LESSON 1: ACADEMIC VS.

NON-ACADEMIC
TEXTS
By
Dommenic C. Malocloc, LPT
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, students must have:
1. defined academic writing;
2. differentiated academic and non-academic texts;
3. given examples of academic and non-academic texts;
4. differentiated language used in academic texts;
5. described types of academic texts; and
6. recognized factors that shape academic writing;
WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITING?
ACADEMIC WRITING
 It is a process that starts with posing a question, problematizing a concept, evaluating
an opinion, and ends in answering the question/s posed, clarifying the problem, and/or
arguing for a stand.
 It has specific purposes: INFORM, ARGUE, & PERSUADE.
 It addresses a specific audience.
 It is thinking.
 It doesn’t use pretentious language.
ACADEMIC TEXT
 Written by professionals in the given field
 Well-edited and often takes years to publish
 Uses formal language
 Contains words and terms specific to the field
 Contains list of sources and references
 Main goal is to advance human understanding in a particular discipline
 Can be challenging for novice readers
 Informative, argumentative, or objective in nature
EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
ACADEMIC TEXT DESCRIPTION
 
These texts aim to condense more extensive work
ABSTRACT, PRECIS, SUMMARY to present only the key ideas precisely. They tell
the audience/reader the gist of what has been
read, listened to, or viewed.
They are specialized forms of writing in which a
reviewer or reader evaluates any of the following:
REACTION PAPER, REVIEW,
a scholarly work, a work of art, designs, graphic
CRITIQUE
designs, etc.
 
EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
 

Concept paper provides an overview of the

project, and help funding agencies eliminate
proposal that is e likely to be disapproved.
Hence, it helps save time and effort for both the
CONCEPT PAPER
proponents and the funding agencies.
 
EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
 
A Position paper presents the writer's stand or
viewpoint on a particular issue. Writings a position
POSITION PAPER
paper entails outlining arguments and proposing a
course of action.

 
It is an academic text ideally done to generate and
RESEARCH PAPER contribute new ideas or perspectives to a given
field of study.
 
EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
 
This is an informative report that discusses a
book from an objective stance. This focuses more
on a summary of the work. It commonly describes
BOOK REPORT
what happened in work. Focus is primarily on
giving an account of the central plot, character,
thesis, and main idea of the work.
 
OTHER EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
 School books and textbooks
 Journal articles
 Some newspapers and magazine articles
 Thesis and dissertations
TYPES OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
1. Descriptive – provides facts and information
2. Analytical – organizes facts and information into categories, groups, parts, types, or
relationships
3. Persuasive – includes argument, recommendation, interpretation, or evaluation of
the work of others with the addition of your point of view; needs to be supported by
evidence
4. Critical – requires you to consider at least two points of view, including your own
NON-ACADEMIC TEXT
 Written for the mass public
 Published quickly and can be written by anyone
 Often doesn’t involve research or sources
 Uses informal and more conversational language
 May contain slang
 Author may be unknown
 Usually delivers simple and basic words
 Personal, emotional, impressionistic, or subjective in nature
EXAMPLES OF NON-ACADEMIC TEXTS
 Blog posts
 Fiction books
 Letters
 Personal diaries and journals
FACTORS THAT SHAPE ACADEMIC WRITING
1. Audience (Whom are you writing for?)
2. Purpose (Why are you writing?)
3. Organization (How will you arrange your ideas?)
4. Style (What technique/s will you use?)
5. Flow (How well will you express your ideas?)
6. Presentation (Is your output ready for publishing?)
Language
1.Formal
- This is serious business and
a formal writing style reflects
the importance and sincerity
of this work.   contractions (e.g., it's, you're) Use the full form
- If an academic text contains
informal casual language, the
credibility of the writer is
weakened.
What to avoid:
 conversational or casual language
 colloquial words and expressions, slang,
idiomatic expressions (e.g., stuff, lots of)
instead
 two words verb such as bring up, put off, etc.
 2. Objective What to avoid:
- It is unbiased, based on facts and  intensifiers that can tend to exaggerate your writing in an
evidence, and is not influenced by imprecise, subjective way (e.g., awfully, very, really)
personal feelings.  making value judgments through the use of words (e.g.,
- It, therefore, has fewer words amazing, dreadful)
that refer to the writer or the reader.  1 /2 person pronoun (e.g. I, me, my, us, we, our, etc.)
st nd

This means that the main emphasis Use the third person instead.
should be on the information that First-person: I, we, me; Second person: you
you want to give and the arguments X In my opinion, this is an interesting study.
you want to make, rather than you. ✓ This is an interesting study.
- It tends to use nouns and  "You" refer to the reader or people in general
adjectives, rather than verbs and X You can easily forget how different life was 50 years
adverbs. ago
✓ It is easy to forget how difficult life was 50 years ago.
 
 3. Concise What to avoid:
- Conciseness is a matter of using the  
fewest words to produce the most Crutch words/filler words such as 'definitely'
meaning. It is often the excess of  
words and ideas, not the lack of Example: The movie definitely presents a realistic view of
them, that dilutes the power of your the 21 st
-century world.
writing.
 
Revision: The movie presents a realistic view of the 21st-
  century world.
   
  Redundancy/repetition
   
  Example: For each and every book you buy, you will
  receive a free bookmark.
  Revision: For every book purchased, one receives a free
  bookmark.
 
 Unnecessary uses of "which is" and "that is…"
 Example: Katherine hates shopping during the Christmas season, which is the busiest shopping
season of the year.
Revision: Katherine hates shopping during the Christmas season, the busiest shopping season of
the year.
 
Writing in the negative
Example: If you do not have more than five years of experience, do not call for an interview if you
have not already spoken to the human resource team.
Revision: Applicants with more than five years of experience can bypass the human resource
team and call for an interview

Using many punctuations mark

Example: Jonathan didn't like reading; he thought it was a waste of time.
Revision: Jonathan rarely reads because he thought it was a waste of time.
4. Complex
- Written language is relatively more complex
than spoken language (Biber, 1988; Biber,
Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan, 1999;
Chafe, 1982; Cook, 1997; Halliday,1989).
 
- Written texts are lexically dense compared
to spoken language - they have
proportionately more lexical words than
grammatical words.
- Written texts are shorter and have longer,
more complex words and phrases. They have
more noun-based phrases, more
nominalizations, and more lexical variation.
Guidelines:
 Formal written English uses nouns and nominal groups (noun-based
phrases) more than verbs.
 
Example:
A: Like all other forms of life, human beings are the product
of evolution.
B: Like all other forms of life, human beings are the product of how we
have evolved.
 
 Lexical density- Written English generally has a much denser pattern
of words. It is more lexically dense. If we define lexical density as the
number of content words in a clause, then written English has a higher
lexical density than spoken English (Halliday, 1996, p. 347).
 Example:
- Writtenlanguage is grammatically more
complex than spoken language. It has more
subordinate clauses, more "that/to"
complement clauses, more long sequences of
prepositional phrases, more attributive
adjectives, and more passives than spoken
language.
Written Text:
The government is frightened of the
union's reaction to its move to impose
proper behavior on unions.
 
Spoken version:
The government is frightened of how the
unions will react if it tries to make them
behave properly.
 
5. Hedged
- In academic writing, it is extremely important for
the researcher to be aware that he/she may not
always be entirely correct in their conclusions.
There is always another opinion or there may be
several reasons why the data obtained may not
be entirely reliable. In academic writing, it is
therefore expected that the writer is truthful, does
not generalize, and expresses caution about their
claims. This is achieved with the use of hedging
devices.
- Hedging is the use of linguistic devices to
express hesitation or uncertainty as well as to
demonstrate politeness and indirectness.
Example of Hedged Language
a. Introductory Words: seem, tend, look like,
appear to, indicate, suggest
b. Certain lexical verbs: believe, assume, suggest
c. Modal Adverbs: Possibly, perhaps, conceivably
d. "That" Clause: It could be that…, It might be
suggested that…
Consider the following example:
"Research proves that drinking a large volume of
fizzy drinks containing sugar leads to the
development of type II diabetes."
Revision: "Research suggests that high consumption
of fizzy drinks containing sugar may contribute to the
development of type II diabetes."
 In sentence 1, the statement is presented as a proven fact: that a high volume of
sugary fizzy drinks will lead to type II diabetes. This leaves no room for doubt or
criticism or the fact that some people may drink large volumes of fizzy drinks and
never develop type II diabetes.
 In sentence 2, the writer has used 'hedging language' – 'suggests' and 'may
contribute' – to show that while there is evidence to link sugary drinks and type II
diabetes, this may not be true for every person and may be proven to be
incorrect in the future.
People use hedged language for different purposes:
 
• to tone down their statements to reduce the risk of opposition and avoids personal
accountability for statements
• to conform to the currently accepted style of academic writing
• to let readers know that writers do not claim to have the final word on the subject.
(Expression of lack of certainty). This would also show writers reduce the strength of
their claims simply because stronger statements would not be justified by the data or
evidence presented
• to enable the author to devise a politeness strategy where they can acknowledge that
there may be flaws in their claims
REFERENCES:

Barrot, J., & Sipacio, P. J. (2016). English for academic and professional
purposes (p.4). Quezon City, Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.

Mondez, R.G. (2016). English for Academic and Professional Purposes

(p.19). Makati City, Philippines: Diwa Learning System, Inc.

Saqueton, G. M. & Uychoco, M. T. (2016). Academic Text. In English for

Academic and Professional Purposes. (p. 10). Manila, Philippines: Rex
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