Supporting Research Writing: Roles and Challenges in Multilingual Settings

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Valerie Matarese
Elsevier Science, Nov 20, 2012 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 330 pages
Supporting Research Writing explores the range of services designed to facilitate academic writing and publication in English by non-native English-speaking (NNES) authors. It analyses the realities of offering services such as education, translation, editing and writing, and then considers the challenges and benefits that result when these boundaries are consciously blurred. It thus provides an opportunity for readers to reflect on their professional roles and the services that will best serve their clients' needs. A recurring theme is, therefore, the interaction between language professional and client-author. The book offers insights into the opportunities and challenges presented by considering ourselves first and foremost as writing support professionals, differing in our primary approach (through teaching, translating, editing, writing, or a combination of those) but with a common goal. This view has major consequences for the training of professionals who support English-language publication by NNES academics and scientists. Supporting Research Writing will therefore be a stimulus to professional development for those who support English-language publication in real-life contexts and an important resource for those entering the profession.

  • Takes a holistic approach to writing support and reveals how it is best conceived as a spectrum of overlapping and interrelated professional activities
  • Stresses the importance of understanding the real-world needs of authors in their quest to publish
  • Provides insights into the approaches used by experienced practitioners across Europe

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About the author (2012)

Valerie Matarese, Ph.D. is an independent editor based in north-eastern Italy. Born in New York, she trained in biomedical sciences at US universities and worked as a researcher in university settings and at multinational firms in the USA and in Italy. In 1997, she launched an independent activity offering editing, writing and information research, and has served publishers, university researchers and companies with services such as journal copyediting, author's editing, team research writing and related training. She is an advocate of good scientific writing and adherence to internationally accepted standards for quality reporting.

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