The Logic of Academic Writing

The Logic of Academic Writing was developed from a practical educational need, namely teaching early-year Ph.D. students some basic ideas on how they can structure their arguments in ways that may make sense for an academic paper to be written and consequently published. The authors' research expertise is in argumentation studies: the discipline that analyzes how arguments are produced, evaluated, and addressed, considering the pragmatic, logical, and dialectical levels. Since academic writing is characterized by supporting an original idea through proofs or arguments, the book focuses on the “logic” of writing, that is, on the reasoning we use for structuring ideas, paragraphs, and papers...the reasoning mechanisms that we use when we develop and organize our ideas, connect them with other ideas, and support them through arguments.

Chrysi Rapanta

Chrysi Rapanta was awarded a Phd in Communication Sciences from the University of Lugano, Switzerland, in 2011. Since 2015 she has been a post-doctoral researcher in Philosophy of Education in the Institute of Philosophy at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Before beginning her current position, she was an Assistant Professor of Communication at Zayed University, UAE. Having studied Psychology, Pedagogy, and Communication, her current research is focused on adapting argumentation theory in ways that may serve educational praxis, in particular, teachers' argumentation strategies in the classroom. She has also published in reputable education journals including the Review of Educational Research, the Journal of Philosophy of Education, and the British Journal of Educational Technology.

Fabrizio Macagno

Fabrizio Macagno (Ph.D. in linguistics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, 2008) works as an assistant professor in the departments of Philosophy and Communication at the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he also acts as the Head of International Relations (Associate Dean). His current research, between the fields of Linguistics and Philosophy of language, is focused on the natural patterns of argument (argumentation schemes), the persuasive use of emotive language, and on the dialectical dimension of discourse implicitness (presuppositions). The theoretical framework that he has been developing together with Douglas Walton and other colleagues is used in his more empirical studies, aiming at analysing medical, educational, and legal discourse. He is coordinating a national project on the use of discourse analysis and argumentation tools for the study of medical discourse in diabetes care (METACARE) and a European project on dialogue and argumentation in the classroom (DIALLS), of which is the coordinator for the Portuguese team. He is author of several papers on definition, informal fallacies, argumentation schemes, and dialogue theory published on major international peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Argumentation, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Informal Logic, and Pragmatics and Cognition. His most important publications, in addition to the Logic of Academic Writing (Wessex 2019) include the books Argumentation Schemes (Cambridge University Press 2008), Emotive language in argumentation (CUP 2014), Interpreting straw man argumentation (Springer 2017) and Statutory interpretation: Pragmatics and argumentation (CUP 2021). He has been publishing extensively on the use of logical methods and theories for the improvement of communication in crucial areas of practice, such as education, law, and medical discourse.

Format	ISBN	List Price	Wessex Website Price
Hardcover	978-1-7329870-3-6	$ 39.70 USD	$ 39.70 USD
Softcover	978-1-7329870-4-3	$ 29.70 USD	$ 24.70 USD
E-Book	978-1-7329870-5-0	N/A	$ 22.70 USD

Testimonials

The Logic of Academic Writing addresses a critical need among academics who are looking to improve the quality of their writing. The book takes a unique approach to an age-old problem by combining argumentation theory and education with a special emphasis on writing. This is supplemented by compelling theoretical and applied guidelines, numerous examples, tips, and self-questioning exercises that will enhance individual understanding of the content. Readers can focus only on chapters that address their specific interests rather than sequential read-throughs.

— Mercè Garcia-Milà

Full Professor, Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology Department, Universitat de Barcelona