ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING – HANDOUT 2

TASK I. Use nominalization to give formality to these sentences:

1. His father died. This was probably one of the reasons why he failed the exams.
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2. Telephones are often not reliable. This makes matters complicated.
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3. Parents are not concerned about their children. This results in their children feeling rejected.
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4. The student did badly in the exam. This may have been because he was ill.
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5. Children are taught music. This is very important.
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6. Many rural people are illiterate. This makes finding a job in a town difficult.
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7. People burn oil and coal to produce energy and heat. This causes excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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8. The government intends to build more schools. This has been announced in the press.
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9. He is afraid of the sight of blood. This puts him off studying medicine.
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10. He smokes first thing in the morning. This irritates his wife.
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11. People are greedy. This cannot be changed.
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12. We need to build up our bodies. This is one of the main reasons why we eat.
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13. Some people cannot speak a foreign language. This may be due to a psychological problem.
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14. She failed the exam. This made her very depressed.
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15. The lawyer was closely involved in his client’s case. This is not a good thing.
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TASK II. Use formal verbs and other parts of speech to give formality to these sentences:
1. Researchers looked at the way strain builds up around a fault.
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2. Expert Systems can help out the user in the diagnosis of problems.
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3. This program was set up to improve access to medical care.
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4. Research expenditures have gone up to nearly 300 million dollars.
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5. The use of optical character readers should cut down the number of problems with the U.S mail service.
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6. Researchers have found out that this drug has serious side effects.
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7. Building a nuclear power plant will not get rid of the energy problem completely.
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8. Researchers have been looking into this problem for 15 years now.
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9. This issue was brought up during the investigation
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10. Engineers can come up with better designs using CAD

MORE PRACTICE WITH FORMAL VOCABULARY

Formal Informal
seem
help
commence
show
ask
preserve
live
tell
cease