Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Aspects of Professional and *If you intend to show a change in your line of
argument, make it clear by using however.
Academic Language 2. Objectivity
Example:
Four Important features of language use that This means that writing must be impersonal
you need to know and maintain a certain level of social distance. It is apparent that the government hopes to
provide assistance to the poor. However, giving
1. Formality Objectivity can be achieved by:
dole outs to the “poorest of the poor” does not
refers to your dignified stance in your 1. Avoiding the use of personal work in the long term.
writing as a member of the academic pronouns such as you, I and we.
The following phrases may be useful in making
community. This means that since your
Poor example: You need to conduct the ideas explicit:
audience are fellow members of the academic
community, the language you use requires experiment 1. This is due to the…
precision to make it a “legitimate” piece of Improved version: The researchers need to
academic writing. Example: A number of MERALCO consumers
conduct the experiment.
trooped to the City Hall to claim a PHP 500 cash
2. Avoiding rhetorical questions as it incentive. This is due to the Supreme Court ruling
marks “closeness” with the reader and that overcharges must be returned to the end
constantly seeks his/her attention. users whose electric consumption for the
April-May period was below 100kw/hr.
2. This resulted issue as the administration’s way of avoiding 3. Referencing others’ work to build on
in… Example: the NB-ZTE scandal. your paper
4. Caution
With the Supreme Court ordering MERALCO
to return overcharges to the end users, Academic writing requires care since *Adverbs of Frequency: often, sometimes,
government offices have been tapped to knowledge is built from proven theories and usually
operate as claim centers. This resulted in a concepts. Therefore, caution is needed to avoid
number of MERALCO consumers trooping to the Example: The essays that were given marks
sweeping generalizations.
City Hall to claim the PHP 500.OO cash incentive. were usually high.
Examples:
*When two ideas seem the same, express each
one clearly. Government officials are corrupt.
Since Academic writing draws on previous
Example: * The statement is not completely true and the writings done related to your topic (in the case
rhetorical impact of the statement may be of research writing), it is important that creating
The study showed that eighty percent of the misleading. The statement can be improved knowledge is expressed through means that do
200 participants involved in the study were through the use of devices such as modal not lead to sweeping generalizations that may
dissatisfied with the operations of MERALCO. verbs, adverbs, or verbs. directly attack other writers’ point of view.
Similarly, the study revealed that majority of the
participants were not aware of the charges Improved versions: If your results show something different from
imposed on them by MERALCO. another author’s ideas, there are possible ways
Some government officials may be corrupt. in writing these points:
*If you intend to give extra information in your (modal verb)
sentence, make it clear by writing “In 1. The results contradict Meyer’s findings
Corruption is commonly linked to some key
addition”…
government officials. (adverb) 2. The results appear to be different
MERALCO has been operating as a business from Meyer’s findings
A number of government officials tend to be
conglomerate involving foreign stakeholders and
linked with cases of corruption. (verb) 5. Structure
independent power produces or IPP. In addition,
MERALCO owns major IPPs operating in the Aside from language, sentences need to be
region. constructed in such a way that they show a level
In academic writing, caution needs to be of complexity that reflects the sophistication of
*If you are giving examples, do so explicitly by observed in the following parts of your paper: an academic writer.
writing “For example…”
1. When a hypothesis needs to be tested *In combining ideas effectively, you will need to
The MERALCO issue has led to disputes
2. Drawing conclusions or predictions from avoid redundancy and at the same time, make
between opposition and administration
your findings that may generalize certain sure that ideas are packed effectively.
senators. For example, those who have been
labelled as against the president considered the matters or may not be conclusive Example:
The earthquake caused loss of life. In passive construction, the results of actions Point 2 :
are highlighted. In academic writing, all the Point 3 :
The earthquake caused massive property
results of the action are a product of the
damage. #3 Summarize the
writer’s work.
The earthquake changed the landscape of the text. #4 Evaluate the
Examples:
village.
1. The researcher conducted experiments text Example:
They can be rewritten this way:
to validate the hypothesis.
Girls most likely do well in academics during high
The earthquake was a disaster that caused loss
Passivization: school years but boys get ahead of them in
of life, property damage and permanent changes
college.
in the landscape. Experiments were conducted to validate the
Female teenagers are more concerned with their
hypothesis.
Nominalization and Passivization physical appearance than male teenagers.
2.An engineer built a saltwater lamp to
In nominalization, the verbs are made central as Critical Reading as Reasoning
help communities with no electricity.
they denote action. Transforming verbs into
Assertions are declarative sentences that claim
nouns helps readers focus on the action not on Passivization:
something is true about something else.
the doer of the action.
A saltwater lamp was built to help Simply put, it is a sentence that is either true
Examples: communities with no electricity. or false.
text. Thesis
Assertion of Convention
Statement:
◻ A convention is a way in which
Supporting details: something is done, similar to
Point 1 :
traditions and norms. Conventions
depend on
historical precedent, laws, rules, usage, ■ occur when credit for a work is in the teaching earning process (Estacio,
and customs. ascribed to oneself untruthfully. To 2010)
address this proper citations should be
◻ Example: Filipinos are known for Another way of citation
done.
being hospitable, religious and
resilient. ■ Start the sentence or paragraph by
using the phrase “According to...”
Assertion of Opinion followed by the surname of the author
and the year of publication enclosed in
◻ Opinions are based on facts, but are Author-oriented citation
parenthesis.
difficult to objectively verify because
of the uncertainty of producing ■ starts with the surname of the author,
EXAMPLE
satisfactory proofs of soundness. followed by the year of publication in
parenthesis. Verbs of statement such as ■ According to Mendoza (1990), by the
◻ Example: argues, believes, posits, and end of the century, our fuel reserves
emphasizes at the start or paragraph or will be reduced to half, scarcity of
The popularity of Sampaguita flowers is
sentence may be used. energy supplies will be a big problem.
most evident in places of worship.