Seductive Academic Writing

145 Pages·2018·1.39 MB·English

by  Danyal Freeman

Seductive Academic
Writing

Seductive Academic
Writing
By
Danyal Freeman
Seductive Academic Writing

By Danyal Freeman

This book first published 2018

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2018 by Danyal Freeman

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-5275-0579-0
ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-0579-7
For my parents

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part I: Why writing without figures of speech is like cooking
blindfolded
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 3
A Coroner Investigates
Dead Academic Writer
About this Book
Chapter Two ................................................................................................ 9
Wither and Whither the Figures?
Three Tales
A Paradox
A Problem
An Oxymoron
Seductive Academic Writing
Part II: Figures of speech for seductive academic writing
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 21
Figures of Music and Repetition
Introduction
Parallelism and her Family
Isocolon
Music for Cohesion
Parallelism, your Conductor
Tricolon
Rules for Lists
Asyndeton
Polysyndeton
Anaphora
Epistrophe
Anadiplosis
Alliteration and Assonance
Summary
viii Table of Contents
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 47
Figures of Similarity and Difference
Introduction
Analogy and Simile
Analogies for Comprehension
Analogies for Clarity
Analogies for Coherence
Analogies for Arguments
The Vernacular Academic
Unearthing Metaphor
Mastering Metaphor
Extending Metaphor
Metaphors for Coherence
Metaphorical Sunken Cars
Metaphors Unbounded
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Personification Tells Stories
Personification Signals
Egregious Ergatives
Synesthesia
Antithesis
Platinum Antithesis
Chiasmus
Summary
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 73
Figures of Expansion and Contraction
Introduction
Anecdote
Dialogismus
Talk to your Readers
Rhetorical Questions
Rhetorical Questions for Effects
Epiplexis
Parenthesis
Parenthetically Speaking
Adding the Essentially Unessential
Summary
Seductive Academic Writing ix
Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 89
Figures of Play and Mischief
Introduction
Lightening the Load
The Surprise of Laughter
Irony
Ridicule
Litotes
Ridicule Redux
Paradox
Paradox Standing Truth on her Head
Paradoxes to Console and to Chide
Paradoxes and Wit
Wordplay
Puns
Summary
Part III: Figuring out more seductive academic prose
Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 107
Physician, Heal Thyself!
Admonishing the Sins of Academese
Bene Dicendi
Noblesse Oblige
The Rhetoric of Academese
Applied Linguistics Spreads Academese
Tales from the Front Line
Figuring out More Seductive Academic Prose
Optimism Leads the Way
Bibliography ............................................................................................ 119
Index ........................................................................................................ 129