Review with Marina Reis de Souza: “Academic Research Skills” by Ronny Baierl
Academic Research Skills–Akademische Forschungskompetenzen bilingualis anacademic writing and research guide for students who are about to start workingon their Master’s thesis. The book is aimed at preparing students for this task re-gardless of the academic discipline and was published as a bilingual edition (Ger-man-English). Firstly, it targets German-speaking students who usually avoid textsin English and want to familiarize themselves with the vocabulary of academic re-search and writing skills. Secondly, it also aims at being a resource for English-speaking students who need to acquire the previously mentioned skills to study atGerman-speaking universities.The book is divided into six chapters which include two lessons each, totalingtwelve lessons. Chapter1 introduces the aim of the book (pp. 10–21) and provides adescription of its target group, that is, Master’s students. Baierl assumes that hisprospective readers have already acquired fundamental skills in academic writingwhile obtaining their Bachelor’s degree (p. 16–17) and have a more profound under-standing of academic research now as Master’s students. For those students whoneed to refresh their knowledge, the book offers resources concerning basic studyskills as well as a checklist on mistakes to avoid when writing academic papers,such as creating an“unprofessional cover sheet with missing or even incorrect in-formation”and writing“short paragraphs consisting of just one sentence and un-sightly and inconsistent paragraph formatting”(p. 21).Chapter2 clarifies the key role of academic writing and explains the concepts ofgood academic practice and misconduct (pp. 22–37). Readers are invited to reflect onthe twelve scientific quality criteria (according to Balzert et al. 2012) that contributeto good academic standards. These criteria include objectivity, honesty, verifiability,reliability, validity, comprehensibility, relevance, argumentation logic, originality,traceability, fairness, and responsibility. In relation to these, students are presentedwith the consequences of academic misconduct, from failing a course to the expul-sion from university. Baierl also describes what students must pay attention to …
