LANGUAGE USED IN Technicalese

ACADEMIC WRITING - language of technocrats

● matter
● cell
What is jargon? ● electron
● proton
● halogen
jar·gon /ˈjärɡən/ ● kinetic energy
noun ● aerodynamics
● solar energy
• special words or expressions that are used
by a particular profession or group and are Diplomatese
difficult for others to understand. - language of diplomats
● Embassy
Kinds of Jargon ● Passport
● Conference
 Medicalese ● State visit
 Legalese ● Deportee
 Journalese ● Immigration
 Commercialese
Teacherese
 Technicalese
- language of teachers
 Diplomatese ● lesson plans
 Teacherese ● worksheets
 Motherese ● performance task
● teaching strategy
 Computerese ● assessment
● classroom performance
Medicalese ● classroom management

- language of doctors
● osteoporosis Motherese
● aneurysm - language used in parenting
● cancer ● baby talk
● antibiotics ● breast-feeding
● hallucinogens ● feeding bottles
● amoxicillin ● babysitter
● stethoscope ● weaning
● x-ray machine ● toddlers

Legalese Computerese
- language of lawyers - language of computer specialists
● defendant ● kilobyte
● complainant ● debugging
● crimes ● programming
● plaintiff ● website
● sustained ● cybercrime
● guilty ● database
● not guilty ● memory
● chat
Journalese
- language of journalists ACADEMIC WRITING
● Lead
● Headline ● Academic writing in English is linear,
● Byline
● Editorial
which means it has one central point or
● Reporter theme with every part contributing to the
● Flash report main line of argument, without digressions
or repetitions.
Mercantilese/Commercialese
- language of businessmen
● Demand
Features of Academic Writing
● Supply Complexity
● expenditure ● Written language is relatively more
● revenue
● purchasing power complex than spoken language.
● merchandising ● Written language has longer words, it is
lexically more dense and it has a more
varied vocabulary.
Spoken to Written Explicitness
"I handed in my essay late because my kids ● Academic writing is explicit about the
got sick." relationships in the text.
● These connections can be made explicit
The reason for the late submission of my by the use of different signalling words.
essay
was the illness of my children. Accuracy
● Academic writing uses vocabulary
Formality accurately.
● Academic writing is relatively formal. ● Most subjects have words with narrow
specific meanings.
In general this means in an essay that you ● Choose the correct word, for example,
should avoid: "money", "cash", "capital"
a. colloquial words and expressions; "stuff",
"y’all", “wanna”, “gonna”, "sort of" Hedging
b. abbreviated forms: "can't", "doesn't", ● Hedging language refers to how a writer
"shouldn't" expresses certainty or uncertainty.
c. two word verbs/phrasal verbs: "put off", ● Often in academic writing, a writer may
"bring up", “cut down”, “gone up” not be sure of the claims that are being
d. numbering and bullet-points in formal made
essays - but use them in reports. in their subject area, or perhaps the ideas
are good but the evidence is not very
Precision strong.
- In academic writing, facts and figures are
given precisely. Responsibility
● In academic writing you must be
- Do not use "a lot of people" when you can responsible for, and must be able to
say "50 million people". provide evidence and justification for, any
claims you make.
Objectivity ● You are also responsible for
● Written language is objective rather than demonstrating
personal. an understanding of any source texts you
● It therefore has fewer words that refer to use.
the writer or the reader.
● This means that the main emphasis should Organization
be on the information that you want to give ● Academic writing is well organized. It
and the arguments you want to make, flows easily from one section to the next in
rather than you. a logical fashion.
● A good place to start is the genre of your
In general, avoid words like "I", "me", text.
"myself". ● Once you have decided on the genre, the
Don't write:" In my opinion, this a very structure is easily determined.
interesting study."
Write: "This is a very interesting study." Planning
● Academic writing is well planned.
Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people ● It usually takes place after research and
in general. evaluation, according to a specific purpose
Don't write: "You can easily forget how and plan.
different life was 50 years ago."
Write: "It is easy to forget how difficult life
was 50 years ago."