Module 2

Aspects of Professional and Academic Language

Topic: Aspects of Professional and Academic Language

Overview:
Good day, dear learner!
Welcome to Module 2! This module is solely prepared for you to access and to acquire
lessons befitted in your grade level. Indeed, this learning resource is for you to fully comprehend
the Lesson Two: Aspects of Professional and Academic Language. Independently, you are going
to go through this module following its proper sequence.
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Learning
Objectives

At the end of this module, students are expected to: Commented [1]: Add affective objective

✔ Demostrate understanding of Identify the four important features of Academic

Writing
✔ Compose a sentence using different expressions that would make the idea explicit
✔ Rewrite sentences, replacing the informal expressions with a more formal
equivalent.
✔ Create a 250-300 words discussion about ways to relieve stress
 WHAT’S NEW?
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 rather to inform than to entertain. As well as this it is in the standard written form of
the language. It uses language precisely and accurately. It is also well organized and planned.
In the first lesson, you were taught that writers are influenced by the topic, their own role,
their audience, and their purpose. These four elements influence use of language. On the other
hand, academic writing requires sophisticated use of language. Since our task as students includes
writing for assignments, exams, and reports, there is an expected quality in your use of language
and structuring of texts.
There are four important features of language use that you need to know about:
• Formality
• Objectivity
• Explicitness
• Caution

LET’S START!

FORMALITY
Formality in writing refers to how well you follow standard English conventions, how
often you use slang or idioms, how objective you are about your topic, and how familiar or intimate
you assume you are with readers. Generally, writing falls into the following four levels of
formality.
In general, this means in an essay that you should avoid:
a. colloquial words and expressions; ""stuff", "a lot of", "thing", "sort of",
b. abbreviated forms: "can't", "doesn't", "shouldn't"
c. two-word verbs: "put off", "bring up"
d. sub-headings, numbering and bullet-points in formal essays - but use them in reports. e. asking
questions.

OBJECTIVITY
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. This is related to the basic nature of academic
study and academic writing, in particular. Nobody really wants to know what you "think" or
"believe". They want to know what you have studied and learned and how this has led you to your
various conclusions. The thoughts and beliefs should be based on your lectures, reading, discussion
and research and it is important to make this clear.

● Compare these two paragraphs:

The question of what constitutes "language proficiency" and the nature of its cross-lingual
dimensions is also at the core of many hotly debated issues in the areas of bilingual education and
second language pedagogy and testing. Researchers have suggested ways of making second
language teaching and testing more "communicative" (e.g., Canale and Swain, 1980; Oller, 1979b)
on the grounds that a communicative approach better reflects the nature of language proficiency
than one which emphasizes the acquisition of discrete language skills.

We don't really know what language proficiency is but many people have talked about it
for a long time. Some researchers have tried to find ways for us to make teaching and testing more
communicative because that is how language works. I think that language is something we use for
communicating, not an object for us to study and we remember that when we teach and test it.

● Which is the most objective?

In general, avoid words like "I", "me", "myself".

A reader will normally assume that any idea not referenced is your own. It is therefore unnecessary
to make this explicit.
Don't write:" In my opinion, this a very interesting study." Write: "This is a very interesting study."

Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general.

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."

● Examples

Clearly this was far less true of France than ...

This is where the disagreements and controversies begin ... The data indicates that ...
This is not a view shared by everyone; Jones, for example, claims that .... . .very few people would
claim ...
It is worthwhile at this stage to consider ...
Of course, more concrete evidence is needed before ...
Several possibilities emerge ...
A common solution is ...

Objectivity is a characteristic of academic discourse. Although we can sometimes make an

emotional connection with our audience by referring to our personal, subjective experience,
it’s not considered the ordinary way of developing an academic topic.
When you present an opinion on a topic, consider it your job to convince your reader that
yours is the best opinion, or the only correct opinion, on the subject. Accordingly, eliminate
subjective, first-person, words like I, me, and my.
Examples:
Weak: In my personal opinion, I believe that money and similar material rewards are limited in
their effect.
Better: In this paper, I will argue that money and similar material rewards are limited in their
effect.
Best: Clearly, money and similar material rewards are limited in their effect.

Likewise, when you present a summary of a text, focus on the information, not your experience of
it.
Again, eliminate subjective words that you would use to refer to yourself.

Examples:
Weak: In my personal opinion, I believe that Daniel Pink is correct when he says that money
and similar material rewards are limited in their effect.
Better: Daniel Pink argues convincingly that money and similar material rewards are limited in
their effect.

Weak: When I read Daniel Pink’s Drive, I was impressed by his research on motivation. Better:
Daniel Pink’s book Drive presents his impressive research on motivation.

Be careful with evaluative statements: In most academic writing, we use sources to support our
research and do so with little or no subjective evaluation of those sources. When we do make
evaluative statements, we don’t normally use “I” or “me” statements. Instead, we take the reader’s
point of view. This can be done with “we” (referring to your audience and yourself collectively)
or “you” (in more informal or semi-formal texts) or a third-person point of view.

Examples:
Weak: Susan Cain’s argument is clear to me. Better: Susan Cain’s argument is clear to us.
Better: Susan Cain’s argument is clear to the reader.
Best: Susan Cain’s argument is clear.
 An Exception: When you present evidence that you gathered by yourself, or especially,
when you support an argument by means of your own life history or any personal experience, it is
appropriate to narrate in the first person. And in papers where you have done original research,
and present your research method in part of the paper, you must be somewhat subjective in those
passages.

EXPLICITNESS
Academic writing is explicit in several ways.
1. It is explicit in its signposting of the organization of the ideas in the text (Biber, Johansson,
Leech, Conrad & Finegan, 1999, pp. 880-882). As a writer of academic English, it is your
responsibility to make it clear to your reader how various parts of the text are related. These
connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling words.

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.

2. It is explicit in its acknowledgment of the sources of the ideas in the text.

If you know the source of the ideas you are presenting, acknowledge it.
Do THIS in academic writing
McGreil (1977: 363-408) has shown that though Dubliners find the English more
acceptable than the Northern Irish, Dubliners still seek a solution to the Northern problem
within an all-Ireland state.
NOT
Although Dubliners find the English more acceptable than the Northern Irish,
Dubliners still seek a solution to the Northern problem within an all-Ireland state.
NOT
Researchers have shown that though Dubliners find the English more acceptable
than the Northern Irish, Dubliners still seek a solution to the Northern problem within an
all-Ireland state.

Writing paragraphs: SIGNALING

Every paragraph has a structure. It is not just a random collection of sentences. The parts
that make up the text are related in meaningful ways to each other. It is the responsibility
of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how various parts of the paragraph
are connected. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling
words.

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.

Signaling words
1. Time/order: at first, eventually, finally, first, firstly, in the end, in the first place, in the second
place, lastly, later, next, second, secondly, to begin with
2. Comparison/similar ideas: in comparison, in the same way, similarly
3. Contrast/opposite ideas: but, despite, in spite of, even so, however, in contrast, in spite of
this, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, still, whereas, yet
4. Cause and effect: accordingly, as a consequence, as a result, because, because of this,
consequently, for this reason, hence, in consequence, in order to, owing to this, since, so, so
that, therefore, thus
5. Examples: for example, for instance, such as, thus, as follows
6. Generalization: as a rule, for the most part, generally, in general, normally, on the whole, in
most cases, usually
7. Stating the obvious: after all, as one might expect, clearly, it goes without saying, naturally,
obviously, of course, surely
8. Attitude: admittedly, certainly, fortunately, luckily, oddly enough, strangely enough,
undoubtedly, unfortunately
9. Summary/conclusion: finally, in brief, in conclusion, in short, overall, so, then, to conclude,
to sum up
10. Explanation/equivalence: in other words, namely, or rather, that is to say, this means, to be
more precise, to put it another way
11. Addition: apart from this, as well as, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, nor, not
only...but also, too, what is more
12. Condition: in that case, then
13. Support: actually, as a matter of fact, in fact, indeed
14. Contradiction: actually, as a matter of fact, in fact
15. Emphasis: chiefly, especially, in detail, in particular, mainly, notably, particularly

CAUTION

Academic Writing requires care since knowledge is built from proven theories and
concepts. Therefore, caution is needed to avoid sweeping generalizations. Consider the following
example:
● Government officials are corrupt.
The statement is not completely true, and the rhetorical impact of the statement may be
misleading. The statement can be improved through the use of devices such as modal verbs,
adverbs, or verbs.
Improved versions:
● Some government officials may be corrupt. (modal verb)
● Corruption is commonly linked to some key government officials. (adverb).
● A number of government officials tend to be linked with cases of corruption. (verb)
In academic writing, caution needs to be observed in the following parts of our paper.
1. When a hypothesis needs to be tested
2. Drawing conclusions or predictions from your findings that may geberalize certain
matters or may not be conclusive.
3. Referencing others’ work to build on your own paper.
Below are some forms that you may use in observing caution in writing.

❖ Verbs indicating caution: tends, suggests, appear to be, think, believe, doubt and indicate
Example:
The findings of the survey suggest that students who use the social networking in their academic
work tend to be more updated on recent developments in their respective subjects.

❖ Modal verbs: will, must, would, may, can, might, could

Example:
The observations of students’ use of social networking sites may lead to the different behaviors
that manifest in real-life communication.

❖ Adverbs of frequency: often, sometimes, usually

Example:
The essays that were given marks were usually high.
Since academic writing draws on previous writings done related to your topic (in the case
of research writing), it is important that creating knowledge is expressed through means that do
not lead to sweeping generalizations that may directly attack other writers’ point of view.
If your results show something different from another author’s ideas, there are possible ways in
writing these points.
1. The results contradict Meyer’s findings.
2. Teh results appear to be different from Meyer’s findings
While both sentences essentially mean the same thing, sentence 1 expresses an explicit
difference between your findings and of Meyer’s. this may be interpreted by readers as an attempt
to highlight your findings as superior compared to Meyer. On the other hand, sentence 2 shows
that you are distancing yourself from your work (basing conclusions on what is observed) and
comparing it to previous works done by other researchers relating your contributions to other ideas
in the discipline. Remember that in academic writing, since you are part of a community, it is
important that you express ideas with openness, striking a balance between being concise and
cautious.

STRUCTURE
Nominalization
Formal written English uses nouns more than verbs. For example, "judgement" rather than
"judge", "development" rather than "develop", "admiration" rather than "admire". Changing a verb
or other word into a noun is called nominalization.
Instead of:
This information enables us to formulate precise questions.
We would write:
This information enables the formulation of precise questions.

More examples are:

❖ There appeared to be evidence of differential treatment of children.
❖ This is reflected in our admiration for people who have made something of their lives,
sometimes against great odds, and in our somewhat disappointed judgment of those who
merely drift through life.
❖ All airfields in the country would be nationalized, and the government would continue with
the development of new aircraft as recommended by the Brabazon Committee.

Read the following text:

Reproduction with variation is a major characteristic of life. Without reproduction, life would
quickly come to an end. The earliest single-celled organisms reproduced by duplicating their
genetic material and then dividing in two. The two resulting daughter cells were identical to each
other and to the parent cell, except for mutations that occurred during the process of gene
duplication. Such errors, although rare, provided the raw material for biological evolution. The
combination of reproduction and errors in the duplication of genetic material results in biological
evolution, a change in the genetic composition of a population of organisms over time.
W. K. Purves, D. Sadava, G. H. Orians & H. C. Heller, Life: The science of biology, W. H.
Freeman, 2004
and compare it to:
 All organisms reproduce and sometimes when they reproduce, the children vary. This is an
important characteristic of life. If organisms did nor reproduce, life would quickly come to an end.
How did the earliest single-celled organisms reproduce? They duplicated their genetic material
and then they divided in two. Two daughter cells resulted from this process; they were identical to
each other and to the parent cell. But sometimes as the genes duplicated, they changed or mutated.
These errors are not very common but they provide the basic material for life to evolve. So, when
the genetic material duplicates, they reproduce and they make errors. As a result, there is a change
in what the genes are composed of. When these processes combine, life evolve.

The first text is more academic. The second text is longer. It has shorter sentences. It asks
question and answers them. All these features are typical of spoken language.
Compare these sentences:
1. Organisms reproduce. This is a major characteristic of life.
2. Reproduction is a major characteristic of life.

In general, they mean the same, but sentence 2 is expressed more concisely. It uses the
word “reproduction”, whereas sentence 1 uses the word “reproduce". Here the word “reproduce”
is a verb. It would change to “reproduces” if “organisms” changed to “an organism”.
“Reproduction” is a noun made from the verb “reproduce”; we call this process nominalizations.

Here are some more verbs that are commonly nominalized.

Verb Nominalization
reproduce reproduction
adapt adaptation
contract contraction
expand expansion
react reaction
rotate rotation
However, not all nominalized words end in “-tion”. Examples are:
1. The discovery of this general pattern generated the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.
2. It serves as a template for the synthesis of proteins.
3. The increase occurs because the number of individuals an area can support increases with
productivity, and with larger population sizes, species extinction rates are lower. But why should
species richness decrease when productivity is still higher?
4. This rise in body temperature inhibits the growth of the invading pathogen. Cytokines may also
attract phagocytic cells to the site of injury and initiate a specific response to the pathogen.

Others are: -ity ability, similarity, complexity; -ness blindness, darkness,

preparedness; - ment development, encouragement; -ship friendship; -age mileage; -ery
robbery, bribery; -al arrival; ance assistance, resemblance.
There are also other ways to nominalize:
• Some verbs are also used as nouns: plan, increase, influence, survey.
• Some involve a slight change: sell → sale, choose → choice.
• You can use the "-ing" form of the verb: selling, developing.

Furthermore, you can make nominalizations from adjectives by adding -ness, -ism,
or -ity. Add more to the table from your own reading.
Adjective Nominalizatio
n
appropriate appropriateness
active activism
complex complexity
desirable desirability
sceptical scepticism
willing willingness
 References:

Book based:

Valdez, P. “English for the Globalized Classroom Series: English for Academic
and Professional Purposes.” The Phoenix Publishing House, Inc., 2016