Incidents in an Educational Life

Incidents in an Educational Life is the educational memoir of John M. Swales, one of the world's leading scholars in the subfield of Applied Linguistics known as English for Specific Purposes. Swales has worked all over the world, taking teaching positions in Italy, Sweden, Libya, Sudan, the United Kingdom, and eventually at the University of Michigan. By the end of this year, Swales will have given about 70 keynote speeches in 30 countries. He has written and co-written 17 books, but this is the first with an autobiographical flavor. He is the author of the best-selling ""Academic Writing for Graduate Students"" and ""Genre Analysis"". In ""Incidents"", Swales recounts his educational history, and while he includes plenty of strong personal detail, it is the lessons he has learned both by being taught and by teaching that dominate every page. The story begins in England during World War II. The book traces his gradual transformation from student to English as a Second Language teacher, to one of the leading international figures in his field, stopping along the way to tell the sometimes amusing, sometimes painful anecdotes that made him the recognized scholar he is today. Swales' prose is clean, clear, readable, and entertaining. This volume will be both a pleasant and educational read for anyone considering Swales, his field, or the many forms of teaching that we all undertake.