Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación.

UNLP
Lengua Inglesa 3
Clases prácticas

TP 11. Academic language and style

A. Watch this video in which Prof. Michelle Lawson (Open University, UK) is
interviewed about 9 things you really need to know about academic writing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEi8Cs2z0Q4
Be ready to discuss the following in class:
a. How do her answers to these questions compare with what you have discussed
about academic discourse in this course so far?
b. Now, pay closer attention to these two questions:
“What makes a good piece of student academic writing?”
“Do non-native speakers lose marks for poor English?”
Do Prof. Lawson’s answers to these two questions clarify or confirm any of your
previous assumptions about academic writing?

B. Variety and clarity?

We have seen that clarity is of paramount importance in academic discourse.
On the other hand, it is common to find instructions about how to write texts of all
types, including academic texts, which insist on the need to use a variety of
vocabulary and grammar structures.
1. Clarity and variety are compatible. To understand why and how, look at what Jim
Mason says about precision and accuracy in the use of language:
“Precision of language depends on the number of different words and grammatical
structures that are available to us to convey our intentions. Accuracy of our use language
depends on our ability to choose words, phrases, and sentences that convey to our
audience the ideas that we intend. (…)
As is true for any set of tools, for language tools we can benefit from having a good range
of choices of words (a large vocabulary) and a good knowledge of grammatical
structures, in order to be capable of precision in our use and understanding of language.
It is also important to use accurately whatever language tools we have, so that we
achieve our communicative objectives well.”
Mason, J. (2019), Precision and accuracy in the use of language. https://jmason37-
80878.medium.com/precision-and-accuracy-in-the-use-of-language-755e11b75778
Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. UNLP
Lengua Inglesa 3
Clases prácticas

Can you describe, in your own words, how accuracy and precision are connected with
our ability to convey our ideas clearly? Write a brief answer to this question and be
ready to share it with the rest of the class.

2. Now analyse the following passage by Malcolm X according to the previous ideas:

I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life.
As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to
be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a
status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every
additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness,
and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.
Malcolm X in “Prison Studies”

Is there variety in this text, both in the use of grammar structures and in word choice?
Is there accuracy and precision? Give examples.
Is this text clear? If so, what makes it clear?

Final questions: Have you learnt anything about your own writing from these ideas?
If so, what? How much importance do you, personally, give to clarity, variety,
accuracy and precision? Should you make any adjustments to the way you write after
discussing these notions?

C. Putting these ideas into practice

1. Read the following passages, which were written by students of English Language
3 in previous years. Do they conform to the description of academic discourse that
has been discussed in these classes? Why? Why not? If not, can you think of a way of
improving the text so that it does?

Here are some questions to help you:

• Is there variety of vocabulary and grammar in the sense discussed above?
• Are there parts of the text that could be expressed with fewer words or
simpler syntax without changing their meaning?
• Are there instances of inaccurate or far-fetched vocabulary?
• Are the texts coherent? Are ideas expressed clearly?
Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. UNLP
Lengua Inglesa 3
Clases prácticas

• Can you find any other types of mistakes that are not included in the previous
questions?
• How does the language in these passages compare to the way Prof. Lawson
speaks in her video and the style in the quotations by Malcolm X and Jim
Mason?

Paragraph 1

To begin with, for educators, adopting language as a system is the best way of learning.
That is to say, it facilitates the internalization of the grammar by assimilating specific
patterns. In line with this view, understanding how language works is key to formulating
clear ideas and structures in an appropriate order for daily language use. However,
teaching courses should not be departed from discourse analysis view in connection with
social settings.
All in all, if future language professionals do not acquire those aspects, they would
probably fail when trying to accomplish their performances. That’s why it is crucial to
develop cultural and social characteristics with grammar in a complementary way.

Paragraph 2

Likewise, the language with which students will work in the future is not naive. As
Fairclough (2012) states: “discourse is ideological in so far as it contributes to sustaining
particular relations of power and domination” (pp. 8). There are certain relations of power
that are enacted, reinforced, and established through language. Translators and
teachers-to-be should be aware of this to detect power relations, reproduce them in a
translation or interpretation, and alert their future students about them.

Paragraph 3

To conclude, we can say that learning a foreign language has to do with much more than
only knowing about the grammatical system of it. By focusing on theoretical standpoints
that does not consider the cultural aspects of the language will produce the previous
mentioned consequences for future teachers and translators. Furthermore, the impact
on the professional work for them will be that they will not be able to interpretate some
meanings that are given by the context, and the sentences they formulate will only be
correct from a grammatical point of view.

2. Provide an edited version of at least one of them, so that the new version comes
closer to the style of academic writing as described above. Be ready to share it and
discuss it in class.
Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. UNLP
Lengua Inglesa 3
Clases prácticas

3. Did the characteristics of the errors in the unedited texts in this task cause any
difficulties when writing your improved version? If so, describe them briefly.