Academic Writing

Week 2, Chapter 2
Introduction

 Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one central

point or theme with every part contributing to the main line of argument,
without digressions or repetitions.
 Its objective is to inform rather than entertain.
 It is in the standard written form of the language.
The Purpose of Academic Writing

Writers should be clear why they are writing. The most common reasons
for writing include:

 to report on a piece of research the writer has conducted

 to answer a question the writer has been given or chosen
 to discuss a subject of common interest and give the writer’s view
 to synthesize research done by others on a topic
 A Few Types of Academic Writing
 Essay
 Research Paper
 Journal
 Book Review
 Synthesis
 Review of Literature
 Conference Paper
 A Few Types of Academic Writing
 Dissertation and Thesis
 Abstract- This is a short summary of a long document.
 Explication- This is a work which explains part of a particular work.
Characteristics of Academic Writing
Complexity

 Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language.

 Written language has longer words, it is lexically denser and it has a more
varied vocabulary.
 Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical
complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more passives.
 Simple sentences are easier to write and read, but complex sentences are
also needed in academic writing.
Complexity

 However, students should make clarity a priority, and avoid writing very
complex sentences until they feel confident in their ability.
 Complex sentences contain conjunctions, relative pronouns or
punctuation, which link the clauses:
 Examples:
 In 2005 the company produced over 135,000 vehicles but between
2005 and 2006 production increased by 20 per cent.
 Over 164,000 vehicles were produced in 2007; by 2009 this had fallen
to 123,000.
Formality

 Academic writing is relatively formal. In general, this means that in an

essay you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.
 You should avoid: colloquial words and informal expressions; “stuff”, “a
lot of”, “thing”, “sort of”
 Features of speech such as “well”, “anyway”
 Repetition, redundancy and wordiness; “completely unique”, “adding
together”
 Two word verbs: “put off”, “bring up”
 Abbreviated forms: “can't”, “doesn't”, “shouldn’t”
Precision

 In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely.

 In academic writing you need to be precise when you use information, for
example:
 dates or figures “a lot of people” or “50 million people”
 “the past” or “ from 1964 to 1997”
 “recently” or “during the last 12 years”, or “since 1997”.
Objectivity

 Written language is in general objective rather than personal.

 It therefore has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader.
 This means that the main emphasis should be on the information that you
want to give and the arguments you want to make, rather than you.
 For that reason, academic writing tends to use nouns (and adjectives),
rather than verbs (and adverbs).
 Avoid words like “ I ” , “me ”, “myself ”
Objectivity

 Don't write: “In my opinion, this a very interesting study”

 Write: “This is a very interesting study”
 Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general
 Don't write: “You can easily forget how different life was 50 years ago”
 Write: “It is easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago”
Explicitness

 Academic writing is explicit about the relationships in the text.

 Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it
clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related.
 These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling
words.
 Example of signal words: moreover, and then, in addition ,together with
further likewise equally important along with furthermore also in
conjunction with plus besides too over and above one/another
Accuracy

 Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately.

 Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings.
 For example, Linguistics distinguishes clearly between "phonetics" and
"phonemics"; general English does not.
Hedging

 In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make decisions

about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you
are making.
 Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways.
 A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by
linguists as a ‘hedge’
 Hedging is the use of linguistic devices to express hesitation or uncertainty
as well as to demonstrate politeness and indirectness.
 Following are a few words and phrases that can be used to achieve this:

• Introductory verbs – seem, tend, look like, appear to be, think, believe,
doubt, be sure, indicate, suggest

• Certain lexical verbs – believe, assume, suggest

• Modal Adverbs – possibly, perhaps, conceivably

• ‘That’ clauses – It could be the case that…, it might be suggested that…,
there is every hope that…
Consider the following examples:

 It may be said that the commitment to some of the social and economic

concepts was less strong than it is now.
 The lives they chose may seem overly ascetic and self-denying to most
women today.
 In the first statement, the commitment to some of the social and economic
concepts was less strong than it is now while in the second one, the lives
they chose seem overly ascetic and self-denying to most women today.
Responsibility

 In academic writing you must be responsible for, and must be able to

provide evidence and justification for, any claims you make.
 You are also responsible for demonstrating an understanding of any source
texts you use.
Organization

 Academic writing is well organized.

 It flows easily from one section to the next in a logical fashion.
 A good place to start is the genre of your text. Once you have decided on
the genre, the structure is easily determined.
Planning

 Academic writing is well planned.

 It usually takes place after research and evaluation, according to a specific
purpose and plan.
 Things to be Avoided in Academic Writing

 Do not use contractions (e.g don’t, it’s, he’ll, it’d) always use the full form
(do not, it is, he will, it would/had).
 Do not use colloquial language or the slang the language used in texting ( e.g
kid, a lot/lots of, cool).
 Always write as concisely as you can, with no irrelevant material or ‘waffle’.
 Avoid “phrasal verbs” ( e.g get off, get away, put off )
 Avoid vague words and phrases such as get, nice, good, thing.
 Avoid overuse of brackets; don’t use exclamation marks or dashes; don’t use
“etc”.
Things to be Avoided in Academic Writing

 Avoid personal language ( I, we, my etc).

 Never use ‘emotive’ language (e.g I feel, I think).

 Do not be subjective, always use ‘objective’ and ‘unbiased’ style.

 Avoid making generalizations, always provide evidence.

 Avoid sexist language: don’t refer to a doctor as ‘he’; instead, make the subject
plural and refer to them as they.
Resources

 https://www.massasoit.edu/Assets/documents/academic-resource-cente
r/writing-center/Signal-Words.pdf
 https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/14011/writing/106/academic_writing/6
 http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/featfram.htm
Thank you