Handout 1

COM 142- ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

MODULE 1: ACADEMIC WRITING

Unit 1: Introduction to academic writing

Activity 1: Differentiating between academic and non-academic writing

Lesson summary notes

Elements of effective writing

A. Style – how clearly we write- e.g. when writing an essay – must be well written, error
free, clear, logical – C’s of effective communication - clear explicit vs long winded sentences.
( verbose
Examples: Clarity; Conciseness, completeness, Concreteness
Objectivity – avoiding the use of personal pronouns – the reader is interested in the information
vs who did what - You may even have been taught (especially in certain
countries/cultures to avoid the use of personal pronouns in scientific writing. However,
it is now very common for scientific researchers to use them
Active vs passive voice - Example: We demonstrated that … ( Active voice) vs It was
demonstrated that . . . ( passive voice)
The passive voice can be appropriate in the Methods and Results sections. However,
particularly in the Discussion section of a paper, using the active voice can improve the
flow of your writing and help it to have greater engagement with your audience.

B. Tone – the language the writer uses to address audience – it can be friendly, authoritative, formal,
casual, and sarcastic, - therefore as a writer you need to be mindful of the feeling you are translating
through the words you use.
Choice of words
 Informal ( colloquial conversational, contractions, slang, connotations) vs formal (objective,
balanced etc)
 use words you know and are sure of what they mean, correct spelling
C. Structure – to match the intended purpose and audience of the text
 Organization of ideas
1. Developing a paragraph / written academic text
 Cohesion- how parts connect to one another- “sticks together”
 Coherence – making sense of ideas as a whole. It can be at:
a. paragraph level – topic sentence ( what the paragraph is about has to be clearly
articulated in this sentence), supporting details and conclusion
b. b. text level coherence – how ideas are organized in a text – the organizational
pattern of ideas in an essay

Contehb, February 2023.

 Handout 1

Examples: Chronological – step by step process narrating an incident

Cause & effect – explaining scientific finding of a process
Cohesion can be achieved through:
i. Repetition of key words at strategic points to remind the reader of an idea under
discussion
ii. Reference words – back or forward reference
iii. Transition signals – words used to show the relationship between ideas and make
it clear to the reader where you’re identifying similarities and differences, cause
and effect, summaries, examples or particularly important pieces of information -
understand the relationship between your ideas and anticipate what’s going to
come next. See: https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/writing/signposting
iv. Substitution – replacing one word with another
Example: e.g.  the graph on the left shows average calorie intake by age, while
the one on the right shows the daily exercise levels. 

 Using evidence in academic writing – Evidence is the facts, examples, or sources used to
support a claim. In the sciences, this might be data retrieved from an experiment or a scientific
journal article.
Forms of evidence you might draw from are:
 Graphs, charts, tables, or figures
 Statistics
 Experiments or studies done by peer-reviewed sources
 Surveys conducted by reputable sources
 Interviews
 Quotes or paraphrases from primary and secondary sources

Evidence must be concrete, objective, factual, and balanced - avoid generalization personal
opinions, biased text.
It is very important that you properly cite your evidence. Each discipline has their preferred style
(MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.); if you are unclear what citation style to use, ask your lecturer.

Contehb, February 2023.