05/09/23 - Introduction to Language of Academic Writing

- Course Outline Review

- Baptist Ministers should not be mediocre or local champions - “As a Baptist academic, we
should not use the language in an inferior way to cast aspersions on our quality hence the
language of academic writing.” - Prof Amos Alabi
- What is writing? What is academic writing?
- “Writing is the graphical representation of speech. Speech is a product of thought, ideas,
opinion, etc.” - Amos Alabi
- Academic refers to a higher level of studies. Studies in higher education found mostly in
tertiary institutions of learning. to discover new/hidden knowledge, reading and advancing
frontiers of knowledge and contributing to existing knowledge.
- Academic writing is not just paper and pen writing, composition/essay writing as found in
primary or secondary school. It is a specialised form of writing that is done according to the
standard and quality of academics.
- Academic writing helps you to explore something that interests you about a course or in an
area of knowledge that you want to read or find more about.
- It also helps you to demonstrate that you understand and can think critically about your topic of
research
- It helps you to develop skills in researching, evaluating, organising, etc and expressing yourself
clearly in formal and standard English
- Writing is a skill of language, others are In order of complexity, Writing, Reading, Speaking,
Listening
- Writing comes last in order of acquisition. Listening and speaking are oracy skills which are
traditional in any culture especially, in the illiterate society.
- Reading and writing are products of technological developments.

12/09/23 - Ministers Conference

No session

19/09/23 - Principles of Academic Writing

- Academic writing is a specialised form of writing. It is not any kind of writing. It is writing fit for
higher institutions where academic is done.
- It is rigorous and not as simple as that
- Whitaker (2009) defines academic writing simply as “essentially the writing you have to do for
your university courses”
- 10 (11) Principles of Academic Writing
1. Clear Purpose - purpose of any academic writing must be understood from the
beginning. Most common purposes - persuade, analyse/synthesize and inform.
2. Audience Engagement - directed to a specific audience in mind.
3. Clear Point of View - Your paper should have your own original idea which you have to
support about the topic. This is called your thesis statement. That is the main
point/idea of your presentation.
4. Single Focus - Every sentence, every paragraph will support your main idea/thesis in
your paper.
5. Logical Organisation - Every academic writing follows a standard organizational
pattern, three parts in sequential order: introduction (catch readers attention), body
(use paragraph to support thesis) and conclusion (summarise thesis and show
significance)
 6. Strong Support - Each body paragraph will have a significant and relevant support for
the topic sentence and thesis statement.
7. Clear and Complete Explanation - Your thought and thought processes should be
clearly and completely explained. explicit enough in your presentation for the
understanding of your reader.
8. Effective Use of Research - Your writing should refer to a variety of current, highly
quality professional and academic sources. It is seeking academic information to
support your writing.
9. Correct Referencing Style - should follow the guidelines of the International Standard
Referencing format, such as APA, Howard, etc
10. Writing Style - Because it is your work, you should use your own words as much as
possible. Do not copy anybody. Someone may like to write long sentences, another
short, another big vocabularies, be yourself, don't copy any one.
11. (bonus) - Always follow the directive of your lecturer/supervisor/facilitator/instructor
-

26/09/23 - Academic Writing Skills

- Principles guide, skills teaches the technical know-how. principles direct, skills equip.
- Irvin (2010) refers to the required academic writing skills as literacy literacy skills. He explains
further that: literacy skills/tasks is more than the ability to construct correct sentences or
compose neatly organised paragraphs with topic sentences.
- Four components of literacy skills
a. knowledge of research skills - ability to conduct/carry out research and keep track of
the sources used. Griffin (2013) lists - search skills in library, editorial skills,
bibliographic skills, dissertation skills, time management skills, financial management
skills, public speaking skills
b. Ability to read complex text - You must be a fast reader You must be able to approach
each material with the necessary reading ability skills. You be able get the total
message of the writer of any material and being able to shift the chaff from the grains
c. Understanding of the key disciplinary concepts - when you are writing on any one of
them, use relevant diction, word or register. Do not use irrelevant diction in a
discipline. It is shows that you are deficient in that discipline.
d. Strategies for synthesizing, analyzing, and responding critically to new information - It
deals with your ability to see a relationship between different components in order to
bring out new things and then develop your ideas and that is Strategies for
synthesising, analysing and responding critically to new information.
- Academic writing is any writing that is done in order to fulfil college or university requirements.
The purpose of academic writing is to present information about a subject precisely and
objectively.
- Scholarly writing is any writing produced to inform a specialized audience of other scholars in a
particular field. It is crafted from one professional to other professionals. purpose of scholarly
writing is the advancement of knowledge within a specific field
- Academic writing types: Long essay/project, course papers, term papers, research papers,
book reports/review, translations, thesis, dissertation, textbooks, articles, abstracts, technical
reports and critiques.
- Scholarly writing types: scholarly books, treaties, technical reports, legal documents, journal
articles, monograph
- Discourse and Grammatical Scales - Are the components of our writing. Our writing is
composed of grammar and discourse.
 - Grammar can be defined from three different angles. Grammar is a universal concept to any
language, so we can talk of the grammar of: Latin, French, English, Yoruba, etc

03/10/23 - Discourse and Grammatical Scales

- Principles guide, skills teaches the technical know-how. principles direct, skills equip.
- Delfino (Online, n. d) defines grammar as a ‘system of rules that allow us to structure
sentences.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica defines grammar as the ‘rules of a language, governing the sounds,
words, sentences and other elements as well as their combination and interpretation
- From different definitions of grammar you may come across 3 things that can be noted are
a. rules about combination of words, phrases, etc
b. there are levels of expression
c. the end result is the acceptability of the expression.
- Grammatical (Rank) Scale is the arrangement of materials according to size or levels.
- The levels are morpheme, word, phrase, clause, sentence. The scale is arranged or built from
morpheme at the base having an arrow pointing upwards to the word, and another from the
word to the phrase and in that order to the sentence which is the highest level in the scale.
- Discourse scale starts where grammatical scale stops. The lowest level in the scale is Sentence
followed by paragraph in upward ladder/climbing, then Chapter, Module,
leaflet/pamphlet/booklet and Book
- A discuss is a field instrument for exercise. discuss is a verb on saying/talking about an issue A
discourse is a subject matter, an issue for discussion.
- Relationship between discourse and grammar - 1. Where grammar stops, discourse begins 2.
The knowledge of grammar is basic to the writing of different levels of Discourse. 3. The two
subject matters have elements which are arranged in hierarchical order/scale. 4. The two are
complimentary.
- Morpheme minimum level/unit of grammar - the study of morpheme is called morphology. Two
types of morpheme - free and bound
- free morphemes are free and bound morphemes are not free but bound/attach to one other
morphme at least.
- Bound morphemes are of two types, referred to as affixes which can be prefix or suffix. Prefix
at the beginning of a word. Suffix at the end of a word
- Prefix comes before the root whereas affix comes after the root
- A stem is different from a root in the sense that it is part of the word to which the last suffix is
added
- Morphemes can further be classified into derivational and inflectional morphemes.
- Derivational from the word derived means that something new can come from derivational
morphemes hence they lead to word formation process e.g Education educational,
educationally
- Inflectional morphemes do not change a particular word from its basic word class. Student
students Go, going, goes. Markers of Inflectional - (i) markers of plurality, (ii) Comparativeness
and superlativeness, (iii) verb forms
- Word formation processes in English can be divided into two broad parts namely; major and
minor processes. The major processes include affixation which comprises prefixation and
suffixation, conversion and compounding. The minor processes, however, comprise
reduplication, clipping, blending, acronyms.
- Parts of speech is also known as word class syntactic category or word group.
- There are eight of them in English, namely: Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Pronoun.
Preposition, Interjections and Conjunctions. Some literature include article and or determiner.
 - The Parts of speech are also divided into two classes/groups, namely: open and closed
classes.
- Members o the open class are: noun, adverb, verb and adjective
Members of closed class or system are, pronouns, preposition, interjection, conjunction,
article/determiner.

10/10/23 - Discourse and Grammatical Scales (Continued) – Groups & Clauses

- A Group is a combination of words that has a head/headword (H for Headword)
- A group can be simple or complex
- A group cannot stand on its own as an expression in English because it has no meaning on its
own and it is not grammatically complete.
- groups we have in English: Noun group, verb group, adjectival group, Adverbial n prepositional
groups
- Noun group: m(h)q= modifier, head, qualifier. E.g
a. Head alone: Goats, keys, Ade
b. Modifier and head: The man, The house, The school
c. Modifier, head, qualifier: The goat in the house, The man on the street
- Verb(al) group: (a)l =auxiliary, lexical: e.g
a. Lexical: He goes out
b. Auxiliary lexical: He is going out
c. Auxilliary Auxilliary lexical: He will be going out
- Adjectival and adverbial groups: (Same formula): m(h)l=modifier, head, limiter. e.g
a. Head alone: He is a good man (adjectival), she ran slowly (adverbial)
b. Modifier and head: It is a very fast car (adjectival), he came very quickly (adverbial)
c. Modifier, head, limiter: That is very dangerous indeed (adjectival), she sang quite
melodiously indeed (adverbial)
- Modifiers come before the Headword H but qualifiers come after.
- Prepositional group: the formular is: h(r)= preposition and rankshifted. e.g
a. Head alone: the engine is on , my brother is inside
b. Head and rankshifted: Ade is on the window.
- Phrase: A phrase is usually bigger or larger than the group. A phrase may have a verb but once
the verb is not finite it is still a phrase. Hence a phrase is not meaningful
a. The house built by the man……Noun Phrase
b. Daddy bought a blue and green sweater ……Adjectival phrase
c. He scored the goal with a long and tactical shot………Adverbial
d. They went in the direction of the explosion…………..Prepositional phrase
e. Dada talked about winning the game……………Gerundive Phrase.
f. Driven by the desire to satisfy his wife , the man took to armed robbery…….. Participial
phrase.
g. My duty as a coach is to teach skills…… Infinitive phrase
- THE CLAUSE. the unit above the clause in the Grammatical scale - Sentence? the unit below
the clause in the Grammatical scale - phrase
- Three criteria may be used to describe a clause.
a. Structural constituent criterion: that is to say whether the clause is finite or non-finite
- She kicked the ball – finite. He ate a good meal – finite
- Singing in the house – non-finite. Taken after his experience – non—finite
b. Functional criterion: a clause is described in terms of its functional relations with other
grammatical elements in a sentence
- Independent clauses: I am a student in this Seminary. I wanted a new car.
 - Subordinate/Independent clause: None of the market woman could explain,
what brought about the fire. While going through the city, I saw a beautiful
newly completed apartment.
c. Grammatical name criterion: that is a clause is named after that part of speech, the
position it occupies in a sentence, as such we have nominal, adverbial and
adjectival/relative clause.
- Nomincal clause: a subordinate clause that can occupy the position of a noun
or noun phrase in a clause. Nominal clauses function as nouns and are
introduced by the following words: how, that, what, when, where, whether,
which, who, why, etc. How you did it, is not my concern.
- Adverbial clause: is a subordinate clause that is used to modify or describe
verb in a sentence. The clause is introduced with subordinators such as,
because, while, as if, when, if after, since, although, etc. He stood there as if he
was frozen to the spot.
- Relative/Adjectival clause: is a subordinate clause that describes or give more
information about verb in the main clause. The clause occurs with relative
pronouns such as that, who, which, whose, whom, when, where, why, etc. I
saw the player who hit you.

17/10/23 - Discourse and Grammatical Scales (Continued) – Sentence

- The sentence is a basic unit of expression in the English Language. It is described as the
highest or largest grammatical unit. It is found at the top of the grammatical scale. It is the
foundation of a good and effective writing. It is the smallest in the Discourse (rank) scale.
- Characteristics of a sentence:
a. It starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation
mark.
b. It can be divided into two main parts: Subject and Predicate.
c. It normally contains a verb and one of the other structural elements as subject, object,
Complement, that is: (S) V (C) (O) (A).
- Under structural classification, a sentence, a sentence can be of 4 types. It can be simple,
compound, complex and compound complex.
a. A simple sentence contains one main clause (1MC). E.g She is a good singer. They
travelled to Lagos yesterday.
b. Compound Sentence: It contains at least two main (2MC) clauses joined together by a
coordinating conjunction (2M) or a semi-colon (;). Examples of coordinating conjuction
For (when it means because) and nor but or yet so (FANBOYS) e.g Linda cooked the
food, Shalom washed the plates and Peace swept the floor (3MC).
c. Complex Sentence: a complex sentence is made up of one main clause and at least
one main subordinate clause. Complex sentence= (1MC+1 or more SC). e.g: If you
believe, you will see the glory of God.
d. Compound-Complex sentence: A compound-complex sentence is a combination of
compound and complex sentences. (2MC+1 or more SC). e.g: When you are lonely and
need a friend, talk to Jesus, he will help you out.
- Functional Classification of Sentence: This is the classification of sentence according to their
functions
a. Declarative Sentence: gives information or states facts. It declares. Examples are: Here
is my car. This is my son.
b. Imperative: issues a command, gives a directive an order or makes a request. E. g Get
up. Kindly shut the door and switch off the light.
 c. Interrogative: this sentence type demands or requests for answer or information from
the hearer/interlocutor. It usually ends with the question mark. Examples are: Has he
been here today? When will you take your bath? Interrogative sentences are of
different types.
- Wh- questions are asked with elements such as: who, whom, whose, what,
where, when, which, why and how. Examples are: Who are you?
- Polar question.: It is also known as YES/NO. The correct answer to Polar
question is either YES or NO hence it is also referred to as YES or NO
Question. Examples are: He is my friend. Is he my friend? We will make it. Will
we make it?
- Alternative question: states two or more propositions and requires the hearer
or the one being interrogated to make a choice from the propositions. Also
called a closed-class question because the choices are limited e. g Are you
coming or not? Who won the competition, Nigeria or Ghana?
- Rhetorical question: a rhetorical question is considered a minor type of
question. It is not meant to be answered by the addressee but it is asked for
the addressee to deny what appears obvious. E.g Should you join a bad
gang because others are joining the gang?
d. Exclamatory sentence: exclamatory sentence expresses a speaker’s extreme degree
of attitude e.g What a wonderful man he is! How beautiful the name of Jesus is!
- THE ELEMENTS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE
- The elements are (S) P (C) (O) (A) or (S) V (C) (O) (A) (bracke indicates an optional element)
a. S=Subject: is the individual item or idea that the information in the sentence is about. It
can be realized by nouns, noun phrases, noun clauses, pronouns, gerunds, gerundive
phrases and infinitival
b. V=Verb: It states the action performed by the subject or reveals he relationship
between the subject and its complement. It usually comes after the subject in a
declarative sentence, occupies initial position in request, command, directive, etc
Intransitive verb requires no object. Transitive verb requires object. Intransitive: Olu
jumped highly. Ade slept well. Transitive: He ate the food. She built a mansion.
c. C=Complement: It gives more information about either the subject or the object of a
sentence. There is a denotative equivalent between the subject and its complement
and between the object and its complement. Thus, the formula; Cs for Subject
complement, and Co for object.
d. O=Object: It is the receiver of the action of the subject or verb. It can be Direct object
(Od) or Indirect object (Oi).
e. A=Adverbials: They are regarded as modifying clause element. They occupy the A
structure of the SVOA of the clause.
- PROPERTIES/QUALITIES OF A GOOD SENTENCE:: unity, coherence and emphasis.
a. Unity: A sentence has unity when it expresses one clear single thought or expression.
b. Coherence- refers to logical relationship between the elements that make up the
sentence. The components/elements of a sentence have to be arranged in a logical
order to achieve clarity of purpose.
c. Emphasis: This has to do with the placement of elements in the sentence to show the
importance in the mind of the writer or the speaker.
24/10/23 - Discourse Scales – Paragraph
- Paragraph is the second level in the grammatical scale. Paragraphs are the building blocks of
any piece of writing. Paragraphs are made up of sentences that are well organised and
coherent to a single topic.
- A simple sentence/contains one issue/idea. So also a paragraph must contain one and only
one idea that is fully developed.
- A good paragraph should contain between 4 – 6 sentences about an idea.
- Features of a good paragraph. These are; The topic sentence, The supporting/developmental
sentences, Thematic unity, Coherence and, Completeness
a. The topic sentence
- It is the most important sentence in a paragraph. It is the sentence that
expresses the main idea of the paragraph. A good topic sentence has the
following features
- A clear topic - This means that the topic sentence of a good
paragraph must address only one central issue.
- It should express an opinion about the topic:
- It must not be too broad.
- It should not be too narrow
- The location of a topic sentence is not specific.
- A paragraph may not have a topic sentence at all. The sentences may simply
further develop the main idea expressed in a previous paragraph or an
introduction to the one that follows.
b. The supporting/developmental sentences
- After the topic sentence, all other sentences are referred to as Supporting
(topic) or Developmental (developing the topic sentence)
- Strategies for writing good supporting sentences
- The use of examples: An example helps in developing an idea.
- The use of details: A detail tells about the particular characteristics of
something.
- Other methods writing supporting sentence
- Enumeration: Enumeration is a method of developing a paragraph in
which the writer begins with a general class, then proceed to break
the class down by listing some or all of its members or parts.
- The Chronological Method: In the ascending order, the minor or least
important points are explained first and the most important points are
explained last. In the descending order, the reverse is the case.
- Cause and Effect Method: This method establishes the relationship
between two or more phenomena. the topic sentence introduces the
cause of something, while the supporting sentence discusses the
effects, based on what you have stated in the topic sentence.
c. Thematic unity
- This quality of the paragraph relates to its presentation of only one main
idea/topic. This is to say that everything being presented in the paragraph
points to the main topic.
d. Coherence/Cohesion
- The idea presented in the paragraph must logically, systematically be
developed by the supporting sentences to achieve coherence/cohesion.
- point to the fact that all the sentences in the paragraph must stick together or
must be well connected.
 - Coherence in writing means that all the ideas in a paragraph flow smoothly
from one sentence to the next sentence,
- cohesion refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text.
- cohesion can be achieved through the linking devices such as pronouns,
conjunctions and articles which make sentences to dovetail into one another
in the paragraph.
e. Completeness
- points to the wholeness of the paragraph in terms of being well developed,
well rounded as it needs to be.
- It has to do with doing justice to the matter or idea presented in the
paragraph.
- It contains all necessary information facts, and figures that make it stand an
independent part of the total piece of writing.
- Paragraph Development Techniques: include: exemplification, enumeration, definition, cause
and effect, comparison and contrast, description, analogy, classification and division.
- Transitional words or Discourse Markers: These are words or phrases that serve as bridges
between parts of a piece of writing or text. Examples are
a. Enumeration: This presents sequence of events. The transitional markers include; first,
second, next, then, following this, now, at this time….
b. Addition: These transitional markers indicate addition of points or facts. Some of the
indicators are: and, again, and then, furthermore, next, too, equally…
c. Comparison/Contrast: These transitional markers introduce point of view that is
contrary to the previous view expressed. Examples are: but, on the other hand,
however, meanwhile, conversely…
d. Cause and Effect: These markers show effect of a course of action or state. The
markers include: therefore, thus, hence, because…
e. Emphasis: These transitional phrases indicate importance of certain points. Examples
of the markers include: definitely, in fact, in any case, obviously, significantly…
f. Illustration/Exemplification: These transitional markers try to clarify points within or
across the paragraphs in a piece of writing. Examples are: for example, in another
case, (take) for instance, to demonstrate…
- Types of Paragraph in Relation to Function
- Every paragraph in a piece of writing performs specific function, they are Introductory
Paragraph, Transition/Main paragraph, Concluding paragraph
a. Introductory Paragraph: This paragraph introduces the topic of the piece of writing to
the readers. A good introductory paragraph should catch the attention, arouse the
interest of the readers and sustain that to the main body of the piece of writing.
b. Transitional/ Main Paragraphs -they serve as link between what has gone before in the
presentation, chapter by chapter, and what is to follow. It is the body of the piece of
writing. They constitute the purpose of writing.
c. The Concluding Paragraph: the last or final paragraph of a piece of writing.
Summarizes the major points that have been raised in the earlier paragraphs.
- How to Display Paragraphs
a. Indented Paragraph: It is setting back 4-5 spaces from the left hand margin of the
paper and as such gives a visual demarcation of that unit of writing.
b. Blocked Paragraph: Each line of the paragraph begins at the same margin line. This is
very common in business or formal letters in many organizations
 c. Headline Paragraph - use of a headline in announcing the topic as a component of a
paragraph. Such a headline points or shows the topic sentence in such a paragraph.
Examples of such paragraphs are found in reports, theses, dissertations etc

31/10/23 - PROCESS OF WRITING - OUTLINING

- The word “Outlining” is a gerund noun
- Outlining is a formal detailed piece of (spoken/written) communication.
- It is formal because it is constructed according to specific rules. done as expected, following
the approved rules/regulations.
- it is detailed because it contains all necessary ideas of the communication.
- That is the outlining is likened to the skeleton of an animate object or the structure of an
uncompleted building.
- The final writing will not deviate from a good outlining.
- If the outlining of a piece of writing is good, it potents a good write up but if the outlining is bad
it is already a sign of bad write up to come
- The purpose of an outline is to show at a glance the ideas contained in a piece of
communication and how those ideas are related one to another..
- Importance of Outlining
a. It is a basic aspect of a piece of communication (spoken or written).
b. It makes for good and logical organization of the piece of communication.
c. It makes the communication flow smoothly either in writing or in speech.
d. It ensures adequate planning for the piece of communication.
- Specific in Outlining:
a. The use of Arabic numerals to number ideas and full stops to indicate sub-division.
b. Each division is indented than the preceding division.
c. All entries of the same level or grade are indented the same number of spaces.
d. The rules of multiple divisions is obligatory. That is to say that every section must have
at least two parts if not there can be no 1. without 2. or a. without b.
e. All entries on any given level of division must be parallel in nature. For example, if the
point in A or1 is in phrase or clause, that of B or 2 must also be in phrase or clause.
- Reasons why an academic should write a detailed outline for his academic paper. (Whitaker
2010)
a. You will learn whether you have enough support for your thesis statement.
b. You will have a map to follow when writing your paper.
c. You will avoid organizational problems in your paper if you organize if you organize
your ideas before you write.
d. You will have a chance to think more about your topic, refining your ideas.
e. Some instructors will require draft outlines before your paper is due, or even final
outlines with your paper so you need to know how to write outlines and write them for
your academic writings.

7/1/23 - The Grammar and Style of Academic Writing

- Academic writing is a specialised writing. And so, as academics, we must be familiar with the
grammar and style of this specialised writing called academic writing.
- English language is one of, if not the most used languages in academic writing.
- Grammar and style (language) of academic writing is simple, clear, grammatical and formal.
- aspects of grammar and style that are very relevant to our academic writing.
a. Paragraph: The paragraph is made up of sentences and it is the basic unit of
discourse. The grammar of the paragraph is the grammar of the sentences that make
 up the paragraph. If a paragraph starts reporting in simple present tense but changed
to the past in the middle, it has distorted the grammar of the paragraph.
b. Sentence: The sentence must be grammatically constructed. It must be free from
errors and must be meaningful. It must be complete not an incomplete structure.
c. Verbs: as the most obligatory element in clauses/sentences, they vary according to the
statements that the academic writer would like to make. there must however be
consistency in the use of the tense of verb you adopt to use, especially within the
same paragraph.
d. Reporting Verb: An academic writer has to be careful in this respect. He must use the
correct and only one reporting expression at a time.
- On writing research proposal or a thesis/dissertation, Shaibani (2016)
recommends the tenses to be used as following:
- Past simple and/or present perfect (APA style) can be used in Chapter
One in the Introduction/Background/ Overview, in the literature
review, in reporting the experimental procedures and findings, and in
the abstract e.g 1. Simpson (2001) designed the experiment based on
a number of factors. 2. News has become increasingly important to
many people as they want to know what is going on in the world
(Barker2004)
- Present simple can be used instead of the past and/or present perfect
mentioned above if you are writing in MLA style e.g 1. Simpson (2001)
designs the experiment based on a number of factors. 2. The
researcher finds out that power relations are hardly defined clearly in
the text. [ in the findings]
- Present simple can be also used in the description of (a country, table,
and figure) and in reporting facts from the previous research or from
your own research e.g. 1. Iraq is located in the Middle East and is
surrounded by Arab and non-Arab countries. 2. The figure shows a
hypothetical schematic structure of a standard news story.
- Future simple can be used in the earlier chapters and sections. It can
be also used in writing a research proposal where future
tasks/procedures are required. E.g This notion will be explained in
great detail in Chapter Three/in the subsequent section(s) in this
chapter. 2. The samples of this study will be selected carefully.
- For results and discussion, one can use structures such as:
a. This is in line with the past research (author(s), year).
b. This contradicts the findings reported in the literature as in (author(s), year).
- The Style of academic writing is formal. Formal style involves grammatical correctness of
sentences, correct spellings and punctuation, appropriate choice of words, full expression of
words especially names of people, objects, places, etc.
- Mnemonic or abbreviations should first all be written fully before such can be referred to
subsequently in abbreviation/mnemonic form.
- However, personal voice/attitude of the writer can be introduced in the following ways and
also impersonal constructions especially in the conclusion e.g The researcher
thinks/believes/doubts … [in a thesis]; I/We think/believe/doubt … [in a research paper]
- Some impersonal structures often associated with conclusions: e.g It seems/appears that … ; It
is believed that …
- Spelling and Punctuation are important to academic writing
- Wrong spelling can mar the beauty and quality of an academic paper or research. The meaning
and interpretation of a sentence is badly affected by wrong spelling. E.g * The motor*/motto of
the College is good.; The purpose of the study has been achieved/acheived*
- Wrong spellings and punctuation slow down the speed of reading. They make the
reader/assessor/supervisor think that the writer is careless or reluctant to do his or her write up
properly
- The onus is on an academic writer to work on his punctuation and spelling of English words