HKUSPACE CC / HPSHCC L01 - Academic Style 1 (Ans)

English for Academic Purposes I P.1

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L01 – Academic Style 1 (Answer Key)

Task 1 – Identifying formality

Excerpt 1 - academic essay

Excerpt 2 - text message

?4U. Who 8 my pizza? CYAL8R. <3
 I have a question for you. Who ate my pizza? See you later. Love

Excerpt 3 - spoken argument

Excerpt Formal or
Special features
number Informal ?
2 Informal uses texting language.
uses subjective, emotive language with rhetorical
3 Informal
questions and contracted forms (e.g. don’t).
uses formal vocabulary and the passive, and is written
1 Formal
in cautious and objective language with references.

Task 2 – Identifying formal and informal features

Excerpt 1 (a formal text) Excerpts 2 and 3 (informal texts)

Formal vocabulary assessor, described,
posing, positioning,
exercising, stimulating,
assessed, oblige, consider,
perspectives, deem,
acceptable, achieve
Nominalisation Noun Phrase: “Students’
knowledge that the work
they have written will be
assessed”
Passive voice described by Ivanic; will be
assessed
Cautious language may, often

References Ivanic and Simpson (1992)

HKUSPACE CC / HPSHCC L01 - Academic Style 1 (Ans)
English for Academic Purposes I P.2
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Objective language Author does not use ‘I

think or I believe’. Whole
extract is objective
Subjective language Excerpt 3 - I don’t think;
I believe
Emotive language Excerpt 3 - at all, ludicrous,
better off
Use of questions Excerpt 2 - Who 8 my pizza?
Excerpt 3 - How could anyone
imagine . . .?
Contracted forms Excerpt 3 - don’t

Task 3 – From informal to formal

1 Research shows …… indicates
2 Three problems have been found. discovered
3 The changes he made were bad. unacceptable
4 There were many reasons for this. causes
5 Scientists have tried to prove …… attempted
6 £100,000 was given to charity. donated
7 She has got to find alternatives. needs
8 We do not have enough resources. sufficient

Task 4 – Avoiding multi-word verbs

1 There are many issues to think about. consider
2 They carried out an investigation. performed
3 The situation got worse. deteriorated
4 The research tried to find out these causes. discover
5 Many areas were looked into. investigated
6 Interest rates are going up. increasing
7 This has been going on for a while. continuing
8 The information is broken down into sections. divided
9 He managed to get by on very little food. survive