English for Academic and
Professional Purposes
Lesson 1: Academic Writing
Academic Writing – a process that starts
with posing a question, problematizing a
concept, evaluating an opinion, and ends in
answering the questions posed, clarifying
the problem, and arguing for a stand.
Purposes of Academic Writing
 To report findings from research
endeavors
 To discuss a concept to a greater
populace
 To formulate a solution to a problem
 To evaluate programs and personnel
Writing is a form of communication that is
shaped by the following factors:
1. Topic
 What is the text about?
 What details am I imparting to the
readers?
2. Role
 Who am I as a writer?
 Do I write as a sibling? A student? A
son/daughter? A customer?
3. Purpose
 Why am I writing this in the first
place?
4. Audience
 Who is reading this piece?
 What knowledge does he/she need
to understand in my writing?
Lesson 2: Reading Across
Disciplines
Strategic Reading – an effective way of
understanding a text by employing
strategies to understand content and
structure better, which will result in reading
proficiency
Other Reading Strategies and Techniques
 Making Inferences
 Skimming
 Scanning
 Detailed Reading and Note Taking
 Drawing Conclusions
3 Types of Reading Problems
 Lack of cognitive abilities
 Negative attitude towards reading
 Don’t know how to read different
kinds of text
3 Main Barriers to Content Area Reading
1. Content-specific vocabulary
2. Prior knowledge about the content
area subject
3. Understanding of text features and
organization of the text
Four Characteristics of Strategic Readers
(Brown & Briggs, 2017)
1. They set a purpose for reading.
2. They employ reading strategies
appropriate to a specific text.
3. They check their understanding of
the text.
4. They show a positive attitude toward
reading.
Lesson 3: Aspects of Professional and 4) Caution – Academic writing requires
Academic Language care since knowledge is built from
proven theories and concepts.
Four Important Features of Language Therefore, caution is needed to avoid
1) Formality – The language you use sweeping generalizations.
requires precision to make it a
“legitimate” piece of academic In academic writing, caution needs to be
observed in the following parts of the
writing. paper:
 Reflects your dignified stance 1. Hypothesis
in your writing as a member of 2. Drawing conclusions or predictions
the academic community. 3. Referencing
Formality can be achieved through the
following ways: Verbs indicating caution:
o Expanded modal forms over  Tend
contracted forms  Appear to be
o One-verb form over two-word verbs  Believe
o Expanded terms over their
 Indicate
abbreviated equivalents
o Avoiding colloquial or idioms  Suggest
 Think
 Doubt
2) Objectivity – Writing must be Modal verbs:
impersonal and maintains a certain  Will
level of social distance  Would
Objectivity can be achieved by:  Can
o Avoiding the use of personal  Could
pronouns.
 Must
o Avoiding rhetorical questions
o Avoiding emotive language that  May
shows biases and lessens objectivity  Might

Structure – sentences need to be

3) Explicitness – Academic writing constructed in such a way that they show a
demands the use of signposts that level of complexity that reflects the
allow readers to trace the sophistication of an academic writer
relationships in the parts of a study.
 If you intend to show a change
in your line of argument, make
it clear by using however.
Useful phrases in making ideas explicit:
o This is due to the…
o This resulted in…
o Similarly…
o In addition…
o For example…