FEATURES OF

ACADEMIC
WRITING
COMPLEXITY

• Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language. Written

language has longer words (eg. accommodate instead of fit, acquire instead of
get, accomplish instead of achieve) and a more varied vocabulary. It uses more
noun-based phrases (eg. 1. Humans are the product of evolution, 2. It was a
nagging issue, 3. She is an eclectic therapist) than verb-based phrases (1.Due to
the extreme heat, we did not go to the beach, 2. These results suggest that it would
be best to cut out sugar from one’s diet 3. We carried out an experiment ). The
language has more grammatical complexity, including more subordinate
clauses and more passives.
• (PS: A noun phrase is made up of a noun and all its modifiers. A verb phrase
consists of a main verb plus one or more helping verbs, its complements, objects
or other modifiers)
• I want to buy the bike.
I want to buy the mountain bike.
I want to buy the red, mountain bike.
I want to buy the red, Marin, mountain bike.
I want to buy the red, Marin, women's, mountain bike.
I want to buy the red, 17" frame, Marin, women's, mountain
bike.
I want to buy the lightweight, red, 17" frame, Marin,
women's, mountain bike.
• Advantageous — helpful

deficiency- lack of

Cognizant — aware

Commence — begin, start

cumulative- added up, added together

Consolidate — combine

Deleterious — harmful

Disseminate — issue, send

Endeavour — try

Erroneous — wrong

Expeditious — fast
• Facilitate — ease, help

Inception — start

Implement — carry out

adjacent - next to

Optimize — perfect

Prescribed — required

Proficiencies — skills

accelerate- speed up

Proximity — near

Regarding — about

Remuneration — reward, payment

Subsequently — after or later

FORMALITY

• Academic writing is relatively formal. In general this means

that in an essay one should avoid colloquial words and
expressions.
PRECISION

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

Words and terms have very specific meanings and it is
important that one uses them correctly. If one is not sure
what a word means, one should not use it without checking
that it makes sense, both in meaning and grammatical use. It
is usually obvious to the reader when a writer has not
understood a word or an idea
• Do not use "a lot of people" when you can say "50 million people".

• Of particular note is the vague reference to what “many teachers believe.” 

In casual conversation, or during a classroom discussion, it’s fine to use a

general phrase like this to introduce ideas that you know you’ve heard

somewhere before,

• But in academic writing, a phrase such as “some people say” is far too

vague.  Your instructor will expect you name the specific teachers, to quote

their exact words (if you interviewed them yourself), or cite the page

numbers of their published opinions (in academic journals, or possibly news

interviews or statements they have posted on their own websites).

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 one wants to give and the arguments one wants to make, rather
than the writer. For that reason,  academic writing tends to use
nouns (and adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs). Eg. A (The
test is an evaluation of the students’ retention. —> The test
evaluates the students’ retention.
Eg. B This factor had a strong influence on the results. —> This
factor strongly influenced the results.)
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 signalling words (such as
‘however’, ‘similarly’, ‘in addition’, ‘for example’.)
• Every paragraph has a structure. It is not just a random
collection of sentences. The parts that make up the text are
related in meaningful ways to each other.
• It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it
clear to the reader how various parts of the paragraph are
connected. These connections can be made explicit by the
use of different signalling words.
ACCURACY

• Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. Most

subjects have words with narrow specific meanings. For
example, distinction is to be made clearly between
“money”, “cash”, “currency”, “capital” and “fund”.