Jean Rose - The Mature Students Guide to Writing

The Mature Students Guide to Writing

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The Mature Students Guide to Writing

Jean Rose

Jean Rose 2001, 2007 and 2012

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2012 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries

ISBN: 9781137265562

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

10987654321

21201918171615141312

Printed and bound in the UK by

Charlesworth Press, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

The author would like to thank the following:

The Daily Telegraph for permission to quote from Tory tipple more compassionate and hangover-free by Andrew Gimson, 1 March 2006.

Devon Life for permission to quote from the following features: Class Glass, The Trading House, The Rich Earth and A Plant Phenomenon.

A. C. Grayling for permission to reprint Why a high society is a free society, Observer, 19 May 2002.

Pan Macmillan Ltd (London, UK) for permission to quote the poem Tea from Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy.

Penguin Group (UK) for permission to quote from The Psychology of Perception by M. D. Vernon.

All the adult students I have taught (without whom this book would not have been written), and especially students who were kind enough to let me use some of their work here. All names have been changed.

Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the author and publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the earliest opportunity.

This book is for adults. Youre likely to be a mature student, but you might be studying anything from IT to drama or from business studies to building construction. Perhaps youre about to begin a full-time course in higher education or you might be studying part-time or be enrolled on an Open University course or be taking another distancelearning course. Maybe youre starting an Access to Higher Education programme.

You might be a science student who has always found English baffling. Perhaps your early studies were undertaken in a different country and you now need to check up on British procedures. Perhaps youre not a student at all, but you just want to brush up your writing skills. Whatever youre doing, youll find lots of tips here to help you with writing well and improving your style.

This book will give you a sound basis from which to move forward. If youre having difficulties with your written English, but cant work out whats wrong, youll find lots of simple explanations to help you. If you missed out at school or youve forgotten some of the basic rules of good writing, youll probably find the answers here.

You might have tried looking at books that give grammatical rules but then found that you couldnt understand them or relate them to your own situation. This book explains the kinds of writing youll be required to do at college and university and it does this in a simple, conversational style. All the explanations and examples have been kept simple too so that the process will be as stress-free as possible for you.

There are a number of different ways you can use this book. What you do will depend very much on your individual circumstances on how much you remember from your previous education, for instance, or on what particular assignments you have to cope with. Youll probably find that there are some things you just need to brush up on and others that you need to look at more carefully. You might find that youll need to cover one or two issues immediately and others as they arise in relation to your course or other work.