English for Academic and Professional Purposes – SHS

Module
First Edition 2020

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Published by Department of Education

Secretary: Leonor Magtolis Briones
Undersecretary: Lorna Dig Dino

Development Team of the Module

Consultant and Editor:

Dr. Kyzil D. Lipar Ms. Barbra N. Villareal

Author:
Joecyl Philip V. Lauron

Layout Artist:
Joana J. Gumban
 11

EAPP Module

This worksheet was collaboratively developed and

reviewed by educators from public and private schools,
colleges, and universities. We encourage teachers and
other education stakeholders to email their feedback,
comments and recommendations to the Department of
Education at action@deped.gov.ph

Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
 Lesson

1 LANGUAGE USED IN
ACADEMIC TEXTS

The language you read in textbooks, in classrooms, on your tests and in

each discipline is considered as academic language. As a learner you
understand the text better when you know how the language is being used in
the reading material.
Academic language or text is dissimilar in vocabulary and structure from
the daily spoken English of social interactions. It is typically formal. It follows a
clearly structured introduction, body and conclusion. It also includes information
or facts from trustworthy sources which are properly cited.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
✓ Differentiate language used in academic texts from various
discipline;
✓ Determine the features of academic writing;
✓ Rewrite text using academic language.
s

Task 1. Examine the following texts and identify any significant features.
What kind of text does the extract come from and how does the language differ
between the texts?

In hard water areas, regular descaling is essential to keep your

Example:
kettle in good working order.
If your kettle switches off before it has boiled it indicates your
kettle needs descaling.
Descale your kettle using either a proprietary kettle descaler
suitable for plastic kettles. Follow manufacturer's instructions, or white
vinegar.
Fill the kettle with ½ l of 8° white vinegar.
 Leave to soak for 1 hour without boiling.
Empty your kettle and rinse it two or three times with clear water
or citric acid.
Boil 0.5 l of water.
Add 25 g of citric acid.
Leave to soak for 15 minutes.
Discard this mixture.
Rinse the kettle with clear water two or three times.
Repeat process if needed.
Descaling agents for metal kettles, coffee makers or steam irons
are unsuitable and will damage your Tefal kettle. Never use metal
abrasives to clean the interior.
When using powder descaler or citric acid, always add water.
Never use in an empty kettle.
Always follow the directions for use on the descaler carefully.
Rinse the inside well after using a descaler.

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Costata alla Pizzaaiola

Serves 4

1.5 lb (750 g) thinly sliced sirloin or rump steak or veal or

chicken breasts, skinned
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1.5 lb (750 g) canned tomatoes, sieved
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 tablespoons chopped basil salt and pepper
Trim any gristle and fat off the meat, flatten it as much as possible
with a meat mallet and set it to one side. Heat the oil in a frying-pan wide
enough to take all the meat in a single layer, add the garlic and fry gently
 gently for about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, parsley and basil, stir and
bring to the boil. Slip the meat into the tomato sauce, cook very quickly
for about 5 minutes, sprinkle with salt and plenty of pepper and serve at
once.

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This paper examines interaction in written text through the

interplay between the notions of text averral and attribution (Sinclair,
1988). Text averral is evidenced in the unmarked parts of the text, where
the utterances are assumed to be attributed to the author. Attribution,
the counterpart of text averral, is the marked case where the sources of
authority are clearly signaled.

It is hoped that this study will add to our knowledge about the
characteristics of different types of text, and illuminate the way for
students who find themselves lost amidst the echoes of the multiple
voices they hear within the same text.
Text averral and attribution are basic notions for the organization
of interaction in written text. The assumption is made that the author of
a non-fictional artefact (Sinclair, 1986) avers every statement in his or
her text so long as he/she does not attribute these statements to another
source - whether that source is other or self. Averral is manifested in
various ways in the text - negatively, through absence of attribution, and
positively, through commenting, evaluating or metastructuring of the
discourse. Attribution, on the other hand, is signaled in the text by a
number of devices of which reporting is an obvious one.

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 Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one central
point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of argument, without
digressions or repetitions. Its objective is to inform rather than entertain. As well
as this it is in the standard written form of the language. There are ten main
features of academic writing that are often discussed. Academic writing is to
some extent: complex, formal, objective, explicit, hedged, and responsible. It
uses language precisely and accurately. It is also well organised and planned.

Complexity
Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language.
Written language has longer words, it is lexically denser and it has a more
varied vocabulary. It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases.
Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity,
including more subordinate clauses and more passives.

Formality
Academic writing is relatively formal. In general, this means that in an
essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.

Precision
In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely.

Objectivity
Written language is in general objective rather than personal. It therefore
has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader. This means that the main
emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the arguments
you want to make, rather than you. For that reason, academic writing tends to
use nouns (and adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs).

Explicitness
Academic writing is explicit about the relationships int he text.
Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to
the reader how the various parts of the text are related. These connections can
be made explicit by the use of different signaling words.
Accuracy
Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have words
with narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly between
"phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not.

Hedging
In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make decisions
about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are
making. Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways.
A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by
linguists as a ‘hedge’.

1 Introductory verbs: e.g. seem, tend, look like, appear to be, think, believe, doubt, be sure,
indicate, suggest
2. Certain lexical verbs e.g. believe, assume, suggest
3. Certain modal verbs: e.g. will, must, would, may, might, could
4. Adverbs of frequency e.g. often, sometimes, usually
4. Modal adverbs e.g. certainly, definitely, clearly, probably, possibly, perhaps, conceivably,
5. Modal adjectives e.g. certain, definite, clear, probable, possible
6. Modal nouns e.g. assumption, possibility, probability
7. That clauses e.g. It could be the case that…
e.g. It might be suggested that…
e.g. There is every hope that…
8. To-clause + adjective e.g. It may be possible to obtain…
e.g. It is important to develop…
e.g. It is useful to study…

Responsibility
In academic writing you must be responsible for, and must be able to
provide evidence and justification for, any claims you make. You are also
responsible for demonstrating an understanding of any source texts you use.

Organization
Academic writing is well organised. It flows easily from one section to the
next in a logical fashion. A good place to start is the genre of your text. Once
you have decided on the genre, the structure is easily determined.

Planning
Academic writing is well planned. It usually takes place after research
and evaluation, according to a specific purpose and plan.
 Activity 1. Identify the hedging expressions in the following
sentences. Underline the correct hedging expression.
1. There is no difficulty in explaining how a structure such as an eye or a
feather contributes to survival and reproduction; the difficulty is in
thinking of a series of steps by which it could have arisen.
2. For example, it is possible to see that in January this person weighed
60.8 kg for eight days.
3. For example, it may be necessary for the spider to leave the branch on
which it is standing, climb up the stem, and walk out along another
branch.
4. Escherichia coli, when found in conjunction with urethritis, often indicate
infection higher in the uro-genital tract.
5. There is experimental work to show that a week or ten days may not be
long enough and a fortnight to three weeks is probably the best
theoretical period.
6. Conceivably, different forms, changing at different rates and showing
contrasting combinations of characteristics, were present in different
areas.
7. One possibility is that generalized latent inhibition is likely to be weaker
than that produced by pre-exposure to the CS itself and thus is more
likely to be susceptible to the effect of the long interval.
8. For our present purpose, it is useful to distinguish two kinds of chemical
reaction, according to whether the reaction releases energy or requires
it.
9. It appears to establish three categories: the first contains wordings
generally agreed to be acceptable, the second wordings which appear
to have been at some time problematic but are now acceptable, and the
third wordings which remain inadmissible.
10. Nowadays the urinary symptoms seem to be of a lesser order.
 Activity 2. Identify the informal expressions in the following
sentences. Rewrite the following sentences, replacing the informal
expressions with a more formal equivalent.
1. With women especially, there is a lot of social pressure to conform
to a certain physical shape.
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2. Significantly, even at this late date, Lautrec was considered a bit
conservative by his peers.
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3. It focused on a subject that a lot of the bourgeois and upper-class
exhibition-going public regarded as anti-social and anti-
establishment.
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4. When a patient is admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit, the
clinical team should avoid the temptation to start specific
treatments immediately.
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____________________________________________________
5. Therefore, after six months the dieter is behaving according to all
twenty-six goals and she has achieved a big reduction in sugar
intake.
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WRAP IT UP

Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one

central point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of
argument, without digressions or repetitions. Its objective is to inform
rather than entertain.
Academic writing is to some extent: complex, formal, objective,
explicit, hedged, and responsible. It uses language precisely and
accurately. It is also well organised and planned.
 Task 1. Rewrite the following text in a more academic style.

Until only a few hundred years ago doctors didn't operate on people - it
was barbers. No-one had taught them and they'd never got any qualifications.
They just did what they'd learned when they were learning to be barbers.
Doctors had promised not to hurt anyone so they wouldn't cut people and were
not even supposed to watch. But the doctors did watch if they were following
the rules properly and he sat on a big chair, high up, and read out what the
barber was supposed to do. He read this in Latin, which, of course, the barber
didn't understand. Of course, if you died, it was always the barber's fault and if
you got better, the doctor got the praise. In any case, the doctor got the most
money.

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REFERENCES GALLERY

http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/featfram.htm
ANSWER KEYS

Tone Up

Task 1
Text 1 is a recipe from a recipe book. Some features are: list of ingredients,
instructions using imperative verbs "Trim, Add, Heat".

Text 2
Text 2 is the introduction from an academic article. Some features are: objective
impersonal language "This paper examines, It is hoped", citations "Sinclair,
1988", nominalisation (nouns, not verbs) "interaction, attribution".

Work It Out

Activity 1: Identify the hedging expressions in the following sentences.

1. There is no difficulty in explaining how a structure such as an eye or a

feather contributes to survival and reproduction; the difficulty is in
thinking of a series of steps by which it could have arisen.
2. For example, it is possible to see see that in January this person
weighed 60.8 kg for eight days,
3. For example, it may be necessary for the spider to leave the branch on
which it is standing, climb up the stem, and walk out along another
branch.
4. Escherichia coli , when found in conjunction with
urethritis, often indicate infection higher in the uro-genital tract.
5. There is experimental work to show that a week or ten days may not be
long enough and a fortnight to three weeks is probably the best
theoretical period.
6. Conceivably, different forms, changing at different rates and showing
contrasting combinations of characteristics, were present in different
areas.
7. One possibility is that generalized latent inhibition is likely to be weaker
than that produced by pre-exposure to the CS itself and thus is more
likely to be susceptible to the effect of the long interval.
8. For our present purpose, it is useful to distinguish two kinds of
chemical reaction, according to whether the reaction releases energy
or requires it.
9. It appears to establish three categories: the first contains wordings
generally agreed to be acceptable, the second wordings
which appear to have been at some time problematic but are now
acceptable, and the third wordings which remain inadmissible.
 10. Nowadays the urinary symptoms seem to be of a lesser order.

Activity 2.

1. With women especially, there is a great deal of social pressure to

conform to a certain physical shape.

2. Significantly, even at this late date, Lautrec was

considered somewhat conservative by his peers.

3. It focused on a subject that much of the bourgeois and upper-class

exhibition-going public regarded as anti-social and anti-establishment.

4. When a patient is admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit, the clinical

team should avoid the temptation to commence specific treatments
immediately.

5. Therefore after six months the dieter is behaving according to all

twenty-six goals and she has achieved a considerable reduction in sugar
intake.

Think Out

Activity 1.

Answers vary.
METADATA

Title English for Academic and Professional

Purposes

Language English

Keywords Academic Text, Language

Description The module will help learners to differentiate

language used in academic text from various
disciplines.

Primary Media Print Material

Primary Storage Flash drive, CD

Resource Location Department of Education

Region VI – Western Visayas
Division of Aklan

Developer Joecyl Philip V. Lauron