BOOK REVIEWS 248 WRITING AN APPLIED LINGUISTICS THESIS OR DISSERTATION: A GUIDE TO PRESENTING EMPIRICAL RESEARCH c J. BITCHENER, WRITING AN APPLIED LINGUISTICS THESIS OR DISSERTATION: A GUIDE TO PRESENTING EMPIRICAL

Writing a thesis is a difficult task for most students. For many, it is their first experience. There are generally two kinds of resources that students can turn to in carrying out this task: those focusing on the research process or methodology (e.g. how to find a topic or how to conduct an interview), and those focusing on the writing up of the thesis. Most write-up books focus on referencing, and they tend to be generic. Some examine certain features in the writing such as stance, but few give an explicit description of the structure of each chapter or section. In responding to this need, Bitchener’s Writing an Applied Linguistics Thesis or Dissertation: A Guide to Presenting Empirical Research is a timely addition to the resources that are much needed by thesis writers. In evaluating any new book on thesis writing, one cannot help comparing it with Swales and Feak’s (2004) seminal book Academic Writing for Graduate Students – Essential Tasks and Skills, which has been widely used in English for Academic Purposes programs in universities. In this and their 2000 book, English in Today's Research World: A Writing Guide, Swales and Feak attempt to provide a generic guide for academic writing in general and thesis writing in particular. Yet, as we now know, theses vary greatly from one disciplin