in the country perhaps in the world but their writingoftenletsthemdown writing is an integral part of the process of research it also facilitates success in academics it is not enough to be smart and knowledgeable we have to demonstrate our knowledge and insights through writing whether we are students or scholars otherwise we would be like wild flowers perhaps the most beautiful on earth with exquisite scent but unseen unsmelt and unsung that is as bad as being nonexistent there is a lot of truth in the saying publish or perish yet this vital skill required for publishingisnottaughtinschoolsandcolleges.whenattempts aremadetoteachwriting,thefocusseemstobemoreongetting sentences grammatically correct rather than on presenting knowledge in ways that make reading and comprehension easy writing is like singing some write well without any special training just as some sing well instinctively in academics some manage the transition from creative writing and journalistic writing to academic writing with ease but many do not and as a result they fare less well than they should our aim is to help graduate students and researchers especially in management and behaviouralsciences,torefinetheirwritingsothattheydowellin their studies publish in national and international journals and make themselves more useful to society.

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xiv academic writing neither scientific knowledge nor its written manifestation is uniform across all disciplines even within the same discipline the degree of rigour varies significantly between what leading journals consider acceptable and what professors are willing to acceptintheassignmentssubmittedbytheirstudents.academic writing will help graduate students write better assignments theses and dissertations it will help scholars write conceptual and empirical papers for publication in reputable journals our objective is to alert all these writers to the broad expectations of readers of academic writing in management and behavioural sciences.itisuptothemtofigureoutthespecificexpectationsof their readers and mould their writing accordingly although academic writing is not taught formally in our schools and colleges there is plenty of literature on both research methodology and the documentation of the process and fruits of research that makes it virtually impossible for us to say anything original about either academic writing has benefited from the works of several scholars and writers some of whose contributions we formally acknowledge in the body of the book we give a list of resources in appendix 2 we have also learned a great deal informally from our teachers and colleagues who helped us through our own doctoral and postdoctoral research we are grateful to them while academic writingclearlyreflects our debt to published and unpublished advice it is also built on our experiences observations and reflections in varying degrees this book describes the place of academic writing in the broaderprocessofresearchandscientificknowledgegeneration distinguishes academic writing from other forms of writing describes the process of composing academic papers and reports and provides guidelines for appropriately acknowledging the use of others work in one s academic writing what distinguishes this book from others on similar themes is the extensive use of authentic samples of academic writing from graduate students and the characterization of academic writing as a part of research knowledge generation process and science the student samples illustrate good as well as defective writing we have refrained from editing the samples except where we feel that leaving some small mistakes in the quoted text might distract the reader without any advantage wherever we have edited the samples we have

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