EAPP [TRANSES]

TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED

TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA

English for academic and

professional purposes
Academic writing
WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITING? Ex:
It is clear, concise, focused, structured and o As a teacher, you must treat your
backed up by evidence. Its purpose is to aid students fairly.
the reader’s understanding.  As a teacher, one must treat one’s
students fairly.
Ex:  Teachers must treat their students fairly.
 People have been interested in this
thing for a long time. Move information around in the sentence to
 Researchers have been interested in this emphasize things and ideas, instead of people
phenomenon for at least 10 years. and feelings.
Ex:
o focused, structured o I believe the model is valid, based on
Pay attention to structure at three levels: these findings.
- Sentence Structure  These findings indicate that the model is
- Paragraph Structure valid.
- Overall Structure
Avoid evaluative words that are based on non-
o backed up by evidence technical judgements and feelings.
Clear Ex:
Concise o Amazing
Focused  Valid or did not demonstrate
Structured o Disappointment
Backed up by evidence  Did not demonstrate

Academic writing is generally quite formal, Avoid intense or emotional evaluative

objective, and technical. It is formal by
avoiding casual or conversational language,
such as contractions or informal vocabulary.
Ex:
 Also, a lot of the findings are a little
unreliable.
 Moreover, many of the findings are
somewhat unreliable.
It is objective by avoiding direct reference to
people or feelings, and instead emphasising
objects, facts and ideas.
language.
Ex:
o Parents who smoke are obviously
abusing their children.
 Secondhand smoke has some harmful
effects on children’s health.
Use modality to show caution about your
views, or to allow room for others to disagree.
Ex:
o I think secondhand smoke causes
cancer.
 There is evidence to support the
possibility that secondhand smoke
increases the risk of cancer.
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TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED
TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA

Find authoritative sources, such as authors,

researchers and theorists in books or articles,
who support your point of view, and refer to
them in your writing.
Ex:
o Language is, in my view, clearly
something social.
 As Halliday (1973) argues, language is
intrinsically social.

It is technical by using vocabulary specific to

the discipline.

 Formal Evidenced
It demonstrates knowledge of the subject
 Objective area, supports opinions and arguments with
 Technical evidence, and is referenced accurately.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ACADEMIC Getting Started…

WRITING
• What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism means using another’s work without
Planned and Focused
giving them credit and saying that it is your
It answers the question
own (Mirka, 2004, The Plagiarism Trap).
and demonstrates an understanding of the
subject.

Why is plagiarism important? Who really cares?

 Plagiarism is theft of intellectual property.
 Plagiarism is cheating.
 Plagiarism may result in receiving a failing
Structured
grade or zero for the assignment.
It is coherent, written in a
logical order, and brings
TWO TYPES OF PLAGIARISM:
together related points and material.
- Intentional
- Unintentional
EAPP [TRANSES]
TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED
TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA

 Intentional
• Copying a friend’s work
• Buying or borrowing papers
• Cutting and pasting blocks of
text from electronic sources
without documenting
• Media “borrowing” without
documentation
• Web publishing without
permissions of creators
 Unintentional
• Careless paraphrasing
• Poor documentation
• Quoting excessively
• Failure to use your own “voice”
Indeed, blogging can be used by
teachers as an avenue to allow students to
develop skills in writing, communicate
viewpoints, and express deep thoughts. It can
be a worthwhile activity for students and a
means for teachers to correspond with
colleagues.
Formal in Tone and Style
It uses appropriate language and tenses, and
is clear, concise and balanced.
FEATURES OF ACADEMIC WRITING

Ex: [NOTE:
IN TOTO: Different disciplines also have different styles
The achievement of students is negatively and structures of writing. For example, some
correlated with the low SES level of parents disciplines, such as in the humanities, expect
because it hinders the individual in gaining longer paragraphs, which include topic
access to sources and resources of learning sentences to show how your argument is
(Eamon, 2005). structured. Other disciplines, for example in the
sciences, expect short paragraphs, with no
topic sentences, which are denser in factual
information.]
PARAPHRASED:
According to Eamon (2005), there is a
negative correlation between student’s
achievement and the low socioeconomic
level of parents, as there would be the lack of
opportunity for the use sources and resources
of learning.
IN TOTO WITH SYNTHESIS:
Blogs provide a communication space
that teachers can utilize with students
whenever there is a curriculum need to
develop writing, share ideas and reflect on
work being undertaken in the classroom. From
an education perspective, the availability and
ease of use of blogging software makes Academic writing in English is linear, which
creating blogs a viable classroom activity and means it has one central point or theme with
a means for teachers to communicate with every part contributing to the main line of
other teachers (Retrieved from argument, without digressions or repetitions.
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/
education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/ Its objective is to inform rather than entertain.
on Nov. 6, 2011). As well as this it is in the standard written form of
the language.
EAPP [TRANSES]
TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED
TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA
There are nine 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.
1. COMPLEXITY
Written language is relatively more complex
than spoken language.
Written language has longer words, it is
lexically more dense and it has a more varied
vocabulary.
It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-
based phrases.
Ex:
o Many factors must be considered in
explaining how fast the population has
grown in the developing countries.
 Many factors must be considered in
explaining the rapid growth of
population in the developing countries.
o Many futile attempts have been made
to teach animals to speak how humans
speak.
 Many futile attempts have been made
to teach animals to speak in human
fashion.
o Pangga used a set of plastic chips to
teach a chimpanzee named Sarah
what a set of symbols mean.
 Pangga used a set of plastic chips to
teach a chimpanzee named Sarah the
meaning of a set of symbols.
o Daniel (1973) has shown that non-
speaking chimpanzees can convey
where food is to one another.
 Daniel (1973) has shown that non-
speaking chimpanzees can convey the
location of food to one another.
o Like all other forms of life, we human
beings are the product of how we have
evolved.
 Like all other forms of life, we human
beings are the product of evolution.
o How big this group varies in different
centres.
 The size of this group varies in different
centres.
2. FORMALITY
Academic writing is relatively formal. In general
this means that in an essay you should avoid
colloquial words and expressions.
In general this means in an essay that you
should avoid:
• colloquial words and expressions; ""stuff",
"a lot of", "thing", "sort of",
• abbreviated forms: "can't", "doesn't",
"shouldn't"
• two word verbs: "put off", "bring up"
• sub-headings, numbering and bullet-
points in formal essays - but use them in
reports.
• asking questions.
Ex:
 Later, Florey got together (Correct:
COLLABORATED) with Paul Fildes in an
experimental study of the use of curare
to relieve the intractable muscular
spasms which occur in fully developed
infection with tetanus or lockjaw.
 Modern houses have so many labour-
saving things (Correct: DEVICES) that it is
difficult for the person at home to have
adequate exercise by doing chores,
cooking, and looking after a family.
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TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED
TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA
 Effective vaccines prevent such
hazards, but only if a social organisation
makes sure (Correct: ENSURES) that all
potential mothers are vaccinated in
good time.
 These aren't (Correct: ARE NOT) at all
original or exotic but are based on the
ordinary things that most people tend to
eat.
 Fleming did well (Correct: SUCCEEDED)
in isolating a streptococcus from the
cerebrospinal fluid of the patient.
 In 2021, the Bernadette-Siena club
brought up (Correct: RAISED) the
question of excluding Seyken from the
sterling area.
 This isn't (Correct: IS NOT) easy to do
since most historians persist in speaking
of The National Government as if the
same sort of government ruled from
1931 to 1940.
3. PRECISION
In academic writing, facts and figures are
given precisely. In academic writing you need
to be precise when you use information, dates
or figures. Do not use "a lot of people" when
you can say "50 million people".
Ex:
Chemists had attempted to synthesize quinine
for the previous hundred years but all they had
achieved was to discover the extreme
complexity of the problem.
The volatile oily liquid beta-chloro-beta-ethyl
sulphide was first synthesized in 1854, and in
1887 it was reported to produce blisters if it
touched the skin. It was called mustard gas
and was used at Ypres in 19I7, when it caused
many thousands of casualties.
It is approximately eight inches in length and
runs from the urinary bladder, through the
prostate gland, under the front of the pelvis,
and, passing through the corpus spongiosum, it
ends at the tip of the glans penis in an opening
called the urethral meatus.
4. 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.
Ex:
o In my opinion…
o I think that…
o I like/dislike…
 I conducted interviews with…
 I argue that…
 I hope to achieve…
Don't write:" In my opinion, this a very
interesting study."
Write: "This is a very interesting study."
Don't write: "You can easily forget how different
life was 50 years ago."
Write: "It is easy to forget how difficult life was
50 years ago."
5. EXPLICITNESS
Academic writing is explicit about the
relationships in the 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 signalling words.
EAPP [TRANSES]
TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED
TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA
 For example, if you want to tell your
reader that your line of argument is
going to change, make it clear.
The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new
advance on American types such as the
Lockheed Constellation and Douglas DC-6,
which did not have the range to fly the
Atlantic non-stop. It was also to be the largest
aircraft ever built in Britain. However, even by
the end of the war, the design had run into
serious difficulties.
 If you think that one sentence gives
reasons for something in another
sentence, make it explicit.
While an earlier generation of writers had
noted this feature of the period, it was not until
the recent work of Cairncross that the
significance of this outflow was realized. Partly
this was because the current account deficit
appears much smaller in current (1980s) data
than it was thought to be by contemporaries.
 If you think two ideas are almost the
same, say so.
Marx referred throughout his work to other
systems than the capitalist system, especially
those which he knew from the history of Europe
to have preceded capitalism; systems such as
feudalism, where the relation of production
was characterized by the personal relation of
the feudal lord and his serf and a relation of
subordination which came from the lord's
control of the land. Similarly, Marx was
interested in slavery and in the classical Indian
and Chinese social systems, or in those systems
where the ties of local community are all
important.
 If you intend your sentence to give extra
information, make it clear.
He is born into a family, he marries into a
family, and he becomes the husband and
father of his own family. In addition, he has a
definite place of origin and more relatives than
he knows what to do with, and he receives a
rudimentary education at the Canadian
Mission School.
 If you are giving examples, do it
explicitly.
This has sometimes led to disputes between
religious and secular clergy, between orders
and bishops. For example, in the Northern
context, the previous bishop of Down and
Connor, Dr Philbin, refused for most of his
period of leadership in Belfast to have Jesuits
visiting or residing in his diocese.
Signalling words
- however
- because
- similarly
- in addition
- for example
6. ACCURACY
In academic writing you need to be accurate
in your use of vocabulary. Do not confuse, for
example, "phonetics" and "phonology" or
"grammar" with "syntax".
Ex:
A rent charge is the right to receive an annual
sum out of the income of land every year.
FAULT: Grammar - duplication of meaning -
"annual" = "every year"
CORRECTION: A rent charge is the right to
receive an annual sum out of the income of
land.
EAPP [TRANSES]
TEACHER: IRIS BILLONES, MAED
TRANS BY: DIMAR RAY ROLIDA

He is a former student who I've not seen for

years. You are also responsible for demonstrating an
FAULT: "who“ is the object therefore should be understanding of any source texts you use. This
"whom" is done by paraphrasing and summarising what
CORRECTION: He is a former student whom I've you read and acknowledging the source of this
not seen for years. information or ideas by a system of citation.

I have now discussed the proposals for 8. ORGANIZATION

replacing all the computers with my
colleagues.
FAULT: Grammar - meaning confused by word
order
CORRECTION: I have now discussed with my
colleagues the proposals for replacing all the
computers.
- 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.
Genres are defined by their purpose, their
audience and their structure. Looking at
typical structures can help you with your
organisation.

The following genres are common in higher

education.

1. Essays
2. Reports
3. Case Studies
4. Research proposals
5. Book reviews
6. Brief research reports
7. Literature reviews
8. Reflective writing
9. Introductions
10. Research methods
11. Research results
12. Research discussions
13. Writing conclusions
14. Research abstracts
15. Research dissertations & theses
The essential feature of these results has been
9. PLANNING
amply confirmed.
Academic writing is well planned. It usually
FAULT: Spelling
CORRECTION: The essential feature of these takes place after research and evaluation,
results has been amply confirmed. according to a specific purpose and plan.

7. RESPONSIBILITY
In academic writing you must be responsible
for, and must be able to provide evidence and
justification for, any claims you make.