Preface

Writing is not an easy task, particularly when the writing is done in the
language that is not your mother tongue. The difficulty even doubles when you have
to write it academically. This book is the byproduct of my ten year experience in
teaching 0105507 English for Thesis Writing or, now, Academic English for Graduate
Studies, a compulsory course for all doctoral and masters degree students at
Mahasarakham University. It is designed to help intermediate-level students and
interested persons to write academically in English. In this book, academic writing
and the characteristics of academic writing are outlined, focusing particularly on the
writings of a thesis or dissertation, research abstracts, and academic papers for
publication in an international journal. Some fundamental and advanced English
grammatical structures essential for academic writing are also discussed with
exercises for students to practice. The techniques of quoting, paraphrasing, and
summarizing are outlined together with the initial information on standard citations in
the MLA, APA, and CSE styles. I very much hope that this book will be beneficial to
students and people who would like to learn and practice academic writing at large.

Asst. Prof. Surasak Khamkhong, Ph.D.
16 January 2014