A guide to effective academic communication for non-native speakers of English

Having written a paper for submission to a chosen journal, you will need to write something more, namely a letter or an e-mail addressed to the editor of the target journal requesting the editor to consider your paper for publication. Similar cover letters are often required to accompany proposals for funding and abstracts of papers submitted to organizers of conferences. Another writing task is to respond to comments made by reviewers or referees of your paper.

English for Academic Correspondence and Socializing [1] is a book that helps you write such covering letters and responses mentioned above. The purpose of the book and its readers have clearly stated: “This book is for PhD students, researchers, lecturers, and professors in any discipline whose first language is not English. The book will teach you how to use English to carry out everyday activities in your academic work, such as writing emails, dealing with referees and editors, making phone calls, and socializing at conferences.”
The book is divided into seven parts: five main parts, namely email, writing and responding to reviews, telephone and teleconference calls, dealing with native English speakers, and socializing, supplemented with one on checking what you have written and one offering useful phrases relevant to the tasks covered in the first five parts.

Readers will find English for Academic Correspondence and Socializing a useful and up-to-date source of practical advice. In the words of the author, readers of the book “will learn how to

• write emails that their recipient will open, read, and respond to
• use standard phrases correctly, and with the right level of formality
• improve their usage of tenses (past, present, future)
• significantly improve their chances of having their paper published by interacting in a constructive way with referees and editors
• talk to key people at conferences and thus improve their chances of having a good career"

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[1] Wallwork A. 2011. English for Academic Correspondence and Socializing. New York: Springer. 330 pp.