By Adam Turner
How to modify the settings of MS Word editing functions
http://www.hanyangowl.org/media/computerassisted/2007mswordediting.pdf
And MS Word skills
http://www.hanyangowl.org/media/computerassisted/mswordskillscombined.pdf

Biomedical researchers can download a separate guide to biomedial writing PDF ebook
http://www.hanyangowl.org/media/biomedical/handbookbiomedicalwriting.pdf

Terms of use
These materials may be freely distributed for non-commercial purposes under creative
commons license
English:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
한글:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/deed.ko
If any changes are made to the materials they must also be freely available under this “share
alike” license.
Credit must be given as follows:
2009 HYU CTL English Writing Lab and Adam Turner http://www.hanyangowl.org
Definition of non-commercial use
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/terms/terms/index.htm#noncomm
See http://www.hanyangowl.org/ for more materials on writing for publication in English
across fields.
Please refer others to the original URL of this PDF file at
http://ctl.hanyang.ac.kr:8001/writing/engsciresearchwritingbook.pdf
Suggestions or corrections are welcome: [email protected]

Preface: How to use this book

Who is this book for?

drafts can be improved if students refer to this guide.
The book is also part of our wider strategy to integrate Writing Lab face to face writing
consulting, workshops, print self-study materials, and online interactive materials into an
integrated system to help support Hanyang graduate students, faculty, and researchers to
publish internationally in English. Details on the CTL English Writing Lab consulting service can
be found at the end of this preface.
How is this book different from other books?
1. It is research-based
The book uses insights from research in the fields of Applied Linguistics and English for
Specific Purposes and the emerging field of English for Research Purposes. These research
areas analyze the type of language spoken and written in professional fields like engineering
and medicine. Rather than just giving general English writing advice using instructor intuition,
this book uses research insights from specialized writing journals to improve the material.
2. It is based on computer analysis of authentic texts
All the best practices and examples are directly taken from computer analysis of real published
articles. In looking at authentic text, it was found that some general advice on writing like
“avoiding the passive” or never using “we” does not apply to fields like engineering. In addition,
by only looking at real published papers, some significant differences between fields even
within the same discipline such as engineering were found in terms of article structure and
writing style.
Unlike many other writing books published in Korea, it is not just a collection of example
sentences but combines best practices and frameworks for different sections of the paper, such
as the introduction or abstract, with advanced grammar tips on the specific sentence structures
that are needed for each section of the paper. For example, the grammar to politely but critically
evaluate problems with previous research in the introduction is explained. This book takes a
general approach inspired by Swales and Feak (1994) that combines higher level genre
analysis with grammar support needed for functions in each section of the research article.
3. It is based on a needs analysis of Korean students
Language background and education experience are important factors that influence student
needs. This book is specifically designed to meet the needs of Korean graduate students and
Limitations
I recognize that good writing materials and Writing Lab help are only a part of the solution. It is
only the experience of a professor in the field advising a graduate student that can produce the
best co-authored paper. However, the purpose of our materials is only to help raise the quality
of the basic structure and level of English of the manuscript from students writing as the primary
author, so faculty can concentrate more on what they do best: share their knowledge of their
field.
Future plans
We invite faculty and graduate students from all departments to give feedback on this book and
suggestions for materials on English research writing. For example, we have identified the
difficulty of replying to reviewers’ comments and the need for more sentence level grammar
advice as possible topics. Please email [email protected] with suggestions. To find out
more about our writing consulting services for Hanyang students and faculty please see the
writing lab homepage at http://www.hanyangowl.org and view the description of the service
following this preface.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank a number of people who have helped to make this book possible. First of
all I would like to thank the CTL staff and especially Professor Yeong Mahn You, Director of the
Center for Teaching and Learning, for recognizing that an innovate writing lab approach was
required to help faculty and graduate students with advanced English writing skills. I would also
like to thank Whoi-Yul Kim, professor of electrical and computer engineering, for giving me the
opportunity to teach a prototype engineering graduate writing course that helped to launch me
in a new career direction. My former and current assistants especially Juekyung Pae, Jung-min
Kim, Tae-kyung Kim, and Soohwan Jung who provided valuable help in formatting and
collecting the data for this book. Finally, my colleague and assistant director of the English
Writing Lab, Jocelyn Graf, provided valuable editing feedback on the first manuscript.
Adam Turner
Director